Aliz started standing on Monday(Feb 23) and we were finally able to get it on video. Along with the girls being silly we hope you enjoy this candid moment of our family life.
February HFA Reflection
I just posted the Holy Family Apostolate reflection for February. You can find it here.
Journey through the wilderness
Good news can sometimes be hard to find these days. We turn on the news; we hear of unrest, violence, division and conflict. In our community; we see others, or even ourselves, suffering from sickness or death, struggling with hardships & temptations. Sometimes the bad can feel overwhelming, and it is usually the bad, or the most debilitating situations or stories, that are brought to the forefront.
In the Gospel (Mark 1.12-15) we hear about John the Baptist being imprisoned, what horrible news, and for proclaiming the coming of Jesus. We hear of Jesus in the wilderness, facing temptations. Sounds tough and hard, to me. The important thing to remember is that the gospel reading doesn’t end there! Jesus arrives back on the scene proclaiming “Repent and believe the Good news.” Believe the Good News? What Good News? We are reminded that in our brokenness, in our sinfulness that has caused all this strife, all this bad news, because our actions do affect our neighbor, we need to turn back to God.
And that is why Jesus is here to remind us. We are reminded of why we are here; the Good News, the great plan that God has for us, to be with Him, and the whole reason why He sent us His Son. NOW, the people of Jesus’ day would not have seen as clearly as we can this connection of God’s coming kingdom, but WE HAVE the blessing of this beautiful knowledge of what Jesus brought for us.
I found this gospel reading so fitting, on this 1st Sunday of Lent, as we have only just begun our Lenten journey. The gospel summarizes what our journey will involve, a trekking through the wilderness of temptation, through our inclinations to take the easy path, or to escape, instead of embrace. It is a wilderness that helps us to draw out of ourselves, to come to a realization and strengthening of our purpose, as it was for Jesus.
SO IT IS, that we start our journey, not with a focus on the bad, on the harshness or the difficulty of it, BUT a focus on the finish, a focus on where we will end up, hopefully being able to discover and more fully live our purpose. There is hope. This is GREAT news.
AND we see it further spelled out in the book of Genesis (9.8-15), our first reading. God makes a covenant with Noah and ALL his descendants, THAT’S US, a bond initiated by God with His people to preserve them from death, to give hope. We see this message come to a pinnacle as we hear St.Peter (1 Peter 3.18-22) teaching that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, sacrificed Himself for us, once and for all, opening a way to the Father, bridging the chasm, that sin created, and opening a path for us to the Father for all time.
“The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Good News.” These are Jesus’ words in the Gospel. This is our call. This is our purpose. Amidst the troubles and struggles of our daily lives Jesus Christ reminds us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. He brings to us all that we need. He teaches us and leads us. He journeys with us, as we hear in the Psalm, “on paths of love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 25) Paths that lead to the hope and the joy of Easter, to all who are willing to make the journey, to an opportunity of life with Him, forever!
Spring around the corner?
The season of Lent is underway and, as we begin to contemplate entering the desert with Christ, we feel that we are immersed in the richness that there is in the Catholic faith. With this season also comes the increase in things happening around here. But it is great being able to be the organizers and being a full part of it all:) Last week we had a holy hour with Adoration to spend some time with the Lord before the start of Lent. Although it was a small turnout it was a great time to re-connect with God and just be in the silence. We had an Ash Wednesday service this week and just prayed the Stations of the Cross (and will continue every Friday in Lent).
It is 5 degrees Celsius here, but in the sun it feels like 15; pretty much t-shirt weather today. They had their annual ‘Winter-fest’ at the school and had snowshoes and cross country skis for all ages, so we all got to try it out!
Today, in Telegraph Creek, with the sun shining and the snow melting!
Winter-fest; Kateri on X-Country skis
First time on cross-country skis and enjoying it:) Isaiah & Gianna were content to hang out in the sled!
Slow & steady:)
A natural!
Enjoying it!
“Look what I did mommy & daddy. Someone left a marker out for me!”
Our booth at the Telegraph Creek Health Fair! Spiritual health is only one of the critical areas in our overall health & well-being. Had you thought of that before?
The display we put together for the health fair.
Aliz recently discovered the best seat in the house!
Mesmerized!
