Personal reflections from our Youth Coordinator

By Nick A. Kigeak, Diocesan Youth Coordinator

The first 25 years of my life was spent in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. Growing up, the Anglican Church of the Messiah was always very active, with everything from youth nights to gospel concerts to bring people together and share the Good News of Jesus.

I remember as a little boy, my mother would take me to worship every Sunday morning. As a child, I would watch the choir, lay–leaders and the priest getting ready for the service, putting on their vestments. I would watch them not knowing or understanding why they’d have to put them on, but it sure was something to remember. The hymns that they picked out were always soothing and comforting to listen to, and during the prayers and readings, I’d always remember when to stand, kneel and sit, stand kneel and sit.

Nick has felt at home in the church since he was a young boy! Let’s give every child this opportunity!

As I got a bit older and started to understand the meaning of coming to church every Sunday, I notice that I wasn’t going to church just to hear the hymns, prayers, and readings. I felt that it meant something deeper than a good habit to do on Sundays, it meant something with my personal life and fellow Christians brothers and sisters.

Sunday School would be in the afternoons, as it still is in some communities. One afternoon, the children were learning why we said the Lord’s prayer, why is it important to say. Why it is important to say the Lord’s prayer all together. Even as a child, it came to me that the Lord’s prayer starts with, “Our Father,” and that’s when I started to understand that Jesus teaching His disciples the prayer, also allowed God to be our Father too, just by putting the word “our”.

My late mother always told me that praying with our hearts and with the Scripture was important,
and that it’s important to come to Sunday School. I tried to keep that practice as a boy and as a youth, and now as a grown man I still try to keep that practice, coming to church every Sunday morning or evening became a part of my life when I turned back to Jesus and repented of my ways. I got together with my minister a bit more often to study the Bible, and at some point, the minister started a weekly Bible study over at the church. There was always Bible studies going on.

When I was in my late teens, I began being involved in youth ministry. I started the youth committee back up again and began teaching the group of why it’s important to have youth involved in the church. I’ve always looked up to my minister Rev. Ikey Nashooraitook, he had arrived to Gjoa Haven when I ways only about 8 years old. He mentored me and a few of other young people to be the future leaders in the Anglican Church of the Messiah for Gjoa Haven. Ministry in the Arctic is very important in the small communities, because we have a lot going on in our daily lives. I myself have faced challenges, but there was nothing that is greater than the name Jesus Christ. I put my trust in Him only.

We would have an annual Praise and Worship that would last a week every year, I remember at one point, we had one that went on for almost a week and a half! We had other clergy and other communities coming to this event to help run this type of event, to preach, to pray, and to help
the community that it’s held in. There would be evening worships with live bands taking turns,
sharing of testimonies from people, both local and from neighboring communities. And the ministers would take turns preaching in the evenings, and during the mornings and afternoons, the minister or lay leader would do Bible sessions or healing sessions.

This type of event in our region with the Anglican Church started when I was only a kid, and now it is still happening today. During these session and meetings, we see people being healed either
physically and mentally, and also people being delivered from afflictions and oppressions, and
some say that they were delivered from demonic possessions that bothered them. As I got into my early 20’s I became the church organist for Gjoa Haven. I didn’t remember most of the hymns, but I had enough to remember to start a song. It is all in Inuktitut. As a young man, I can read and write Inuktitut, but I cannot deliver a sermon or tell a full story in Inuktitut unless it is already written down. I am not ashamed to share this, and many of our young people in different regions have sadly not learned to speak well in their mother tongue.

In my 20s, repentance became a big part of my life, and Jesus Christ has become a central part of my life when I became a reborn Christian. I read my Bible every morning, and reflected on the Word that I read. I ask myself questions: how does this fit into my life today? How can I help others with what I read today? Who needs to hear this? How can I, myself as a church leader deliver this passage? How can I share this with my family members? I’ve continued to follow the example that I’ve seen that my mother did, and I don’t want to forget the wise words she gave me. I remember the first Bible verse she gave me, and it was from John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And that verse has been stuck with me since then.

There are a few things that needs to be done in the Anglican Church of the Messiah, and I’m looking forward for the lay leaders to get proper training so that they can keep letting the church
grow, and it is only by the grace and mercy of God through the Son Jesus Christ that these types of training and resources can come along. It would be really great for everyone around the Diocese, for the people leading our churches to get the proper training done. I believe that the churches need help to get back up and active again, and I hope to see churches holding big meeting events for encouragement and training, to strengthen the people who call themselves Christians. All of this was so important to my youth, and to me learning the truth of scripture as a child, even if I fell aside and went my own way for a time. These good church experiences from my youth are part of what makes me who I am today.

Churches are so important in our communities, especially when young people face tragedies. When something tragic happens in my hometown community, the church and community members always find a way to get together, to help support one another, everyone comes together when needed. If someone from another town needs to come to see family after a tragic event, they find funds or gather donations for that individual to come to the community. The community of Gjoa Haven, knows to always pray and get together in both good times and bad times. And it’s happening all the time: once or twice a week, someone from the town hosts a radio show for people to come tune in to sing hymns, pray, share a testimony, or read scripture for the whole community to hear.

My prayer is that every community would remember these events of just a few years ago, however each community used to do them, and be encouraged by the impact it can have on children and young men and women. My mother or the Sunday School teachers didn’t know how my life would go or what God would call me to be when they were teaching me the real meaning of “Our
Father” so many years ago. Remember that you are planting a little seed and that God will give the
growth in ways you cannot even imagine!

Youth Ministry is for Everyone! It takes the whole Church to raise a child, and it starts at home.