As a result of much prayer, Ken Moore and I decided to pitch the Gospel tent in Kapuskasing in July of 1979. We were greatly assisted by others from various assemblies to the south, including Andrew Fletcher and Bruce Rodgers. The Lord saved a Catholic woman named Flora Kancir who soon manifested a tireless zeal in seeking to win souls to Christ.
Brother Moore began seeing a work done for God in the Sudbury area, so brethren Fletcher, Rodgers, and I teamed up for a tent series in 1980. After four weeks of preaching, the first soul professed, and so we continued on for six and one half weeks, seeing about ten profess to be saved. Perhaps the most fruitful series that Bruce and I had followed in September and October when five more adults were saved. All five remain in happy and active assembly fellowship to this very day. To God be the glory!
We continued preaching through the winter of 1981. Several desired to be baptized and to remember the Lord Jesus as He requested. Douglas Yade helped Bruce and me in a week of Bible readings on assembly truth in March, with a good number attending. One night, a young lady named Carole Godin (now Labelle) professed to be saved on her own following the Bible reading. That night, she found the Savior and lost her desire for tobacco.
Needless to say, not everyone saw such immediate victory over the nicotine addiction, although others were similarly delivered from worse bondage, namely alcohol and drugs.
Following a baptism on March 14, 1981, sixteen of us, plus visitors, broke bread in Kapuskasing for the first time. Tears of joy flowed freely as we tasted a little of what God had done.
Brother Arnold Adams enriched us with excellent ministry on basic but profound truth. Brother Edward Doherty had an “evangelical” flavored Egypt to Canaan series in which Alice Turner was saved. Alice is now serving the Lord in medical work in Zambia.
Space limits naming others who helped in the furtherance of the work. We all will one day rejoice together and praise our great God in our blood-bought Home above. Truly, God is good.
