Paul Patkotak

I was born on November 24, 1891, in a snow house in the foothills of Alaska at the back of Wainwright on the Uttokkak River.

During those days, there was a shortage of food in the village and the people were starving. I was the youngest of six children, so when I was born, my dad said to my mama, “We have no food to feed him, best to put him in the snow rather than for him to be hungry.” My mother didn’t say a word. She loved me so much that she would rather have died herself than let me die.

When I grew to be a teenager, missionaries came to where we lived. They loved the Lord and had been truly converted. A missionary lady taught us in school. I read my Bible, but couldn’t understand the big words. When I finished the seventh grade, I had a desire to go to school elsewhere to get a better education, so I could understand the big words in the Bible.

One day the schoolteacher said, “We have foxes here and they are worth money. We have the white fox, cross fox, silver fox, and red fox. I wished I could go trapping, so my older brother showed me how to use the trap in the snow.

When I was about seventeen years old, I told my dad, “Make me some snowshoes about three or four feet long, so I can use them to walk over the soft snow.” After my dad finished the snowshoes, I put my traps in a bag and took a big rifle on my back and walked about ten miles over tundra (flat country) to where the foxes were. I saw their tracks around the knoll. When I caught a fox in a trap, it made me so happy. I said to myself, “When I catch enough to pay for my fare to go outside (of Alaska) to get more education, I will be glad.”

By the time that trapping season was over, I had nineteen white fox skins. I asked my dad, “Can I go away so I can go to school?” He said, “Yes, you can go; your older brother will take care of us.” The Government boat took me to Nome, Alaska, for nothing. When I got there, I saw the Alaska Shipping Company boat. I talked to some of the officers on the dock and said, “I want to go to Seattle by boat.” They said I could go if I had the money to pay my fare. I told them I had no money, but I did have fox skins. One of the officers said, “You can go. We like fox skins; they are worth money.” I asked how many skins he wanted and he said, “Five,” so they took me to Seattle, Washington, for those five fox skins.

That was in 1911. I attended seminary for two years. Then, one day, I stood on the street looking at the many churches. I looked at one and turned around and there was another, and another, and another. I had not moved a foot. As I looked at those different churches, I thought, ‘Which one of these churches is the closest to the Lord?’ I had read in Revelation that the Lord does not want “lukewarm” people; He wants them to be “hot.” While I was standing there, an old man came up to me and asked, “Where are you from?” I said, “I am from Alaska and I came here to get an education. I thought I would go to school here so I would be able to understand the big words in the Bible.”

I was the youngest of six children, so when I was born, my dad said to my mama, “We have no food to feed him, best to put him in the snow rather than for him to be hungry.”

He asked me, “Are you hungry for the Lord?” I said, “Yes.” He said to me, “I will show you where to go. The name of the church is the Apostolic Faith.” When I stepped inside, I felt something. It was as though someone said to me, “These are the people you are looking for.”

The preacher came to the pulpit and the service started, then came time for testimonies. A black sister thanked God for saving her soul. She said that God does not look on the color of the skin; He looks right down into people’s hearts. The sin I had committed against the Word of God began to move in my heart and condemn me. I was surely under conviction! I wanted the preacher to stop preaching so I could pray and call on God to have mercy and take the sin out of my heart.

At the altar call, I went forward with such a cry in my heart, asking the Lord to forgive me of my sins. I prayed about five minutes before He heard that prayer and I knew my sins were all gone. I felt so light—no weight on me! My sins were gone, washed away by the Blood of Jesus! I faced the people in the congregation, whom I had never seen before, and told them I had found Jesus.

I wanted to keep talking about Jesus. It was so wonderful what the Lord had done for me. I told the people, “I am a full-blooded Eskimo, who was hungry for the Lord, and now I found Him.” I remembered the words that Jesus said to His disciple, Thomas, “Blessed are they that have not seen, but yet have believed.” From that day to this, I have been happy.

After six years of schooling in Seattle, I wanted to go back to Alaska to see my old dad and mother before they died. When I arrived home, I asked my dad, “Do you remember when I was born, that you wanted Mom to put me in the snow, because of lack of food in the village?” Then I told him that I wanted him to go to Heaven. I said, “I have something that has made me happy ever since I found Him, and that is JESUS, the Son of the living God!” I told my dad to call on God and ask Him to have mercy and take the sin out of his heart as He had done for me.

