Friday evening, April 1 – Yoder’s Restaurant, New Holland, PA.

Cerwin and I look forward to this banquet each spring – to spend an evening with friends and to hear about Living Hope Native Ministries. We shared our table with Gary and Orpha Stevens, Ray and Eva Nolt, and Dale and Lois Wolgemuth.

The audience is made up of many people who spent time (some for weeks – some for years) serving with this ministry in Ontario, Canada. Cerwin and I went to Pikangikum (a fly-in-only reserve – except by ice road in winter) for several summer Bible schools with teams from our church – in the late ’80s.

We heard from ministry leaders – Merle Nisly, Stuart Swartzentruber, and Albert James and were excited to hear about growth in their outreach – also saddened to hear about the death of a group of people during a house fire in Pikangikum.

Saturday morning, April 2 – we enjoyed our annual breakfast with Merle Nisly (center), CEO of Living Hope Native Ministries. His wife, Rita, was in Arizona with a newborn grandson and their daughter’s family. In this picture: Eva Nolt, Merle, Ray Nolt, and Gary Stevens.

Ray, Gary, and Orpha. It looks like I took these pictures when there was a bit of serious conversation, but we also enjoyed lots of laughter.

One of these summers we hope to go back to Red Lake and Pikangikum with the Nolt’s and Stevens’ for a summer vacation.