Its been a while since our last newsletter, but lots of things have happened since then. We have decided to do bi-monthly newsletters, hopefully ya'll are down with that.
If you're in a hurry:
- Of course we had Canadian Thanksgiving back at the beginning of October, but we wish that we could be in the Carolinas celebrating with you guys. Happy Turkey DAY!
- A HUGE THANK YOU to our family and friends who have sent us the warm items we needed. A special Thank you goes out to our Snowbird family, and Snowbird Missions and Outreach International for supporting us. You guys have really come through, and we are so thankful to have you be apart of our ministry. Your gifts, letters, and prayers are appreciated more than you know! Keep em' comin!
- We're coming home!!! We will be in the Carolinas from December 22 until January 9--we are looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family...try to see us if you can!
- Pray for our teenagers. Between school, extra curricular activities, family, work, youth group, and other obligations, these are the busiest bunch of teenagers we've ever met. Pray that they'll see their need for Christ to be thir biggest priority.
- Continue to pray for us as we deal with their schedules too.
- Leah and I, along with some of our youth, are putting on a concert of Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson in December, pray that this is an effective way to minister to the churches we work with, our community, and unbelievers as we are doing a lot of advertisement. Also pray that this would be a good time of worship, fellowship and teaching.
- Pray for the family of a one year old boy named Cameron who passed away.
- We had the chance to lead a worship service for workers at a dam construction site this past sunday. Pray that we will have more opportunities to minister to the people at this site.
- I made friends with a bear!
The longer version:
Because of the much colder climate, the harvest season in Canada is a month and a half earlier; therefore, Thanksgiving comes in early October. Thankfully, we got so many invites for lunch and dinner that day that we had to turn some down. We were able to have brunch with a few people from our church and supper with our pastor and his family. It was a good day, but now its our Thanksgiving, and we're missing home. We would love to be there eating turkey and pumpkin pie and doing all of the fun Thanksgiving things with all of you. A couple from our church is taking us out tonight for Thanksgiving dinner, and another friend from church is having an American Thanksgiving/housewarming dinner tomorrow night in her new house, so we're excited about those things, but we're even more excited about our trip home in a few weeks. We're staying for 2 weeks this time, so it will be a great time to see all of you. SERIOUSLY, try to see us if you can.
Speaking of the colder climate, we've had a bit of a warm streak here the past three days--its been about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Before that, it had been closer to 0 for the past couple of weeks. And we have had snow on the ground since the beginning of November. The days are really short right now (the sun comes up at about 9am and goes down around 4:30pm), but they're only going to get shorter (and colder) between now and Christmas. On the good side, the snow makes everything much prettier, and its fun to spin the car around in the parking lot.
We've mentioned this before, but our teenagers are busier than any we have ever seen. Many of them play school sports, are in band, chorus, or both, iceskate, are honor students, and work. Honestly, this leaves little time for them to be very involved in church at all. But our biggest problem is that they have, in the past, seemed to place church (and along with it, God) as less important than any of those other things. In other words, God is only important when they are at church, and church or youth group is a thing to do when they do not have something more important to do. Though this is something we have known all along, Leah and I have really been convicted lately that these kids need to know God and his Word more than they need somewhere fun to hang out on Saturday nights. And they need to realize that their relationships with God are more important than any grade, job, sport, etc. Pray that they would see this need. Pray that we would do and say what God would have us do and say so that they'll realize their need for Christ, and, in turn, this city's need for Christ. In fact, pray the same thing for the whole church, along with the other churches in town, and for that matter your own lives and home churches.
If you have not ever listened to the Christmas album, Behold the Lamb of God, by Andrew Peterson, you need to. Its basically a journey through the Bible leading up to Christ. More than anything else it reminds us that Christmas is not about presents, claymation television shows, trees, or even spending time with family or peace on earth, but it is about when God the Son, the second in the Trinity became flesh and woke up in a manger and the redemptive purpose He fulfilled. Leah and I along with a few of our youth are putting this concert on in December. We are really looking forward to it, but pray that though it is an entertaining night of music, God will be exalted above all else.
Each church in town is on a rotation to provide an on-call chaplain for the hospital. A few weeks ago, I was on call, and received a page early on Thursday morning. I was told that there was a sick baby in the emergency room. So I went in to see what I could do for the family. I spoke with the parents of the boy who both were very emotional. After a few minutes, they invited the family, along with myself and another local pastor, into the trauma room. We prayed over the boy, and after about two hours of doctors trying to get him stable, they removed the breathing tube and let his parents hold him as he died. This whole time, I had no idea what had happened to him. After we left the parents in the room, I noticed some RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) coming in with a autopsy kit. I asked a nurse what had happened. I turns out that social services had taken the boy from the boys birth parents (who were present at the hospital) for neglect. The boy's foster parents had beat him, literally, to death. They had flown the boy and his family along with a few social workers in from Gillam, a small town about three hours north of Thompson. Pray for the boy's parents, that they will know that they cannot deal with this without Christ. Pray for the social workers, I could tell that they felt at least partially responsible for this, (although in reality, they are not). It was a really tough situation for everyone involved. I have never had to deal with anything like this in ministry, but I know that these things happen. Pray that I will learn from this experience.
Most of the electricity in Mantiba comes from hydroelectric dams that are in northern Manitoba. About an hour north of town, they are in the process of building one. They have a camp of about 500 workers up there right now. Many of these people are from hundreds of miles away and are away from their families for weeks, if not months, at a time. The churches of Thompson have started holding services out there on Sunday afternoons. This week, Leah and I had the chance to lead the service. Its about 60 miles to get there, and most of it is gravel road, which in the winter is covered in snow and is pretty slick. We were reminded of how far north we actually are by the frequent caribou crossing signs. We only had 3 at the service, but we got a chance to talk to one of the workers who is having an especially hard time. He's been working ten hour days since September with very few days off. He's also been away from his wife this whole time. Most of the people there are in a similar situation. This is really great opportunity to show the love of Christ to these men and women. Pray for us and the other ministers in town as we continue to seek God in how to reach these workers with the Gospel.
And finally, these pictures were taken back in October. Notice the beard trim before and after. And as for the other ones, I was driving down the road a few months ago and saw a bear. I stopped to watch him for a minute and he decided to get into the car with me. Well, he didn't quite make it, but, as you can see in the pictures down below, he got pretty close. In one picture he is a few feet away from the car as I am rolling up the window. In the other, he is just underneath my passenger side mirror.
Once again thanks for all of your prayers and support and emails and phone calls.
In Christ,
Brandon and Leah
204-677-2767
btmilan@gmail.com
leahhmilan@gmail.com
328 Thompson Drive
Apartment 7
Thompson, MB R8N 0C4
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