This past weekend saw us in two churches along the Mighty Miramichi River, in northeastern New Brunswick. In this post I’ll tell you a bit about both of those churches but first, let’s look briefly at the history of Pentecost in that particular region.
The Miramichi River Valley
For anyone not familiar with the Miramichi River, it flows some 250km through New Brunswick from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and is home to the one of the largest populations of Atlantic Salmon in North America. People come from around the continent, indeed around the world to fly fish salmon in the pools and rapids of the Miramichi.
As “fishermen” were coming to the Miramichi from all over… “fishers of men” were going out from the Miramichi to other parts of the province. During the 1930’s and 40’s, men like C.B. Dudley were planting churches and fanning the flames of Pentecostal revival up and down the Miramichi River. Two such churches are the United Pentecostal Church of Gray Rapids and The Pentecostals of Miramichi.
Gray Rapids
Our first stop, last weekend was to the UPC of Gray Rapids (pictured right) which overlooks the Miramichi and is currently pastored by Rev. Graham Russell. We arrived Saturday night and stayed with Bro. Russell in his home.
I really enjoyed just listening to him talk about many incredible experiences he’s had during his walk with God, as Liz & the kids curled up on the couch beside. It was kind of like listening to your grandpa… and it felt good. I’m glad my kids got to hear such reminiscing about the goodness of the Lord… doesn’t happen like that very often. The next morning we spoke during their service and are thankful for their great support.
Pentecostals of Miramichi
On Sunday, after service, lunch and a short rest, we climbed in the car and headed some 35-40 minutes up the river to the Chatham side of Miramichi City. The Pentecostals of Miramichi is pastored by Rev. & Mrs. Peter Long (no relation… that they’ll admit to anyway).
We enjoyed service together, where God’s spirit did some wonderful things at the altar, followed by a nice meal.
It was special to spend time with the Longs as they were the assistant ministerial team in Saint John some years ago when we were still somewhat new to the church. We had had the chance to work together on a number of occasions for various goings-on and during that time I learned, from their example, a number of things about coming alongside the lead pastor and assisting.
Up & Coming…
This weekend, we will be headed to Prince Edward Island, another neighbouring Canadian province where we’ll get to spend the Sunday morning service with Bro. & Sis. Hood, in Charlottetown before heading to Summerside to be with the Wicketts. By the time we’re there, though, we will have time for one more post, so come back on Saturday morning when I’ll bring you up to speed on the overall progress of our fund-raising to-date.
ps. Sophie has been pleased to read your comments concerning her post this past week… Thank you for your support & encouragement!
While over there we were involved in three places, Châtellerault 
Châtellerault noticed we had a little problem; we now had one less person. Our friend Nick Cannon had bent down to tie his shoe, saying he’d catch up but had totally lost sight of us. No worries, he was found in about 10 minutes. Once we got to our destination, via tram, we had a five minute walk back to the hotel, and it started to downpour. We got to the hotel wet and tired, but we dried off and had a good night sleep.
That night we had a service where there was another young person that was filled with the Holy Ghost.
We arrived at the back entrance to the White House… well not literally the back door…. the back, heavily guarded gate. We walked to the White House gift shop and dropped a bit of cash at the till in exchange for a few souvenirs and then headed to the south lawn of the White House, over to the Washington Monument down past the War Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial
Rev. & Mrs. Jerry Staten pastor the church in Washington and we connected with them upon arrival. We were able to join them for their “Evanglize D.C.” prayer-focus meeting on Saturday morning where some 40+ people had gathered. Later that day, we joined them for their Spanish service “Esperanza Viva”, and of course for church the next morning.
Part way through the tour, the kids were thankful to be escorted first to the candy-stash closet where they got to fill a ziplock bag full of goodies, and secondly to the Missionary Kids’ Lounge where they could hang out and play Wii 
The next day saw us head to downtown St. Louis where we would see St. Louis’ famous landmark, the Gateway Arch.
Exploring God’s Word for the then Home Missions Division.
The kids got to spend lots of time with their friends Winston & Olivia Wojciechowski, whom they’d only met in November 2013, at the French National Youth Convention…. but even then, they hit it off so incredibly well it was amazing.
Yes… we’re still in France, and yes… we still have Nick Cannon with us (He may just make it home Tanya & Jason!).
While going through the city, we stopped to take a picture of the team in front of the Henri IV bridge, built in 1564. During WWII the German army had wired it with explosives in an attempt to completely destroy it and prevent American tanks from crossing the river. A German-speaking Frenchman pleaded with and was able to convince the soldiers to disobey that order, thereby saving the bridge… which is to Châtellerault what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris – an irreplaceable and immediately identifiable municipal landmark.
AIM Long 