The Destination

Southend Saskatchewan is the place that was chosen for us. It is a village in northern Saskatchewan... way Northern Saskatchewan! From Minneapolis it is a 23 hour drive to this small village that is located on the south end of Reindeer lake which is the 9th largest lake in Canada (yes, we will be driving ). We will be serving the Cree which is the First Nation of Canada. This picture is the bay on the shore of where we will be staying.

The village of Southend is home to the Cree natives. The population is about 1000 and about half of them are children under the age of 12. There are a number of facts about this community... one is that the average age of adults in the community is 27. Why so low? Because the life expectancy for people in this area is the late 40's. No, you didn't mis-read it and we didn't miss-type it. Life expectancy is in the late 40's. these people are very susceptible to diseases and health issues due to poor nutrition. They live a very hard life- surrounded by poverty, health issues and they live in a climate that has extremely long and cold winters.

The Cree are special people that value relationships over doing tasks. In contrasts, we are conditioned to be task oriented with goals and accomplishments defining our success. They prefer story telling over reading or being read to. They are a culture that shares everything, and they are not materialistic. Well... you probably see that we have a few differences and we would expect that we will learn a lot from them.

The community looks after the children much like an extended family. They are not anyone's children... they are everyone's children. This is culturally different from how many of us parent and have been parented. What is interesting about that is that this concept can be related back to Biblical times when the communities raised the children and shared community property. Do you remember the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus going on their annual trip to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover? When it came time for them to go back home Mary and Joseph thought Jesus had gone ahead with some of the relatives. A day into the journey they realized that he was missing from the group. They went back to Jerusalem and three days later found him in the temple. (Luke 2: 41-52)

So, the MN Children of God are going to serve the Cree Children of God. Do you wonder who will benefit more? No doubt, God has a plan!

~Vernice~