Mission Scribbles and Scratches

After a busy summer and some wonderful days of rest in early September at my son Joshua’s house, I’m ready to post about my month of August 2023 serving with LAMP, at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and with the Bethel Senior High youth mission trip to El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. August began with my trip to Cat Lake, Ontario. Let me begin by noting that I did not see any cats in Cat Lake…a little disappointing. I mentioned my time there in last month’s blog… “I hopped on a plane to Winnipeg, met up with Darlene Heide, and we drove a rental vehicle to Dryden, Ontario. We were hosted by Judy and the next day, Judy, Peter, Darlene, and I headed up to Sioux Lookout with Norma, one of the organizers of the trip. We boarded a float plane to fly to Cat Lake in northern Ontario. I had never been on a float plane so this was a lot of fun...taking off and landing on the water was great!! Pastor Randy met us in Cat Lake and we prepared to host a three day VBS in the community. A local ...

 July 2023 Wow! What a month! I started my month by attending the Impact Youth Gathering with a couple of teenagers from the church where I formerly served. During this time of transition to LAMP, it was decided that I would still help with three youth trips this summer and fit in as much time with LAMP trips as I could in between time. The Impact Gathering was hosted at a great camp just outside of Grand Rapids, BC. I had the wonderful opportunity to drive down to the event with some great friends from Riverbend Lutheran Church in Edmonton and some of their youth from their youth group. The gathering was really fun and really engaging...kudos to the organizers! I was so glad to attend with Avery and Madison! After the gathering, I returned to Edmonton to prepare for my first official LAMP trip. My friend and coworker Catherine and I loaded up the rental truck on July 8 and we drove up to join the LAMP team at Hall Lake. Hall Lake is about an hour south and west of LaRonge, Saskatc...

A little bit about me...and a little bit about Mission Scribbles and Scratches... Michael Gillingham comes to LAMP (Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots lampministry.org) after serving as Director of Youth Ministry at Bethel Lutheran Church in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada since 2004. As part of his role at Bethel, Michael was responsible for planning and leading mission trips and servant events for Bethel youth in various locations: LaRonge, Saskatchewan; El Paso, Texas; Juarez, Mexico; inner city Los Angeles, California, and Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. His trips to LaRonge also allowed him to do some basic work with children's ministry at the nearby Bigstone Reserve as well at the Far Reserve. Michael is a firm believer in the importance of learning to serve God and others through mission and servant ventures and he looks forward to helping support this kind of work through the LAMP teams that serve in various parts of Canada's north. Prior to serving at Bethel, Mi...