Monday, December 19, 2005

Fur Auction in Thompson

Fur Auction in Thompson; Report by Peter Loewen

Trappers from all over northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario gather each December to sell their furs at a fur auction in Thompson. Fur buyers are on hand, each with their own table, to offer bids on these furs. How exciting to be invited to set up a Lifelight Scripture display at this event!

By 8AM Dec. 16th, my helper, Del Brandt, from Riverton, and I were at the large parish hall where the fur auction took place. We put "Indian Life" Christian magazines at each table, as we hoped this would help trappers to accept what we had to offer. After we set up our Lifelight display, some trappers that had perhaps had no Christian contact for years, came up and asked for New Testaments and also some Bibles. There were also trappers from reserves that I, together with helpers such as Curt Bork, Bert Genaille, Greg Armstrong and others, had visited in the last three years.

A trapper from South Indian Lake said the Lifelight Scriptures we had left there were being read in the school. On the intercom, one of the teachers reads two chapters each morning and has a prayer. The trapper said the Scriptures had helped him personally to live a better life.

Another trapper from Cross Lake thanked us for the Lifelight New Testament he received when I was there three years ago. He said he had read it through two times. A trapper who used to be a teacher in the Cormorant School, said it was uplifting to have the Scriptures read over the intercom to the students.

Del Brandt is a farmer who also likes to trap, and the trappers responded to him, leading to good discussions, and to a willingness to accept a New Testament from him. On the way home, Del said, "When can we go again?"

Del and I had lunch at Continental Mission's "soup kitchen," next door to the fur auction on Friday, where we met 70 hungry local people happy to get a free meal. We noticed the "Lifelight" stand with New Testaments, which are available to the people coming for meals.

Thank you to Curt Bork and his church at Moosehorn. "We are keeping Lifelight and Scripture distribution in our prayers," Curt told us when we stopped at his house for coffee on our way north.

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