RED LAKE's Immigration Story
Red Lake History
Earl Carbert, Red Lake Businessman, Founding Member Glad Tidings Tabernacle
1960s Glad Tidings Tabernacle ~ Cliff Cassidy, Songleader & founding Member Glad Tidings
Red Lake Heritage Centre
Souvenir Record by Daniel Freval (1966)
Ed's Note: I absolutely love the pioneering spirit of a young person, fresh out of bible school, who responds in faith (often great faith against seemingly impossible tasks) to God's call on their life. Their ideals are pure, their experience with God is strong and so refreshing. Their "truth on fire", is truly something to listen to! And of course with God ...all things are possible to those who believe!
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." ~ Hebrews: 11:6
What exactly is the "pioneering-spirit?" Think of it this way. When God presented his mission to Jeremiah, Jeremiah responded “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” When God called on Moses, Moses responded, "I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” But others like Paul (2 Cor. 11) or Isaiah (Isa.6:8) seem to fearlessly, boldly stand out from the crowd. For instance, when God called Isaiah, his quick response was, “Here am I. Send me!”
After God led Ontario and Manitoba and Saskatchewan young farm-boys to PAOC Bible colleges, they called on God saying "...would it be OK Lord if you'd help me find a place to burn out my life for you in ministry?; That would be so exciting, so fulfilling!; I'm young, strong and healthy and I know you value AVAILABILITY! It would be such an adventure....just YOU and ME together boldly getting the message out!"
"What about way up north? There are some people that need to hear my message and I need someone there."
"Yup, that would do just fine for me. It doesn't really matter where because I know you'll be right there with me! I don't really have a fancy education and maybe I'm not totally qualified, but I could take some correspondence courses by mail to get my Grade 10; All I know is that if you went up there with me, I know how to make things happen; I can call on You and you'll help me set the stage for things to happen; I hear your voice clearly and I know how to witness. Please. I'll tell them all about you Lord; Just give me a chance - Open doors for me Lord. Even if I have to work in the mine to support my family; I'm not really expecting any pay for this. We learned in Bible school that you equip and provide for those you call and I just feel your call on my life so strongly. Yes even if the schools aren't the very best for my kids. ...and by the way -40 degrees below zero isn't a problem for me; I'll just dress warmly. ...and in the summer I can just swat off those black flies and mosquitoes. Please, please !!! ....just let me find a place to burn out my life serving you Lord. I'm available and if you go with me I'm your guy! Please."
Times have since changed! It is not a secret to anyone paying attention, that over the past few decades, even our corporate worship has switched from "thinking & service based" to a "feeling-based" worship. Lest you think I'm even slightly exaggerating here, look at how the earlier generation expressed their worship by including a strong "service/mission-component" in choruses and hymns (...anybody remember hymns?). I can assure you that these pioneer-people meant every word!
Jesus use me; and oh Lord don't refuse me.
For surely there's a work that I can do.
Even though it's humble; Lord help my will to crumble.
Though the cost be great, I'll work for you!
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1. It may not be on the mountain's height,
Or over the stormy sea;
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me.
But if by a still, small voice He calls
To paths I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Thine,
"I'll go where You want me to go."
Refrain:
I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord,
Over mountain, or plain, or sea.
I'll say what You want me to say, dear Lord.
I'll be what you want me to be.
That summed up the attitude of many of our pioneer pastors. Let's look at some in our PAOC fellowship who have demonstrated that pioneering-spirit and lot's of this thing called "faith." Since he's my uncle, I will start off with my own parents who also were pioneers, and tie in our familes.
Rev. Walter Reinheimer (1922-2006) pioneered Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba churches before going on to become the PAOC District Superintendent of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.
