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In 1968, NCEM asked the Jacksons to undertake a six-month ministry
project at Little Buffalo, (now called Lublcon Lake), about three hundred miles
from Lac La Biche. NCEM had been asked to send a Cree speaker to minister to a
small group of believers who had come to the Lord over the years.
Praying through the request, Bill and Shirley recognized that this was
God’s leading. As they worked together, packing everything they would need for
the six-month term, they talked about the very first time they visited Lubicon
Lake as a family. The family’s first visit occurred in June, 1964. Bill was
invited to conduct a week of meetings there. The events leading up to those
meetings, as much as the meetings themselves, did much to imprint the Jacksons’
visit
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in the minds of many who lived around Lubicon Lake at the time.
“After deciding on the dates to go, we delayed traveling for one
week because two year-old Randy was very sick with bronchitis,” Shirley
explained. “When we did go, via Peace River, the Mission asked us to take
in their truck which was loaded with needed supplies.”
The Mission’s one-ton truck would certainly go through roads which
the Jackson’s faithful old Volkswagon would find impassable. But even the
one-ton truck ground to a halt in front of the gaping ten foot chasm which
had washed out the main road. The culvert had been washed out. The water
had receded somewhat by then, but still the dirty muddy water churned 6 or
7 feet below road level. Fortunately, the missionaries at Lubicon Lake had
already heard about the washout and one was already on his way with a
tractor and wagon. |
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Leaving for meeting at Lubicon Lake |
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“Someone who
was there before us put a couple of logs over the chasm and we had to walk
across.” Shirley said. “I even get dizzy just looking down from a short step
ladder. The two older boys thought it was a great adventure to go across.
Bill took the two little ones over, then came back and carried over our
stuff. Then he told me to close my eyes and he would lead me safely across.
About halfway over, however, his mischievous side got the better of him. He
told me I could open my eyes.”
Everybody
had a good laugh at Shirley’s discomfort. Later, they all wondered what Bill
would have done if Shirley had fainted right there above the chasm.
Transferring
the load to the wagon, the party started out. |
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Logs over washout. |
After they had traveled a few miles down the road, they spotted a light
plane buzzing overhead. Henry Enns, a teacher at Little Buffalo (Lubicon Lake)
was on his way home from Peace River. Circling, he indicated his intention to
land at a nearby forestry strip.
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“This was a very tiny plane, (Cessna 170) with
room for one passenger only,” Shirley remembers. “There was Just enough room
for baby Stanley to fit behind the seat. That’s why I had to hold the two
yearolds (our Randy and Laurella Enns) on my knees. I was very grateful for
this plane ride because I was so concerned that Randy would be sick again.
The air was damp and chilly and Randy had Just gotten over his bronchitis.
In fact, the doctor had wanted to put him in hospital but, since I knew we
could look after him just as well at home, we decided not to have him
admitted.”
Meanwhile, the tractor and rescue
wagon were plowing
mud on the way home. The road got so narrow at one point |
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Continuing the trip with tractor and wagon. |
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that Bill woke the three boys in the trailer wagon. He
told six year-old Tommy to be ready to Jump if Dad told him to. He held the
two younger boys, his own son Kene and Arlyn (Enns) and was ready to jump
off with them if the tractor began to slide off the narrow track into the
water lying alongside. It was a bit of a nightmare journey, but the Lord
brought them through without mishap.
At the time, the boys considered it
great fun and later recalled that night ride with pleasure. For Bill, it was
a miserable start to what turned out to be a good week of meetings. |
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“We were flown back to
Peace River when the meetings came to an end,” Shirley concluded. “The kids
thought flying was great. Me? When we landed I felt that I’d done quite
enough flying for a long time.”
Four years later, the
Jackson family set out for what was first planned as a six-month term at
Lubicon Lake. However, in the purposes of God, the six-month term became one
year, then two, then three. The Jacksons didn’t mind. God was blessing their
work, and the ministry at Lubicon Lake gave Shirley and Bill opportunity to
spend time with the family at a time in their lives when the children
especially needed and appreciated family support. Preschooler Stanley was
four and, with baby Lyanne, kept Shirley busy at home. The Jacksons
deliberately kept their children at home during Kindergarten year, enrolling
them in |
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Tom, Kene and Randy beside Henry’s plane. |
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Grade 1 when they were six years old. in this way, they
extended the period of time for training and teaching their family in the
things of the Lord. Bill and Shirley both take God at His Word when He
promises, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he
will not depart from it (Proverbs22:6). They knew the spiritual dangers and
temptations which surround young people. They knew that Satan probably
makes children of missionaries special targets. They knew from counseling
others that children who start out well sometimes stray off the path of
obedience and find, to their cost, that the way of the unfaithful is hard
(Proverbs 13:15). Yet, their own experience of God’s |
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Bill and the boys saddling up Major. |
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redeeming grace and their trust in the Word and promises
of God gave them confidence through all the uncertainties of parenting.
Though the boys were young, they learned how to
trap beaver and muskrat. At the time, there was a good market for furs and
the young trappers made what, to their boyish minds, seemed a large amount
of money. It wasn’t long before Randy was able to buy his first guitar from
money earned this way.
Life was busy—sometimes hectic. Living next to
the school, the Jackson house became like Grand Central Station as friends
of their children were made welcome. When Bill made a skating rink in winter
it only added to the popularity of the Jackson house as the center of the
universe. When Bill planned ball games on the nearby school grounds, they
attracted most of the kids in the community. |
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Trapper Joe Laboucan’s cabin,
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At that time (1969—72) there were over 100 people
in the community, with perhaps that many more in the surrounding area. The
little group of Christians to whom Bill ministered had a nucleus of five or
six individuals. Others came now and again.
In winter, often many of the men of the area were
away on traplines or on distant job sites. At times, it was mostly women
who attended. Shirley |
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Stuck on the road to Peace Riuer.
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and the lady teachers started
a Women’s Bible Study through the week where the women studied the
Scriptures, and enjoyed food and fellowship.
Old Joe, who had waited back at camp to be saved, was part of that
community. Like Joe, very few of the people there had the benefit of
formal education. By this time, Bill had recorded a number of Cree
teaching tapes, but many of the people didn’t have playback recorders.
Efforts to try and teach the syllabic alphabet so the people could learn
to read the |
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Laurella and Arlyn Enns with the Jackson boys. |
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Cree Bible also proved unsuccessful. For the most part, the Cree Bible
teaching the people received, came through Bill’s teaching ministry and
personal conversations.
Cadotte Lake, a nearby community where Bill also went to preach,
was accessible by road—but sometimes only barely. It may be hard for
today’s reader to realize that spring brought its own hazards to the
traveler. One Sunday, Bill and Shirley got stuck on their way to Cadotte
Lake. A wide stretch of water across a low part of the road had turned
into a pool of mud.
“I’ll shovel some mud from under the wheel and try to push us
out,” Bill told Shirley. “You take the wheel.”
As she walked around the car, Shirley slipped and fell fulllength
into the mud. Thick and gooey, it stuck to her Sunday clothes. For a
moment, she lay there helpless. Bill, too, was helpless to render aid. He
couldn’t do anything for laughing. Finally managing to extricate herself,
Shirley scraped the worst of the mud off her clothes and climbed back into
the car. When they succeeded in reaching firm ground, Bill turned the car
around and drove home. |
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