“Brace yourseff. We’re going down.” NCEM pilot Ron Knightly, eased the joystick forward. Half an hour out of Fort Simpson, the mechanical trouble which had developed on the trip was threatening to completely stall the engine. If that happened, December 17, 1977, could become a day of disaster.

        Spotting the Mackenzie River about two miles off his recorded flight plan, the pilot veered his plane towards it. The engine did quit at 1,000 feet. Nosing down at an angle of forty-five degrees, the frail little Cessna half-glided, half-fell towards the snaking landmark. At a place where a half-mile separated the two river banks, the plane made contact, shuddering and smashing its way over the frozen drifts. Some chunks of ice were three feet high.

        Upon contact, one door flew off the plane and the other smashed. The windshield cracked right across the middle and the propeller blades bent out of shape. One wheel came through the open doorway right into the cockpit, followed by ice and snow.

        The plane was wrecked. Miraculously, neither the pilot nor Bill were hurt. Joe Kakegamic, a Key-Way-Tin Bible Institute school student traveling with Bill, also escaped without injury.

         “In 2 Corinthians 11:25, the apostle Paul talks about being shipwrecked three times,” Bill noted later. “I wonder how many plane crashes he would have endured if he’d been an NCEM missionary. That one was my second serious incident involving a plane.” 

        Though the men landed safely, their difficulties were not over. Pilot Ron had radioed his “Mayday,” the international signal of distress. He’d also been in constant communication with Fort Simpson until the start of the final descent to the river. And, to back all of that up, there was a distress beeper sending out its signal from within the still intact body of the plane. 

        “Within ninety minutes, we could hear planes searching,” Bill recounted. “Because we’d moved off the flight plan, they missed us by a mile or so. Covering the wreckage with a large orange tarpaulin to make it easier to see from the air, the trio started out to the river bank. Perhaps they could make a fire. As always, keeping body warmth was their first consideration. Keeping body warmth is probably the first condition of survival in the frozen North. 

        The sound of a helicopter chopped its way through the dusk and stopped them in their tracks. It sounded like the pilot was following the river. The three men ran back to the wrecked plane. Sure enough, the helicopter pilot had spotted the tarp. It wasn’t long until all three men were enjoying the warmth of the helicopter cabin as it whisked them to Fort Simpson. Next day, Bill and Joe caught a commercial flight South. They were home in good time for Christmas. 

        From a missionary’s point of view, new technology is analyzed in terms of the improvements it can bring to the spread of the Gospel. In the North, using new technology is always expensive. Flying between remote communities costs large amounts in the course of a year, but the alternative of dogsleds or even snowmobiles is inefficient and just as dangerous as flying, perhaps even more so. New technologies brought new possibilities. 

        Christians who are not actively involved in supporting missions sometimes misunderstand these investments in technological upgrading of missionary work. If somebody’s teenager has a blaring ghetto-blaster which drives the rest of the house hold crazy, that person finds it harder to appreciate that a well equipped ghetto blaster can sound out the Gospel in an otherwise remote northern community. It takes the place of a Native-speaking preacher. At the same time, it takes the place of the expensive sound system which is considered an essential part of most churches in the South. 

        NCEM also recognized that advances in T.V. broadcasting and satellite technology held new possibilities for wider ministry. Again, the great shortage of ministry funds created a huge challenge. The Mission Board of Directors met the challenge head-on. The Lord’s work was too important to do anything else. 

        Bill was one of the leaders who strongly recommended going into a T.V. ministry. The Board decided to bring a program into being, called Tribal Trails. The program would mainly feature Native persons speaking and singing their testimony of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

        Trusting God to move the hearts and wallets of Christians with a burden for Gospel outreach in the North, NCEM went ahead in spite of the huge costs involved. Setting up a recording studio in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, the Mission gradually acquired cameras and other equipment. They planned to broadcast only occasional half-hour programs as funds became available. 

        From the start, Bill took a great interest in the new ministry. He suggested that NCEM also make Gospel and Bible teaching videos to be played on home VCR machines which were now coming into northern homes. Since that time, videos in Cree and English have been widely distributed in Gospel ministry. 

        Bill’s part in making these videos added more to the Jackson schedule. For example, his eight one-hour Bible studies (in Cree) entitled Israel In History and Prophecy took many working hours to prepare before the actual video recording was made. It was the same with other videos. In all, Bill has produced a number of video teaching cassettes which, when added to the list of audio cassettes he made, take up a large amount of space in the NCEM catalogue of available ministry helps.