They Wouldn’t Listen to Him at First

The fascinating story of one Native Christian man’s desire to spread the Gospel

NCEM’s early missionaries thrilled at the zeal of Native Christians who shared their faith. Honorary member Cliff McComb remembered those who were saved at Weagamow Lake (ON) in the early 1950s.

Cliff tells of one man in particular, Alex Kenequenash, who felt that the Lord wanted him to go to a neighbouring village where some of his relatives lived. There was no other means of travel then, other than dog team or walking on snowshoes. Alex chose the latter.

“He walked 90 miles through the bush where there was no road and no trail,” says Cliff. When he returned he told of how, at first, the people didn’t want to listen to him. He had, in fact, faced an intense spiritual battle there. “It was just like some great creature came down upon me and gripped me,” Alex reported. “I just covered my head and pleaded the blood of Jesus.”

Then things changed. There were just a few families staying in the small village at the time, but Alex had kept on preaching. And almost 20 people got saved! He came home bringing gifts of tanned hide and money for Bibles.

Alex reported that the villagers had asked him to come back in the spring. So the Christians at Weagamow financed and sent him there for a short-term outreach. “Our first [worker] sent out … just a little over a year after we arrived in Weagamow!” noted Cliff in amazement.

One day, later that spring, the people at Weagamow noticed a large group of canoes coming from across the lake. It was, in fact, a whole village, the one where Alex had ministered. They were moving to Weagamow for the summer so that they could study the Word of God more!

Adapted from our Northern Lights magazine (Issue #487). Note: some of the locations and involvements of our missionaries may have changed since the original publishing of this article.