As you have put your trust in Christ Jesus the Lord to Save you from the punishment of sin, now let Him lead you in every step.
-Colossians 2:6 NLV
In the fall of 1986, my cousin Peter, my brother, Johnny, and I decided to go caribou hunting by canoe and motor. The caribou had come close to the coast and we only needed a couple hours to go and come back before dark.
The weather was calm and clear. It took us no more than an hour to get to a good hunting location. We each shot a caribou and hauled everything to the canoe before dark.
Before long, we loaded everything into the canoe and were ready to head back to our community. We wanted to have something to eat but it would get too dark if we tried to make tea.
We decided to go for it as it would take us less than an hour to get home. I noted the direction of the wind to have an idea as to which direction to head should it get dark before we made it home. The tide completed its peak when we left. Shortly it would begin to go out.
The wind started picking up as the darkness began to creep in upon us. We would have no problem making it home even in the dark as we'd be able to see the lights of the town. It was no more than ten miles straight across the bay. We will be home in a short time, we thought.
Things started to change very quickly. Dark heavy clouds started to drift towards us from the Northwest. Within a few minutes it began to snow heavily and the wind was very strong. Soon it was hard telling what direction we were traveling and how fast we were going.
The thought of getting home and having a nice meal vanished. The task at hand was to think of a way to make it to any land and escape from drifting out into open sea. We would surely drown within minutes once we lost control of the canoe in those rough waves.
I began to think of my home, family, and my life. I remembered that God was in control, but the high waves sent a chill through us.
I'd been a Christian since 1963. I gave my life to Jesus when the late Armand Tagoona and David Aglukark came to preach the gospel in Whale Cove.
Since I was six years old, I've been reading the Bible, shortly after I learned to read our Inuit syllabics in the New Testament. My grandfather helped and encouraged me to read and study the Bible. From that time, I began to understand the basics of its teachings. But it wasn't until I invited Jesus to live within me, committing my life to Him, that I really began to understand its truths.
Peter and I noticed that we didn't have enough gas to make it home. It was too risky to try and travel further. We must find land and wait out the storm. Even to find water shallow enough to anchor would be good.
The weather was getting worse and our chance of finding a good shelter in the dark was now slim. If we should run out of gas without reaching any shelter, it could be a disaster.
We started praying.
At times, I thought about my wife and three daughters who were at home. Perhaps they were waiting for me. If I don't make it home, what are they going to do? Who will provide for them?
I had taken them out hunting, fishing, and camping and they often enjoyed the trips. We had traveled through all kinds of weather by dog team, snowmobile, or by boat. We made trips up the rivers and camped out some 50 to 70 miles inland away from the community.
If I shouldn't make it back, will they be able to go out again? I wept quietly when I thought of them. My brother and cousin mentioned their families too with sadness.
We all agreed that we needed to do something before dark. If we remain on this house-sized island we will have a hard time during the night. The strong winds continued and the temperatures dropped. Snow continued to fall.
We all had this idea in the back of our minds all along but it was a foolish thing to do. We had no other options. We had a paddle, a piece of plywood and a two-by-four, ten feet long. We agreed to set ourselves adrift out into the open sea.
We pulled the canoe down to the water, making sure we had the two-by-four, the paddle and the plywood. We set ourselves adrift for survival.
I held up the plywood, Peter steered and Johnny kept watch for anything up ahead. Our small 'island' was out of sight in minutes as the strong wind blew us down.
For some time we weren't able to see anything around us. As we drifted, Johnny shouted that there was something ahead of us. "It's ice!" he yelled.
It turned out to be a mixture of snow and ice-slush. As soon as we hit it, we couldn't move anywhere. We were stuck! It was a bit of a relief because this slush was protecting the canoe from filling up with water.
We looked around but saw nothing. The island was supposed to be to our right, but it wasn't visible. The mainland on our left wasn't in sight either.
Straight ahead of us was what looked like very calm water.
"It could be ice," Peter said. But it was too dark to be ice.
