Pentecostal Sub-Arctic Missions Founder

Rev. K.A. Gaetz

Submitted by:Ivan Gaetz

On behalf of: Hay River Community Education Society

The post-war years saw increasing interest in the Canadian north. Northern resources held great promise for development and wealth. The north was an open avenue to the Soviet Union and it had to be defended. Northern people were moving into the mid-twentieth century and political, social and religious expectations were changing. The first all-season transportation link into the Northwest Territories was secured with the completion of the Mackenzie Highway to Hay River in 1948. It was on this road that a young, adventuresome minister-missionary traveled in the early days of January, 1949. Like many, Ken Gaetz was interested in the north: its wilderness beauty; its scope of opportunity; its challenge which taxes ones ingenuity, imagination and strength. These qualities of the north coalesce into what might be termed a spiritual-like call.

The community of Hay River, had been in existence since the mid-1800's and was not beginning to expand from the Indian Village onto Vale Island. In 1949 this new settlement was hardly a refined, organized, modern place to live, hardly a place to start a church! Ken Gaetz' reception in Hay River was very cool that January - forty below and a suggestion that he hitch-hike back south on the next truck leaving town. Religion was not much of a concern to those in that trucker's cafe. Later those who made that suggestion became close friends of Ken. A Pentecostal church was built on Vale Island in 1950 and became somewhat of a community church since it was the only one on the Island. Hay River's first Boy's Scouts and Cubs group was started by Ken which demonstrated to the town's folk that he had community interests at heart.

The ministry of Ken seemed to grow as the town grew. In 1952 there was general meeting of the residents at the community hall. Medical facilities were desperately needed but unfortunately no one was interested in the job. Various religious groups as well as the Government had other priorities, and, as a last resort, Ken and his religious organization was approached about it. A small nursing station was finally opened in 1953.

Hay River was emerging as a major fishing port, communication center and transportation head. The town was growing and so the need for a hospital became clear. The two banded together and all interest groups, religious affiliates, and community clubs joined in the effort to raise money for a new hospital. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada had no interest in any hospital work but they would not object to Ken's efforts to raise money from Pentecostal churches in the south.

A member of the Stone Pentecostal Church in Toronto, Mr. H.H.Williams, had just passed away and instructed the church to disperse a significant sum of money in his estate to some worthy missionary cause. The church decided that the Hay River hospital was such a cause and the transaction was made. The present hospital bears his name as a memorial to his generosity.

The first hospital was opened and dedicated in 1957. Doug Abbey became the first doctor and married the nursing station's first matron, Beatrice Purdy. Since that time the work and ministry of Ken Gaetz has been primarily in the medical and administrative fields, though he continued as minister of the Hay River Pentecostal Chapel until the last Sixties. As it is, one's work in a town is closely tied to all the related influences and events that make up a community. Hay River was just becoming established as a town, being incorporated in 1961, when it had to face one of its greatest crises.

During the last days of April, 1963, the Hay River was receiving spring run-off in northern British Columbia and Alberta. However, the Great Slave Lake ice was solid with all its winter strength. The break-up on the river was edging further north and on a Tuesday morning disaster struck. Muddy water and ice flowed freely over the town properties in a effort to spill out onto the lake which normally breaks up enough to receive the force of the high water. As a town councilor, Ken worked endlessly in the next few days and weeks with other town officials to save as much movable property as possible and to lend support to the medical emergency brought about by the threat of typhoid.

St. Paul's school, the R.C.M.P. detachment and the Hospital were about the only dry places in town. Homes, outhouse, garages and other buildings floated down the streets and were scattered randomly throughout the town. The Pentecostal Chapel floated into the Pope's yard across the street and the Legion Hall took up position in the church yard - an interesting switch of location. It wasn't until weeks later that the church building was finally moved out of John and Mary Pope's yard back to the original site. This decisive event had wide ramifications.

