Cariboo Presbyterian Church

Last night I found myself at Mcleese Lake. It must have been Tuesday. We sang for an hour, accompanied by an energetic worship band made up of extremely talented teens and one old dog (me). We studied the Scriptures for an hour, sharing some in-depth exegesis and a diversity of heurmeneutical insights. We prayed for half an hour and had fellowship around coffee, tea and desert for another hour. Sometime around 10:00 PM about 40 of us, fromnewborns to eighty-something’s, lined up to leave the ranch house. Linda and I drove home arriving at Lac La Hache about midnight, just as Stuart McLean was signing off the Vinyl Café on CBC Radio 1.

What is important, what is crucial, is that in all of these rural places the Church of Jesus Christ is being fostered (and that’s mission) and, as a result, Christ is being made incarnate through the lives of His disciples (and that’s ministry).

That pretty much sums up how Linda and I spend our lives as missionaries. The only thing that changes is the location, the day and the size of the group. On Sunday mornings it is Williams Lake with about 20 folks; Sunday nights, Watch Lake with about 7 or 8; Monday nights, Canim Lake with 6 or 7; Tuesday nights I just told you about; Wednesday nights, Sheridan Lake with about 15; and Thursdays we visit 103 with about 5. And oh yes, there is another Sunday group meeting at Springhouse and MacAllister with about 15. Oh, and I forgot the Kid’s Space at Bridge Lake with about 19 on every second Friday and the Galilean’s Coffee House at Lac La Hache on the second Friday of each month with up to 50. The numbers are completely insignificant as far as we are concerned, what is important, what is crucial, is that in all of these rural places the Church of Jesus Christ is being fostered (and that’s mission) and, as a result, Christ is being made incarnate through the lives of His disciples (and that’s ministry).

I just got an e-mail from one of our elders as I was typing this. Bruce ministers regularly at two senior’s residences in 100 Mile House, doing regular worship services as well as all of the ministry that shakes out of that. He just e-mailed to ask for prayer for the family of one of the care workers who committed suicide yesterday. Bruce is ministering to the family as I type this. I share this just to say that, in case you think that all of the ministry that we do happens at the hands of the ordained missionaries in this mission, you have misunderstood us. The bulk of the ministry happens at the hands of the people, the laos whom we are so fortunate to share this incredible regional rural congregation with.

—The Reverend David and Linda Webber