We could no longer go anywhere. Are we going to perish in the canoe?
"At least we will all be together if people find us," I thought to myself.
We had limited our body movements. Johnny tried stepping out of the canoe, but the slush was too soft to hold anything.
Johnny came up with an idea. "We've drifted out for survival; we need to continue to seek survival," he said. He said we should pray again and put the two-by-four down on the slush, walk on it to the ice ahead of us.
"How can we walk on it?" Peter said. "Even if we can, the ice ahead of us is so thin it is dark like water. It wouldn't hold us up and we'd fall right through."
Johnny insisted we pray again so that we can cross over to the ice.
Jesus' words came to my mind. "But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).
We agreed to pray once more but this time we knelt down and I took my hat off for this was going to require a lot of faith and serious prayer. We prayed and in unity said "Amen."
When we opened our eyes, it seemed to be much brighter and we now could see a little further. Better yet, we could see the outline of the mainland about a mile downwind from us.
Peter put out the two-by-four on the slush. Johnny jumped from the canoe to the two-by-four and ran through the slush onto the ice. When he stepped on the ice, I could see him going up and down as waves. I told him to start walking without stopping in the direction where the shore was.
Peter went next. I yelled to him to follow Johnny but not directly behind him because if the ice weakened, they could both go through. As they walked, they kept encouraging me to jump and follow them.
As I was about to jump off the canoe, questions entered my mind. How wide was the Red Sea or the Jordan River when 600,000 men crossed first? They walked on the dry land, but I have to walk on the slush and very thin 'ice'.
Finally, I thought about my wife Susie, who was at home with our three daughters, waiting for me.
Peter and Johnny's yelling snapped me back to reality. As I got ready to jump and run, all the faith that I'd had over the 23 years of my Christian life seemed to vanish. But I had to jump.
Jumping onto the two-by-four was like stepping on a solid rock. It didn't even go down and I don't remember if I even ran. I suddenly realized that I'd made it to the ice and I could feel myself going up and down as the waves. I had crossed the 'sea'.
I started walking behind Peter who was by this time about a hundred yards ahead. Johnny was even further ahead. I could hear them talking to each other and crying. I listened more closely and then I heard Peter thanking and praising the Lord. I was surprised; he never did that openly when I was with him. Apparently, Johnny was doing the same thing, praising God. I looked down at my feet and noticed why they were praising. I could see right through the ice to the water's bottom. Salt water is very clear and seeing what is under the ice was crystal clear. I, too, began praising the Lord.
As I walked I noticed how thin the ice was. Fear engulfed me. I began to fall through the ice. As I was falling, the story of Peter stepping out from the boat to go to Jesus on the water came to mind. When he saw the boisterous wave, he began to sink and called out to Jesus for help. Jesus held up His hands and pulled him out. At that instant, I yelled, "Lord, help me!"
My arm hit the ice and I pulled myself up with ease, continuing to walk on.
By this time we were losing track of time. When I realized I was becoming very weak and slow, I tried to stay alert and keep on walking.
The wind had died down but it was still snowing. We were able to see the airport lights about a mile ahead. "Walking in the right direction will not be hard anymore," I thought to myself. "I just need to keep awake and continue."
At this point, I was hardly making progress. Peter spent more time waiting for me than walking. When we were close to the shed, he said that he would go ahead and call for help. As soon as he left me, I couldn't wait to just sit down, kneel or lay down.
"I can't go on anymore; I need to rest."
From the direction of the runway, I noticed a dark outline of a large rock. What a welcome sight! The story of Jacob from the Bible flashed through my mind.
Jacob on a journey took a stone and made a pillow and he laid down to sleep (Genesis 28:10-13).
Before I could remember what happened to Jacob, it seems I instantly fell asleep, I saw above me a glow of light. From the midst of this glow of light, out came some letters or symbols that I couldn't read. They weren't symbols in English or syllables. They were gradually moving up in the air from right to left, fading as they went. From above me, I heard what sounded like a voice.
