Good Broth to Warm Our Bones

by Hugh Steven

Recounts how a missionary to the Alaskan Eskimos helped translate the New Testament into their language

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction

Paperback

Published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Mekeisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book about Don and Thelma Webster, missionaries with Wycliffe who worked over ten years in Northern Alaska to translate the New Testament into the Inupiat language. Also shares about their relationship with Roy A., a native Alaskan born in 1898, and his role in helping the translation come to pass. Good hunting stories (edge of your seat kind), also enjoyed getting insight into the Inupiat culture.

[Randy Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great little book, which neatly tells the story of Eskimo Roy Ahmaogak and Wycliffe Missionary Don Webster. One of the best parts of this book is it spans a great deal of time, from the 1920s to the 1960s and Hugh Steven thankfully keeps you well informed as to where you are in the narrative. The setting of this story, the upper rim of Alaska, literally the top of the world, was one of the book's stronger parts, the weather is so extreme that simply surviving a single day is adventure in itself, and Webster learns this quickly when he naively takes off his glove while out with a hunting party and within seconds almost loses his hand. The great shelf's of ice is also interesting, especially how Roy and his son get marooned on one and are saved from death only by a rare shift in the wind, when the ice island re-attached itself to the land, if some fifty miles south of where they were. Hugh Steven handles nicely the dual aspect of the story. The fact that there was a good deal of Presbyterianism in Alaska in the 1920s was somehow amazing to me. Over the course of the book we are taken on highs and lows, revivals and heartache of the death of one of the Webster's children and finally the irony of Roy Ahmaogak's death, only months before the dedication of the Inupiat New Testament, by getting choked when he tries to drink some mouth wash which was inadvertently left by his hospital bed side. A hugely ironic death for a man who spent all his life living and hunting in remote places with such severe weather, that he literally was only minutes away from death at any given point of the day for nearly seventy years.

[Scott Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love getting into the real-life stories of normal people attempting extraordinary things. God's direction, faithfulness, and patience were evident as he grew the faith of His children and equipped them for the very special work of translating the Bible for the Inupiat people of Northern Alaska. I love, too, how the desire for the Bible in Inupiat came as much from within the people as from without.

[Mel Jaeger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Tells the story of 2 different individuals whose lives intertwine half way in. Very interesting and can't imagine growing up as an Eskimo and that being how you view the world!