During the May long week-end in 2017, it was my privilege to minister with Gerald Derstine at
Rock Lake Ministries at a
Back to Our Roots reunion where a connection was made between the beginnings of
RLM and the inspiration and role model that
Christian Retreat in Strawberry Lake, Minnesota, was to believers in southern Manitoba during the years of 1976 to 1978.
Christian Retreat in Strawberry Lake (above) was definitely a catalyst to the founding of
Rock Lake Ministries near Pilot Mound, Manitoba, in 1979 (below).
During that May 2017 long week-end at Rock Lake, Gerald Derstine gave me an invitation to share on a Sunday morning at
Christian Retreat at some point during the summer of 2017. It worked out for my wife Marge and myself along with Forrest and Diane Barnhard (a board member from
Rock Lake Ministries) to share in the Sunday morning service in Strawberry Lake on Sunday, July 9, 2017.
Each of us wanted to be there to express our appreciation for the part that
Christian Retreat had played in our lives some 40 years ago.
After Diane Barnhard, Marge and myself shared testimonies about the huge impact that
Christian Retreat at Strawberry Lake had made upon our lives, we presented Gerald Derstine with this plaque from his friends in Manitoba, among whom were people like Clare and Ruth Braun, whose idea it was to make this presentation in tribute of the spiritual legacy that Gerald and Beulah Derstine have made in so many of our lives who live just several hours north of Strawberry Lake in Manitoba.
It was a holy moment when the plaque was presented to Gerald Derstine and he received it with much joy and thanksgiving.
The message on the plaque, which was read aloud to the audience that morning, declared:
A Tribute to
Gerald and Beulah Derstine
Founders of Christian Retreat
from your friends in Manitoba, Canada
We honor the faithfulness of Gerald and Beulah Derstine
who have exemplified their love for Jesus in so many ways
over so many years. Their willingness to experience the greater
depths of life in the Spirit has opened the doors for thousands of
others to encounter the same.
Our own journey in Manitoba was encouraged
and trail-blazed by their journey, and that of
Christian Retreat in both Strawberry Lake,
Minnesota and Bradenton, Florida.
Our province, and indeed, the nation of Canada will never be
the same. We walk on the paths and roadways built by those
who have gone before us. We honor you and love you forever.
Gerald was overwhelmed as he promised to hang this plaque in a very prominent place in his office. It was timely that the plaque was presented during the summer of 2017, because at 89 years of age, this will likely be the last summer that Gerald will spend at Strawberry Lake.
In 2005, the above mural commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Strawberry Lake in 1955, and it is displayed at the doorway to the main auditorium at
Christian Retreat.
No matter what the future holds for Gerald Derstine, the story of his life has made clear that he is still
following the fire!
He does not see himself as having
"arrived," or to have yet laid hold of everything that Christ Jesus has laid His hand upon him for, but he is still pressing
onward, forward and
upward for greater things which are still to come, and greater things which are still to be done!
Roger and Marge Armbruster are bridge-builders and advocates of reconciliation and social justice between people groups and cultures. They both minister cross-culturally -- Marge by teaching English to new immigrants in rural southern Manitoba, and Roger by helping to build relationships between various indigenous groups who understand the connection that there is between people and land, with a special focus on the Inuit of Canada's North.
