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In Their Own Voices

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This passage is from a petition by the Whitefish Lake community to the Canadian Wesleyan Missionary Committee, dated January 8, 1867.  In it, Benjamin Sinclair requests a school teacher and describes the gratitude the community has for the missionaries that have worked among it:

We need not tell you that it is now some twenty-six years since a Rundle visited us; we were then in utter darkness as to the future, and it pleased the Almighty, through his instrumentality, to enlighten our dark and benighted minds as to our real state by nature. Many were by him brought to Christ, and have already gone to their happy homes, and many still live who pray and bless God for him. After remaining seven years among us, we were sorry to see him leave, and go home to his country, the privations and exposure to the severity of the climate being too much for his bodily strength. But though he had gone, God did not altogether leave us alone; his spirit was still among us, and the spark which had been kindled, continued, amidst the invasion of popery, until it was almost extinguished, when after a lapse of seven more years, God remembered us and sent us a Woolsey and a Steinhauer. You may well guess what our feelings were when we saw the true ambassadors of Christ among us once more.

This passage comes from a letter written by Sinclair to colleague William Mason. In it he asks for aid from his "unofficial" missionary superintendent. While he would like Mason himself to come, any help would be appreciated:

I will wait for you only one summer, but at least send up one Swampy to assist me because there is none to help. There is a good many who wish to cultivate the ground but know not how.

Citation Sources
Hutchinson, Gerald. The Roots of the Province: Alberta's First 50 Years and 100 Years of Christian Service. Telfordville: The United Church of Canada, 1955.


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