NAD Annual Council Offering Will Support Mission in the Canadian Arctic

An offering appeal that began during the Sabbath morning worship service of the 2026 North American Division Annual Council has raised more than US$12,000 to date to support mission and ministry efforts among the Indigenous peoples of northern Canada. Delegates and visitors from across the division joined together to make personal donations of thousands of dollars. This amount was matched by the North American Division.

After NAD treasurer Judy Glass moved the group with her description of the special challenges of this remote region and the historical trauma of Indigenous communities in the territory of Nunavut, the leaders of the General Conference pledged on the spot that the General Conference would match the mission offerings given that day, thus bringing the total amount donated to more than US$12,000.

Nunavut is the largest, most northern territory of Canada. It is part of the Canadian Arctic and larger than Alaska. To picture Nunavut’s size, imagine 10 adjoining states stretching from California across the Midwest to Pennsylvania.

Yet only about 41,000 people live there. About 85 percent are Indigenous Inuit people, many of whom live in communities without road connections. Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistics agency, found that in 2022, 82 percent of Inuit children aged 1 to 14 in Nunavut lived in households that experienced food insecurity.

Glass shared that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is learning to enter these communities as guests, recognizing the region’s painful history of colonialism carried out in the name of Jesus.

For decades residential schools run by the Canadian government and Christian churches separated Inuit children from their families and suppressed their language. Inuit children began being forced into residential schools in large numbers in the 1950s, and Nunavut had 13 of these schools. Nunavut’s last residential school did not close until 1997.

In those same years, tuberculosis spread across the Canadian North. A Canadian government ship sailed to the Arctic each summer, and those found sick were kept on board and taken south, often with no chance to say goodbye. By 1956 about one in seven Inuits was in treatment in southern Canada. Many never came home, and many families were never told what had happened to their loved ones. Sled dogs were killed, families were moved by force, and many other wrongs were inflicted. The government of Canada has since apologized for these wrongs and has given the Inuit self-governance of this territory.

After a history like that, trust is understandably not offered quickly. Glass reported that in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, the Adventist Church is serving children and their families through its Pathfinder and Adventurer youth clubs, and the community is helping to teach them.

The fire department taught the Pathfinders the fire safety honor and handed out the honor patches. An Inuk woman did the same when she taught them to make bannock, a traditional bread. Katelyn, an Inuk mother who brought her daughter to Adventurers, has become an instructor.

An Inuk elder, Annie, has proposed that elders in the community teach Adventurers the Inuktut language and culture through songs. The Pathfinders will also learn traditional stitching and weaving with wool from the musk ox, a large bison-like animal that roams the Canadian Arctic.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has one pastor serving this massive region, and there are currently only 13 official church members. David Bakunzi, the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference’s mission coordinator in Nunavut, and the 13 church members are working diligently to share our message of hope and wholeness through Jesus.

Worship is livestreamed to members in four surrounding communities, including one member living 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) away, near the Arctic Ocean.

The Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference is committed to building a community of faith that is “led by Inuit, for Inuit.”

The Annual Council Nunavut Work offering supports this ministry to children and families in Nunavut through the Pathfinder and Adventurer clubs. “The relationships that Pastor Bakunzi and his family are developing are rebuilding trust with Inuit people,” said Charles Ed II Aguilar, president of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference.

As she closed her offering appeal, Glass said, “When I was growing up, my mom would often read us stories about the missionaries overseas. Pastor Bakunzi and his family are missionaries within the North American Division. Imagine with me how excited an Inuit child in Iqaluit will be receiving her first [Pathfinder] patch from an elder, in her own language.”

Glass called on the group to join her in giving to support the people in Nunavut, saying, “The residential schools operated by the Canadian government and Christian churches broke the trust of the Inuit people and separated their families. Our church now has the opportunity to care for the well-being and culture of this people group. Let us be a church where the love of Jesus makes us worthy of that trust.”

The original version of this story was posted on the North American Division news site.