The ‘Reading Corner” at the entryway to the church is now decorated with a mobile containing the Valentine’s cards from St.Andrew’s Cathedral Grade 2 Prep Class (St.Andrew’s Cathedral, in Victoria, recently twinned with us as our sister parish).
Someone was tired. Didn’t want to go down for a nap, but fell asleep on the couch anyways.
Tahitian School Valentine’s Dance
“Smile for the camera!”
Jump rope for heart!
Jump rope for heart!
This is amazing!
Representin’!
Couldn’t resist!
Mommy & daddy, look, I lost my front tooth!
Arrrrrrr!
“I’m 4 years old!”
Forgot to take pictures of the cake pop cake, hence the plain cupcake that we tried to stick the candle in to. We had the kids’ adopted grandparents, Kitty & Jim, over for supper; Gianna’s favourite, of brocolli soup!
An apple a day keeps the doctor away! All of the kids have been enjoying putting these together, with a bit of help from mommy & daddy. Gianna got them for her birthday!
“Daddy, am I your star?”, “You sure are beautiful, one of 4!”
“Smell the flower!”
“Hooray for minions!”
An outing to the sledding hill!
“Daddy where are the keys to the car?”
“My first one!”
“I loooooooove puzzles!” A birthday gift.
Just hanging out in the hockey net. The rest of these pictures are taken while we were at one of the girls’, in Kateri’s class, birthday party.
“This is so much fun!”
“This balloon is great.”
“Cheeeeeese!”
“You caught me!”
The joys of static electricity.
Time is winding down as our holidays draw near and we have been counting down the days on our calendar in excitement of seeing our family and friends from here to Chilliwack & Kelowna!
Holidays – slight change & details!
So, our holidays have taken a slight twist and change since we posted last. We realized a while after that we were not going to have nearly enough time to spend with family and friends, and so we decided to take an extra week, although we realize that this will still feel rushed. We have 4 weeks out of the year that we are able to allot for vacation, and so have decided that we will now be taking our holidays from March 9th – 27th. With 6 days of travel, round trip, stopping in Terrace with friends and in Prince George to visit my sister and brother-in-law, we now will have about 1 week in Chilliwack and 1 week in Kelowna.
We will spend our first week in Chilliwack, arriving on the evening of March 10. On Saturday March 14th we will be attending a potluck supper/get-together at the Osborne’s (in Ryder Lake). This will take place starting at 4 pm, so please bring food to share and join us (if you need directions just e-mail us). All are invited, especially our church community. We are extremely excited about this and hopefully we will get some time to catch up with many of you, if not all of you, although our time will be short!We will also be attending the 9:30 Mass on Sunday at St. Mary’s.
We will be departing from Chilliwack and arriving in Kelowna on March 17th. We will be attending Denise’s cousin’s wedding on Saturday, so it will be nice to have lots of time with extended family to catch up:) We will be departing from Kelowna on March 25th, to head home!
Suffering In A Field Hospital
Recently I stumbled across a quote from Pope Francis, speaking on a role of the church in our healing. I found it to be quite pertinent to the theme of the scripture readings today, and so I would like to share it with you as I begin this reflection. The Pope says:
“I see clearly, that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
Suffering and brokenness are something in this world, in our lives, that are inescapable and inevitable. We all must, and will, deal with it at some point, hence I believe why Pope Francis speaks about this great need for healing; that the church is like a field hospital after battle.
Unfortunately we are not perfect. As a result of the original sin of Adam and Eve we all have a tendency towards sin; to that which separates us from the love of our Creator. Fortunately for us, though, Jesus has come to bring us back to God, to guide us back to our Father. We see this in the Gospel of Mark (1.29-39) as He heals the sick, and those possessed with demons.* This is where Jesus starts, with healing. And we see how healing is a journey, an intimate journey. Why is it intimate?
Firstly, because we are called to suffer through our brokenness, facing the reality that we are not perfect, on a very personal level. Secondly, because we are led; we are not called to make this journey by ourselves. We see two examples of this in the Gospel. The first is Jesus healing Simon’s mother-in-law. Jesus lifts her up; a physical sign of guiding her and healing her through a helpful movement. He could have just spoke the words “get up”, but He goes another way about it. The second example of being led to healing is Jesus curing many who were sick with diseases and possessed with demons. In this situation the disciples physically went out and brought them to Jesus. Those in need of healing were guided by the intervention of those who cared enough to lead them to be able to experience healing.