"David, I am God. I have power and I can do anything I please. But until man begins to work with Me, as friends do, no miracles are going to happen. For I have chosen man to work with Me."
Suddenly I realized that I still had to make it to the shack. As I started to walk I realized that God thinks so much of me and has so much in store for me. He wants me to be aware of Him at all times.
In a few minutes, a snowmobile came from behind me, picked me up and took me to the warm shack. I lost consciousness.
I awoke to find my brother Steven cutting up my frozen boots, trying to pull them off.
Steven carried me to an open van and took me to town. He carried me to the washroom with a bathtub half-filled with water. As he put me down in the tub, I heard my feet touch the bottom of the tub with a thump. After soaking for a while, my socks were peeled off as they'd finally thawed off my feet.
I was flown by airplane to Churchill where I stayed for almost two months. During that time, the doctors told me that my legs had been damaged so badly that they would have to amputate them below the knee. I was saddened. "I guess I will never walk on them again." But I was just glad to be alive.
A lot of people all over the North heard what happened to me and they were praying.
The people prayed that I would be healed.
The next time the doctors visited they told me that they didn't need to amputate from the knees down but they most certainly would have to remove my feet at the ankles.
People continued to pray.
On a third visit, the specialists told me that they'd decided not to remove my feet but they were going to remove my toes.
One nurse really encouraged me and prayed for me. She suggested I take daily exercise in the big tub, exercising my feet and toes. I enjoyed these exercises, praying throughout the time. I thought of angels and how they minister to people in need.
Afterwards, my toes started to wiggle one by one. They moved very little, but that was all the doctors needed to decide not to remove anything from my body.
Years later, I still wiggle my toes, just to remind myself of all that the Lord has done in my life. Since then, I'm not only able to walk but I play hockey with local teams, enjoying the freedom to do all the good things I used to enjoy in my life.
God wants to use men who are alive. In fact, God is waiting for us to come to Him and ask, "What must I do, Lord?"
Taking the First Step
Are you desiring to be led by the Lord today?
We live in a world where people do not follow God, but follow what seems right to them, even though it lands them on thin ice and in life-threatening situations physically and spiritually.
How can we get off the thin ice and walk with God? The first step is to realize that in a sinful world, we have no hope of living up to God’s standard of being pure. But God wanted His humans to live in relationship with Him. So Christ came to earth as a baby and grew on earth to understand the world humans face—and to sacrifice His life so that we can know relationship with God.
Jesus Christ said in John 14:6 in God’s book, the Bible, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the father but through me.” Jesus is the Son of God and only by giving our life to Him, do we have access to God . . . and to the peace we all seek.
Are you feeling drawn to nurture the spiritual side of your life? Do you need help dealing with the difficult situations in your life?
You can find hope by opening your heart to God. Your prayer can be simple:
• Tell God that you want to accept His way to know true peace and joy.
• Tell Him that you know that without His help, you understand that you will be
separated from God in life and death.
• Accept Jesus as God’s only provision to deal with your separation from Him.
• Invite Jesus, God’s Son, to take control of your life and place you in His care.
Your prayer might sound something like this:
Dear God, I accept Your way. I believe Your Son Jesus died for my sins so I can become part of the family of God. Because You raised Jesus from the dead, I can experience harmony of life with Your Son as my Shepherd. I’m sorry and turn from my sins and ask You, God, to take charge of my life. I ask your Holy Spirit to come and fill me now with Your presence and power that I will live each day walking on Your Path. I offer this prayer to You through Your Son, Jesus. Amen.
If you have prayed the above prayer, we would like to hear from you. Write to us and mail it to (In the U.S.) Indian Life Ministries, P.O. Box 32, Pembina, ND 58271; (In Canada) Indian Life Ministries, P.O. Box 3765, Redwood Post Office, Winnipeg, MB R2W 3R6. We will send you some helpful information on how to walk the Creator’s Path.
Read more stories of help, hope, and victory through Christ in The Conquering Indian 2. Order online in our store.
