 with
guest:
Joe Mulwain
Both my parents were musical and used to play for old-fashioned barn
dances like they had a long time ago. That's where I learned to play
the guitar -- my dad and a sister taught me. But for many years my
parents were alcoholics. When I was little I saw a lot of bad things
happen, but my eight sisters and I were not abused.
Then in the 1950s, my parents made a commitment to Jesus Christ one
January right after New Years. They changed, joined the church, and
became officers in the Salvation Army. They began to travel and preach
extensively in our area, and even as far away as Toronto. My dad was
leader of the [Salvation Army] band, and they started a family choir. I
began playing guitar in the church before I was thirteen year old.
But, basically, I think I was doing it just to please my parents and
to get them off my case. They talked to me about forgiveness, repentance
and salvation, but I still had a hard time believing it because I had
seen the kind of life they led before.
I started working with my dad in the bush when he wasn't traveling.
At 13, I was working in the portable sawmills, and that's when I had
my first taste of alcohol. Although I still went to church, I started
doing my own thing and partying. My parents didn't jump all over me
and tell me I was no good. Instead, they prayed a lot for me and were
kind to me. On my sixteenth birthday, when I arrived home drunk from a
drinking party, they took me aside and gave me a gift. That really
surprised and impressed me! I had expected them to bawl me out.
When my mom died of cancer, I hated God for it, and I despised
Christians. My dad remarried, but one day he went missing in the Skeena
River in the winter time. He and his partner had shot a moose across the
river, but the only thing they found was their boat and other things
scattered all over the ice.
That's when I started taking drugs and more alcohol, stronger stuff
to try to drown out the sorrow. But it didn't get any better. I
started losing more of my family. My older sister died of leukemia like
my mom had, and then my youngest sister got the same thing.
But just before she died something changed in my own life. It
happened in 1979 between Christmas and New Years.
We were sitting and drinking in one of the houses in the village.
Something came over me. I believe it was the Spirit of God that touched
me. Some of my drinking friends were talking about church -- it still
seems kind of strange to me that when people are drinking they often
talk about religion and Christianity!
As they talked, I remembered my parents. They were both gone, but
their preaching came back to me. I broke down and cried like a baby. My
friends got worried because they didn't know what was wrong with me,
and they couldn't stop me from crying. So they called for a man to
come over who was a Christian. He brought his Bible along and showed me
Scripture. We got down on our knees right there at the party and he
prayed with me. That was the beginning of my Christian walk.
So when I visited my younger sister in the hospital, before she died,
I had a whole different outlook on life and death. I had learned how to
deal with my anger and hatred for God. The people around me didn't
understand how I could change in such a short time from the bitter,
hateful person I was. But my stony heart had been shattered by the
Spirit of God that night at the drinking party.
Being born again is just the beginning of Christian life. Joe
explains what he needed to do to nurture his new life in Christ.
For a whole year after, I just sat in church and listened. In my
heart I wanted to learn as much as I could about the Word of God. After
the year was up, some church friends said they were looking for someone
to play guitar for them. They asked me, and one thing led to another.
Pretty soon I was singing and giving my testimony. I just kept going on
and standing for the Lord. I believe that only the truth will set us
free.
I did have some fear. I had thoughts like, "I'm too young. I
don't know anything." But then I read what the Lord said to
Jeremiah: "Just open your mouth and I will speak through you."
So that is what I've been believing -- that it was the Lord's will
that I become His servant, not only in my village, but to other Native
communities all through the Nass Valley.
Many First Nations people seem to struggle quite a bit when they
become Christians, but when I first started to minister to people, I
took 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 as my guideline to be a leader and role
model. It says:
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do
righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can
light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and
Belial (Satan)? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are
the temple of the living God. As God has said, ‘I will live with them
and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my
people.' ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate,' says the
Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a
Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters,' says the Lord
Almighty." (NIV)
All these years these verses have helped me to keep my mind on the
Lord and not go back to the things I used to do. I know He has set me
free from them because, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free
indeed"! (John 8:36 -- NIV).
Joe was born and raised in Cedarvale, BC. He is of Tsimshian and
Gitsan heritage, and has lived nearby in Kitseguecla with his wife for
over thirty years.
What you have just read was adapted from a television broadcast of
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