Freshmen Ministry Practicum

Hey, this is Karissa Little. I am a freshman student here at NBC. For our Freshman Ministry Class there were four teams that went to four different locations for one week. The four locations were Timber Bay Bible Camp, Big River Bible Camp, Regina Urban Centre, and Kinistin Reserve. I went to Big River Bible Camp with a team of seven people. We stayed with Jason and Anita Boucher who are the missionaries who run the camp. Big River is a summer camp, but Jason and Anita live there year round. When we got there it was about 6:30 and pitch black and we trudged out in the snow for about 10 minutes to get to the cabins we were staying in. The cabins were heated by wood stoves and had no running water; therefore, no showers or toilets in them. We had outhouses and had to heat our cabins with wood. The guys stayed in a cabin that had a nice big fireplace, but our cabin had a little cooking stove which was about ¼ the size of the guys’ fireplace. Although we had a smaller place to have a fire, we did get an electric heater as well. On the second day we just settled in, met the family, and went over some rules and expectations. During the course of the week we went to three different reserves; Sandy Lake Reserve, Whitefish Reserve, and another one (I can’t remember the name, we just went there once!). We spent most of our time at Sandy Lake Reserve hanging out and skating at the indoor rink. It was amazing to see how many people wanted to come play hockey with us. Through this ministry we got to meet people and build relationships we may have not been able to if we were just there handing out tracts. Although we were having a good time skating we still had the ultimate goal in mind, to let people know about Christ. We were having so much fun skating and playing hockey that it didn’t seem like a Missions trip at all, and we felt kind of guilty for having so much fun. Although we had lots of fun at the rink, we also had youth group on Friday night, taught Sunday School on Sunday morning, and had a Bible Study on Tuesday night. There were also general chores for us to do such as feed horses, do dishes, chop wood, shovel snow etc. Jason had a work shop at his house that had a lot of snow piled up on it, so we decided to shovel it off one day. The only thing we didn’t realize was that the roof was tin….. and therefore extremely slippery! Even though the roof was slippery we got all the snow shovelled and only a couple people slid off the roof. We ate all of our meals in the house and Jason’s wife Anita cooked for all of us; there were 13 people at every meal and there was so much food! After each meal we would choose two people to do dishes and the rest of us would get ready to do other work or do other chores or just hang out with the kids. On the weekend there were three girls that came from the reserve to stay with Jason and Anita for a few days. They were really cool and we hung out and got to know them more. Dutch Blitz was a game that took up most of our time on Sunday after the church potluck and on Monday because there was a blizzard outside. Some of the girls stayed out in our cabin on Sunday night and we stayed up really late just talking and laughing. On Wednesday we had breakfast and read our “Top Ten” lists that we had made of our ten favourite things about the trip. After that we all packed up in the van and started our trip….to the end of the driveway. A couple of guys fed the horses and we stopped at Tim Hortons in Prince Albert and continued travelling. We got back to Nipawin around 5:15, just in time for supper! Overall it was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I learned so much about team dynamics, communication, Native culture, and most of all how to love people and how showing that love is most often more meaningful than asking them if they want to become a Christian right then. During this trip God taught me so much that I will treasure and use throughout my life.