William MacDonald, in his Foreword to Take the Challenge, the book from which this article is excerpted, wrote of his friend George Campbell: “There was something truly apostolic about his ministry. Together with his co-workers, he had seen a number of assemblies planted in Newfoundland and Labrador in the space of 30 years. I am not aware of any comparable work on the North American continent.…As we who knew him read the book, we will still hear his strong, earnest voice and sense afresh something of his passion for souls. But even more, we will hear a man who stood at the very gate of heaven, calling back to us to drop all the irrelevant things of life and go in for that which is eternal.”
I had been involved in the MGM* boat work for a number of years and was convinced that if one boat worked good, two would be even better. A boat came up for sale at St. Anthony that had previously been used as a doctors’ boat taking doctors and nurses to isolated villages. The boat was forty-seven feet long by thirteen feet on the beam and was a very seaworthy vessel.
Two widows, one from Vancouver and the other a friend of my family, had sent us two gifts equaling $4,500. This money came before we knew the boat was for sale. We thought it must be for a new hall in Lanse au Loup. A thousand dollars in smaller gifts of five, ten and twenty dollars came in as well, bringing the amount to five thousand. When the boat came up for sale, we made an offer for that amount. The owners had wanted more, but they accepted it. The Lord confirmed to me that we were to have the boat by giving me Psalm 89:25, “I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers.”
The “Northern Light” was used extensively along the Quebec north shore and farther along the Labrador coast for nine years. Wallace Buckle was the navigator for most of those years. Men who came with us on the boat learned valuable lessons about working with other men. Things they thought they needed, like privacy and showers, they found they could do without.
We used the “Northern Light” to bring lumber and a tractor to Old Fort to use in building a hall. While we were there, we had a baptism.
One of the new believers got hit several times by people who were really upset over the baptism. Her husband, who was also baptized, put his Bible down on the ground and said, “You wouldn’t dare hit my wife if I wasn’t a Christian. I’d have you mopped all over the place. Just because I’m a Christian you have taken advantage of us. Let me tell you something. Before I was saved, I was a drunkard and had to be hauled in out of the snow. When I got saved, everybody was glad. Since I’ve been going on for God and have been baptized, we are being ridiculed. As far as I’m concerned, whether these men stay or whether these men go, I’ve got my Bible, I’ve got my Christ, and I mean to go on with the Lord, no matter what happens.”
The “Northern Light” was a great asset in the work along the Quebec shore and Labrador, but I can honestly say we never got sentimental over it. That was our safeguard. If we had gotten sentimental over it, we would have had an obsolete piece of equipment on our hands when its usefulness was past. A piece of equipment is only a means to an end. It has a termination. It is not something you keep going on with. The boat provided us living accommodation when we needed it, a means of transportation from place to place and a way to carry materials we needed. It even served as a preaching platform. But methods always are changing. We don’t commit ourselves to things, but to people.
Summers on the boat were not pleasure trips. There was a lot of seasickness, dampness and personal pressures. After three or four months on a boat with a group of other men, you had nothing to hide.
Pioneer work calls for someone who will really work. Not just going out for a day or two and pitching a tent that someone else will guard, or traveling on a boat that someone else will take responsibility for—the pioneer is responsible for everything. If he makes a mistake, he is responsible for that. If he makes a hit, he is responsible for that, too. We made both. Thank God He didn’t cast us off when we made mistakes. I’m thankful, too, that He gave us the grace to be humble when there was blessing following.
A man will make it or break it, depending on his vision. Often men start out and God gives them a place of blessing, and they stop there. They forget to branch out. Keep pressing on. Keep branching out. Our God is a big God and “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad” (Ps. 126:3).
The same God who provided the money for the first boat provided the money for the second. He provided the crew for each of them, too. Don’t box God in. Pray in faith and work with faith. Leave the results to God.