Lloydminster - An Interesting City

I just returned from a bit of a whirlwind tour of East Central Alberta, with encouraging visits in Provost, Wainwright and Lloydminster. My previous two posts were also from this trip. Today it was Lloydminster.

Three churches there (Southridge, LGF, and Living Faith Pentecostal) ran Alpha in 2013, and I received very encouraging reports from all of them, plus a couple of meetings with prospective Alpha churches, one of them a brand new church.

Some of the city's interesting history is here
Lloydminster has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan Unlike most such cases , Lloydminster is not a pair of twin cities on opposite sides of a border which merely share the same name, but is actually incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administration. Intended to be an exclusively British utopian settlement centred on the idea of sobriety, the town was founded in 1903 by the Barr Colonists, who came directly from the United Kingdom. The town was named for George Lloyd, Anglican Bishop of Saskatchewan.
The suffix, "minster" means, "Mother Church," the idea being that St John's Minster, the new town's Anglican Church would plant a number of, "daughter churches" in the area, which of course they did. Sadly, most of these, like the one I posted yesterday, have now fallen out of use, although a number of them are apparently still standing.

But while meeting with Pastor Tim Acey of Living Faith I learned a bit more. He is a Brit himself, and pointed out another unique fact about the city. Aside from being a very rare, "border city", as described above, it is unique in that it is not situated on a water course, a lake or a river. The original settlers, he says, were given a bit of a raw deal - almost the equivalent of being sold the proverbial Florida swampland. Lloydminster now draws its water from the North Saskatchewan River, over 30 kilometers away, but how they quenched their thirst in 1904, I don't know.

Because this blog is a diary, I reserve the right not to be strictly coherent, so I will mention that there were a number of other encouraging moments as well, the last couple of days.
  • By cell phone I made connections to form additional relationships for Alpha's Prison Ministry,
  • I discussed with a large church who wants to plan a regional training conference within the year.
  • I made an encouraging cold-call to Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Wainwright. (I always drive around in these towns a bit, and whenever I see a Cross on a building it immediately draws my attention, so I popped in, had a great conversation, and left some material)
  • I communicated back and forth regarding a new Alpha in Fairview, Alberta, possibly in the college there.
  • I met a number of Youth Pastors who plan to be at YC this weekend, so perhaps I will see them there.

Have I told you I love what I do?

Blessings,
John

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