So we see not only that Jesus invites us to experience healing, but that we can also play a vital role in inviting others to experience healing and sharing in that experience with them. It is truly a journey and, as we can see, not one that is meant to be taken alone. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9.16-19,22-23) we hear St.Paul as he shares how he is obligated as one who has experienced freedom to be that for others, that he would be able to share in the blessings of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Sure this sounds great, but perhaps a bit ideal. You might be asking, “How can I practically do this?” Again, the Gospel sheds light on this important area. We hear about Jesus “in the morning, while it was still very dark” getting up and going to a deserted place to pray. This is after being up, probably late into the night, as the whole city had been gathered at the door of the place where he was healing. Has this ever struck you? Jesus is perfect; the Son of God. Yet over and over in the Gospels we see Him take time to be alone with His Father.. He had to get up early to make time for it. Sometimes He had to stay up late in order to make time for it, but He always did it. If He who was perfect needed prayer in order to fulfill His life’s mission what does that imply for us who are so wounded and weak, so imperfect. So it is that this needs to be our foundation in experiencing true healing. Jesus wants to be our first companion on this journey. One thing we should not lose sight of is our life’s mission, for without it we can be tempted to despair, as we see in the book of Job (7.1-4,6-7). Job was caught up in the despair of his suffering as he shares with his friends that he has lost hope, “that he will never see good again.”
It should be a great comfort to us to know that Jesus went down this road, of suffering, and went down it to the end. He wants to be our first companion, and shows us that though this path leads to the cross at Calvary it does not end there, and this is our hope, our life’s mission; Easter. For us, as Christians, suffering becomes an opportunity to share in Christ’s passion in the hope of sharing His Easter victory.
Let us take with us today the remembrance of the journey to healing that we are on, and as we come before our heavenly Father, in this celebration, let us seek a more intimate and personal encounter with Him that we may be strengthened with His love and with hope for that journey.
*In the sciptures we hear about physical and emotional healing, as well as spiritual healing. I believe, even though they can be totally separate, that they can also be intricately linked. That, for example, the person being healed would not only experience physical healing alone, but a ‘nearness’ to spiritual healing(like a heart and mind coming into focus) and vice versa; that a person healed spiritually would encounter physical newness.
January HFA Reflection
Happy Feast of St.Blaise
Feb 2 – St.Blaise
The legendary Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years after his martyrdom in 316. According to them Blaise was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but he made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.
The legend has it that as the hunters hauled Blaise off to prison, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.
Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blaise to sacrifice to pagan idols. After refusing several times he was finally beheaded. St.Blaise is the patron of throat ailments.
Blaise is seen as one more example of the power those have who give themselves entirely to Jesus. As Jesus told his apostles at the Last Supper, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). With faith we can follow the lead of the Church in asking for Blaise’s protection.
“Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other illness. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Blessing of St. Blase).
-taken, in part, from americancatholic.
They will never take our…FREEDOM!
What is true freedom about? We need only to look at the Scriptures to see it spelled out, and we see that it clearly is about living our lives in truth, from the heart!
In Deuteronomy 18.15-20 we hear Moses as he speaks of the responsibility of a prophet to speak God’s truth, and also the responsibility of the listener, that they will be held accountable to live out in action what they hear.
Paul’s words, to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 7.32-35), tie in very closely to this, as he urges them to have “unhindered devotion to the Lord”, that they may be free from the aniety of the world; that a devotion to the Lord would lead them to true freedom to follow His ways.
And then, what a powerful image we see in the Gospel, Mark 1.21-28; while teaching in the synagogue Jesus casts out a demon from the man and calls this man to freedom, through His name. Imagine how this man may have felt. He had been tormented by an evil presence, perhaps for years. Maybe you have had a similar experience, or maybe someone close to you has/is experiencing this, maybe not in such an intense way, but something that was/is holding it’s grip, hindering peace and joy. Perhaps while this man was listening to Jesus in the synagogue he felt the agitation of the evil spirit within himself. Perhaps he could sense that the demon felt threatened. Perhaps he moved closer to the Lord, drawn by a mysterious subconscious hope. Suddenly the spirit exerts itself, taking over control of the man’s body. With a mere word Jesus silences him, and orders him to depart. The man is thrown to the ground in a fit of fury, and then silence. Peace. Could he believe it? He opens his eyes and knows that he is now himself again. His eyes meet Christ’s… what gratitude fills his heart. What love and gladness he finds in the glance of Jesus!*
Jesus Christ came to bring new life and new hope to every human heart, and he rejoices whenever we move towards Him and let Him have His way.
