Masts honoured, Covenant church gets new pastor

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Contrary to the rumours that the Mark Mast family is leaving Rainy River, Mr. Mast said that could not be farther from the truth.
Mark and his family came to Rainy River 22 years ago as missionaries. Mark says he has enjoyed that role but when Pastor Doug Stapleton left just over eleven years ago he took on a new role at his church; Part Time Interim Pastor. He and Gord Armstrong then teamed up to share the pastoral duties at Rainy River’s Evangelical Covenant Church. However the part time interim position lasted a bit longer than he expected.
When Pastor Gord Armstrong retired from the pulpit on May 31st, Mast had the opportunity to become full-time Pastor at the church. “Because of my first “call” to be a missionary, I felt that I could not be a full-time pastor,” said Mast.
So the church began looking for a new pastor and they have hired Kors Pater from Sarnia, Ontario. Kors and his family moved into town over the past several days and he will begin his duties at the church this Sunday.
Once Pater takes over, Mast said he and his wife Tina will be able to focus more on their original calling as missionaries with the Canadian Sunday School Mission.
“We have no plans to leave town. We have now lived here for 22 years and this is home,” said Mast last week.
Sunday evening the church held an appreciation evening for Mark and his family.