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While being a PAOC pioneer-pastor was not a journey my life has taken, I have been virtually surrounded by people all my life who have. Mom, Dad, uncles & aunts, cousins and so many friends all have responded to the redemptive message of the cross by becoming Pentecostal preachers. When you are surrounded by "such a great cloud of witnesses" it can't help but similarly affect you. Personally, I have the utmost respect to these who have gone before me, living out their calling literally in the middle of nowhere, planting churches, helping people spiritually (and in so many other ways) and standing firm (unbelievably FIRM, in fact "immovable" would be a better descriptor) as leaders in seemingly impossible situations for little or no payment. Sometimes we forget that the early Pentecostal Movement was very much a "missionary-movement". Their bible school taught them to "Just Go" and so that's what they did as the Holy Spirit led! Amoung this group of pioneers, few have my respect as did my Uncle Walter. He was a fun uncle to be with growing up, and as I matured, my respect for him only increased. I want to honor his work here by telling his story and keeping his memory alive.
In some respects as a first-person-witness, few remain to narrate this story and I feel duty-bound to chronicle these memories and stories of faith, otherwise they will be forever lost. Beginning with my own parents, here is some background information necessary for the following story about Rev. Walter Reinheimer, a graduate of Western Bible College, Winnipeg. So with those basics as a introduction, let's begin this story.
The Great "RED LAKE GOLD RUSH" (since 1922)
Gold fever had struck Northwestern Ontario. The "Red Lake area" was comprised of the nearby communities of Red Lake, Balmertown, Cochenour, Madsen, MacKenzie Island, Stuart-Olson and others. Each of these area small towns were built around yet another lucrative gold mine. Although gold claims were successfully staked in 1897, it wasn't until 1922 that this area underwent further exploration which developed into decades of mining. This was very rugged country located in the centre of the Canadian Shield. If you are an outdoors-man, you'd be in paradise with it's endless complement of swamplands, forests, rocks and thousands of rivers, streams and lakes brimming with all kinds of wildlife. In the early days it was quite difficult to access because of it's remoteness. Lack of access, delayed it's full exploration for decades, but on hitting it's stride in 1947 with the construction of Highway 105, the long-awaited-road it became a very interesting place and poised itself for growth.
Early prospectors made much use of seaplanes in the summer and ski-planes during the long winter months. The Noorduyn Norseman designed in 1935, was often the workhorse of choice, well-suited and much utilized at Red Lake in those days. In fact at one point the Howey Bay seaplane base had the reputation of being the busiest "airport" in the world as far as aircraft movements. Flying was almost the only way to effectively access this remote area. Red Lake presently is a mining frontier and to date, still very much ongoing. Many of the old mines have since closed. In some cases "new" mines have recently reopened by utilizing modern technology against an ever increasing gold price. Area mine-people discovered that Red Lake area ore, contained the world's richest grade of gold ore.
How did I (Mark) arrive up in Red Lake? Well here is the sub-story first. After graduating from OPBC bible school in Toronto (now renamed Master's College and Seminary) under Rev. CB Smith in 1944, my father (Rev. Fred Howson) pastored various Ontario and Manitoba PAOC churches for many years before getting married .
Simultaneous to this, my mother, Alma Howson-[nee Dohms] similarly graduated from Western Bible College under Dr. James Eustace Purdie . Mom as well as dad had the pioneering spirit. Through the years following Bible School, mom took on several pastorates on her own in Shell Lake (1948) and later Wadena, Saskatchewan (1953). Although in near-opposite corners of Canada, Mom and Dad somehow found each other (an East meets West story!) and together lived out their lives in ministry.
Now married with a family my parents had found themselves between churches near Winnipeg in the 1960's. They decided to move the growing family up to the Red Lake area where we had many relatives working there. This move put our little family squarely in the midst of the heyday of the Red Lake Gold Rush!
Soon after arriving, Dad (Rev. Fred Howson) began working at the gold mine in nearby Madsen. Dad soon had a vision and a burden to minister to the people in this little town and so he bought a house there and turned our basement into a church. This wasn't the first church he'd built, and Dad knew what he was doing! He pioneered/pastored this Pentecostal church in Madsen and worked in the local gold mine to finance our day to day needs. Briefly, I will share some memories.
