Andy Brunet has gone to be with his savior Jesus Christ. Andy died in his sleep last on March 5, 2018 at the Grace hospital in Winnipeg.
He had been in and out of the hospital since early January this year with a very weak heart, and he knew his time was coming to an end.
Chris Walker(LBE) and I last visited him on March 5, and he enjoyed a Tim’s coffee and we read together John 14, as he reflected
on Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for him. Andy said, ” I wonder how long it will be until I see your father Fred, he will be surprised to see me”.
“Fred won’t be surprised to see you”, I said, “but he will have a young man’s body, he will look different, and so will you, you will be young strong and with no sickness.” That gave Andy so much comfort, and as we read this passage, he was wondering what his new home would look like. Andy was ready to meet the Lord.
My father, Fred Hill, first introduced Andy to me in January 2000. Andy was going to Elim Chapel church and was baptized there. He was a retired cook, and needed to help out somewhere to use his skill of cooking. So Living Bible Explorers quickly became his volunteer ministry. This increased to weekly lunch club cooking, Friday lunch making, then weekend camps, and summer camp cooking. He became our most important cook for years, and especially at the Lakeshore Bible Camp at St Malo lake.
When we started at Explorers Bible Camp, Andy’s health was not good any longer so he became our cook from his home. Each week I would deliver to him enough raw food for him to cook three or four meals for camp and this continued until this past summer of 2017. The cooks just had to reheat the delicious food. He is famous for the macaroni beef and bacon casseroles, his wonderful beef stew, and what a meatloaf he could make. In addition all LBE’ers have had so much of his banana bread and apple crisp, they are household words.
Andy needed to keep busy, and also helped with our newsletter mailings from his home. At each large LBE family event, and Christmas dinner, Andy cooked 2 or 3 turkeys from his home, and had them neatly sliced and prepared for the cooks to reheat. I can confidently say that the LBE turkey gravy is superb, as he taught me 5 years ago how to make gravy for 300 people in 30 minutes. The children always loved his recipe and mashed potatoes and gravy are still the most popular part of our family meals.
Just after Christmas 2017, he confided to me that he didn’t think he could cook anymore. He could hardly lift the pans of food, as his heart was so weak. Now as I am cleaning out his freezer, I will bring in the last of his banana bread so we can have it at his funeral.
The funeral to take place Tuesday, March 13 at the Living Bible Explorers building: 600 Burnell street.
In Christ
George Hill
