Dave Cottrell – pastor, writer, translator, and photographer
Dave Cottrell is a pastor, writer, translator, and photographer. He has Chronic Lyme Disease from a tick bite, one of the risks of enjoying the great and wild outdoors . Lyme disease, unless diagnosed and aggressively treated early, makes life rather difficult.
Dave and his lovely wife were married in 1978, have four children, ten grandchildren. Until recently, they had an old dog who thought he was still a puppy, and a young male “Russian Blue” cat who thinks he owns everyone. He is the dog, Oreo, whose closeup is below. He passed away shortly after they moved north.
They lived for over 30 years on the coast in southwestern BC, sometimes known as the West Coast. Dave often calls it the “Wet Coast.” It is a beautiful place with dry summers with very moderate temperatures, and mild, very wet winters. Snow is rare at their level, but only minutes away in the mountains rising steeply behind them.
Dave, was called to preach in 2007, after serving as an unofficial second man under several other preachers for many years. It was right after he accepted the call he came down with Lyme disease, which was not correctly diagnosed for a number of years. That ended his business and the career he loved, working on heavy equipment and boats in a rugged west coast setting.
Dave and Kathy have had dogs and cats living with them since a little dog literally leaped into their lives to escape a ferocious house cat in 1978.
Late 2017 was then end of a good, long life for Lady, and they were down to one gregarious Bernese Mountain Dog/Border Collie cross. Oreo had the colour, speed, love for playing and bark of a Border Collie, and the brains (or lack thereof) of a Bernese. He was a good combination of the two for size, neither as small as the Border Collie, nor as large as the Bernese. At almost sixteen, he had already outlived the average lifespan of both breeds. In fact, he was able to make the trip north as they moved to tātl’ā in 2022 and enjoyed a month of total freedom around the new place until he finally ended his course.
Upon arriving in their new location, Dave and Kathy met their newest puppy, Kishegwet, for the first time, a pure bred female German Shepherd who was born in the area. She is now a very healthy, happy, and ACTIVE addition to the family!
Dave and Kathy continue to work and write in tātl’ā. Kathy works in language restoration and revitalization, which allows both of them a great opportunity to learn and to meet some really wonderful people. Dave continues to translate and write on a range of topics with very little limit. He has also been doubly blessed with being requested by some of the local people to pastor their little church and do what he loves most – talk to people about our wonderful Creator!