Meeting Sunday mornings 10:30-11:30 at the Bridesville Community Hall (just off highway 3 24 k East of Osoyoos)
Code Of The West
The Code of the West speaks of simplicity, cooperation, loyalty and above all "walking your talk”.
At Sidley Mountain Cowboy Church,you are more than welcome to come straight from riding your horse or feeding your stock. We don't pass an offering plate, but there's a little wooden basket at the back where you can leave an offering.
We believe church is not a building, it's people. Wherever people gather you can have church, be it around a campfire or on a round-up.
It is our belief that cowboys or ranchers need to see people like themselves living the message of God out loud. Country folk are a tough breed. They work long hard hours, with little if any time for “going out”. They’d look at you sideways if you asked what flavor of coffee they wanted.
We invite you and your family to join us for a relevant time of fellowship. You'll leave better than when you came.
At Sidley Mountain Cowboy Church,you are more than welcome to come straight from riding your horse or feeding your stock. We don't pass an offering plate, but there's a little wooden basket at the back where you can leave an offering.
We believe church is not a building, it's people. Wherever people gather you can have church, be it around a campfire or on a round-up.
It is our belief that cowboys or ranchers need to see people like themselves living the message of God out loud. Country folk are a tough breed. They work long hard hours, with little if any time for “going out”. They’d look at you sideways if you asked what flavor of coffee they wanted.
We invite you and your family to join us for a relevant time of fellowship. You'll leave better than when you came.
Praying For Sidley and Bridesville
At the turn of the century, wheat grew tall through the rolling hill country around Bridesville, a former freighter's stop, now bypassed by Trans Provincial Highway #3. The climate seems dryer today than formerly. Grain does not flourish and the country has reverted to hay. Now, except for abandoned farm buildings and green clad hills, the motorist is seldom aware that the back country is laced with roads and that the highway crosses again and again the
Dewdney trail.
Not far from the pavement are stains in forest and open hills where little settlements once stood which can hardly be called ghost towns because they have disappeared. The towns of Sidley and Myncaster have left little trace of their going. One early adventurer over the Dewdney trail was Richard Sidley. Coming west from Ontario in 1885, he home-steaded on the mountain top about nine miles east and 2,500 feet above Osoyoos Lake. This site is not far from our home ranch on Sidley Mountain Road.
Sidley was followed to the mountain highlands by Hozie Edwards who homesteaded the present site of Bridesville. He became the first postmaster on January 4, 1907. The settlement was originally called Maud after Hozie's wife. Around 1910, David McBride came to build a hotel in the village which became Bridesville.
The long mahogany bar and large ornate mirror in McBride's Bridesville Hotel came from the Bucket of Blood saloon in the abandoned gold camp, Camp McKinney. Bridesville, in its heyday, boasted the usual characters found in early mining camps. Once a one-eyed miner, settled on a rocky ridge above town. He was followed by two other miners, both one-eyed. Naturally the ridge became known as One-Eyed Mountain.
Bridesville, is a former railroad town but there is little sign of the old railroad. Search, however, will reveal traces of the abandoned grade.
Although there is not much left behind in regards to the gold, there is great treasure in these hills. That treasure is the people who call this area home. There are many living here who have a strong affinity for the western lifestyle. We still round up cattle on horse-back, still enjoy sitting around a campfire and most certainly still take a man at his word. Whether Cowboy from the start or just cowboy at heart ... You would certainly be welcome here.
VISONWe could not ask for a better vision statement then the one Alan Parsons of Diamond J Ministries has. Our purpose is to reach the farmer, rancher, rodeo cowboy, and those associated with the western world lifestyle not being reached by traditional methods. Sometimes, folks feel that the church has been too churchy for the world and the world too worldly for the church. Our intention is to break down the religious walls and meet people where they are.
|
In Memory Of Herb Harfman
|