NEWMARKET, ON—New ministry centres are providing a sense of community and support for families serving with a century-old mission agency that focuses on isolated areas of Canada.

Serving Christ Alone (SCA), which plans to open a new head office in Newmarket, Ontario in August, was formerly known as Shantymen International. It changed its name at the end of May, because those working for the organization found many people were unfamiliar with the term “shanty.”

Founded by William Henderson in 1907, the Shantymen targeted isolated areas; typically missionaries went into backwoods lumber and mining camps where the workers lived in ramshackle cabins called shanties.

“Some of our retired missionary women remember being alone with their children while their men went to one place or another,” says SCA spokesperson Celeste Zugec.

“In some places there wasn’t a church for 400 kilometres. Remember the old circuit preachers? That is what a lot of our people did.”

SCA missionaries still serve isolated communities in deep forest areas, offshore islands or the far north. However, other groups of people have been added to the list.

“Prisons are another form of isolation,” says Zugec. “There aren’t enough Christian ministers or witness in the prisons.” Also included are seniors’ residences, truck stops and work locations; anywhere people are isolated, says Zugec.

Centres develop

As well as a new name and head office, the organization is also developing ministry centres in every province and territory. Sixty per cent of SCA’s missionaries are now associated with the year-round facilities that help alleviate isolation while providing better service to the surrounding area.

The centres evolved from summer youth camps operated by SCA—one on an offshore B.C. island and three others in remote communities of the Prairie provinces. Now they offer Bible-based summer camps, schools, counselling, rehabilitation programs, marriage and family-strengthening services and other community programs.

The newest centre, Eagle’s Cove, is being built near Thunder Bay, Ontario. The centres provide a strong sense of community for the once-isolated missionaries and their families. “We believe that the ministry, personal development and accountability of SCA missionaries are enhanced when working in connection with a ministry centre,” says SCA board chairman Bruce Malcolm.

Modern technology has also lessened much of the isolation for remote communities. “People are so connected now because of satellite, the internet and all of those things,” says Zugec. “However, they still are geographically isolated.”

SCA International continues with the tradition of telling non-Christians about Christ. “We’ve been faithful to solid evangelism and solid doctrine for nearly 100 years,” says Zugec. “We believe God is blessing SCA [through the ministry centres.]”

And as much as things are changing for the organization, one thing remains the same: their slogan. “Sometimes going into all the world means staying right here.”