TV Program

Current Episode

How Cold is YOUR Bible?

On Location in the Arctic

2007-12-09

PRODUCTION #: 1139

SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra

The Arctic is, a vast desert of white, a forbidding land where life is tough. But right now God is doing something incredible to bring hope to the north. Bibles are going to some of the remotest people on the face of the planet. And today we'll show you how it's happening.

This is the town of Iqaluit, just a little over 6,000 people live here, and it's a long way north. Today, when our plane landed, it was about 32 degrees below zero Celsius, 20 below Fahrenheit, and the pilot said, "This is a nice day."

This town was founded as an American military base to begin with back in the 1940s. Now it's become our base of operations for delivering Bibles across the frozen north to the Inuit people.

Tomorrow morning we'll be leaving from here, the city of Iqaluit, which is the capital of Nunavut. We'll be going by dog sled to begin weeks of an expedition delivering the word of God to people who have never had it in their own language. Join us now as we go across the frozen north.

In the north, a dog sled is the traditional method of transportation. Today, the convenience of planes, cars and snowmobiles makes traveling more efficient, but there is still no better way to experience Arctic travel than by dog sled.

SHAWN: So, Sebastian, here we are. It's cold and we're north, and I know that people want to know—why do you come up here?

SEBASTIAN: I have a passion for remote places, and I fell in love with these people up here about three years ago, and I want to become their friend. I see their gentleness and their kindness, their friendship towards a stranger like me, and I think that has a lot to say about who these people are. And the Lord gave me a passion to come and bring the Bible to these people here.

SHAWN: Fantastic, so this is what, a three-week expedition?

SEBASTIAN: This is a three-week expedition.

SHAWN: Going to some of the remotest places, literally, on earth.

SEBASTIAN: Correct.

SHAWN: I know God will be with you.

SEBASTIAN: Thank you.

SHAWN: Well, it's not exactly the 101 freeway, but we're still moving at a pretty good clip. The winds are beginning to pick up here on the far side of Frobisher Bay, and so that means we can feel the cold a little bit more. It's time to put on the outside mittens and maybe one more layer on the head, but I still can't think of a better way to travel than this. It's absolutely beautiful.

Well, this is night number one in the Arctic, and as you can see behind me, this is an emergency shelter. The wind has really picked up and it looks like we'll be spending the night here. The wind is what makes this really bitter cold. Well, that's the Arctic. That's life in the north. We're just pleased to find something for the night that will keep us warm and alive, and this is it, home sweet home. The Hilton Arctic.

Well there it is, a night on an Arctic mountain in a survival shelter. You know, God is pretty amazing. As we came to sunset, we discovered there's not enough snow up here on the mountain to actually build an igloo, so we would have been in trouble. But wouldn't you know it, before sunset, we came across this shelter and we were pretty snug in there. We had great sleeping bags, and we were toasty warm. These dogs, they just sleep outside, no matter how cold it gets, minus 40.

We discovered this morning, however, that the dogs aren't going to be able to carry this load the rest of the way up over the mountains and get us to our first village in time. And so we're going to have to change plans. We're going to have to backtrack a little bit today, and I'm learning a few lessons about mission in the Arctic.

As a matter of fact, it kind of reminds me of the apostle Paul. He talked about learning to be content wherever he is, and he'd been shipwrecked, he'd been beaten. Last night, it was amazing how content you can be with a sleeping bag and a roof over your head when the wind is blowing, and it's 30 below.

Well, our plans have changed, but I know God has something big in store for this mission.

It turned out that leaving the mountain was the best thing to do because a massive weather system moved in the next day, which would have made it impossible to cross the mountains under any circumstances.

Well, here's the hard reality of life up in the Arctic. This is the way the Inuit people have been living for generations up here on the ice and the snow, and that means that life is just about survival. You've really got to know what you're doing to live in a place like this.

After the storm passed our group was able to continue on, using a slightly less traditional method of transportation.

