L.A.M.P. Lutheran Association of Missionaries & Pilots, Inc. hosted its annual vacation Bible school from July 7 to 11 at St. James Anglican Church at 10 Caribou Rd. in Thompson.
L.A.M.P. is a non-profit Canadian corporation based in Edmonton, Alta. with offices in New Haven, Mich.
L.A.M.P. was founded in 1970 by an Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor, Les Stahlke, who was serving a congregation in Alberta. Stahlke was also a skilled pilot. He is now the president of GovernanceMatters.com Inc. in Edmonton and serves on the board of directors of Waterloo, Ont.-based FaithLife Financial, is a not-for-profit insurance provider.
L.A.M.P. was led by a group of Americans from a Lutheran Church in Moorhead, Minn., who drove to Thompson to spend a week spreading the gospel and hosting activities for children.
They include Karen Spilde, Don Bartholome, and his wife Linda Bartholome. They will be coming back next year for another week-long vacation Bible school.
The Spilde family has been associated with L.A.M.P. for 24 years, and has been coming north for 14 years, starting with Karen Spilde's parents, who have also been to La Ronge and Deschambault Lake, in Saskatchewan.
"They first started in Grand Rapids and then they've been coming to Thompson," said Laura Carter, a local volunteer for L.A.M.P. "But they weren't able to come this year because of health issues."
Karen Spilde's dad, Roger Spilde, who is 84, could not come this year. His wife, Barbara, is 80.
"This is the first year they have not come," said Karen Spilde.
Carter said: "It's been a progression, because her mom and dad would come, and Karen would come. And then some of the grandchildren would come, and then the last few years it's been the youth minister, Linda Bartholome, and Don, her husband: they have been coming. So, the team has changed."
Linda Bartholome is the youth and family ministries director at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Moorhead, Minn. She and her husband, Don Bartholome, who was born and raised Roman Catholic, are Lutheran parishioners of that church.
She is a confident and animated Christian leader who led singing and other activities at the vacation Bible school in Thompson.
She takes youths and adults on spiritual missions across the continent.
"I have been taking international and American high school kids on trips since 2004," said Linda Bartholome. "I've taken five groups of high school kids to Montego Bay in Jamaica."
"We call what we do short-term missions, and L.A.M.P. has several that go to different areas," said Linda Bartholome.
L.A.M.P. has 47 mission teams, six pilots and 600 American and Canadian volunteers in towns that minister to 47 communities in the northern parts of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
Bartholome was impressed with how welcoming and inviting the members of St. James Anglican have been.
"The Anglican Church has been phenomenal as far as welcoming us and helping us," said Bartholome.
Bartholome thanked Cheryl Lenton, one of the members of the St. James congregation who helped them set up the space for the bible school.
Laura Carter is one of the local volunteers who hosted L.A.M.P.'s vacation bible school in Thompson. "I grew up in a Lutheran Church," said Carter. "I was born in Thompson in 1969. I didn't start going to the VBS - the vacation Bible school - until I had my children."
She has been coming to the vacation Bible schools for 12 years, and she brought her son, Simon Carter, 15, to help out.
Laura Carter said: "I've been bringing my oldest since he was two, and now he's 15. That's how long we've been coming. We first attended when it was at the Lutheran Church, just beside this church here [St. James Anglican Church.]
"But this year, the Lutheran Church was decommissioned, so we had to find another place for it. The Anglican Church was very gracious to open up their space for us.
"Tracy Tomchuk and I phoned around different churches to find out where to have it. The L.A.M.P. team has a very good reputation in town, so other churches are willing to support the vacation bible school. A lot of the Christian churches were willing to have it, but it ended up being here."
Tomchuk, a Roman Catholic from St. Lawrence Church parish on Cree Road, and Carter told the people's warden for St. James Anglican, Sarah Gillis, and the Rev. Jean Arthurson-Ouskan, that L.A.M.P. was looking for a space, and they approved, so the congregation offered the space for the L.A.M.P. Bible school this year, and provided snacks.
All the L.A.M.P. volunteers and leaders are Christians, but Spilde said they don't ask the participants which churches they attend.
"L.A.M.P. is inter-denominational," Spilde said.
Kim Ritchat is one of the L.A.M.P. volunteers in Thompson. She grew up in the Lutheran Church. Two of her four children attended the L.A.M.P. vacation bible school this year in Thompson.
Her mother, Wendy Ritchat, the host co-ordinator for L.A.M.P. in Thompson, is running another one-week L.A.M.P. vacation bible school in Churchill the last week of August, with Julie Thorarinson, a Lutheran volunteer now from Selkirk, who lived in Thompson.
They do it every year at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Churchill.
"Last year about 25 kids attended," said Rev. Grace Anthony, the priest at St. Paul's Anglican Church.
In Thompson, 50 kids came to the Bible school each morning of the week.
Karen Spilde said the children are supposed to be five to 12 years, but they had a wider range of youths attending the Bible school.
"We have a two-year-old here," said Spilde, who was busy leading activities on the last day. "The ones younger than five can come as long as they have a mom or dad with them. The older ones are more like helpers than attendees."
"They do crafts, sing songs, have snacks," Spilde said. "Sometimes we play games or go outside. If the weather is good, we bring some balls outside. We tell Bible stories and read Bible verses."
All of the vacation Bible schools run by L.A.M.P. are free. The children get free ice cream and snacks and can take home books, artwork and puzzles at the end of the week.
But their connection to God is more lasting.
"It's giving them an opportunity to learn about God, and to grow stronger in their faith," said Karen Spilde.
Lars Miranda is a former Thompson Citizen reporter and photographer and a long-time substitute teacher for the School District of Mystery Lake. He has lived in Thompson since 2007 and can be contacted at: larsmiranda@hotmail.com
