We have one. Do you? If not, you should! Our candy grandma gives out candy to kids after church, in bags (small ones, but even so)! After the service, candy grandma Linda sits expectantly with her notebook in hand, pen at the ready.

During the early hours of December 20, 2025, a fire was reported at the sanctuary of Island Gospel Fellowship (IGF), Burns Lake, B.C. By the time volunteers from the Fire and Rescue team arrived, the church sanctuary was completely engulfed in flames.

♪It was the last day of my children’s first week of school. Every morning, I walk with them to school and cry on the way back because I’ve discovered that crying warms your eyes, and you need all the warmth you can get when you’re walking in minus-forty degrees. That morning, I dropped the children off as usual and began the walk home. The tears came again, but this time they were not for warmth.

We continue to be blessed here at Prairie Rose. We have many long-time members and attendees in our congregation, and this contributes to a close, family atmosphere. We have welcomed a few new families and individuals into our midst in the last year or two which is encouraging.

We can behold the beauty of the mosaic that the Creator has crafted: people from Syria with their hijabs and accents rooted in their mother tongue (Kurdish), talking with people from Ukraine, searching in English for a common point to understand each other. At another table, we see someone from Kenya laughing during a chat with some Canadians and Brazilians.

We held our pastor installation service on February 23, 2025, in front of family and friends who came out in support. Peter and Martha Doerksen came to bless the Unger family as they celebrated. Our church leadership continues to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit as we work to meet the needs of the people in our church and community.

This past year has been a season of transition for our church family. When Pastor Norm Bueckert resigned in 2024, we once again found ourselves without a pastor. Though we continue to be without one, we’ve come together as a congregation—sharing responsibilities, supporting one another, and trusting God to lead us through this time of change.

On Sunday, September 28, it was a pleasure to have a group from Adult & Teen Challenge come to serve us. We enjoyed testimonies from a few of them. It was so wonderful to hear about the way their lives have been changed, and they gave reports about how their lives have been saved.

It has been over six months since the Kola EMC church sent a team of 14 participants to Guadalajara, Mexico, to serve with Israel and Sandra Chavez Plett. What was intended to be a youth trip turned into a multi-generational service team age 12 to 50-plus.

We are so excited to have Andreas Warkentin join our staff at Stony Brook Fellowship (SBF) as our community life pastor in September 2025.

At Pansy Chapel, giving thanks for our new spaces has been an ongoing highlight of the year. It is indeed a precious thing to gather as one family (since February) instead of feeling fragmented by two services.

The first week of July is over and so is VBS. This is an annual event and once again we had many youngsters attending. On Friday evening we had a closing program with many parents and other family members present to listen to the wonderful message of what had been taught throughout the week.