Some experiences teach lessons for a lifetime. Especially the failures. Is the word quit on your mind today?
July 1979
We were young. Idealistic. Newly married.
We spent some of our honeymoon at the Northland Mission base in Pickle Lake, Ontario. NM served indigenous people in Northern Ontario.
Our summer job was working with Dale and Alberta Cummins and Northland Mission to host Bible Schools for children and evening church services. We were rookies. This was our first assignment.
By July, Jocelyn and I concluded our time in Sachigo Lake and were heading to Fort Severn and on to Attawapiskat. Each site was accessible by aircraft only.
Jocelyn washed our clothes using an old washboard and a bucket. We cooked on a Coleman stove. Had to go on a hike to use the facilities. No showers for four weeks. I had no success snaring rabbits or catching fish. We tried hard but felt like failures. She surmised that if we could survive that summer we could survive anything in our marriage and ministry. She was right. 
Done
After a few discouraging days of ministry in Attawapiskat we asked the mission director to fly us out early. We were done.
On the morning of our flight, a resident asked us why we were leaving. We explained our discouragement. He said to us, “You are exactly what this community needs. You are leaving too soon.” Those words echoed in our minds on the long flight.
We learned a lesson that summer which served us for the next 43 years – “It’s always too soon to quit.”
What are you facing in your life that makes you feel like you’re failing or wanting to quit? Finish, don’t quit. God is faithful.
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