My blogger friend, Margaret Feinberg, was so gracious to lend Jesus and the Eskimos to me to read.   She had mentioned it in her blog, and it sounded so interesting, but this book is not even available online, so she let me borrow it.  (Margaret lives here in Juneau, and I found her through the blogger world, but I actually met her one day when I saw her at a garage sale and recognized her! - yes, its a small world).

Anyhoo, Jesus and the Eskimos, by Fred Savok is the story of how God prepared the Eskimo people for the gospel, and then brought the good news of Jesus Christ to these people through missionaries from Sweden.

Fred's own grandfather, Egaq, had a dream or vision of a man, dressed in white, descending down within 3 feet of the floor of his igloo.   He said, "I am the Father of all people.  Soon all people will hear about me."   This really shook Egaq, who had been warned by the Shaman that there was a "very powerful light" coming from the South.  The Shaman recognized that the power of this light was much stronger than their own power, which came from demonic forces according to Mr. Savok (and I would agree).   Just weeks later Egaq and his wife Qutleruq were visited by missionary Rev. Johnson, who explained God's love for them, the sacrifice of Jesus for their sins, and as much as he could of God's Word, the Bible.   Eguq and Qutleruq at once were extremely grateful and hungered for more of God's Word.  They traveled hundreds of miles so that their daughter could go to the white mans' schools - to learn to read the English Bible and teach her own people about Jesus.

Its just an incredible story, the way he describes the fear and superstitions that plagued the Eskimos, and how they wrapped their arms around the gospel and were so thankful for the white men bringing God's Word to them.   These missionaries did not try to change the culture and tradition of the Eskimo, but allowed God to change their sinful natures from the inside out.  To me, this was a breath of fresh air, since so often I hear about how missionaries, in this area anyway, would punish the Native American children for speaking their native tongues and tried to replace the native cultures.

Being here in Alaska, I found this book especially interesting, as it gave many details of the Eskimo life in the artic.  Most of the story takes place on the seward peninsula of Alaska, which projects into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound and Kotzebue Sound, just below the Arctic Circle. Of course this is very far from us, but some of the things I could relate to, such as berry picking, salmon fishing, etc.  It gives details of seal hunts, the food they ate, their native celebrations, etc.

There were some disturbing stories in it - traditions and superstitions the Eskimos followed before they became Christians; but there were some beautiful stories of miracles as well - before and after the missionaries came.

Fred writes, "The starting and development of the Church, which meant much more to the Eskimo than anything else in the world, meant a right to live without fear of enslavement and death."

Unfortunately, your local library probably doesn't carry this book.  In the front cover it says to order a copy, send $14.95 plus $5 for shipping to HLC Publishing, PO Box 82620, Fairbanks, AK  99708.   I'm going to send for my own copy right away (and hopefully they still have copies, it was written in 2004).  It is a beautiful story worth reading.