Whenever I think of the word ‘freedom’ I always think of the line from the movie Braveheart. There is a speech given by the warrior-leader William Wallace to his rag-tag army of Scottish rebels as they are lined up to fight the vast army of England for their country (quoted in part):
“Every man dies, not every man really lives… Would you be willing to trade all the days… for just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… our FREEDOM.”
This is a powerful scene. You see someone passionate and speaking with conviction, willing to put his words into action. This is how I envisioned Jesus in this scripture passage, as he “speaks with authority”, casting out the demon from this man. Freedom for us, as believers in God, is unique. Jesus tells us in John 8, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in defining freedom, gives somewhat of a mouthful of a definition, but it is an important definition: “Freedom is the power rooted in reason and will to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform some deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility… Human freedom…attains to perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.” CCC 1731
So the way we truly become free is in living our lives in the truth (of God), so that we choose the good. The way that we most fully become human is to always choose God, our creator, and His ways. When we fail to choose the good we become slaves, held in the bondage of evil and/or sin.
In our world today there is a real misunderstanding of freedom. How crucial it is for us, as followers and believers in Christ, to be living witnesses to freedom. So (as we come to this celebration of God’s love for us, to be fed with His life and truth), let us take to heart these readings from Scripture and their wisdom for us. Let us reflect upon how we are called to be faithful disciples. Jesus has revealed to you and to me what it means to be free. He shows us what it means to do the will of the Father and we are called to imitate His discipleship and walk in the same freedom. Let us also reflect on this connection we see between freedom and truth, between freedom and holiness, between freedom and discipleship. And as we take this truth into our heart we pray that the wisdom, the power, and the love of God and His son, would draw us in and transform us from within to be His true disciples each and every day; to live in FREEDOM!
* Italics in this particular paragraph taken, in part, from “The Better Part”, by John Bartunek, pg 350.
The great white, soggy, north!
Well, it’s been a while since we had an update on our life. It seems like life just keeps going, even when we don’t stop to write about it. So here it goes…
It seems like so long ago now, but we were in Whitehorse the week of January 12th to 19th, and what a week it was. On a little side note; we were blessed by the presence of Fr.David Reilander, from the Hamilton Diocese (Ontario) and a seminarian from St.Joseph’s in Edmonton, Tin Tran. they had both joined us for Mass in Telegraph Creek the weekend before, and then had hit a moose on their way back to Whitehorse on the highway from Telegraph Creek to Dease Lake. Fortunately they survived with only a cracked front fender, a missing side-view mirror, and a big scrape down the side of the vehicle.
We had a photo shoot session with Fr.David before Mass. He really hit it off with the kids.
Our main purpose for being in Whitehorse was for the pastoral study days. It was great being able to catch up with all of the pastoral staff, along with friends, and even made some new friends. Fr. David had a great presentation/workshop on forgiveness and healing. We first addressed the effects of sin on individuals and groups in our communities then led in to the personal effects of receiving God’s forgiveness, from our own experiences. In a nutshell, we had concluded that the effects of sin in our communities weakens personal self-worth and the foundation for a healthy communal experience of life, leading to life revolving around dysfunction. His presentation concluded with taking a look at healing and offering forgiveness. It was seen that forgiveness leads to an antidote for the cancer of sin in communities. We discussed our role, as pastoral staff, in our parishes and they place we have in people’s lives as, the truth is, many of us feel unqualified in our ministry. Discussing ministry, we were encouraged to take our own personal experience of sin and forgiveness and share it with our communities. This was very reassuring, the we minister from our experiences. I would like to share a few of our compiled thoughts with you, as I believe they are relevant in whatever situation we are in, even family life;
-Stepped approach to deal with issues, rather than expect immediate results; start with self and keep grounded, be aware of vulnerability, be gentle with self.
-Be aware of our own emotional state before dealing with others, don’t raise the bar of achievement too high, meet people where they are at.
-Healing and forgiveness is a process and is not limited to a certain time period; Jesus did not save everyone in his time of ministry, initiate contact and invite people to the sacraments, use humour, smile!
-Patience, patience, patience.
