Huron Expositor, 2016-07-13, Page 44 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, July 13, 2016
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Canada
A trip to a familiar land
For Such A
Time As This
For six and a half years
in the 1980s we lived in
the Northern Ontario
mining community of Elliot
Lake. I pastored the little
Baptist church there and in
those years we had an amaz-
ing time, seeing God at work
through His people.
So it was a great honour to
be asked to preach at the
60th anniversary of the
church on the last weekend
of June. It had been a num-
ber of years since we had
even been to the town.
We drove up on the Satur-
day and returned on the
Monday and I had forgotten
how far away it is for those
who are in their 60's. A trip
south and back was no big
deal back when we lived
there, but it was an enjoya-
ble, but long trip to drive
up.
The scenery was as gor-
geous as ever -clear skies and
deep blue lakes. Sparkling
rivers and waterfalls. Endless
strips of evergreen forest. Big
rock cuts. All the things that
we remembered from our
days up there.
The pastor and his wife
Column
Pastor Laurie Morris
took us out for dinner when
we arrived and then gave us
a guided tour of the town as
it is today. You might
remember that the Algo Mall
had a collapse four years ago.
There, right in the centre of
town it has been completely
levelled and stands vacant
and unusable until all of the
court cases are settled. It
used to be the centre of
town, now it is a huge vacant
lot.
There is a wonderful
memorial that has been
built on the side of Highway
107 right in the town with a
permanent fountain spray-
ing up in Horne Lake in
memory of the two ladies
who lost their lives in the
collapse of the mall. And
Horne Lake is now so clean
that people are fishing in it -
it used to have the tailings of
the mines in it.
Our day with the people of
the church was wonderful.
We left 29 years ago in July,
and today there are only
twelve people in the church
from our time - for time
marches on and of course
most of the mining families
had to leave when the mines
shut down.
When we were there we
built an entrance foyer and
study addition onto the
building. But in recent years
something had happened
that was causing it to pull
away from the rest of the
building, so the congrega-
tion rather than simply prop
it up, actually building a
whole new front and
entrance that tied it together
and has made the church
facility very user friendly
and beautiful. It was
encouraging to see the steps
forward that had been
made.
Over the years my wife and
I have often reminisced
about those wonderful days
when we lived and served
there. And we considered
retiring there at one point.
But a visit back can bring
reality to reflection.
That was a wonderful sea-
son of our lives. We met and
talked with people whose
lives we had impacted for the
gospel. We even discovered
that the last time I had
preached there about 6 or 7
years ago, a person had
come out who hadn't been
to church for years because I
was preaching, and she
stayed and became active. In
actual fact, she was serving
in the kitchen during the
great dinner that was held
after the service.
But Anne and I knew that
it isn't where we should be
today. The way our family is
spread abroad throughout
this world, it wouldn't be
conducive to our get togeth-
ers, and while we love travel-
ling, the added distance to
get to travel hubs wouldn't
be good for us either.
So once again we have
been reminded that the Lord
orders our steps, and to be in
step with Him leads to the
best outcomes.
We returned home grateful
for having seen friends, shar-
ing in a wonderful celebra-
tion, and having been able to
reflect on the privilege of
being part of the life of that
community at one time, but
knowing that home is where
we live now, and even that
isn't permanent, for we are
citizens of a higher kingdom
and an ultimately different
destination.
More about that next week.
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