Catholic Mission In Canada

After serving for twenty years as pastoral minister of St. Francis de Sales mission in God's Lake Narrows, Manitoba, Sister Yvonne Bouchard, s.g.m., has chosen to retire from missionary work.
Last summer, Oblate Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie of Keewatin-Le Pas came to God's Lake Narrows to share a farewell ceremony for Sister Yvonne and to preside at Sunday Mass. The archbishop thanked Sister Yvonne for her many years of service to the First Nations peoples.
As administrator for St. Francis de Sales mission, Sister Yvonne trained lay leaders to lead the Sunday Liturgy and funerals when no priest was present. The non-resident priest could only visit every five weeks.

Sister Yvonne was an excellent catechism teacher for children, helping to prepare them for First Communion and Confirmation. She was similarly skillful at preparing couples for marriage and parents for the baptism of their children. Moreover, she was always available for people to come and discuss problems they had in their marriage or in their family.

A very important part of Sister Yvonne's work was helping people to grow in their prayer life and to learn about the Bible through small group discussions. As well, she arranged for lay leaders to attend workshops to prepare them for ministry.

Always concerned for the elderly and the sick , Sister Yvonne frequently visited them in their homes. She also helped prepare the prayers for wakes and for funerals. With her guidance, many funerals were soon led by lay leaders. She also arranged to bring in boxes of clothes for rummage sales to assist with church expenses and to help people get inexpensive clothing. The good sister also made sure the church buildings were kept in good repair.

The people of God's Lake Narrows felt a great sense of loss when Sister Yvonne announced that she would be retiring. Some people said that Sister Yvonne was a big part of their community and didn't want to lose her. At this time, no religious sister is available to take her place.

Over the years, Sister Yvonne has thanked Catholic Missions In Canada for the generous financial help given each year to the mission in God's Lake Narrows.
In 2007, Catholic Missions In Canada gave a grant of $8,000 to help the mission train lay leaders, buy religious supplies, and defray the cost of travel for workshops, repairs to the church building and the day-to-day mission upkeep.

There are no roads into this mission. Everything is flown in, and this makes food, clothing and other necessities quite expensive. The people of our mission sincerely thank Catholic Missions In Canada and its donors for their very generous support.

(Father Bart Burke is pastor to missions in four native reserves: one in Sandy Lake, Ontario, and three in Manitoba-Oxford House, God's Lake Narrows and God's River-all in the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas.)