Anglican Messenger
A shared publication from the Diocese of Edmonton and the Diocese of Athabasca, issued nine times a year

June 2016 - Contributed by MARGARET MARSCHALL
(Article appears in Messenger on page 7 complete with picture - certainly worth seeing)

Fort McMurray priest trusts God to help him help others

The Rev. Christopher Tapera remembers the stillness and quiet surrounding his church’s Thickwood neighbourhood on the unseasonably warm morning of May 3, 2016.

Working in his office at St. Thomas, one of two Anglican churches in Fort McMurray, Tapera, who had moved to northern Alberta from Zimbabwe just four months earlier, had spoken with his Bishop Fraser Lawton, assuring him that the city was in no immediate danger from wildfire. What he did not realize was that wind patterns had shifted sometime during the night, sending an inferno which had ignited 30 kilometres from town the previous Friday, raging toward Fort McMurray and its more than 80,000 residents.

By midday, he could see smoke in the air and by one o’clock in the afternoon, “all hell broke loose,” says Tapera. Phoning from home, his office administrator urged him to leave as “the fire was very close and moving very quickly.” Tapera headed straight home to his wife Juliette and their 16-year-old daughter Lisa and was gathering clothes and important documents when the phone rang a second time. His rector’s warden said the family needed to leave right away and that the Rev. David Greenwood, honorary assistant at All Saints’, was waiting outside to lead them to safety.

They joined a caravan of buses ferrying people to oilsands work camps north of the city. For the next 12 hours they stayed in a Syncrude work camp with 200 other evacuees. Though everyone was without food and blankets, they shared common stories in good faith and understanding and became, Tapera says, “like one big family. People were there for one another, smiling and generally cheerful.”

The next evening, the Tapera family followed a group of Zimbabweans and St. Thomas parishioners to the Wapasu Creek Lodge near Fort Mackay, a first class facility catering to oil industry executives. “We were treated excellently by management,” says Tapera. Over the next three days, he led morning prayer and devotions, sharing messages of strength, optimism and hope.

“I thought of the prophet Nehemiah who asked for the king’s permission to rebuild Jerusalem after the destruction of the temple, and I said to myself and the other people, ‘God has a special message for us.
He has shown us he is very powerful and He is everywhere. More than 90,000 lives were saved and this is
God’s love. But, we must learn from this catastrophe not to put trust and faith in material things. God wants us to trust in Him and have faith in Him. We will go back to Fort McMurray – and we will go back – a changed people.”

While it is estimated the wildfire destroyed 20 per cent of Fort McMurray (one in five homes burned), Tapera sees light shining through the smoky haze. “We will need human resources to rebuild our destroyed homes. There will be new job opportunities for our youth and the unemployed.”

On Friday evening, a week after the fire had begun to rage, the Taperas were flown to Edmonton on planes supplied by the lodge. They were met by Chris Pilon, community outreach worker for All Saints’ Cathedral, and taken to stay with the Rev. Keith Denman, interim priest in-charge of St. Mary’s, and his wife Bev Middleton.

That Sunday, the Taperas joined Athabasca Bishop Fraser Lawton and other Anglicans, some of whom had been evacuated from Fort McMurray, for Sunday morning worship at St. Augustine’s of Canterbury. Invited by host rector the Rev. Jonathan Crane to share their ordeal, Tapera spoke along with the Rev. Dane Neufeld and the Rev. David Greenwood from All Saints’, Fort McMurray.

“At first, I wondered how one blind man can lead another blind man,” said Tapera, who has been working from the Edmonton Synod Office to assist his parishioners and other evacuees. “But I draw strength
and courage from God who is using me to help others. Canadians really care for each other. Even after being awake seven to seven, most people are still smiling and patient. On the road to Syncrude we met a family who had been stranded. They had run out of gas. Another man, a total stranger, gave them the keys to his car and said ‘call me when you get to Edmonton. I’ll stay behind with your vehicle.’ That’s a good Samaritan. I thank all Anglicans and Canadians for their support. I hope that we learn from this experience and that, if need be in the future, we will all be actively involved in assisting with
disasters.”

The Messenger welcomes church-related stories, pictures and reflections on faith. Articles can be up to 500 words and pictures should be at least 200 dpi (or the largest file you have). Submissions can be sent to Athabasca Editor Peter Clarke: [email protected] or managing Editor Margaret Marschall: [email protected] at least one month in advance of publication. For example, the deadline for January submissions is December 1.