Rigney Ministries

Benjy and I have been talking a lot this year about our trip to British Columbia, Canada, and the ministry opportunities we discovered there. We were thrilled to be invited to serve in a couple of churches while we vacationed in that area, and we came home excited about the ministry opportunities we discovered. We’ve been asked by a couple of our local churches to come share about our experience in British Columbia and also about the work we, as MS Baptists, are sponsoring in the mega-city of Vancouver. I’ve prepared a PowerPoint presentation for use in church, but I’d like to share this story on our website as well.

Because there are so many photos in this presentation, I broke it into two separate posts. Here is the link to part two, Who Is Their God?

Light and Dark

British Columbia is an unsettling mix of natural beauty and spiritual darkness. It would seem that in a place filled with the beauty of God’s creative handiwork, there would be a natural desire to worship the God of creation. But we learned that there is a dark side to BC, and we would like to share our experience with you. Before I tell you about the darkness, though, I’d like to give you some background information and show you a bit of the natural beauty of British Columbia, Canada. It truly is a showcase of some of God’s best work!

This September Benjy and I have been married 25 years!
To celebrate this milestone, we wanted to do something really special, so we decided to take a two week vacation to the beautiful mountains of British Columbia, Canada. This picture was made in Whistler, BC, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Isn’t it a beautiful place?

We became intrigued with this area when we became friends with Vic and Julie, long time residents of BC. God brought Julie into my life through the Christian Women’s Blog Ring. We became easy friends, and we started doing Bible studies together online. Julie regularly sends us photos of their beautiful mountains, waterfalls, and moss covered trails, so when it came time to make our anniversary plans, we knew exactly where we wanted to go!

Breathtaking Beauty

We lived together as family those two weeks, and they introduced us to some of the breathtaking beauty of their world … things that are TOTALLY unfamiliar to MS flatlanders!

Things Like Snowcapped Mountains …

Snowballs and Sniffle Stations …

And Snow Covered Lakes!
Yes, we’re wearing short sleeves … McKenzie is even wearing shorts!
Believe it or not, the temp was in the upper 80’s this day.

There was lots of snow in the upper elevations, but in the lower elevations
the snow had melted, and the waterfalls were something to behold!

We were so fascinated by the beauty and number of waterfalls.
This one is called Brandywine.

Vic found lots of ways to keep us busy and to introduce us to the beauty of their home.
The trees on this trail were HUGE!

The moss and ferns on this trail were unbelievable!

And this girl was cute as pie!
But she was a MS variety, not a BC variety.

We were told that we MIGHT see a bear if we were lucky …
but God went above and beyond and let us see FIVE!

We EVEN found Sasquatch and learned that the rumor is true …
He REALLY does throw rocks at people, especially overly curious MS flatlanders!

As if the beauty of the land was not enough, we were taken on a ferry ride to the beautiful island of Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia. No matter where we traveled, the snow capped mountains were always within view.

As you can see, British Columbia is a land filled with natural beauty. These are only a few of the many photos we took of the area. You can see more by visiting our photo album. But as I mentioned earlier, BC does have a dark side … a spiritual darkness that is a result of the many gods which have been welcomed into the area. You can read about this in part two, Who Is Their God?

On His Exciting Journey,