Following missionary service further north in Saskatchewan, Dallas & Deena now live in Shellbrook, SK.
Looking back on their lives and years of ministry, they carry a confidence in the Lord’s faithfulness and His leading.
Both grew up in Christian homes, though Dallas was already six years old when his parents came to faith in Christ. It was, in fact, his dad’s eagerness to get to know the “God of the Book” that sparked his own interest in the Lord, says Dallas. Their family moved from their farm near Elnora, Alberta, so that his dad could attend Bible school.
In 1952 Dallas’s parents, Harold & Esther Roberts, joined NCEM, and Dallas was one of their seven children who moved North with them. Missionary speakers at the Bible school conferences in Three Hills had already stirred Dallas’s heart to serve the Lord.
He made good friends among the Cree and Dene young people. “I felt some sort of bond with the people of the North and wanted to share the Lord with them.”
Deena’s interest in cross-cultural service began early in life with her mother’s bedtime missionary stories. Growing up near NCEM’s Native ministries around Lac La Biche, Alberta, also contributed to the call Deena felt as a teen to pursue missionary service in the North.
After graduating from Prairie Bible Institute, Deena joined NCEM in 1971, and served in northern Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and then as director of single lady missionaries, while based in Prince Albert.
For Dallas, who also joined in 1971, missionary service with NCEM took him to the James Bay region. A tragic car accident in August 1985 claimed the life of his first wife, Gloria, and their oldest son. Later, when the Lord led Deena and Dallas together, Deena became mother to Dallas’s three children, and then two more daughters.
For a number of years the Roberts served in the Beauval area of northwestern Saskatchewan, which included work at Pine Ridge Bible Camp, and Bible teaching outreach to communities north and west of their home.
Commenting on their ministry, Dallas recalls how it was painful seeing a group of Christians fall apart. And it’s difficult to see those Christians continue to struggle, he says.
Deena shares that seldom seeing family and relatives hasn’t always been easy. “But God has given to me, wherever I’ve been in the North, friends who are as dear to me as family, plus they are ‘friends forever.’ What a blessing! You give and give to others, but you are so blessed in return.”
With similar assurance, Dallas adds, “I’m confident that Jesus Christ is the total answer to life and all its doubts and fears and hopes and joys.”