SHAWN: Here we are in the village of Kimmirut, just a little more than 400 people live here. And there's no way to get here except by boat, by dog sled, or by bush plane. Now, this time of year you can't come by boat, and we tried to come by dog sled and found that it was going to take many, many days to get here and the team couldn't actually carry all the gear and the Bibles over the mountain.

Fortunately, we did find a bush plane, a route that would take us here to Kimmirut, and we made it, finally, just yesterday, into this beautiful village. And we've been out meeting people and we've begun sharing the word of God with them. What an exciting place. It's neat to be a visitor in a place that really doesn't get very many visitors.

Well, this is a very exciting day. This is what it's all about. Here we are up in the Arctic and it's time to start giving out copies of God's Word. We have Bibles in the Inuktitut language, the Eastern Arctic language, and I'm thrilled. I'm delighted because this means that people are going to be able to read God's word in their own tongue and discover that God speaks every language on the face of the planet. In moments we'll be giving these Bibles in their language to people right here in the village and I can't wait.

Some people have said, "Well why would you give stuff away?" You know what the Bible says about God and His word and the gifts that He has for us? There's this passage in the Book of Isaiah that I'm reminded of just as we're getting ready to give out the word of God, and it's found in Isaiah 55:1-2. Listen to this:

"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore, do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfieth not, harken diligently unto thee, and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness."

God's Word says that the human race has some funny priorities. We put very high price tags on things in life that don't really matter. And we place very little value on the things that do matter. God says that His plan of salvation costs us nothing.

He says, "Come and buy without money."

It does cost something. It cost the life of God's own Son. That's the beautiful arrangement about it. This gift is the most valuable gift in the entire universe, and yet we can give it away and it doesn't cost them a thing, the most precious gift in the universe paid for with the blood of God's Son.

Our goal is simple, to deliver Bibles to every major village in the north so that God's word can spread in this remote area before Jesus returns.

Well, we're out in the community this morning meeting people, making friends. These are some of the most remarkably friendly people I've ever met in my life. We met some kids playing in the street, made friends right away. We met three ladies who were skinning seals and making winter clothing. You should have seen the look on their faces when we presented them with a Bible in the Inuktitut language. We wanted to show you these ladies on camera. They were just a little too shy to come on so I'm going to give you a thank you from them that somebody came up here to share Bibles in the north.

In Kimmirut, we could meet people at a church building. In the rest of the Arctic, it's not that easy, but it's a problem that's being solved right now, one village at a time.

Services have just gotten out here in Kimmirut and St. Paul's Anglican Mission. The congregation's been here for almost a hundred years. They opened their arms wide for us. We were the guests of honor today. As a matter of fact, they took time in the service to stop and welcome us and just tell us how welcome we were in their congregation.

And then it got better than that. They told us that we could come back tonight and use this wonderful church building, which has been here for years, to help give out Bibles.

Now, that's important because up here in the north if you need a Bible, where are you going to go? There's no Christian bookstore, there's no place that you can walk in and just buy a Bible in the Inuktitut language. Fortunately, today we have a number of Bibles to give out in this community, so right here tonight, at the gracious invitation of the pastor, we'll be giving Bibles to the community. They'll be coming back and we'll be meeting with them at seven o'clock tonight, right here at St. Paul's Anglican Mission.

SEBASTIAN: First time I came here and I started to deliver Bibles to the first village, it was an amazing feeling. I saw how quickly they accepted it and they looked at it. Of course everybody reads and writes in the Inuktitut language, and they were very happy.

I get reports from several villages in which these Bibles brought tears into their eyes because this is the first book they can read in their own language. And it is a lot of fun to see how these people, especially young people who have the highest suicide rate in the world, are reading the Bible and have a better hope in life. For me this is something that exceeds everything.

SHAWN: You know, some people make the mistake of thinking that the Inuit are the same people as the Aboriginal peoples across the rest of Canada and the United States. That's not true. Most archaeologists figure the Inuit made their way here sometime after the other Aboriginal peoples of North America did, coming across the Bering Strait like the others did, but at some other date.

