Senior gives God’s Word away
WINNIPEG, MB—Peter Loewen is a man with countless stories, a perpetual smile and a sparkle in his eyes that belies his 84 years. His passion is the Bible.
Over the past several decades the retired farmer and feed business owner has given away literally thousands of Scriptures, and helped countless people find Jesus.
"Very few will turn it down," he says of his practice to give away at least one Bible a day, if not more.
During one of his 26 years with The Gideons, Loewen gave out about 2,600 New Testaments. In the following years with Canadian LifeLight Ministries, he figures he's directly given out 60,000 copies of The LifeLight Bibles and helped organize the distribution of thousands more.
The recipients' backgrounds are wide and varied: fur trappers, wealthy businessmen, doctors, waitresses, police, pilots, drug dealers, Jehovah's Witnesses…the list goes on. Many live in the northernmost reaches of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, some in areas only accessible by ice roads.
Not even a cancer operation could stop the indomitable senior.
A few years ago, as he lay on the operating table having a pre-surgery chat with his doctor, Loewen asked if he could pray with him. The doctor agreed.
"So I took both his hands in mine and I prayed with him. He cried; I smiled. And, he said, 'That's great. I'll do one thing right now; I'll change your name. From now on, instead of Peter Loewen, it'll be Saint Peter.'"
Some time later, that doctor became a Christian.
Eternal change
The hospital recovery didn't slow Loewen down, either. During his two-week stay he led four people to the Lord, including a couple down the hall who was dealing with the wife's final stages of cancer.
His nurse, a professing Catholic, became a Christian after Loewen shared the good news about Jesus with her father, who had been struggling after the death of his wife. His daughter wondered how she could help him.
Loewen gave her a New Testament, and said her father should read the book of John.
"And it didn't take him one day and he found Lord as his Saviour," says Loewen. "He was happy. She couldn't get over how that book had changed an old man, so quick, so easy.
"He just found the most important part and made it personal. That's all it really takes. It only took a couple of days and she came up and she said, 'Would it be okay if a Catholic accepted the Lord?'
"You know, she started witnessing right away. Before I left, she had seen to it that every worker in the hospital had a testament. Mind you, they were mine, but that was okay!"
Passion for the north
While he will tell people about Jesus and give away Bibles in any setting, Loewen is most passionate about the north.
Before ill health became a factor, he would load his van with Scriptures and head to the northern reserves, at times driving along ice roads and employing guides when the terrain became sketchy. The hunger for God's Word is unquenchable in those areas, he says.
His Scripture of choice? The LifeLight New Testament, a publication of Canadian LifeLight Ministries. It's Grade 3 reading level and colour illustrations especially appeal to Loewen's northern contacts, many who have very little formal education.
These days Loewen can only manage day trips. The long distance baton has passed to Wayne Herrod, a former missionary to Africa who is just as passionate about telling northern residents about Jesus.
"I felt the Lord tugging at my heart and saying this is something I can do," Herrod says. He is full of admiration for Loewen's work.
"Peter has the gift of evangelism. He knows how to talk to people. And he's got the boldness. He's not concerned about what people are going to think or how they're going to react. He's gracious, but he just keeps pushing ahead. The Lord keeps opening doors."
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