“Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard . . . Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of
the fi sh three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:15-17 (NIV)
When I was young, along with fishing, my dad took me out hunting and trapping. I especially remember one time when I was 12. It
began with someone giving us a boat ride, but then a lot of walking. We had two big packing dogs with us to help carry things. We walked by a pond and saw two mallard ducks flying away. Just a little later, we saw a hawk chasing the ducks back towards the pond. My dad was a sharpshooter, and with his .22 rifle he hit one of the ducks and it fell into the pond. We stopped to cook the duck. I remember my dad saying that it’s never good to walk until you’re too tired to walk — it’s better to rest when you need to.
About seven miles from there, we got to the area where my dad set up beaver traps. Then came a time of waiting a short distance from a lake. What I most remember about that time was a painful toothache. Dad said, “Get used to pain, son. That’s what you are going to die from someday!” By the next day we had caught three beavers, which we skinned and kept the meat. Also, Dad had shot some geese. On the third day, we packed up and started walking back, through muskeg and knee-deep water at times.
Back then no one in our family knew Christ personally. It wasn’t until July 1977 that I confessed my sins and asked Jesus Christ into
my life, and then my parents in 1979. Even before we started to follow Christ, He was providing for us — just like He took care of Jonah who, at the time, was running from God.
— Gilbert Bekkatla
Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website.
Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org