We were the only church in this tough little town of Madsen, which featured very few programs for youth and grade-schoolers to be involved in after school hours. Soon we had 30 regular kids and occasionally as high as 50's in our 2pm Sunday School, and later in the week our evening "Kids Hobby Club". Mom was famous for keeping the kids spellbound as the "Flannelgraph Queen", type storyteller. The kids loved her! Also at this time in my life, I was also blessed to be part of Pentecostal Crusaders at nearby Glad Tidings under John Harder's leadership and sometimes Dad would join in leading when he wasn't working in the mine. But plain and simple, this was often hard work for Dad, but he loved every minute and just lived for the opportunity to reach this little community for Christ. Dad scheduled our Madsen church services so we could be totally active in the nearby and very vibrant Red Lake Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church (PAOC). When we arrived there, our pastor at the time was Rev. Jack Duncalfe, who later left for Kenya and the mission field. Thus, the 1960's found me growing up in the remote Red Lake area in Northern Ontario surrounded by incredible people in leadership!
GLAD TIDINGS PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, Red Lake, Ontario
While I will share more about mom and dad's ministry at a later date, I want to profile my uncle's work and ministry (Rev. Walter Reinheimer) in pioneering the Red Lake Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church. Walter Reinheimer's story is the story of a pioneer pastor that needs to be remembered. While Uncle Walter had told me stories of his pioneer churches from time-to-time through the years, I didn't write the information down at the time and much was lost. (I was based in Thompson, Manitoba in 1980 for a few years while flying for CALM Air. I attended the PAOC church Uncle Walter had pioneered there in the 1950's after Red Lake. At this time, Rev. Vernon Taylor was pastoring.) While I've been aware of and have had the idea for this story for a long time, it has only been the past few years that I've been able to have the information that I need to do so.
Growing up in the Glad Tidings Pentecostal church in Red Lake, I was blessed to be introduced to some amazing pioneer PAOC people. Two pioneer PAOC families in particular stood out, head and shoulders above the others in their influence and encouragement. The Carbert's and the Cassidy's were the founding members of this vibrant assembly. Earl Carbert and his wife Maimee arrived in the Red Lake area from Winnipeg (and Gilbert Plains) in 1946, prior to the completion of Highway 105. Cliff Cassidy and his wife Greta arrived in Red Lake in 1950 from Flin Flon, MB. These two founding families had been there for years before our family moved to this area and joined this congregation. Cliff's son (Paul Cassidy) and daughter Janalee (Beesley) both went on to spend their lives in ministry as well. Paul became my pastor when I lived in Kelowna, BC.
A few weeks ago (July 2017), I spent some time with Rev. Lyle Carbert, who by the the way, at age 82 years old is still pastoring a church now in Cochrane, Alberta. Lyle is one of the four sons of this pioneer family, Earl and Maimee Carbert. While Lyle remembers me as a young child, I was far too young to remember very much about him, moreso since in my younger years he had left Red Lake and was completing Bible School (EPBC now situated in Peterborough) and had begun his various PAOC pastorates. Lyle filled me on his life and work a few months ago, after I located him through an internet search. Lyle told me on the phone of the book he has written, "No We Don't do Miracles, But God Does" (on Amazon with fwd by David Mainse). I visited Lyle (July 2017) now living in Cochrane and still pastoring. We talked of Red Lake days and shared some photos. Lyle gave me permission to share parts of his book, which I find fascinating and so recommend it to you! Of particular interest to me was information about Rev. Walter Reinheimer, my uncle, which I would like to share here.