And they found themselves up here in the Tundra in the north. Life here is difficult. There's not much here in the way of resources. You know, I've read somewhere that there's something like 3,200 species of mammal in North America. Out of that only 23 live up here in the frozen north.

There are something like 8,700 species of birds across this world, and out of all of those there are only six that live here year round up in the north.

It is a very, very delicate ecosystem, one that if you tamper with it, it's going to mean disaster for a lot of people. And that creates some worry as the rest of the world is starting to notice the effects of global warming and pollution and so on.

Up here in the north they're more worried about it because if the climate changes, if this ecosystem changes, it's going to spell disaster for the people who live up here. Resources are already so scarce and as I understand it, some people up here already refer to the rest of the world as the people who can change nature. They're worried about the decisions we might make and the rest of the world.

You know, I've got to wonder, does God worry about the changes we make on the face of this planet. I can't say for sure, but there's this cryptic passage in the Book of Revelation where it talks about God's displeasure. I think it's in Revelation, Chapter 11. God expresses his displeasure at those who destroy the earth, and as we think about it, we're supposed to be stewards of the planet. There is no question in the Book of Genesis, God said go and subdue the earth. He expected us to do things on this planet and to develop this planet and so on, but at the same time we need to be really careful about the decisions we make and think about the decisions we make down in the south that might affect life up here in the north. It's really something we should think about.

You know, when you are out on the Tundra, on a barren landscape like this, there aren't many landmarks around. The sun is in a funny position up in the sky. It makes it kind of hard to figure out exactly where you are. In fact, you can get lost very easily.

The Inuit, though, they've got something figured out.

This is an Inukshuk. I'm not sure what the whole word means, but the first part of that word, Inuk, means person. As a matter of fact Inuit means, the people. Inuk means "person." And you can see why this is called an Inukshuk. It has the word person in it. It looks like a person. Somebody built this. It has two legs and an upper body and arms, and a head up on top, and somebody put this here as a direction finder.

This is one of the most important things that you'll discover anywhere in the Arctic. It's a literal lifesaver. And I've been thinking about these Inukshuks, these direction finders, these life saving devices up here in the Arctic that look like a human being. They've reminded me of a few Biblical principles. You know there's a lot of time to do some thinking up here on the cold, barren Tundra, and there's not a lot of variety in the landscape.

So when you come across something like this, right away you know first of all, somebody built this. The wind didn't put these rocks together in the form of a man. It didn't happen in a snowstorm or an earthquake. This tells you that somebody has been here, and that kind of reminds me of the story of creation as it's taught in the Bible.

The Bible teaches that God made us in his own image. There are people today who think we came around by accident, by some great cosmic accident that happened billions of years ago that set things in motion and we just kind of evolved into place.

But you know, the Bible says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and when you come across human beings and you see how they're able to love and to think, and to appreciate music and art, and so on, you know they've been made in the image of God. You and I are not an accident. We were designed by purpose. We were designed with something in mind. Our existence is evidence that somebody put us here.

And that brings me to the second thing I've been thinking about—as I've noticed these Inukshuks up here in the Arctic. One of my new Inuit friends explained to me that you don't just build these things for any reason whatsoever. They are not decoration.

As a matter of fact, she said to me, "If you're going to build an Inukshuk, you better have a purpose."

And that started me thinking about God and our relationship to Him, too, because God didn't put us here on earth for no reason whatsoever. We're not just decoration on the face of the planet. We also were created with a purpose. God put us here for a reason. And as you turn through the pages of the Bible, you find out that the reason was to have a meaningful relationship with Him.

You see, God is not just some kind of cosmic control center for the universe. He's not just a watchman or a security guard for Planet Earth. He wants us to have a relationship with Him the way that children have a relationship with their father. All through the Bible you see that we were put on earth to give glory to God and to enjoy a relationship with Him.