-Forgiveness is not conditional.
-Multicultural issues; not all cultures have the same sense of forgiveness. Actually we discovered this week that in the Tahltan dialect there is no phrase for “I’m sorry.” It is a belief that Tahltan people never intend to hurt one another being that there is always a reason for one’s action. Traditionally, if a person was seen to have wronged another, there would need to be a time of restitution. This is an ongoing discovery for us as we continue to get to know people and the culture here. We are constantly reminded that we are to be ‘little, poor, childlike.’
In closing, Theresa Vogel, the pastoral administrator here in Telegraph Creek before us, had a presentation on ‘Bethany Groups’, groups formed in support of grieving and so named in that they recall the visit of Jesus to Mary and Martha at the time of the death of their brother Lazarus, in Bethany. The struggle with Death, appears to be one of the main catalysts for many of the difficulties and trials in these northern, isolated communities. The most need arises at such times. So often, in our day and age, we look at grief as a disease to be avoided, rather than a wound to be healed. Practically speaking, the ministry of consolation is the ‘heavy lifting’ of missionary activity in remote areas, as much as we would like to celebrate the sacraments of the young and the vigorous and rejoice with the community at exceptionally happy times. It is said that grief is a consequence of love, and likewise our belief in the death and resurrection of Christ is also a consequence of love and fills us with hope to share with others. We went over the practicals of the events and preparations surrounding the death of an individual and concluded with, that for all involved (leaders, volunteers, communities, participants), moving forward is about healing, in whatever form it may take, coping with a new reality, and finding a new way of ‘being’.
All of these reflections and our time was extremely blessed and, in a huge way, left us feeling more prepared to be able to minister and continue to be present to our community. If we could put it in one sentence, the overlying theme of all of the presentations was that our own experiences leave us suitably qualified to bring Christ’s healing, forgiveness, and consolation to all those in need of His hope!
Fr.David also announced that he will be coming back, in the summer, to serve in our diocese for the next 3 years. What a blessing!
We were also excited to be in Whitehorse as we were going to be able to attend the Holy Family Apostolate meeting. Unfortunately, all of us, except for Josh, came down with the stomach flu. We spent much of our time recuperating and even stayed a couple extra days until everyone was feeling better to travel. Isaiah got hit the hardest, struggling through for about a week and a half.
There was a cold spell in Telegraph Creek the week or two before going to Whitehorse, with temperatures down in the 20 to 30 below range which seemed to aggravate our Diesel truck leading to a bit of an engine coolant leak. Fortunately it had’t got too bad before we made it to Whitehorse and we were able to check it into the shop. One of the challenges to living in a remote area is not having access to a full service shop or a parts store within 600 km. With a new water pump we were on the road and been running strong ever since. God provides and we were blessed with a timely and generous donation which payed almost exactly for the entire cost of the repair!
Aliz had many first’s while we were in Whitehorse. She got her first tooth:) Aliz is at the stage where everything is taste tested, no matter what it is. If it is within reach, it’s in her mouth. So it was a full time job, almost, just running surveillance. Now, as you can imagine, with 8 kids running around (our kids as well as the friends we were staying with) there was a lot to keep track of and the one day Aliz had found a battery operated tealight candle. By the time we got to her, after tending to Isaiah getting sick, she had the taillight half in her mouth, but with a missing battery. We did’t hear any distress, but figured we should take her to emergency just in case. So she had her first x-ray and fortunately there was no battery! Aliz also had a battle with the stairs. Fortunately both her, and her guardian angel, won out in the long run!
Yay! Friday night movie night with the Lefebvre’s!
On our way home we stopped in Jade City, about a little over an hour north of Dease Lake, to visit with a Catholic family there. With a population of about 20 people they make up half the population of the little town. We had met them in the summer, in a very brief exchange of about 5 minutes, so it was nice to get some time to get to know them and share our stories. With 8 children of there own our kids loved the excitement of getting to know them and the welcomed break from traveling.
We arrived back in Telegraph Creek greeted by rain showers. All the snow had cascaded off the metal roof, careening in to the van, and into the parking spot for the truck on the other side of the house. Fortunately the van was just far enough away from the house that there was no damage and I just had to dig out the front corner of it. After about a week of warm weather it has turned cold again and the parking lot is a sheet of ice. Two days ago it snowed about 5 cms so now it’s even more interesting with the ice under the snow.
