A permanent grin was on my face as we taxied up the Dryden Airport runway.  Bundled in our snow pants, heavy jackets, winter boots and multiple layers underneath, we rose above the -38 plus windchill factors on the earth beneath us in a Cessna Caravan.  Our pilot, Norm Miller, had never flown up the east side of the Hudson's Bay, but had done all he knew to prepare the way for safe flight, fuel stops and the comfort of his passengers.  I could hardly believe I was on my way to Puvirnituq, Quebec!  In January!
Thirty-three years ago, I spent a summer in northern Manitoba, experiencing cross-cultural missionary life for six weeks.  Although we drove by paved road most of the way to the small Metis community of Young's Point, I had the opportunity to fly with our missionary supervisor, Gary Brown, over the community and the lakes nearby where the NCEM aviation base was located in those days.  So apart from a twenty-minute flight in a 172 twin float plane, my small aircraft experience was nil.
I imagined committing myself to serving as a single missionary to a remote place in Canada's north when I sensed God's call on my life.  Living in a humble, rustic cabin, hauling water and burning wood was the reality I expected.  Learning a language and reaching people with the Gospel was what I envisioned my future to be.
Fast-forward to 2018, I have already served as a missionary but not in a village setting.  We have spent all our career in the urban environment, church-planting and now directing missionaries scattered across Canada.  I have raised three kids to adulthood and have become quite accustomed to running water, internet and moderate winter conditions (between my warm house and my remote-start vehicle!).  I thought my dreams of traveling and experiencing the "true north" would not be realized.
Sitting in this nine-passenger plane, soaring high above vast woodlands of Ontario with lakes and rivers winding through it to the snow-covered tundra of northern Quebec, I grinned ridiculously as this dream was coming true for me!  I would be landing in PUV, land of the Inuit and home to a single missionary woman who has served there for over twenty years.  She was living my dream, but in God's providence, I would see and hear what life was like for her and somehow bless and serve her through our visit to her home and beloved village. 
God is so good!