Thirty-seven years ago I received my first call from the Minnesota North District to serve as Missionary-at-large in Northwestern Ontario. And so the adventure began.
The first hurtle was immigration and visas. We had special physicals, long applications and a trip to the Canadian consulate in Chicago. When our interview was over, the consulate staff member asked where we were going to live. I walked over to the map and pointed out Ignace and Sioux Lookout, Ontario. At that he exclaimed, “Oh là là!” “Hmmm, I thought, what I have I gotten myself into?”
After three months of waiting for our visas, I contracted a mover and set the date for my installation. I don’t remember the moving company, but I do remember that they never came. I called them numerous times and all they would say is, “We can get your belongings to Toronto but we don’t know how long it will take to get them to Ignace.” So we cancelled the contract and loaded all our worldly goods into a U-Haul and started on our 1,200 mile trip to terra incognita.
Thus began a marvelous adventure in ministry to a place that continues to be precious in our hearts. We received a wonderful welcome as a newly minted pastor and his wife. Was life hard living in remote communities? Indeed! But I have never lived anywhere else that provided the same sense of working together for a common cause.
To all our Canadian friends and family, may you have a blessed and happy Canada Day. To the LWML of Faith Lutheran Church in Ignace, may you always prosper in your service. To all the members and former members of Faith Lutheran Church in Ignace and Hope Lutheran Church in Sioux Lookout, thank you for your welcome and support to me and my family during those early years in my ministry. I would be quite a different pastor today without our years together.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all the people who support and love their pastor. Amen.
Blessed and Happy Canada Day!
God’s richest blessings in Christ,
Pastor Philip Quardokus
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