The small aircraft buzzed along between two vast expanses of whiteness. The long Arctic night was approaching fast. Above the airplane was a low, threatening deck of clouds. Below him was a seemingly limitless expanse of snow and ice covering the tundra. Somewhere out there in that whiteness was a lone boy and his dog team.

John Chambers, missionary pilot at Barrow, Alaska, had been asked to assist in the search. The local men from the village had gone out by land in their dogsleds looking for the boy. They had searched for two days, to no avail. During the few short hours of daylight, the temperature climbed to about ten degrees; during the Arctic nights, it plummeted to well below zero. The boy had already been missing for two days. Any longer, and there would be no hope of his survival.

The search was wearying. It is easy to get lost in the Arctic, even in an airplane! Will Rogers, the cowboy, entertainer, and humorist from Oklahoma, had perished in an airplane crash not far from the spot where Chambers and the ground teams were searching. Punishing winds, freezing temperatures, unpredictable weather, icing on the leading edge of the wing, and the ever-present danger of a whiteout were always factors to take into consideration.

On this day, John Chambers only had a narrow window of 500 feet for visible flying. Any higher, and he would be lost in “the soup.” Any lower, and he would smash into the unforgiving terrain. Because the whiteness below and the whiteness above looked exactly the same, it was very hard to tell how high he was above the ground. He had to keep a constant watch on his altimeter to judge his altitude.

His aircraft, a Cessna 170, was dubbed “Arctic Messenger.” The plane was owned by the Presbyterian mission agency that had sent John Chambers, his wife, and their baby girl to the farthest point north on the North American continent. Here, at the fringes of civilization, few people would take an infant girl. But believing that God had sent them, Chambers and his wife Barbara had set out in faith for the land of the far north with their young daughter Sara. How Chambers wished he could be back with them in the warmth of their dwelling and the safety of the ground!

As Chambers continued to check the vast snowfields for any sign of the missing boy, he noticed the sky lowering. The narrow gray circle of the horizon became only a tiny band. The “Arctic Messenger” was flying in and out of the base of the low clouds with little room to spare. He looked to his left and saw that the leading edge of the left wing was darker than the usual bright yellow. Ice! Any pilot in the Arctic knows that ice on the edge of the wing can change the plane’s aerodynamics, denying the needed lift and threatening disaster. With nothing else to do, Chambers dropped the nose of the plane toward the ground, seeking to be out of the moisture.

Skimming the hostile ground, he turned toward Oarlock Island in a small inland bay about 30 miles from Barrow. A tiny black speck in the wind-packed snow became visible. John skimmed yet closer for another look. It was a dog team! And what appeared to be a person! Now the essential question: was the person alive? Was it the missing boy?

Spotting a lake a half-mile away from the person and dog team, John Chambers gently put his plane down on its frozen surface. The skis attached to the landing gear (in place of wheels or floats) skimmed the snow and settled down onto the frozen lake. John Chambers clambered out of the cockpit along with his Eskimo companion; the two men tightened the fur linking of their parkas to their faces as a protection from the biting Arctic air.

After trotting across the frozen landscape for half a mile, they came across the Eskimo boy and his dog team. The boy was too cold to move, and he was exhausted from almost three days with nothing to eat and only snow to drink. He had stayed alive by “hunkering down” with his dogs. Were it not for the “Arctic Messenger” and the brave missionary pilot, the boy probably would not have been found until his frozen body was recovered in the spring.

Ministry in the Arctic was full of many strange and difficult adventures for John Chambers. He was born in 1930, just as the world was awakening to the wonderful potential of aircraft. Raised in the rolling hills of central Pennsylvania, as a young boy, John always dreamed of being a pilot. He spent many hours building model airplanes.

His oldest brother was a pilot, and John never forgot the thrill of his first fifteen-minute ride in a bi-plane. His parents were faithful Christians, and they taught their children every day from an open Bible in the living room on their small farm. At the age of twelve, John Chambers acknowledged the Lord Jesus as his own Savior.

Chambers attended Houghton College in western New York. While there, he sensed God’s call upon his life to become a missionary. Dreams of being a pilot were laid aside in the more important calling of taking the light of God’s Word to a foreign field locked in darkness.

He was startled one day to hear a presentation from a representative of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. Could it be that he could use his interest in aviation to advance the spread of the Gospel? He began to focus his attention on the needy field of South America, and the possibility of using aviation to reach the isolated tribes in the interior of Brazil.

After finishing his ministry studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, John Chambers applied for service in Brazil. He took flight training in the summer of 1956. A year later, he married a young lady named Barbara Cross, a girl who shared his interest in serving the Lord as a missionary.

John and Barbara Chambers never forgot the snowy day in March of 1958 when a letter arrived, asking them to consider service in Barrow, Alaska. After seeking the Lord’s direction, the young couple decided to go north instead of south.

The Chambers ministered for many years on the rocky shore of the Arctic Ocean. They came to dearly love the Eskimo villagers among whom they ministered. Chamber’s skill as a pilot was a tremendous help to the scattered villages in the far north Brooks Mountain Range. The people there depended upon him as their shepherd, advisor, and friend. Chambers officiated their marriages, instructed them in God’s Word, brought medicine for their sick, and buried their dead.

He also helped the people find whales at sea! He would spot the creatures from the air during the summer whale hunts and inform the hunters. He also flew Eskimo hunters out over the tundra to find the caribou herds. The missionary pastor loved his people, and the people loved their aviator pastor.

Alaska is known as the “land of the midnight sun.” It is also a land of constant darkness during the long winter months when the sun never rises above the horizon. December to February, Chambers did his best to take advantage of these months of confinement. He led hymn sings, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and sweet fellowship times where the children played games, read books, and happily passed the long hours of darkness with bright activity. Wherever the light of the Gospel appears, the darkness of superstition is dispelled. Truly, thanks to the ministry of John and Barbara Chambers, the people that walked in Arctic darkness saw a great light in the preaching of the Gospel!

Sources and Further Reference:

Chambers, John. Arctic Bush Mission: The Experiences of a Missionary Bush Pilot in the Far North. Seattle, WA: Superior Publishing Company, 1970.