Aliz is enjoying her new discovery of being able to haul herself up in front of the television! Front row seat!
It looks like Aliz got demoted for a doll:)
Aliz is enjoying Isaiah’s new tool bench!
Bishop Gary Gordon, the most recent bishop of our diocese, had recently been moved to the Diocese of Victoria and had been talking to people down there about the possibility of twinning with a parish in the North. So we have been in contact with St.Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria, as of late, and they will be twinning with us here at St.Theresa’s in Telegraph Creek, along with the communities of Our Lady of Fatima (Iskut) and St.Mary Magdelene (Dease Lake). We are not sure what ‘twinning’ will look like at this point as it is a new concept to both diocese’s, but we envision a sharing of resources and of prayers for needs. Kind of like a faith community home away from home, although that is what the Catholic Church is about. Our most immediate needs are prayer, especially for healing, a sign to go at the end of the driveway so that people know that the church is here, and a wheel chair access ramp. Other projects forthcoming will be a new roof and a cement pad at the base of the church steps.I will share with you a little bit of what I shared with the rector at St.Andrew’s about our communities:
The main reserves of the Tahltan First Nation are located in Telegraph Creek and is home to about 400 residents, of which approximately 350 are of Tahltan ancestry. You can find out more about the Tahltan people here. The modern history of Telegraph Creek dates back to the 1860′s with the Stikine and Cassiar gold rushes. These events led to the first major influx of non-Tahltan people into their territories. As its name suggests, Telegraph Creek was named for an overland telegraph line that was to connect southern Canada to the Yukon. Construction of the line was started in 1866 and finished in 1901. It fell into disuse with the increasingly widespread use of wireless radio communication in the 1930′s. The community of Dease Lake is closely linked with the community of Telegraph Creek, as it is the village at the intersection of the Cassiar highway, the only road accessing South to hwy 16 and North to the Alaska Highway, as you come out from Telegraph Creek. Telegraph, Dease Lake, and Iskut
Dease Lake began its existence as a trading post started by the Hudsons Bay Company in 1837. It would become a stopping point for prospectors heading north for the Stikine, Cassiar, and Klondike gold rushes. Dease Lake is located about 50 km north of the Stikine River and is the junction to Telegraph Creek. Today the town is considered the government centre and supply point for the district. The present population numbers around 475 of which approximately 45% are Tahltan.
Iskut is another community that is closely linked to Telegraph Creek. The Tahltan First Nations’ territory spans these three communities, and beyond. Therefore, between these 3 communities there are many relatives, and it is quite common to see people who come to visit their family in town at our services in Telegraph Creek.
The Catholic missions in these communities are the southernmost communities in the Diocese of Whitehorse; St.Theresa’s (Telegraph Creek), St.Mary Magdelene (Dease Lake), Our Lady of Fatima (Iskut). Currently, Dease Lake is without a pastoral administrator, so they have Mass once a month, and both Iskut & Telegraph have communion service every Sunday along with Mass once a month.
As for distance, Iskut is located on the Cassiar highway about 886 km north west of Prince George. Dease lake is another 84 km(1 hour) North. To get to Telegraph Creek you turn off the main highway at Dease Lake and go another 112 km on gravel road, twisting and winding throughout the Stikine River Canyon. I have never seen anything quite like this road; very scenic and quite windy with some very steep grades. It is the most remote community accessible by road in BC.
As far as church community demographics, St.Theresa’s is 96% 60 yrs old +(this doesn’t include our family) and currently there is 2 other caucasian people who attend(besides ourselves). We have anywhere from about 10 -17 people attending the services on the weekend. There have been requests for baptisms as well as catechism classes. So we are looking at starting catechism classes in the near future as well as sacramental prep for parents. This Sunday we are starting up a children’s liturgy of the word. It will only be our 4 little ones in attendance but it is a start and something we can invite others too. There are 35 school aged children in the community, and most young people leave for their grade 9 – 12 schooling in other larger cities(such as Terrace). Currently there is one young person attending(who comes with her grandparents).
We are hoping to travel to Juneau, Alaska in the summer for training in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
Preparations are in full swing now as we get ready to shift into the season of Lent. Who knows where January went, but it sure flew by. We have also had some changes to our vacation schedule since we had posted about them last, so an update will be coming shortly!
the BLUE DOOR 