When churches work together, wonderful things can happen—and they’re happening right now in Baker Lake, Nunavut.
The mostly-Inuit community 1,600 kilometers north of Winnipeg is home to three churches—Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Glad Tidings. They are praying together and helping to host the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada’s Celebration of Hope with Will Graham in Baker Lake.
The Celebration is an eight-month ministry that includes several rounds of evangelism training and prayer. The ministry culminates with two nights of music by popular Christian performers and powerful Gospel messages from Will Graham.
When that happens on Oct. 26 and 27, it will be the second consecutive Celebration in Canada’s Arctic. With support from our donors, we organized one last October in Rankin Inlet, about 230 kilometers southeast of Baker Lake.
Every Celebration includes a local advisory group that works in partnership with BGEAC. Bonita Power is a member of the Baker Lake advisory committee and a lay leader at the local Roman Catholic mission.
She is delighted that her church is part of BGEAC’s evangelistic efforts in Baker Lake and working with other local denominations.
“What unites us is much stronger than what divides us,” Bonita says. “We are all trying to bring people to Jesus.”
She believes the Celebration is doing something special in Baker Lake—something that is always essential to BGEAC. It’s uniting churches in the common goal of bringing people to a life-transforming relationship with Christ.
“What unites us is much stronger than what divides us. We are all trying to bring people to Jesus.”
-Bonita, member of the Baker Lake advisory committee and a lay leader at the local Roman Catholic mission
“As we meet weekly to pray for this event, we are finding that we are nourished by The Word,” Bonita says. “We are nourished by the sharing, and joyful that this event permeates and transcends all faiths.”
Like everyone else in Baker Lake’s faith community, Bonita is deeply concerned about the suicide rate in the isolated northern community. She hopes the Celebration of Hope will provide people with the all-powerful hope that comes through knowing and trusting in their Savior.
“The research says when people commit suicide, they feel they have nothing to live for; they are desperate, and see no reason to go on,” Bonita says. “The Celebration of Hope will let people will know there is a reason to go on, and that is because they are loved by Jesus Christ.”
Bonita retired in 2012 as an elementary school principal near St. John’s, NL, but soon returned to teaching—this time, in Nunavut. She spent a year in Arviat, then moved about 370 kilometers north to Baker Lake three years ago to teach at the elementary school.
Bonita says she’s eager for the Celebration of Hope to help Baker Lake residents realize “Jesus dearly loves them, Jesus died for them, and Jesus is alive.”
Please support, through your donations and prayers, BGEAC’s evangelistic efforts in Baker Lake and in other communities in Canada and around the world. People everywhere urgently need to know the comfort and power of Jesus Christ.
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