JOEL NEWS INTERNATIONAL 618  |  21 NOVEMBER 2007 IN THIS EDITION: 1. Revival in Arctic Canada: "The building began to shake" 2. Revival among the Inuits in Arctic Canada (video) Normally we report in Joel News International about recent advances of the Kingdom of God in our time, things that 'just happened'. This time we researched and reworked a report that's a few years older (late 2001), but gives a good background on the spiritual awakening that is taking place among the Inuits in Arctic Canada up to today. Next week part two. 1. Revival in Arctic Canada: "The building began to shake" It started like thunder, and at first no one knew what was happening. Moses Kyak, who was operating the sound system, turned the volume off but the noise kept getting louder. Then people began falling down without anyone touching them. James Arreak, who had been leading worship, began to shake. The building began to shake. For about a minute the noise continued to fill the church, like a mighty, rushing wind.  "It sounded like Niagara Falls," says Rev. Joshua Arreak (right picture), who was helping lead an afternoon youth service at St. Timothy's Anglican Church with his younger brother James (left picture). And then the sound went away. Along with the Arreak brothers, about 40 people were in attendance for the service in Pond Inlet, a community of 1,200 high on the northeastern coast of Baffin Island, Canada. This visitation from God had a deep impact on the community. Why did this happen in Pond Inlet, a remote little town that dwells in darkness half the year, is accessible only by plane and is thousands of miles removed from any population centre? All Joshua Arreak knows is that people had been praying for the community, especially for the young people, on a regular basis. A few years earlier, they had gotten together to destroy, in a huge bonfire, about $100,000 worth of heavy metal music, pornography and drugs. "That's maybe partly why God was so gracious to us," says Arreak. "We've been really humbled by this." It was probably the most dramatic event marking revival in Canada's Arctic, but it was neither the beginning nor the end of a movement that has swept across the North, touching communities and transforming lives in a way never seen before. Since the late 1950s, when settlers came to the region, social problems have become rampant among the Inuits. Alcoholism, drug use, sexual abuse, domestic violence, despair, unemployment, and ultimately suicide began to characterize many places that had been previously untouched by such things. Today Arctic Canada has six times the rate of suicide in the south. The rate of heavy drinking is three times the national average, solvent abuse is 26 times higher, the percentage of the population in jail is three times higher, and teen pregnancy rates are six times higher, with the infant death rate twice that found in southern Canada.  Sometimes it is those very desperate circumstances that lay the groundwork for revival. Nain, Labrador, a community of 1,200, 95 percent of whom are Inuit, was devastated by 11 suicides in 2000. When a team was invited for ministry that November, "there was like a cloud of oppression that hung over the town," recalls James Arreak (who, besides pastoring, is director of financing for the Nunavut government). Knowing a week of meetings couldn't possibly fix the problems there, "we just went in there to plant the seeds, and we left." Christians across the country also prayed for Nain. Arreak and others made a second visit in September 2001. "When we landed there, it was like a totally different place," he says. "It was like the cloud of oppression that used to hang over the town was not there." Evidently crime was down, there had been no suicides all year, "and the spirit of the community was up. Only God could do that." Desperation may have made people ready for God; but none of this new movement of the Spirit would be taking place without prayer, say those who have witnessed dramatic changes. Besides healing from traumas and tragedies and forgiveness of sin, the revival movement has had two other important outgrowths: unity among the churches and the development of dynamic Inuit leaders. People whose background was drinking, gambling and promiscuity are now solid Christians, and some are pastoring churches. But Arreak also has a warning: "I found out that we cannot go on yesterday's visitation. It has to be renewed every day."  Source: Debra Fieguth, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada 2. Revival among the Inuits in Arctic Canada (video) Scores of communities throughout the Eastern Arctic Region of Canada have experienced dramatic changes in families, schools and government, as a result of an outpouring of God's Spirit. This was reported on the Transformations II video, released in 2002 by The Sentinel Group. The two video clips below partly overlap, but both are highly encouraging to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwwU7EdqNx4  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLeNcSZA0tw  C O L O P H O N The book of Acts is still happening today! Joel News International offers a weekly high-quality selection of the most inspiring stories on the advance of God's Kingdom in six continents. Joel News International inspires thousands of active Christians in over 120 nations. More information: http://www.joelnews.org/frontpage.htm.  Joel News International is published on the basis of an annual donation. Did you receive this copy from a friend? 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