My World Came Crashing Down

When you stand to pray, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your sins also. If you do not forgive them their sins, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.

Mark 11:25 NLV

The telephone rang. It was four in the morning. The voice at the other end said that my father had been lost in the mine. They were checking the hospital to see if he might have gotten sick and been taken there.

At six, the phone rang again with the news no one wanted to hear. Our father was found dead in a mine shaft under several tons of ore. In an instant, my life turned upside down.

Later my uncle and I had to go to the hospital morgue to identify Dad's body. This experience left an image that tormented me until just ten years ago when God delivered me and set me free.

Registered with the Gwich'in Aklavik Band in the Northwest Territories, I'm Gwich'in and Scottish on my mother's side and Cree and French on my father's side. I grew up in a Christian family where values were taught. Each of us was encouraged as children to be and do the best we possibly can. Sunday school and church attendance were always part of our lives.

My mother's grandparents were extraordinary examples of faith in the remote cold northern town of Fort McPherson, NWT. My grandmother had a faith in God that was true. She trusted and relied on Him in every circumstance.

My grandmother's cousin, Sarah Stewart, married James Simon and they were pastoral missionaries to their own Native people for many years.

My own mother believes in the power of prayer, casting your cares on the Lord for His strength, deliverance and mercy. She has witnessed first-hand the miracles of God in others and particularly in her own life.

We were taught to be loving and compassionate and to trust God at all times, praying every day. All of this changed for me when my father was killed.

I had just begun to experience a new freedom in my own walk with the Lord. My spiritual walk had previously been that of my parents. But one Sunday I knelt down in an old Pentecostal church in Campbell River and accepted the Lord, after which I recognized that I was a new creation in Christ. What I didn't expect was that my father would soon be killed and within a few days of that, our church was going to split apart.

The grief I felt following my father's death was compounded by this upheaval in the church. I didn't want to be involved with a church that professed to be Christian but insulted their pastor and his wife, forcing them to resign. In the midst of all this turmoil, I left the church.

In my despair, I turned to alcohol and drugs. Until I was 26, I would drink and do drugs just to relieve myself of the pain of losing my father and the breakup of my church. Lonely and depressed, I contemplated suicide. I knew in my heart that I needed to return to the Lord.

I was invited by Christian friends whom I had known since elementary school, to play volleyball. I accepted their invitation because they told me they wouldn't bug me about going to church.

After playing volleyball for a couple weeks, someone finally asked me to go to church after a particularly exciting game. How could I refuse? My defenses were down and I accepted. I went with them to church because I had no reasonably good excuse for not going.

That night after church, I listened to a Christian radio program. When it was over, I prayed and turned my life over to the Lord. I was coming back home to Jesus.

I travelled twice to Mexico's Baja Peninsula to work in a tiny orphanage in Colonia Guerrero. I also worked in the surrounding Oaxcon Indian camps.

In 1989 and part of 1990, I was diagnosed with cancer in my lung. Prayers went up for me from Vancouver to New York City, and as far away as Mexico. God graciously reached down from heaven and healed me.

I met Lisa in 1990 and she became my wife in August 1991. Our first child Joshua was born in May 1992. God has since blessed us with three more children.

My family attended Youth With A Mission's Discipleship Training School in Pennsylvania.

Over the years I have suffered a TIA (mini stroke), vasospastic angina, aneurism and I have a pacemaker. But God is good-all the time. I'm still smiling and trusting Him.

I'm very proud to be an Aboriginal person. Years ago, a head chief asked me to be involved in their treaty process, negotiating different aspects of treaty agreements. Over these years, if I knew that I was going to enjoy working with treaty agreements as much as I did, I would have worked with First Nations a lot more. Even though I'm working with First Nations in the province and across Canada, I haven't changed as far as how I do things in ministry.

I'm thankful for Canada. Not because this was inflicted upon me by some dominant European worldview but because I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This great country needs to be united especially where it concerns the acts committed on a race of people that were motivated in part by racism. In order for revival to come to North America, our Native and non-Native brothers and sisters need to give up on entrenched ideas in order to live in harmony, be at peace with one another and spread the gospel to all ages, races and creeds.

One of the difficulties in being a Christian is being a Native who is Christian. As long as my Christian walk is not compromised by Native spirituality or things that are scripturally unacceptable, I can still embrace my Native culture. I can hold to that which does not compromise my walk as a Christian.

We need to forgive and to love our neighbors, whether Native or non-Native. We need to put the past behind us with God's help, so that we can get on with the important work that God has for each of us.

Yes, the church through the government has hurt and wounded us deeply. But we need the church. We need the brothers and sisters in the church for their support, witness and their accountability.

Revival is not for the non-Christian. It is for the church so that the non-Christian has a place to go.

Don't be angry. Just show love, mercy and grace.

From The Conquering Indian, Vol. 2. To order, see p. 19