~~~

Friday, September 13

~~~

This is where I pick up on our trip which I stopped posting due to lack of internet some of the time and a busy schedule the rest of the time.

This was the early morning sky shortly after leaving Mark and Diane’s house and heading to Skiff Lake.

The purpose of this trip was to be with TFC Canada’s staff at their conference (Sept. 12-15). We went following the invitation of Kevin Scott, TFC’s Executive Director. He oversees the ministry in Canada and Overseas.

It became a difficult invitation to resist when we learned that it would include a retirement celebration for Dennis Finnamore who has served in leadership roles for many years. He became a close friend of ours in our early days of serving on staff with Transport For Christ – back in the ’90s. We learned to know him and his wife, Linda, during our volunteer days, before either of us were on staff.

Cerwin wanted to make sure we stopped at Dysart’s Restaurant and Truckstop in Bangor, Maine, for a pancake breakfast. A small serving of pancakes is 3 – 7″ pancakes. He placed the order, and I asked for an extra plate. 🙂

We had an easy border crossing at Houlton, Maine, and carefully followed our GPS to Canterbury, NB. Following that we used Kevin Scott’s carefully written directions to Archie’s Compound on Skiff Lake. Archie is a longtime friend of the TFC staff in Canada and has offered his family compound to them for many Staff Conferences.

This was our cabin/house which we shared with Len Reimer and Paul and Edna Cairns. There are three bedrooms in this building, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living area. The staff meeting area is on the right, just beyond the white cars. There are several buildings on the compound similar to ours, plus the larger one for meals and meetings.

The view of Skiff Lake from our building.

The staff were just finishing lunch when we arrived, so we ate a bit and spent some time visiting, before going to Dennis Finnamore’s church to enjoy an online seminar. There is no (or very poor) internet service in the compound.

Cerwin, Debbie and Janet McIntosh

When we got to the church, Dennis’ daughter Debbie was working on food preparations for the banquet the following day. Her mom and Dennis’ wife, Linda, died suddenly in 2013. Debbie has apparently inherited her mom’s love for food preparation. One of Linda’s favorite thing to do was catering.

After Linda died, the church’s kitchen was upgraded and dedicated to Linda’s memory.

The staff went to a nearby Sunday school room where Kevin Scott (standing on the left) connected us with Dwayne Johnson of The Trucking Collective who partners with TFC Canada.

If you look closely on the right, there is a small picture of us, so Dwayne can see his audience.

He did a super job of encouraging the staff with ideas in reaching out to truckers in any arm of the trucking industry, especially truck terminals in the nearby vicinity of their truck stop chapels.

Our next stop was a restaurant in the Hartland, NB, area. We had the privilege of traveling with Dennis who had to go through this bridge to pick up some supplies before going to the restaurant.

There were 14 of us: Left to right – Len Reimer (chaplain – Drumbo Truck Stop, Ontario); Geoff Sutton is in charge of the trucker’s prayer line out of Pass Lake, Ontario); Dennis Finnamore (retiring Executive Director for Canada); Cerwin next to my empty seat; Edna and Paul Cairns (chaplain – Chilliwack, British Columbia; Kevin Scott (Executive Director of Transport for Christ) which includes Canada and Overseas Ministry; Paul and Debbie Leger (chaplain – Salisbury, New Brunswick); Jacques and Carmen Poirier (chaplain – St-Liboire, Quebec): and Janet and Sam McIntosh (chaplain – Calgary, Alberta.) Sorry Sam, it looks like the sun put too much light on your face. 🙂

A closer of view of the other end of the table: Cerwin, Edna and Paul Cairns, Kevin Scott, Paul and Debbie Leger.

Following dinner, we went back to one of the meeting rooms at Skiff Lake to enjoy a time of singing and sharing memories of Dennis (right). He seemed to enjoy each memory, sometimes laughing, other times with tears.

The singing was led by Paul and Jacques. Jacques added a bit of French at times.

My heart was filled with memories as we spend time with these friends. Cerwin and many volunteers built all their chapels except the one at Salisbury, NB. He wasn’t the one in charge of building the one at Drumbo Truck Stop in Ontario but spent many volunteer hours helping with its construction. We knew everyone except Geoff (second from right) who came on staff in recent years. He is in charge of the prayer line.