By the Rev. Victor Johnson
Priest-in-Charge of Aklavik & Regional Dean of the Mackenzie Delta
Being raised in Southeast Asia and now adapting to the Canadian lifestyle has surely been an extraordinary trip. Coming from a warmer context to a freezing, Arctic place had been truly a adventurous Faith Journey. Every time we travel from Coast to Coast, while learning Eastern & Western Arctic, and also through exploring life in the South, it has always been like opening Pandora’s Box, we are eagerly wanting to know more. While doing so, the commonality is our walk with Jesus.
Like many, we too were stranded in Edmonton because of the wildfires. This was not the best experience, but nevertheless, there is always huge blessing waiting after being frustrated and feeling ready to give up. When we faithfully confront challenges in our life, we find grace. Though it was never on our agenda, we were able to make our way home by way of Whitehorse and then Dawson City. In the midst of uncertainty, God always has a tremendous blueprint of His plans and purpose. In the Yukon we were surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation, experiencing life out on the land and embracing the bush and the beautiful waters and mountains, and experiencing the great museums was a delight. One of the most interesting things happened to us while interacting with a taxi driver in Whitehorse, an Orthodox Christian himself Of the various discussions we had, After realizing that my wife Nalini and I are both Anglican clergy, he was keen to know the position of the Diocese of the Arctic on gay marriage. I had the opportunity to share that we as the Arctic Diocese are keen to hold on to our Biblical view of human sexuality, as scripture is the foundation for our Christian Faith. He was delighted to know that there were Anglicans. The conversation helped us to see how much the world is waiting to have a glimpse of our witnessing lives.
Nalini and I do travel each year to experience life and ministry in the South. We find this sort of comparison good and enriching as we come back refreshed with new ideas from our experiences. The great joy of growing in this global view of God’s people is learning to be more genuinely tuned with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and looking into greater scope of making a connection with our brothers and sisters in the South and have lots of generous exchange. We do have great joy in seeing requests for marriages to be solemnized in the Church Sanctuary. We were truly blessed to see how wonderfully God prepared people in the Eastern Arctic to come and receive divine blessings in their life by being willing to be married in the Church. Spiritual warfare and evil attacks are inevitable in Christian life and ministry. But the Truth is that, even if we are travelling through the darkness, our Lord grants His light to us. As we continue to keep putting our trust in Him, the flame keeps spreading like a fire. The anointing of God the Holy Spirit will always show itself in making our life a testimony, and turning us into witnesses for what God has done and is doing.
We hadn’t planned to be delayed in our trip due to wildfires. We hadn’t planned to visit Whitehorse and Dawson City in order to return to Aklavik, but in our humble faithfulness, God set up a divine appointment with a taxi driver who was encouraged to know that Arctic Anglicans are united with him as brothers and sisters holding to the scriptural truth. In fact, wherever we go in the South, we see people who are inquisitive and want to hear from those who have a first-hand experience of the life Up North. Even though our trip home had many “delayed connections”, this is what I call the real point of making a connection!