My dad prayed and called on God to take the sin out of his heart. All of a sudden, the Lord saved his soul as He had mine. It made me so happy. He said, “I am ready to go like you, Sonny; I have found Jesus too. You put such a hunger in my heart to find God, even though I am an old man of eighty years old.”

Before my dad died, he had a vision. He saw a straight and narrow path from earth clear to Heaven. That path was brighter than the lighted igloo (we had a gasoline lamp in the igloo that we thought was the brightest light there was). He said he was going to follow the path, which was Jesus. He told me, “Sonny, you told me from the Bible that Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’” From that day forward, he never stopped talking about Jesus until he was called home. Some day, I will see him in Heaven. Best of all, though, I will see Jesus. God saved my mom also before He took her. How I thank God I had the privilege to tell both my father and mother about salvation.

When I am in trouble and need the Lord to help me, He always answers my prayers. In Barrow, Alaska, we have no trees; it is just bare land. We have snow and ice for many months of the year. In the early days, when springtime would come and the snow and ice would melt, we would look for driftwood and blubber for fuel. (We now live in plywood houses and burn natural gas and have electric lights.) In the fall of the year, a big blow starts.

“I have something that has made me happy ever since I found Him, and that is JESUS, the Son of the living God!”

One time, after a storm, I went down to the beach, about two miles away from where we lived, and I saw a lot of coal. Other people were going down on the beach, bagging up one bag of coal at a time, and carrying it to the top of the bluff. I did not want to tire my body, so I stacked my coal on the sand. While I was doing this, the wind started to blow again. I took a few sacks to the top of the bank. As I went, it got stormier and stormier. I said to myself, I will be too tired to take the coal on top of the bluff. I prayed on my knees and asked God to protect my coal and not let the waves bother it. When I got through praying, I went home instead of going to my pile of coal.

The wind blew hard after I got home and I worried a little and thought perhaps the coal would be gone. But I said, “I have prayed already; God has never failed me.” As soon as the wind had died down, some of the men went to the beach. When they saw the pile of coal, they said to each other, “That is too much of a miracle!” They wondered why the waves of the sea went around that pile of coal and then said, “This coal must belong to Paul Patkotak, a praying man!” It made me praise the Lord, that even the waves obey Jesus.

Another time, we were getting ready to go trapping. I had some seal meat for our seven dogs and some grub for ourselves. My wife and our daughter, who was not quite a year old, were with me. When we got to the place, about 75 miles east of Barrow, where we were going to trap white fox, we made up our mind to stay in an old sod igloo that someone had made many years before.

In the morning we had our devotions. After worship I heard a still, small Voice above my head say, “Paul, you had better leave your rifle with your wife!” We had only one rifle. I said, “No.” My dad always told me not to leave my rifle home. I heard again, “Something will come today!” I looked at my wife and she didn’t seem to hear anything. After a while I said to her, “The Spirit of God told me I better leave the rifle home.” My wife helped me hitch up the dogs, and when I was ready, I said, “Mush!” The dogs started to run. After I had gone about ten minutes or longer again a Voice said, “Paul, turn back quick! QUICK!” I put my foot on the brake of my sled to stop the dogs. I said, “Come, Haw!” Dogs always run faster when they are going home.

When I got home, I saw cartridges scattered on the snow and there was no cover on the rifle. My wife was slow coming out of the igloo. She usually comes out quick when she hears the sound of the dogs. I thought sure the polar bear had bothered her or eaten her.

Finally, she came out and said, “Arrah Nutnoot,” meaning something happened. She continued, “Two polar bears are out there dead!” She helped me unharness the dogs and tie them up by the chain before I looked. When I saw the polar bears, I thanked God. I could not keep still. I said, “Praise God, we have a lot of meat for our dogs and ourselves, and the skins are worth something, too.”

My wife said the mother bear had tried to crawl up on the igloo. Our little puppy was tied up in our hallway. My wife was cutting our last meat when she heard the puppy bark. She went outside and saw two polar bears by the meat rack. The mother bear was chewing something. She turned back quick, got the rifle, aimed it at the mother bear, and only one shot hit the mother. The bear turned and walked slowly to the sand where she dropped down dead. My wife then got on top of the igloo, which was a little higher, and with another shot dropped the cub.

The Lord has done so much for me. When I needed Him most, He never failed me. I could tell one miracle after another, but time will not allow it. The Lord rescued me in accidents, and in affliction. I feel like traveling on, no stopping along the way—like a big ship out at sea, going along, never stopping for a storm, but just going right on.