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The following is excerpted with permission from "No We Don't do Miracles, But God Does" by Rev. Lyle Carbert (published 2014):
Chapter 15 ~ Apostolic Influence
...In 1951, approximately five years after we moved to Red Lake, a spirit-filled jeweler from Flin Flon, Manitoba, Cliff Cassidy felt led of the Lord to move to Red Lake, Ontario and open Cassidy's Jewelers. The Carbert's and Cassidy's started having prayer meetings together and suggested letting the Manitoba District of the PAOC know, that they were up there in Red Lake, Ontario and in need of a Pentecostal Church. The announcement was made at the District Conference, where Walter and Louise Reinheimer were praying for the will of God in their ministry. Although they were not sitting together when the announcement was made they individually felt the call of God to Red Lake, Ontario to pioneer a Pentecostal church. The Reinheimer's, Carbert's and Cassidy's got their hearts together and agreed by faith for the Reinheimer's to move to Red Lake. We video-taped Walter at age 80, in the summer of 2002, telling his story of the call and move to Red Lake. With his permission, we've transcribed and edited the video and have included it here.
Chapter 16 ~ My Pastor's Story (Rev. Walter Reinheimer tells his own story)
After Dauphin, Manitoba's experience, when the church burned to the ground in May 194?, we were getting $86.00 per month. We were paying the utilities of the manse and sometimes these took the entire salary. So here we had no church. We had lost everything and there was no money, and we didn't even have a building fund. It was just when the North Battleford group was going strong. Their Prophetess, Helen Fehr's mother was a faithful attendee of our church, her grandpa was on the board, so Helen would come and she would send North Battleford people to Dauphin and they would have meetings in the hall and I would have prayer meeting on Wednesday night and they would have it in the hall with my congregation on Thursday.
So then, we rented the Orange Hall for our services. In the summer we met with the board and decided with the congregation that we would build. We had $10,000 for the church, and insurance for $5000. Since the building burnt to the ground and they couldn't find out the the cause, they thought it was the electrical fault of old wiring. So we got $10,000.
We hired two men to put in cement blocks, they don't do that anymore, and I wouldn't either, but it is still standing. A carpenter and I (I cancelled my salary), my twin sister, who was in children's work, came to work in the hospital, and preached for us on Sundays, free of charge. I said "...pay me $1.00 per hour and I will work 16 hours per day, and I will donate $8.00 per day to the building fund."
In three months we put up the brick, the floor, and the roof and got this building up. The next spring, I was uncertain as to whether to stay or not to stay and I did a dumb thing, but I did it. - I asked the congregation for a vote of confidence. And I said vote No or Yes.
After I resigned, I found that the congregation had voted "Yes", which meant I should stay and I thought "Yes" meant I should go! So I resigned and we went to Winnipeg.
We were thread-bare. I only had one suit, and Arnold Hamilton came to Gilbert Plains for a Sunday and we went to visit where Ken Bunting was the Pastor at Gilbert Plains. As mentioned, I only had one suit, but I would wear them out, and Arnold said, "Do you want this button?" and I said, "Of course I want this button". So Arnold took a knife and gave me the button. I said, "I want it on my suit". I only had this one suit and I sometimes had to back out of the church because the back end had cracked open while I bent over....it was thread-bare.
We were thread-bare. I only had one suit, and Arnold Hamilton came to Gilbert Plains for a Sunday and we went to visit where Ken Bunting was the Pastor at Gilbert Plains. As mentioned, I only had one suit, but I would wear them out, and Arnold said, "Do you want this button?" and I said, "Of course I want this button". So Arnold took a knife and gave me the button. I said, "I want it on my suit". I only had this one suit and I sometimes had to back out of the church because the back end had cracked open while I bent over....it was thread-bare.
So we came to Winnipeg and worked at the CNR graveyard shift as a coach-cleaner. Old Mr. Bradford, was a Porter and he got this job for me.
We rented a little suite, we just had one son, Lorne, and I worked graveyard shift. So I got some money for the winter time. When the spring time came I went to the Conference at Calvary Temple in Winnipeg, (of course, this was the only place that they had Conferences in those days).
