Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots reaches out to remote First Nations communities.
First Nations band council members in a Saskatchewan community put out an urgent request in February 2022.
They feared teens in their community had made a suicide pact. A series of deaths had shaken the community and they were looking for people who could help.
LAMP (Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots), which ministers to dozens of northern Canadian First Nations communities, responded despite it being the middle of February – months after their annual summertime ministries.
It was Steve Schave’s first mission trip with the organization and one he will never forget.
“I asked our volunteers from Utica, Michigan if they would be willing to make a winter trip, and they arrived the very next week,” Schave says. “I was amazed at how simple the message was to the youth - that they mattered, that they were created in the image of God, and that they were loved. The rash of suicides ended after that visit.”
Since then, the team has continued to visit each winter.
As Canada pauses to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30, Schave, who serves as executive director of LAMP, is well aware of the legacy of residential schools and the negative ripples that continue to impact Indigenous communities throughout the nation.
But through consistent relationship building he’s thankful that God is allowing LAMP and their partners to share the hope of the Gospel with those communities who invite them in.
“One thing that's amazing is you go into a public school in a First Nation community and the first thing you see is a picture of Jesus Christ. And then you'll see the Ten Commandments on the wall, and then you'll go to the band council office and they'll ask you to pray with them,” he says. “They are not at all opposed to the Christian faith.”
But for outsiders who want to make a spiritual difference in the community it takes time to earn the people’s trust through consistency.
LAMP has a policy, in light of the negative associations of forced religion on Indigenous people, that it will only go to communities where they are invited. Because of their reputation, they’ve found open doors with many leaders eager to have the LAMP workers hold summer programming in their communities.
LAMP asks all its volunteers who are going to these communities to commit to serving for at least five consecutive years.
Andrew Anstey, a pilot who was seconded from Missionary Aviation Fellowship to give wings to LAMP’s mission, has spent the last 14 years flying pastors and staff across an area of roughly one million square kilometres, supporting ministry in approximately 50 remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and B.C.
“For a lot of the history, when someone from the outside comes into one of these communities, it's usually because they wanted something,” Anstey explains. “Once they get what they want, they leave.”
The first couple of years a team is working in an area can be a challenge, he said, but over time relationships form.
“They see you come back year after year, and then they'll begin to open up a little more,” Anstey says. “It just takes time.”
Schave believes that consistency is also important for the children they serve. 
“We don't want to have any of that kind of abandonment issue where they kind of open their hearts up to the volunteers, and then they never see them again either. So these are relationships that last well into adulthood.”
Gilbert Good has lived in Gitanyow, B.C. on and off for about 30 years and said he’s enjoyed seeing the teams come every year.
“I hope to continue to see them because I notice a big change in our youth and in our younger generation,” he said in a recent release about MAF and LAMP’s work. “I'm very thankful for the group to always come out every year and share their love for Jesus, and to bring all the children together and to just have fun and learn about Jesus, and show lots of love.
With modern technology, volunteers and the people they minister to remain in touch throughout the year. That relationship has been reciprocal and Schave has seen people make the long journey from their First Nations communities down to the U.S. to attend the funeral of a volunteer.
“You ask them why, and they say because that's what you do for people who are part of the community,” Schave says.
One of Schave’s most prized possessions is a painting of a kingfisher that was given to him when he was doing a spiritual care event in Kingfisher Lake, Ontario.
The artist who painted it was the son of a residential school survivor. His father had been taken from his home during the Sixties Scoop which saw thousands of Indigenous children taken from their families.
“You can imagine when you have a location as remote as Kingfisher Lake, Ontario, it would have been easy for them to just kind of block out any kind of outsiders, right?”
Instead the people welcomed him and shared their personal stories of residential schools, addiction, suicides and loss.
“It is such an honour for me knowing what has happened with residential schools and Christianity in general that we still are invited in and welcomed and that they're willing to share their stories with us.”
To the hurt, they offer hope. 
One of the places that Schave and his wife go to minister is in Moose Lake, Manitoba. He recalls one time they were doing a VBS program. The craft was a beaded cross, with a new bead added each day highlighting a part of the story of salvation. Schave’s wife Kim noticed that as they worked on the craft a young child about 7 or 8 suddenly left.
Wondering where he was going, she followed him out. She found him in the cemetery next door placing the beaded cross on his mother’s grave.
“He was so proud of his craft that he wanted his mom to have it,” Schave says.
Kim said a prayer with the boy and together they returned inside, where Schave spoke about the gold bead which represents heaven and the hope that brings that we will be reunited with our loved ones in the faith.
“Whenever things are hard, whenever it's dark, whenever it's the coldest, whenever things are at their hardest, I want you to remember this gold bead,” he told the children.