Dear HMI Pacific Partners,

It has been a while since I emailed… just before Christmas to be exact. These days have been certainly difficult for everyone, but we will not give up. Right off the bat, I want to express my gratitude to you for your support of the ministry; for hanging in there with me. During these times, I have had a number of donors drop off, (I really do understand) but I ask for your prayers in the area of financial support. Your help is beyond value, and only the Lord knows the eternal results of an ongoing chaplaincy ministry to the hockey culture.

I won’t spend time here on the pandemic, but rather I’ll let you know what has been happening in the ministry in the last few months. Just before Christmas we had our 10th annual ‘socially distanced’ Warriors Christmas Hamper Drive, organized by the chaplaincy program. We found the community need to be greater than in other years, and with the help of a few sponsors, (like Tim Horton’s in West Kelowna) we were able to fill 120 hampers for needy local families! Thank you to Lord for that!

In BC, Junior hockey clubs are allowed to practise daily, but not to play games right now. The stands in the rinks around the province are empty; I call them Covid arenas. This is very hard on the economics of the teams. I am praying that they will be able to survive, because real lives and real ministry is involved here. (I thought I would include a picture of the team on the bench in West K, all with their masks on.) I was honoured when the team gave me my own personalized Warriors facemask with a cross on it. That meant a lot to me, as their chaplain. I really feel badly for (and pray for) all the 20 year old players in their final year of junior hockey. They haven’t been able to showcase their talent to scouts or to universities and colleges for scholarships, which is so important to the entire junior hockey system.

I have been able to have some hockey Zoom calls in the past while. Recently, it was great to have a group of Kelowna Chiefs meet with me for a chapel. The only thing we didn’t have was pizza and orange pop! We were able to pray together and discuss spiritual things. On that same theme, I was also able to Zoom with some of my Hockey Ministries council. It is so good to connect with these men; men who love the Lord and who have grown up in the hockey culture. I value these strong young councillors; Kolby Barnstable, Jayson Zilke and Brent Beselt.

I am including a Facebook link to an interview that the West Kelowna Warriors broadcaster Chase Johnston did just a few weeks ago. He has a weekly Facebook segment called Warriors Wednesday, which features interviews with players from as far back as the inaugural season in 2006 right up to the present. In this particular segment, he was interviewing Lucas Bahn, a great young man (and a good defenceman) from Hendersonville, Tennessee. About halfway through the interview, the topic turns to faith, and Lucas briefly speaks of the influence of Warriors chapels on his life. I was very honoured to hear him say that; I had absolutely no idea that he would. I thought you might like to hear the interview from that day, although you’ll have to wait through the hockey talk until the faith part comes up.

Finally, I ask you to pray for our summer HMI camps here in BC. We will run camps in Williams Lake in July and Shawnigan Lake in August. Young players are already registering for these camps, so let’s be praying for the wonderful spiritual influence that these camps have on young lives.

God bless you as together we continue to look to the Lord for His leading.
Don Richmond
Hockey Ministries International
Pacific Region