The Tunnel

Every time I see this video, I have to laugh. What's normal for the people in Big Trout Lake is super not-normal for us! (Probably because of the lack of God-made water in Nebraska.) I wonder if Mike thought about how this was going to work out as far as filming is concerned? On second thought, nah...he just "went with the flow."

Meegwetch! (Thank you!)

Though our week in Big Trout Lake is over, hopefully we can continue to send updates on this blog about the team and the people in Kitchenuhmaykoosib. For now, though, we want to say "thank you!" to the many people we met in Big Trout Lake last week. Thank you for bringing your children to Bible School; thank you for taking the time to spend a few minutes with us, updating us on your lives and your community. Thank you for the love you've shown us--it greatly strengthens our faith! Thank you for your kindness and your gifts, and for treating us as family and not outsiders. Thank you for the blessing you are to us. We love you all! Here are a few words that I (Jeanne) penned during the early worship service at St. Peter's on Sunday morning. I believe they are from the Father's heart:

"Oh faithful ones. You love the Lord and are loved by Him. Your love and your deeds have not been unseen by Me (says the Lord). You have many burdens, but I know them all. I have not left you, nor will I ever leave you or forsake you."

We will continue to pray for you and the community. God loves you all dearly and so do we!
Jeanne, Mike, Kari, Jaeger, Roxie, Clarissa, Bruce and Ruthann, and Stuart

LAMP Bible Camp Day 5

Our last day of LAMP Bible camp was a beautiful sunny day. During the night, we lost power for a little while—and it went off again just before we were going to start our Bible story. It worked out well, though, because we all sat on the front steps and heard the story of Jesus healing ten people who had leprosy. Did you know that only one person went back to say thank you to Him? We realized that people who had leprosy back then were very lonely because no one wanted to be near them. It was pretty neat to understand that God is there for when we feel all alone. By the time we done singing, the electricity had come back on, so we went downstairs to make thank you cards. We learned how to make our own envelopes—that was fun! Later on in the day, we began to smell smoke. We looked out over the lake, and the smoke seemed to be rolling in. We heard there was a forest fire along the winter road.

In the evening the wonderful people of the community and St. Peter's Anglican Church had a wonderful dinner for us, and presented us with beautiful gifts. We hope to keep in touch with all of our friends until we come again next year. We will be praying for you all!

LAMP Bible Camp Day 4

Thursday was a great day in KI! Bruce was a radio broadcaster who shared the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with a little boy’s lunch. We got colorful fish crackers to remind us how Jesus used only 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. It was a nice snack, but much of it ended up on the floor. Then we made fish kites—another reminder of the miracle Jesus did. Here’s a picture of us flying our kites out in the parking lot. Thankfully, there was a nice breeze! Some of the team got to go for a boat ride thanks to Angus McKay. In the evening we had a program for family and friends. We had a good turnout and enjoyed singing the songs so much. Samantha and Jimmy John, our resident puppets, recapped the week’s stories for us. We are enjoying our times in the evening with so many of our friends from the past 10 years. How the week flies by!

LAMP Bible Camp Day 3

On Wednesday we got up early to enjoy the beautiful sunny day. We spent a lot of time outdoors playing Red Rover and singing. Jimmy and Samantha (our puppets) retold the story of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter. She had died, but Jesus raised her from the dead! Our favorite thing today was crafts. We made Jesus pillows. They say “Jesus loves” and we added our names. Now when we sleep, we can think of Jesus and His love. It helps us remember that He is with us always and hears our prayers.

LAMP Bible Camp Day 2

Tuesday we heard the story of blind Bartimaeus, and how Jesus healed him so he could see. It was pretty exciting to see this story acted out! We made masks that helped us understand what it would be like to be blind.

Today we really enjoyed singing. We are “standing on the rock of God’s Word,” and “taking God’s promises and hiding it in our hearts.” We had lots of fun!

The team saw a beautiful sunset in the evening near the Two Tunnels. Some of us tried to catch some fish (tried).

LAMP Bible Camp Day 1!

Today we learned about God making stuff. We learned that God made us, and He made the water, sky, birds, clouds, and the earth. He even made the platypus! And the beaver. We prayed for Jade’s family whose dad died and his viewing was this afternoon. We had lots of fun making arts and crafts! We made suncatchers with leaves and flowers and glitter and tissue. They’re pretty! We sang songs outside and looked for stuff for our sun catchers. We went to the playground and heard Lucy and Sammy puppets talk about God and then it rained. We had some cookies and drinks and then we had to leave early. Some of us came to the triplex where the LAMP team is staying. We are making scrapbooks. And printing pictures. See you tomorrow!

~Hannah (she's in the pink shirt)

LAMP team coming to Big Trout in July!

It's been a long time, I know...but editing the blog for the Omaha Big Trout Lake team. I say "Omaha" loosely, as we have a couple from Ontario, Bruce and Ruthann MacMillan joining us this year. Bruce came along last year. This year's team members are: Kari and Jaeger Lewis (Jaeger just turned 9), Mike Jaeger (Kari's dad and Jaeger's grandpa), me (Jeanne Johnson), Clarissa Meisinger (came along last year) and her mom Roxie, and Stuart Hayes. We are all super excited to leave on Thursday, July 7th for Big Trout Lake. We'll be driving up to International Falls, Minnesota through Minneapolis this year, 'cause Jim and Katie Lahn aren't able to come. Hopefully next year we'll see their smiling faces again and get to meet Katie's fiancee (then it will be her husband, Nick)!

I was thinking...it might be fun to do the blog during VBS, eh? The kids can help with it! Yeah!!
See you all soon!!

View from the Clouds

Well, here it is. Big Trout Lake from the cockpit of the LAMP Piper Lance. (I had to look that up!) On the right in the grassy section is the cemetary, and just to the top of that is St. Peter's Anglican Church, where we teach VBS every year. We're praying for a great team again this year, and know that God will provide for all of our needs so that we can return once again to see our friends in K.I. Wow, they had their first snowfall on September 28th. The days are getting shorter already, and I'm sure its quite cold up there. Let's keep them in our prayers, that God would provide for them, and that they would grow closer to Him each day.

Pensive Expressions

I think I speak for most of the team and a lot of alumni when I say, "I want to go back!" Meet Ron. He's going back. He left part of his heart in Kitchenuhmaykoosib. How does that happen? I'm pretty sure Ron would answer, "It's God." I know God has changed my heart by introducing me to His beautiful people in KI, and He has changed many others', including Ron's.

Right now my heart aches for my northern friends. They are at odds again with Platinex, a mining company. We lift our prayers to the Heavenly Father for them, that His purposes would prevail, and that they would draw close to Him during this time.

God's peace, my friends.