Just like this Inukshuk, we were created not in vain, but with a purpose. That means your life really means something. God didn't put you here for no reason. You're not just another number in the six and a half billion people who live on the face of the planet. You have a purpose for living. God has a reason for your life. He's got great things in store for you.

Now that brings me to the third thing I've been thinking about as I learned about these Inukshuks, and this is probably the most important of the three thoughts. This is created in the form of a man and when it was put here it's to let you know that somebody's been here, but it's also to let you know what direction to go. As you follow the Inukshuk, it tells you where you can find other people, where you can find warmth and a home.

Now the fact that it's in the form of a man reminds me of the fact that the Bible says that Jesus took on the form of a man, in the Book of Philippians, in the Book of Galatians, in the Book of Hebrews. The Bible tells us Jesus took on human form. And why did He do it? Well, He did it to give His life on the cross of Calvary for your sins and my sins so that we would have an opportunity to go home to our Heavenly Father.

But there's more to it than that. Jesus not only came to die for us, He came to show us the way. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life."

Somebody made this Inukshuk in the form of a man to show you how to get home. God, Himself, took on the form of a man to show us how to get home. And right now, today, it's worth thinking about life here in the Arctic, and thinking about the lessons we can learn in this barren, beautiful landscape. I'd like you to pray with me about finding the direction home by looking at Jesus.

Let's pray together.

PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that Your Son was willing to take on human form, to stretch out His arms at the cross of Calvary, to show us the way home. Today, we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we ask that You prepare us for Heaven, that we would be ready when Jesus comes, for we pray it in His wonderful name, Amen.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:
You know, when you're out here in the Arctic and there's nobody around for hundreds and hundreds of miles, it feels a little bit isolated and lonely, and it's easy to lose track of just how big a project like distributing Bibles in the Arctic is.

And I don't mean how geographically large the project is, I mean how large this project is in God's eyes. This is literally a fulfillment of prophecy to be able to bring the Word of God in the Inuktitut language up here to these northern regions to some of these remote little villages.

You see in Matthew, the 24th chapter, Jesus makes this prediction (Matthew 24:14),

"And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come."

The Gospel has got to go everywhere, and then Jesus comes.

Listen, here it is again over in Revelation, the 14th chapter (Revelation 14:6). It says,

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation, kindred tongue and people."

That means the Inuktitut tongue, too. It means that two thousand years ago, John, in vision, must have seen this place. He may well have actually seen this project. Maybe even John the Revelator saw these Inuktitut Bibles going out to these remote villages. But there's one thing I know for sure, even if John didn't see it, Jesus knew about this place.

Just listen to these words that Jesus spoke before He went up to Heaven to be with His Father. He says this to His disciples in Acts 1:8,

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria..."

And here it comes, "And to the end of the earth."

Now this is the uttermost part of the earth. This is a place that's so remote they measure the population using five digits. Now I'm not exactly sure right at this moment how many Inuit people live up here, but it's not a lot. It's in the tens of thousands, and yet Jesus knew about them at that moment, as He spoke to His disciples. In His mind's eye, He knew this place.

Heaven knew there were people living up here, the Inuit people were already in this place when Jesus spoke those words, and Jesus said, "I die for those people. Those are my children living up in the Arctic, and I want them to hear the good news of what I did at the cross of Calvary, and I will come back when every group of people, like the Inuit, and has heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has had the opportunity to know that their Heavenly Father loves them."

To support this and other It Is Written/Pilgrim Relief Society efforts, you may make your donation online or by mailing a check to:

It Is Written
Box O
Thousand Oaks, CA 91359

Scriptures Used in “How Cold is YOUR Bible?”

"And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."
—Matthew 24:14

"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore, do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfieth not, harken diligently unto thee, and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness."
—Isaiah 55:1-2

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation, kindred tongue and people."
—Revelation 14:6

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
—Acts 1:8