Two years after their marriage and the start of their missionary work out of North Baffleford, in 1959, the Jacksons moved once more to relocate at Lac La Biche, Alberta, not far from Bill’s home reserve. 

        Part of the reason for their move rose from yet another Macedonian call, Come over... and help us (Acts 16:9). The call came from Frank Wilson, a missionary from Bethel Baptist Church in Calgary. Called by God to missionary work, Frank always felt a great desire to see a Bible School for Native young people raised up right there in Lac La Biche. A small work had started in Kikino when Frank lived near there. Only two families met for worship. Yet, there was a great potential for Gospel outreach in the Metis settlement area which lay alongside the border of Whitefish Lake Reserve. Also, Native converts to Christ needed the opportunity of studying the Word of God in a Bible School setting. 

        Then there were all the spiritual needs of northern Alberta. No doubt, Lac La Biche would be what Cochin had been—a home base from which the Jacksons went out to minister far and wide, wherever opportunity arose. Praying the matter through, Bill made his decision. Packing everything into the old beater of a truck which served him so well, he and his little fainfly set off for Lac La Biche.

        The variety of tasks which Bill undertook gave him opportunity to discover that he possessed a number of ministry gifts. The move to Lac La Biche also revealed certain weaknesses.

        “We needed an addition to the house we moved into,” Shirley related. “Bill’s carpentry skills certainly didn’t match his preaching abilities.” Evidently, in trying to tie the roof of the leanto addition to the existing roof, Bill ended up with an effort that looked better than it was. At the first heavy rain, Shirley noticed a constant drip coming from the roof right above the baby’s crib. During a severe rainstorm in the middle of the night, she moved the baby to their bed and placed a tub in the crib to catch the drip. 

        “Swoosh! The next thing we knew, the roof had opened and a deluge of water like a cloud burst half-filled the tub,” Shirley said. “Poor Randy if he’d been caught under that.” 

        Wisely abandoning further major carpentry projects, Bill moved into a schedule of ministry which took him into all the nearby reserves on a more or less regular basis. As well, he accepted invitations to preach at distant points, making an itinerary of places along the way where his witness could be useful. 

        Before they started school and later when the kids were out for the summer, the whole family took in these trips. In this way, the Jacksons’ ministry reached northward in Alberta almost to the southern border of the Northwest Territories. 

        About two years after the Jacksons moved to Lac La Biche, Frank Wilson returned to minister in Calgary. Bill took responsibility for the work at Kikino, holding services there and at Buffalo Lake. The services were held in the home of one of the families which had shown a steady interest in the Gospel. He and several other Christian workers also started a youth rally which, on one Saturday each month, gathered young people from communities all around the region. It was at one of these rallies that a sixteen year old girl named Doreen was saved. 

        Doreen came from Buffalo Lake, located thirty miles from Lac La Biche. The Lord spoke to her heart during the preaching of the Gospel and she came forward after the service to be saved. Shirley counseled her from the Scriptures and led her to Christ. From that night on, Doreen lived for the Lord. 

        In time, Doreen met a fine Christian man whom she married. The couple had five children together before Doreen was called home to be with her Lord. She died very young, seemingly from an infection which resisted treatment and quickly proved fatal. 

        The events of human experience and how they fit into .God’s eternal purposes are often beyond our ability to understand. When this sudden tragic loss hit Doreen’s family, there wasn’t much anyone could say or do to help. Yet, the promises of God are clear. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6,8). Doreen had entered into the joy of the Lord. Her grieving family had to carry on in the sadness of having to live without her presence in the home. 

        Doreen’s husband Wilfred bravely carried on. raising the five children into their teens. Then, in another wrenching tragedy, he also went to be with the Lord. A carpenter, he suffered a fall from some scaffolding and sustained fatal injuries. 

        Bill and Shirley had to comfort the sorrowing as well as preach the Gospel. They soon found that it is natural for people to question God’s purposes in letting tragedies like this enter the lives of His children. They didn’t have answers for each tragedy, but they were learning, from the Bible and from life, that God can and does make good things happen even out of bad events. 

        It’s like the story of Joseph in the Bible (Genesis, chapters 37 to 50). Joseph must have had many questions when his brothers threw him into the pit, then sold him into slavery. He must have cried out to God in the confusion of his mind when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of attempted rape. He must have despaired when he was left in prison, forgotten by the king’s butler who had promised to help. Yet, God turned tragedy after tragedy into triumph for Joseph. He became Prime Minister of Egypt—and the one whom God used to save his family and settle them in Egypt.

    Bill and Shirley also knew that we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). In spite of tragedy, discouragement and opposition, the Jacksons trusted God and carried on their work for the Lord.