In 1964 survey work was begun in what was called the new town site and the town struggled to its feet to regroup after the deluge of water and ice and sewage and silt. In spite of the flood, the future of Hay River was bright. The railroad arrived in the fall of '64 and plans for Pine Point looked promising. The effect was a very active economy and marked population increase. A new hospital was being planned by the administration under Ken. Vale Island was no longer suitable for development and the town's residences and businesses were being trucked to the new development area. A hospital site was chosen beside a ravine which bisected part of the new town site. In 1965, the N.W.T. Commissioner, Ben Sivertz, cut the ribbon on a new facility. The twenty-two bed hospital offered a full range of medical services operated with a staff dedicated to the medical and spiritual values shared by Ken.

The period of development from 1950 to the mid-Sixties in Hay River also saw the scope of interest of Ken Gaetz extended beyond the town limits. Medical work was never an end in itself because the religious convictions of Ken set the propagation of the Gospel as top priority. Medicine, community work, government involvement were all vehicles to demonstrate that basic message of Christianity - self-sacrificing love. Back in 1951, Ken and his wife Sarah built their own river boat and set out on a missionary trip down the Mackenzie River. Though the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches had done missionary work in the area seventy-five years earlier and established congregations in most villages, in seemed time to have a new Christian ministry offered to the people. Pentecostalism is more of an experiential, "home-spun" approach to the Christian faith which varies from the more liturgical and sacramental forms of the historic churches.

Ken determined that the native population should be given this third option. Initially there was some competition between churches but this now has largely been replaced by mutual respect and cooperation. This boat trip down the river was used to project the need and possibility of mission work. Two other Hay River notables were on board. John Lamalice, who for many years was the chief of the Hay River Indian band, was the interpreter. His services were most appreciated since Ken and Sarah's Slavey was limited to the odd greeting and short Bible verse, a situation which hardly improved over the years. Jimmy Sibbeston was the guide, since in earlier times he traveled the river on the old paddle wheelers. Jimmy at that time was in his eighties and later became Hay River's longest living resident by the time he passed away at age 104. He was recognized by the town with a medallion cast in his honour. The trip was idyllic that summer. This reached as far north as Fort Good Hope, just south of the Arctic circle.

In the early years transportation was limited to water in the summer and dog team in the winter. On occasion Ken would hitch up his team of huskies and travel overland to various Indian camps to hold services. Sometimes Sarah would go along and teach school to the native children. Buffalo Lake was a three-day trip to the south of Hay River. Such a trip was really a journey back in time. Condition were most primitive and probably differed little in the 1950's from what they were a hundred years earlier. At Buffalo Lake their cabin was more of a mouse nest than a dwelling for human habitation. Subsistence on the bush trail consisted of a menu of fish, rabbit, whole muskrat and mouse.

In time mission works were established at Fort Resolution, Fort Simpson, Yellowknife, Fort Norman, Fort Good Hope, Fort Providence, Pine Point and Fort Smith. 1967 was Canada's Centennial Year and the Sub-Arctic Mission, which had now become a major religious organization in the Northwest Territories, decided on a project. A new horizon in Ken's mission work emerged with the building of a church and mission house at Coppermine. This was the first Inuit church of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, although in other parts of the Arctic other Pentecostal and religious groups had mission establishments. These mission works are not a monument to one man's efforts but an organism led by the efforts of many energetic missionaries and northerners dedicated to shared principles and convictions.

Hay River still provided existing opportunities for Ken as he served as Deputy Mayor, Justice of the Peace, committee member for various municipal agencies, and Hospital Administrator, of course. In the early Seventies, the town experienced another boom period due to anticipation of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Studies indicated that Hay River would grow considerably and, with the present increase in population which pressed existing hospital facilities to the limit, a new hospital was a necessity. The Government of the Northwest Territories funded the project and in September, 1976, Marc LaLonde, then the Minister of Health, opened the five and one-half million dollar Health Center. This fifty bed hospital now has full accreditation with the Canadian Hospital Association, accreditation awarded on the highest level.

Up until Ken and Sarah Gaetz left the north in 1980, Ken served as a member of the Territorial Hospital Insurance Services and other regional and national health organizations. Undoubtedly the north has provided opportunities and challenges found nowhere else in Canada. The call of the north is unique, and by way of response, Ken Gaetz has played a part in the formative years of the Mackenzie region of the Northwest Territories, and that call can still beckon to the people of like vision, values, creativity and fortitude.