N - Montreal

I am currently in Montreal, Canada with several elders from our church. We are visiting Roger Saumur, a missionary working with the Ville Emard Church of Christ. We have had a wonderful time getting to know Roger's family, learning about the work here, and doing a little sightseeing.

Today for lunch, the Saumur's took us to a Sugar Cabin. These are only open from around late February until late April. It is basically breakfast food smothered in maple syrup, a Canadian dietary staple. For dessert you make your own popsicle of sorts out of hot maple syrup and fresh snow. The picture below shows Roger's daughter, Lydia, about to fashion her popsicle.


We have done a lot of driving around. Here's a picture of a gas station near our hotel. I call this "So you thought you had it bad". This is the price per liter. It equates to about $5.40 per gallon. Yeah, OUCH!


Tonight Roger drove us up to the oldest and biggest Catholic church in Montreal, St. Joseph's. It sits high above the city, sort of a reminder to everyone of their roots in the Catholic church. The majority of people here are Catholic, although very few go to church. Roger's brother told him once he was a non-practicing Catholic to which Roger replied that he was a non-practicing vegetarian! Despite it's lack of influence in people's daily lives, it makes it very difficult to reach people with the true, unedited gospel of Christ.


The following is located inside St. Joseph's Catholic church. It is a rack containing many old wooden canes and crutches that people don't need anymore because Brother Andre (pronounced Andrew) healed them years ago. I don't know if this is true or not but Roger said a friend told him that their uncle worked at the church and his job was to polish the canes with black shoe polish to make them appear old. Whether or not it's true, the story speaks to the skepticism of people towards the Catholic church and religion in general.


Below is the Olympic Stadium from the top of Mont Royal. The Summer Olympics were held in Montreal in 1976. Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday. As we looked over the city Roger commented that each light represents a family that needs to hear the gospel. It is inspiring to be around people whose sole focus is bringing people to Christ.