We rented a little suite, we just had one son, Lorne, and I worked graveyard shift. So I got some money for the winter time. When the spring time came I went to the Conference at Calvary Temple in Winnipeg, (of course, this was the only place that they had Conferences in those days).
Rev. Bill Gamble was at Flin Flon, Manitoba and Cliff Cassidy had just moved from Flin Flon to Red Lake, Ontario to open up a jewelry store there. Mr. Gamble was a Presbyter, so he gave his report of the North, (Louise and I weren't sitting together), and I had thought .".. I don't know what we are going to do."
Rev. Gamble said, "Somebody should go to the Red Lake area ... the Carbert's are there and the Cassidy's have moved there and someone should go there and pioneer a work there."
Previously in 1921, Rev. J.C. Cook from Edmonton Bible School apparently had gone to Red Lake and found it too difficult. So in 1958, when I was going to World Conference, I met him because Mr. Cook was interested to meet this man who had gone to Red Lake. Anyway, when he went to Red Lake it was really rough times then.
However, Rev. Gamble said that someone should go to Red Lake because there are two Pentecostal families there and someone should open up a work there. Something like a bullet went through my heart and I met Louise to go for lunch at noon, downstairs in Calvary Temple, and Louise said, "Walter, we ought to go to Red Lake".
That's when the 40 hour work week came in on the Railway. So Friday night I did my shift and on Saturday morning I took the bus to Red Lake to meet the Carbert's and the Cassidy's. Mr. Earl Carbert knew the Fallonsbee's.
There were three suites in this log house: The Cassidy's on one side, we lived on one side and someone else (the manager of the Simpson's Store) lived in the front suite. After some time, the Cassidy's moved into the front suite, and then we got the church going.
1940's ~ Earl and Maime Carbert arrive in Red Lake.
The Red Lake Mennonites were pastored by Rev. Erwin Shantz, who had an airplane. From time-to-time, Cliff Cassidy and others from Glad Tidings PAOC would help them in their mission work to the area native communities. Many of the communities were only accessible via airplane, which helped greatly to spread the gospel in the Red Lake area.
Here from L to R, Maime Carbert and Greta and Cliff Cassidy.
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So after the Conference we went back to Melville, Saskatchewan and got ready to move to this mining town. I had never seen a mine in my life, nor had I heard of a mine. I was a farmer, with grade 7! During the Depression, when I was fourteen, because there were no crops for seven years and my Dad used to work in the winter time building elevators and us boys looked after the chores and went to school. I said to Mom and Dad, I can get a job there and earn a little money. In those days the government paid $5.00 a month, plus room and board and the farmer got $5.00 a month for keeping you and if you smoked, you got $5.00 more for tobacco. My great uncle smoked and I didn't, so my great Uncle took the $5.00. "The stinker could have given me the $5.00, but he didn't".
So then we went to visit a fellow that had MS (multiple sclerosis), a farmer Schindel was his name and we visited him and anyway this farmer had an old Model T over by the hay fence. It had been sitting there for years, with 30 x 3.5 inch tires, an old Model T ~ which was a "Bennet Wagon". During the Depression they converted these old cars and put a pole on so horses could pull it and called it a Bennett wagon.
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~ From Wikipedia: A Bennett Buggy was a term used in Canada during the Great Depression to describe a car which had its engine and windows taken out and was pulled by a horse.
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He said, "Walter you can have this old Bennett wagon to make yourself a trailer to move to Red Lake". So I got his old trailer, the tires were flat. Only God could have kept those tires. Anyway, so my Dad who had a blacksmith shop on the farm, helped me to make this trailer. Why we didn't make it a two-wheel trailer for the stuff we had? -We could have pulled it on two wheels.
I made a four-wheeler and you know that thing fish-tailed on the back of the car when I pulled it. And there was no pavement. We had a 1940 Chevy car which I had bought in Dauphin (a real "Cadillac" for its time).
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~ From Wikipedia: A Bennett Buggy was a term used in Canada during the Great Depression to describe a car which had its engine and windows taken out and was pulled by a horse.
