Blessed is how I feel after being here. Blessed to meet these people. Blessed to be loved. Blessed to live with my own family. Blessed to have a family. Blessed to be alive.
Pikangikum is a native reserve that is in Northern Ontario.
In order to get to it, you need to drive on the ice road. UNLESS, the ice has not melted then in that case, you must FLY.
So, our team and all our stuff got flown into Pik to do a couple events here.
The lady that picked us up is Colleen. She is a missionary who has been here 14 years. She is such an inspiring lady that has such a heart for everyone here. She goes to sit down, she gets a call, and someone needs her to drive him or her somewhere. She tries to sit down again then, there’s a knock at the door, someone needs something. She is just so beautiful inside out because she puts all her needs aside and cares completely way more about them then herself.
While we were here, Colleen decided to take us on a tour of Pikangikum. We went and saw the Northern, which is the only store here. Prices there are CRAZY! A box of oranges is $11.00, a block of cheese is $14.00, A litre of apple juice is $7.49, a no name brand of bacon is $8.45. Unfortunately having only one store, there are not many jobs in this town. There are only about 200 opportunities for the town of 2,200 people. Some people have resorted to bootlegging because they can get so much money for such a small amount of alcohol. It costs $160.00 for a 16oz. container of alcohol. Therefore, most people here are on welfare. A single mother gets $180.00 every two weeks. But, that does not go a long way when you think about and think about the kids that she needs to provide for.
On our way back from the store to head to another part of town, two girls stopped us. One of the girls told us that her boyfriend had just over dosed and was in the hospital. She said this without hardly any expression on her face. This is the norm for these people. The two girls rushed into our vehicle and Colleen drove them to the hospital and stayed there but first, dropped us off at home. There at her house, we stayed and prayed. When Colleen returned, she told us that the boy was going to be all right and not have any damage. However, while she was in the hospital, a grandfather brought in a baby. The baby couldn’t breathe and ended up dying. Colleen had the unpleasant job of going and getting the mom and taking her to the hospital. Colleen told us that the mom is really into gas sniffing and the father is in jail and both grandparents are alcoholics. She said when she arrived at the house it smelled like gasoline and boos.
It’s hard to fathom just what these people are going through. 96% of the people here do not have running water. They use outhouses and haul their water from public sources.
This is the second longest period Pik has gone through with out suicides… They haven’t had one since March. Before that, there were four this year. We passed a house on our tour and Colleen said that this was one of the saddest houses. They lost six children. 4 to suicide, 1 to AIDS and 1 to TB.
It’s hard to understand how God can be in a place like this. But yet, there is a still glimmer of hope. He showed us through a couple of events. Although some of these girls were really hyper and rowdy, you could tell that they were touched in some small way or another. God is good and our prayer as a team is just that the girls will see a light. A possibility. Better yet, LOVE. They all need love and they are all lacking. It’s so sad to see the pain that they go through.
But yet, God has a plan and purpose for all of them.
