Birthday

Ruth's Birthday was October 17th; we celebrated with the Hanthorns. Present was our family, Paul and Lynn, their seven children + four foster children.

Talk of the Town

In Ottawa hot topics can include but is no limited to: the Senators hockey team and their players, political scandals at all levels of gov't, and in a few more months the amount of snow that was shovelled.

The conversations everywhere in Fort McPherson for the past week has revolved around the ferry closure.

In actual fact, the McKenzie river ferry was closed two days ago. People here can no longer drive north to Inuvik. In another week the Peel River (at 8 mile) will close so it will be impossible to drive south as well. We will be locked in and the only way out is a $200 flight to Inuvik one way.

A 24 hour notice was issued on Thursday so Truckers in Inuvik wouldn't be stranded for the next 6 weeks. The subject is important because it affects everyone's life. Take for example the cost of food - some product doubles in price and other items close to triple!

Here's the way it works: Everything from paper clips and vehicle parts to food items and furniture is flown to Inuvik by large aircraft and from there delivered to communities like McPherson by smaller aircraft. There are no extra flights to compensate for everything flown in. Instead the airlines reconfigure the space by removing seats and replacing it with cargo .

The exception is larger items like furniture; these are delivered by truck to the river where locals will risk their lives on the semi-frozen river with small boats. They load the boat and push it across the ice; if the ice breaks they jump in the boat! They do get paid quite handsomely for this unique job. Mike Row from "Dirty Jobs" might be interested in this one.

This past Thursday the ferry ride to Tsiigehtchic which is normally 10 minutes was actually closer to an hour because the ferry had to behave like an icebreaker! The captain had the throttle on full steam as we all watched the boat crash into huge chunks of ice. Several times the ferry simply stopped because it couldn't continue forward. In response the Captain (from NB) backed the ferry up about 100 meters or so and then gave it all the engines could muster and charged ahead again to break new ice. He did this several times. I had mixed feelings about this because although I was having a blast and wish I had my camera with me, I kept thinking of the Exxon Valdez fiasco.

It will be early December before the ice is thick enough to drive over. However, I found out I can actually continue to visit Chief Paul Niditchie School on Thursdays without interruption. At the vehicle wait point seen in the posted picture, there's an off-road trail about 20 meters back and off to the right; it's a makeshift path across rough terrain for a half kilometer. This "road" leads to the Arctic Red river and is not as far to cross as the McKenzie river but is still a couple of hundred metres. I'll be able to park the truck at the side of the river and walk across the ice. Apparently an elder in town walked across the ice about 2 weeks ago with a canoe in hand of course - just incase. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile to get a job done but I'll litterally go the extra distance just to get to work.

Substitute Missionaries

The Hanthorns left for a conference about 10 days ago in Whitehorse. It felt lonely without everyone around but we're looking forward to their return tonight or tomorrow.

We certainly had large shoes to fill in their absence. I'm not complaining, just explaining because I thought people would like to know what missionaries do or what a typical week looks like. We actually enjoyed the challenges and task and we've been left with this question: How do they do it? They've done this for the past 18 years! A very dynamic and hard working family who are great embassadors for God.

Here's what we did while they were away:

1- Looked after 3 dogs; two small and one large. The small ones were really adept at locating mud puddles despite frozen ground. I wipped up their muddy tracks several times and Ruth and I even gave one of these little critters a bath. These little characters are highly esteemed by Ruth who kept trying to sneak special doggy treats to them even though we advised her not to. The large dog was easy, but difficult to find the chain link in the dark of the morning to secure him because a chain link kept falling off.

2- We fed someone elses dog in the community who was away in Yellowknife and I really felt good about myself for doing these good deeds until I found out that someone else was feeding as well. No wonder the dog didn't seem hungry:)

3- Someone called and asked if I would take a prayer request regarding a very difficult situation. I said yes, thinking I could do this later but then they said "Please go ahead now over the phone" I did so precariously, mainly because it took me off guard.

4- I installed curtains for someone else who called this week; felt like I was making a difference.

5- We took purchase orders by some local people and passed the message on to Hanthorn's to pick up while they were in Whitehorse. The prices are much better in Whitehorse; many do their shopping there.

6- We answered many other calls for the Hanthorn's as well - very popular family and held in high esteem here!

7- I drove a lady and her mother to "8 mile", which is a place located 8 miles away from Ft. McPherson. It's a ferry crossing that also has a small number of camps on this side of the river. The posted photo shows the 92 year old elder and her daughter at the camp. The elder was going to stay there for the week and I was told there's much less chance of catching a flu bug when out on the land or at a camp. Makes sense.

8- A man dropped by and explained he was terminally ill and wanted to return some money he borrowed. He said he didn't want prayer to Heather but received some anyhow.

9- We enjoyed making fires in the wood stove even though Grace was very concerned about a house fire.







We look forward to their return; Ruth loves their children.

Thursdays

Each Thursday I have the privelege of travelling to Chief Paul Niditchie School in Tsiigehtchic (Gwitchen for Arctic Red River; it was named after a bloody battle many years ago. The community has less than 100 people and is located about 60 km north of Ft. McPherson along the Dempster Highway. Vehicles need to board a ferry to get there. The ferry is scheduled to be pulled from the river on October 25th and it will take approximately 5 - 6 weeks for the ice road to open.

The school itself has 21 students and 3 teachers; an excellent student-teacher ratio.

These pictures are from the last time I travelled there 2 days ago. The top two pictures were taken around 9am at the crack of dawn so the days have severely shortened already. Although it's difficult to see, there's a thin layer of ice on the lakes. During the last visit some 1st nations people (Dog Rib) from Ray Edzo, NT were visiting the school to share their customs and tradition, more specifically drumming.