August 10, 2014
Temp this morning was 56 and it was
raining. It rained quite hard overnight and it continued to rain
this morning. The clouds were very low so everything looked foggy.
We had planed to go to the bear viewing
area again this morning about 6:00 but when we woke up it was pouring
rain. We considered going anyway, but there was very little light for
pictures and we would worry about too much water on the cameras. We
rolled over and went back to sleep. Last evening someone knocked on
our door and invited us to the Charity Baptist Church service they
were having at this weekends festival in town. We decided we would go to
this service. We are so glad we did. It was held in the pavilion in
the Seward Park leading to the estuary. By time for the service the
rain had really slacked off, but the clouds were still very low on the
mountains making for a interesting backdrop for the service.
This
little church hasn't had a pastor for about 2 years and one of the
members has been preaching and his wife does a lot of the music.
They currently have a new pastor. Joe Noreau and his family
currently live in Knoxville, TN. They were first here in BC 2 years
ago. They are still working through BMFP – Baptist Mission to Forgotten People to raise support so they can move to Stewart.
Currently they are here for about 1 month. We tend to think of
Canada being much like the US but it is so different. There are very
few churches here. Most of the small communities have no Christian
church. (Remember we have had problems finding a church to attend
some Sundays.) There are something like 35,000 people per Christian
pastor in Canada – if we remember correctly. Joe wanted to get a
part time job and go ahead and move here but that is not allowed.
Since he is not Canadian, he is not allowed to have 2 jobs even if
they are both part time, as that would take a job away from a
Canadian. Joe and his family seem to really have a heart for the
people here and asked for our prayers for the people of British
Columbia. The lay couple that have been working so hard to keep the
church going in this small community also requested prayer for the
Canadian people. They really wanted us to understand that “most
people here do not grow up in Christian homes and we aren't a
Christian country. Most people don't know any Bible stories and
don't know who Jesus is.” We feel so blessed to have been in
today's service and to have gotten to know these 2 sweet couples.
After worship and the visiting, we went
back to Fred for lunch and decided to wait until about 4:00 to go
check out Fish Creek for bears. Due to heavy rain we actually didn't
get the the bear viewing area until about 5:15. There just a few
people there and it was reported that there was very little wild life
activity today. We were told that a wolf made a very brief
appearance around 10:00 this morning and that was about all. We
decided that we would hang around for about an hour then go find some
dinner. After about 20 minutes we looked up the river and there came
a grizzly. This was a tagged sow. She first caught one very large
salmon and went to the bank and ate it. She then came back out on the
river and fished some more, and ate some from the carcases on the
banks. By the way, you can smell the rotting salmon pretty strongly
in places. This bear came right down the river past all the viewing
stands. We have lots of pictures and videos, but will have to upload
those when we have a better connection. Just a few pictures tonight.
After that show, it was raining pretty hard again and we were ready
to get out of the weather. We started back to the truck and walking
back to the truck there was a black bear on the far bank of the stream near the parking area
so we stopped to get some pictures of the black bear as well.
We decided to stop at little food
trailer on the side of the road while we were still in Hyder. We had
a loaded burger and root beer float. It was good and we met some
really nice locals there that we enjoyed visiting with while our food
was being prepared.
Then back through Canadian customs and back to
Fred. There is not US customs going from Stewart, BC to Hyder AK.
But we do have to stop at Canadian customs when we come back into
Canada each time. Hyder really seems to be part of the US in name
only. When we paid for our burger we paid in US dollars – we were
in the US. Our change was given in Canadian dollars. When we
crossed the boarder the agent said, “See you tomorrow.”
In spite of all the rain, we had a
really good day. We were blessed to make some new friends and enjoy some church fellowship. The
forecast is much better starting tomorrow so here's hoping for some
sunshine! Hope everyone has a good week.
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