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He said, "Walter you can have this old Bennett wagon to make yourself a trailer to move to Red Lake". So I got his old trailer, the tires were flat. Only God could have kept those tires. Anyway, so my Dad who had a blacksmith shop on the farm, helped me to make this trailer. Why we didn't make it a two-wheel trailer for the stuff we had? -We could have pulled it on two wheels.
I made a four-wheeler and you know that thing fish-tailed on the back of the car when I pulled it. And there was no pavement. We had a 1940 Chevy car which I had bought in Dauphin (a real "Cadillac" for its time).
So we made this trailer and kissed our parents goodbye, with lots of tears, and we were on our way to visit Pastor Percy Munroe at Carberry, Manitoba. It was gravel road and #1 Highway was only oiled from Portage La Prairie to Winnipeg. The rest was gravel. The TransCanada road wasn't built so you had to go through Rennie, Manitoba and Whitemouth, Manitoba.
We were only 12 miles from my dad's farm, when the first tire blew. We had to take it off, fix the tube, put it back in, put the tire back on the trailer, and pump up the tire with a hand pump. When we got to Red Lake, we had had thirteen flat tires! The 13th one was on Red Lake Road which was 100 miles from Red Lake.
On our trip, we stopped at Carberry, Manitoba, then Winnipeg for a couple of days and I had gone to T. Eaton's Company. I wanted to buy tires... I was rich you know. So when I got to Red Lake, I had $13.00 in my pocket.
So Eaton's said, we haven't sold a 30 x 3.5 inch tire in years, but he said, "Just a minute". He went somewhere and he brought out three tubes, 30 x 3.5 inch tubes. I bought the works.
"...I had to put old mitts where the tire had a hole, and put this mitt in and then the tube so the gravel wouldn't hit the tube."
We were driving down the highway, Lorne was only three years old, and would look out the back and say, "Dad, you have a flat tire." I would stop the car, and would you believe it, there would be a flat tire. Imagine, three years old!
When we got to Red Lake Road, we were actually four or five miles past Red Lake Road, towards Red Lake, when the last tire went into a thousand pieces! Now what? I couldn't fix that and it was in June and the flies and the mosquitoes were bad, and Louise was going to come with me. I said, "Stay in the car, lock it up, and don't let anyone in." Then I walked back to Red Lake Road where there was a little restaurant, and I mean, you couldn't find that in a million years. I said to the fellow there, "You wouldn't know of anyone who has an old Model T?" Well, he said, "This lad has one" ... a kid of about 15 years old. "Yes", the lad said, "I have one and I'm going to fix it up some day". I said, "Can I see that car?"
So he took me into the bush, where the trees had grown up around that car. I said, "My son, you will be 1,000 years old ...you will never get parts for this car". It had one tire that was good, and I saw that. So I used all the salesmanship I had. And I preached to him, not the Gospel but with persuasion. I paid him $13.00 and the kid was happy and I took the tire off and put it on my shoulder and walked back to the car. That was the last flat and we went to Red Lake.
We stopped for the night and I went in to get a room for the night and there were some Americans there with their Oldsmobile's and big tummies (who carried the balance forward) who were opening up the Tourist camp (1951). I drove in with this car and this 'modern' trailer and there was one room left. We got it. Talk about God! One guy said, "Oh my God, a sewing machine in the car". [It was probably Gold Arrow Tourist Camp].
When we got to Red Lake, Mr. Jim Liddle was at the Carbert's and he said, "How did you make the 'sand hill?" I said, "...the sand hill? ...they were all sand hills." [The road (Turkey Trail) had been built in 1947. Therefore it was only four years old (in 1951).
So then, ... I sold the trailer to somebody in Red Lake for $25.00. I had gotten the trailer free from the farmer. We had thirteen flat tires, and arrived in Red Lake with $13.00!
The second day that we were in Red Lake, I was hired at the Campbell Red Lake Gold Mine as a warehouse clerk, remember I had only grade seven education.
