Souls in Siberia

            In a previous testimony, I shared the story ("Native Convocation”) of my trip from southeast Alaska up to Anchorage to meet with other pastors from my denomination.  During that week of meetings, I stayed with a brother in Christ who was both my friend and one of my mentors. His name was Michael Curtis.  Mike was half Athabascan Indian, and half Upic Eskimo.  His ancestry brought him acceptance in both Indian and Eskimo villages throughout Alaska where he often traveled to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mike was at that time pastoring “Anchorage Native Assembly”, a pivotal church and Bible school that supported the many native ministries throughout the states.

At the time of my trip up to Anchorage, Mike had just resigned his place as pastor of this church to return full time to ministry in the native villages. His wife and family had already gone ahead of him to another village in the Arctic Circle, and the Anchorage home he had been staying in was emptied of its furnishings and all of their personal possession.  Once these meetings were over, Mike would follow his family and continue with the ministry to native Alaska that was so dear to his heart. 

Knowing that I could not afford the costs of motel rooms that the other pastors enjoyed, Mike had invited me to stay with him. Since I knew that Mike was moving out of his Anchorage home, I had brought my sleeping bag.  I would stay with Mike that week, sleeping on the floor, but we were not alone. A friend of Mike’s by the name of Norman would be staying with us. Norman was Upic Eskimo and had traveled to Anchorage from the native village of Unalakleet up near the Bearing Straight.  Norman was a native missionary pastor in Unalakleet. The nights we spent sleeping on the floor of Mike’s empty home were some of the most memorable nights of my years in Alaska.  We would stay up late into the morning hours fellowshipping and talking about Jesus.  It was the stories that Norman shared with Mike and I that week that are the subject of the testimonies I now share.

Norman, like Mike and many of the other wonderful native brothers that ministered in the vast and remote areas of northern Alaska, had a great burden for his own native people.  The infusion of those things brought into the native culture by western society made the already challenging ifestyles of the native culture even more difficult. Caught half way between the old ways of native life and the guns, vehicles, and other technologies of the modern world, life in these villages was a constant struggle for survival of both their bodies and their souls. Norman had a great burden of not only the native Alaskan’s, but for all those native peoples of the far northwest.

Because of that burden, Norman joined four other native brothers in a scheme to take the gospel across the Bearing Straight and into the remote areas of northeastern Siberia. They would travel by snowmobile across the Bearing straight to Little Diomede Island, an Alaskan possession, then cross the international waters by boat to Big Diomede Island, a Russian possession, before resuming thier snowmachine travel as they crossed the eastern part of the Bearing Straight to reach Siberia.  Because they were indigenous to Alaska, the governments permitted travel between Alaska and Siberia.

The dangers of this trip were numerous. First of all was crossing the Bearing Straight on snow machines. They planned this trip for February, the coldest part of the winter, knowing they needed the ice to be at its most stable if they were to make it across the Straight. Once across the ice pack and into Siberia, they had no contacts to assure them either food or shelter. They had prayed for the Lord’s leading to make this trip, and they continued in prayer on the journey trusting to the Lord’s guidance and protection along the way.

Once on Russian soil, or more accurately “Russian snow”, the five men traveled down the coast looking for native villages.  Norman described the first village they encountered as being cloaked in darkness, both physically and spiritually.  The villagers heated their small homes from coal collected along the coast, so the entire village was blackened with soot.  The people that came out to meet them were a sad and depressed people. Communism had assigned people in the village each with an occupation. Some were hunters, others were fisherman, cooks, clothing makers, builders, etc.  The assigning of these duties resulted in people being assigned jobs for which they were not competent. This resulted in more poverty and the accompanying depression that Norman described as a “defeated spirit” that prevailed in every village they visited.

With the arrival of these five outsiders, a pattern began that these brothers would experience numerous times over the next few weeks. The people of the village would all come out to greet them, but to especially gawk over their modern snow machines. Although there were some snow machines in these villages, they were all the old single ski models (probably from the 1950's to 1960's). The new double ski, high powered sleds these five brothers had were something the people of the village had never seen. After marveling over the sleds, the villagers would lead their five visitors to one of their meager homes.  Norman said these were all dark, small, broken down, depressed habitations. The villagers would all crowd in to hear what these visitiors had come to tell them. 

Beginning in this first village, another pattern would develop that the five brothers noticed in every one of the villages they would visit over the next few weeks. One of the five would stand up and begin to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now this was a problem because in both Alaska and Siberia there are many native dialects. Then it happened that as one of the brothers would share, someone in the group would stand up and interpret into their local dialect. Often it would be several different individuals in each village.  It became evident that they were hearing the gospel message for the first time, and the Lord was helping them with the language barrier.  

When the gospel was preached in each village, another common occurrence was repeated. The five brothers would see streaks of lightened skin appearing on the cheeks of many villagers. They soon recognized that the soot-stained faces of many villagers were streaked with their tears as they heard the gospel message. One older man in a village explained this when he came up to Norman, his face streaked with tears of gratitude, saying “thank you for bringing a message of hope to our people. We have lived our lives with no hope”. Norman told us that in three weeks of traveling from village to village in Siberia, they did not meet one soul who had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Even in their poverty, these villagers were able to express the depths of their gratitude. They would bring Norman and the other men food and gifts, all things that the villagers had very little of. Norman said their generosity in the midst of their poverty was overwhelming. Each village they visited seemed to display an even more extreme degree of poverty and depression. Yet the tears of joy that streaked their faces continued to testify to the hope they were discovering in Jesus Christ. Many Siberian natives prayed with Norman and the others to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts during their weeks of ministry as they eventually traveled inland looping back to their arrival point on the Bearing Straight. . 

As Mike and I sat up listening to Norman tell us story after story of his Siberian adventure, we too experienced tears of joy streaming down our cheeks. Several of those nights our fellowship lasted into the early morning hours, listening to Norman then praying and praising God together.  I had a twenty-dollar bill in my pocket that I had saved to buy Betsy and the kids some small gift while I was away in Anchorage. Knowing Betsy and the kids would agree, I gave it to Norman. He and the brothers were planning another trip back to Siberia the next winter. I told Norman “This white boy cannot go where you are going, but please take this money so that I can have a very small part in your ministry”.  

Norman’s testimonies that week, and there were many, along with the truly spiritual fellowship I had with these two godly men has continued to have a great impact upon my own ministry and willingness to reach souls with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I would pray that those reading these testimonies would sense the same unction from the Lord that these five native brothers had. And that that unction would cause us to be willing to go and do whatever the Lord has set before us, whether in the fridged cold of the artic circle, or the familiar surroundings of our cities and neighborhoods. As the Lord said to Isaiah, “whom can I send?”