Catholic Mission In Canada

The phone rings and it is a call for Sister Eileen Gamble, M.C.R., and the need for her prayers. In the past, the calls for Sister Eileen were requests for her to help with the local rodeo, take a hockey team to a tournament or solve a problem at the local school. She still is the person everyone turns to here in Anaham. “When I arrived in 1949, it was a four-hour trip over gravel roads from Anaham to Williams Lake, so the trek was not made often,” says Sister Eileen.

The man who was asked to pick up the new Sister in Williams Lake brought his wife with him, so there was only room for one in the cab of the pickup truck. As the Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of Christ the King was travelling with her, there was no question who got to enjoy the open-air ride to her new mission!

“The Sisters in Anaham were self-sufficient as the trip was only made once or twice a year back in those early years,” says Sister Eileen. “The Sisters raised chickens, had a milk cow and grew a huge garden. The children came down from the meadows in late September and early October, after the haying, for school and then left at the beginning of June for the trip by horse and wagon to Williams Lake for the Stampede. There were just two vehicles in the village when I arrived and now most families have two vehicles! The children and elders spoke only Chilcotin, so the challenge of school was to learn English as well. Today the Chilcotin language is taught in the school.

“We have always lived simply here in Anaham and been part of the community. Our life as missionaries has not changed that much, as we continue to serve the people as we have since 1944. We teach in the school, help instruct the children in the sacraments, prepare couples for marriage as well as young parents who wish to have their children baptized. The phone is always busy with requests for prayers.”

Sister Eileen was born on August5, 1924, in Toronto, Ontario. “I went to a Catholic elementary school staffed by the Loretto Sisters and then continued studies at Loretto College,” she says. “Growing up, I always wanted to be a missionary and serve in China. We received the Scarboro Fathers’ newsletter about their Chinese missions and I was drawn to work there. I did not want to be a Loretto Sister, as they were teachers and I wanted to be a missionary.”