Receives help from Manitoulin Transport in getting lumber shipped for new youth camp
INUVIK, NORTH WEST TERRITORIES—A long time resident of Manitoulin Island is now a pastor and living with his wife in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. As a pastor for about a year, he is helping to get a long term community dream turned into a reality–the construction and opening of a youth camp–and he and his church are getting assistance from Manitoulin Transport in getting the materials in place for its construction.
“I’m the pastor of the First Bible Baptist Church, in Inuvik, Northwest Territories,” said Reilly Featherstone. “My wife Danica and I moved have been here for about a year now.”
Mr. Featherstone, who is the son of John and Pauline Featherstone of Evansville, told the Recorder, “my family and I moved from southern Ontario to Manitoulin Island when I was just starting Grade 9.” He attended Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) and after high school, “I originally thought I would be working in agriculture, and went to agriculture school. Then I attended Bible College in 2015-2016 to become a pastor.”
In January 2017, he and his wife took a trip to meet people at the church (First Bible Baptist Church) in Inuvik. “The church was looking for a new pastor and our visit allowed us the opportunity to meet the local people. And of course that time of the year is the worst weather and the coldest here,” he said. “Then in February the church had me come back and they said they wanted me as their new pastor. My answer was going to be yes all along,” said Pastor Featherstone.
Prior to taking on the position of pastor, Mr. Featherstone had been working on a large dairy farm in London, Ontario. “On April 1, 2017 we took the 9-10 day trip to Inuvik,” he told the Recorder. He noted one of the reasons they decided to move to Inuvik was the warm welcome they received. “The people are extremely friendly here and there is a very strong sense of community, of accepting and working together here,” noting the population in the community is about 4,000 residents.
As for the summer camp the church is planning to construct, “the church has been planning to build this youth camp for a number of years, they have had the land and plans drawn up and with a new young guy who is full of ambition, I felt it was important to get this done sooner rather than later.”
The camp will allow kids to be on the land where they can enjoy traditional camp activities, learn basic skills such as hunting, fishing and wilderness survival and learn “biblical trust.”
The church is planning to build the main lodge. “We have a crew that has committed to volunteering their time and energy for the project,” said Pastor Featherstone. “The idea is to get the materials here this spring, and we have a missionary crew that will be on hand in June 2019, the first two weeks of June to construct the building,” he said, noting that living in Inuvik provides 24 hours of sunlight every day.
“So we obviously need lots of timber to construct the youth camp,” said Pastor Featherstone. “We wanted to get the lumber and supplies from southern Ontario because the costs are so much less. We got a price from the Home Hardware in Sherwood Park (in Edmonton). And my mom knows Sal Brunetti from Manitoulin Transport and asked him if maybe there was a way for Manitoulin Transport to help by shipping the lumber here; they have a plant in Edmonton, Alberta.”
“So I sent a letter onto Manitoulin Transport’s donation committee, approaching them if they could send the material up here (at a significantly reduced rate) and they came through,” continued Pastor Featherstone.
Sal Brunetti, at Manitoulin Transport’s head office in Gore Bay, told the Recorder last week, “we were contacted by Reilly and the church about getting our help. We have provided a reduced rate. Sending freight to Inuvik is pretty expensive and the company agreed to help out by providing the shipping and covering some of the costs; to have it shipped to Inuvik from our terminal in Edmonton, Alberta.”
“We have a good congregation, we get an average of 40 people on hand for Sunday services, and more for special services like at Christmas,” said Pastor Featherstone. “We have a very lovely group of people here.”
“In a way, Inuvik is like a community on the (Manitoulin) Island,” said Pastor Featherstone. He noted Inuvik, with the new highway built, is only two hours away from Tuktoyaktuk. “The next big stop is Whitehorse, which is a 15 hour drive. I used to think people that drove from the Island to Florida were crazy but now I think driving to Whitehorse is not all that bad,” he quipped.