We had stopped at the Carbert's, they had left on holidays, and Mrs. Carbert had left a note on the table asking Louise to look after Barrie and you can stay here for two weeks, charge the groceries to our account as long as you cook for Barrie. So, in two weeks I got my first cheque. So I went and got a mattress from the Bay [Hudson's Bay Store], because there was a bed and springs in the suite but no mattress. Not anything at all.
This suite was quite sweet. There was no water works ...just running water from the well and the little house out back. It was this way for nine years. We had two more boys (in 1953 and 1955) while we were in Red Lake. Our son Lance used to get water with a pail and he felt that it was a long way, but it was actually just next door.
For the first month we held prayer meetings at the Carbert and Cassidy homes. Mrs. Laramie was our first Red Lake person to attend. Then we rented the Red Lake Theatre. We had put our tithes together and had purchased a piano for the services. However, there were shows in the Theatre on Saturday nights, and the kids used to pour soft drinks on the keys and we would have to clean this up before service because Mrs. Carbert (our pianist) couldn't make it work. There would also be popcorn all over and it was a stinky place!
We were maybe there for a year or so. Then we bought an old warehouse, cheap. The District sent a small monetary gift to help purchase this building. But it had to be moved for two miles. So we cut it in half. Then I was able to hire the tractor and truck it from the Mine to move this building.
When I went to the manager to pay the bill he looked at the bill and took his pen and wrote on it ..."PAID IN FULL."
Actually we skidded the building into town. When we had to go around the corner, a telephone pole which had not been cut off close enough to the ground, caught on the joists and ripped them into slivers. Anyway, we got it there, and when we looked at that building, my goodness ...what a job! We put the back half in place and then the front half and pulled them together. Tie rods had to be put at the level of the eaves to hold the walls in place. Then they were painted and these rods remained until the day the building was torn down.
Sometime in 1953, we had this building fixed up for services.
In all, this building was remodeled five times in nine years!
We build a suite on the back for the Pastor to live in and then we jacked it up and put a basement under it. While this was being done, the parsonage part shook so badly you would think that it was going to fall off of the blocks! A new front with a foyer was also added.
When the building was in place, there were Reinheimer's, Carbert's, Cassidy's Laramie's and Mimi Koeffert. Slowly, in time, there was a fairly large Sunday school with children attending from the town. We also rented a bus to pick up the children for Sunday school. For the Sunday School Christmas programs, the parents would attend and we rented the Rainbow Lanes Bowling Alley/Dance Hall, and treats were handed out.
I worked for 9 years at the mine and took no salary from the church. Gradually, other people came, who moved to Red Lake to work in the mines and several families were reached for Christ from Red Lake.
1960's ~ Red Lake Glad Tidings PAOC Men's Fellowship (L to R).
1st Row: Cliff Cassidy, John Harder, Wes Howson, Ivan Bjorkland, David Gugliotta,
Tony Parisi
2nd Row: Johnnie Boyce, Delbert Duncalfe, Rev. Erwin Shantz (Red Lake Mennonite pastor),
Jerry Larson, Fred Howson
(Unfortunately, I don't know who is beyond the first two rows).
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Lyle Carbert's Comment:
It would seem that this might help us understand some of the characteristics of the calling of Apostle! In retrospect, even though I made the statement to Walter Reinheimer, that if I was ever called to the ministry, I would probably not do what he did, his influence was probably the Apostle-father relationship which helped to set the direction for my future.
The Walter Reinheimer's left in 1960 and next pioneered in Thompson, Manitoba. Then the Jack Duncalfe's came to Red Lake as pastors. So, from age 11 to 21, Red Lake was the strong formative influence on my (Lyle's) life.
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Having Breakfast at Grandpa Rudolf's Fenwood, Saskatchewan farm (Left to Right)
Walter Reinheimer, Mark Howson, Charles Howson, Fred Howson.
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