This event happens RAIN or SHINE! Bring some friends and come enjoy some live music and listen to our guest speaker.

Our Guest Speaker:

Duane Miller was just 17 when he and 22 other teen boys and men began a much-anticipated adventure in Algonquin Provincial Park.  It was the trip of a lifetime for the group that had just finished a  week at Trail To Life Camp in Ohio - the reward for a job well done.

            But the experience turned tragic when several canoes capsized in a storm on Opeongo Lake and three lives were lost.  Duane survived, and his life was forever changed.

            “The Lord did not cause Don, Chuck, and Tim to drown just so he could teach us a lesson,” Duane says in Survivor: A Story of Tragedy, Guilt, and Grace.  “Rather, as we experienced one of the tragedies of life, God’s Word became a source of strength, guidance, and instruction - helping us see things from more of an eternal perspective.”

            Duane gives an honest account of the canoeing accident, his part in the event, and the struggles he experienced afterward.  “Everything that happened on July 21, 1970, appeared at the time to be a huge tragedy, and it was.  The truth is, though, that the Lord has turned it around and used it for His glory - saving people in its wake.  God has transformed an area of Opeongo Lake from a place of tragedy to holy ground, creating a sacred place of worship and praise and a place of testimony to His power and mercy.” 

            Duane and Molly have been married since 1974 and have 4 daughters and 20 grandchildren.  He is now retired from the pastorate after 39 years in the ministry.  He had served in the youth ministry and then solo pastorate in the Northeast and Midwest United States.  Canoeing is his favorite hobby, and has led 25 interior canoe trips in Algonquin Provincial Park since the mid-1970’s.