"Heretic" and Hero
Yvon Hurtubise was born in 1914 during some very hard times. Both his grandparents had to leave their home in Quebec to look for work in Northern Ontario. They laboured in lumber camps or on the railroad until they could buy land and settle their families. His father, Elzéar, found a farm in Lavigne, near the tip of Lake Nipissing.
At a very young age Yvon had a desire to read the Word of God. He often asked the priest for a copy only to be told that he would become crazy if he read it! In 1942, Rev. J. R. Boyd (who Yvon thought was a priest) sent the offer of a New Testament to every home in the community. Yvon ordered a copy and Mr. Boyd, along with Wilf Wellington, delivered the Bible personally. Then, every month, Mr. Boyd traveled the forty-eight miles to explain the Word of God to the Hurtubise family. The day after the visit Yvon explained to his younger siblings what had been said since they understood little English.
One spring, Mr. Boyd came to visit along with Mr. W. H. Frey. Yvon and his brother were plowing. Mr. Boyd took the plow in his hands and went to work while Mr. Frey explained the Scriptures to the boys.
Mr. Boyd invited Yvon to spent the weekend in Sudbury and on Sunday, at church, he asked if anyone wanted to receive Jesus. Yvon raised his hand. After a few weeks, his mother and brothers and sisters also came to know the Lord. Yvon wanted to be baptized but first he wanted to tell his father, a formidable man of whom everyone was afraid, about his decision.
The priest told Mr. Hurtubise that Yvon was a heretic and deserved to die. His father became hostile and threatened to kill all his children. He yelled, “I have enough ammunition to take care of you all.” On one occasion he held a rifle to his wife’s chest and asked her to come back to the Catholic church. She refused. He dropped the rifle but soon afterwards left the family to live with his sister and never returned.
In 1944, Yvon left the farm to study at Toronto Baptist Seminary. At the same time Marion Ford left Toronto to teach school in Sudbury, eventually becoming a missionary-deacon in Boyd’s church. One thing led to another and just a month before Yvon’s graduation and their marriage, Yvon was called to become pastor at a small church in Malartic.
The town was a poor mining community full of immigrants. Yvon and Marion did door-to-door visitation but were often followed by groups of youth yelling, “Don’t let them in. They are communists, Swiss, Baptists.” They held open-air services in an empty lot but people passing would honk their horns or rev their engines to try to drown them out.
Yvon was invited by Lorne Heron to hold open-air meetings in Val d’Or. Authorities told them to leave but they were not breaking any laws or blocking traffic so they stayed. Soon a crowd of people appeared and blocked the street. The crowd was followed by the police who arrested the missionaries. Heron was sentenced to two months in prison, Marion and Yvon were sentenced to serve a month, accused of coming to Malartic with the purpose of disturbing the peace.
The Hurtubise stayed in Malartic for over five years until the town began to die and the people of the congregation moved on to find work elsewhere. They then moved to Valleyfield. Things were no easier there. During meetings, people would open the doors and throw rocks at them. At one point the building was burned to the ground. They found it difficult to even rent a place to live since people had been warned about them. When a church building was erected, they prepared an apartment in the basement. Eventually Yvon was able to build a home.
In 1964, the family moved to Drummondville. Two years later they were able to put up a church building and in 1978, the congregation had grown so much that they needed to double the size of the original structure.
Yvon became part of a team whose purpose was to train young people who were willing to give their summers to do evangelism in Quebec. From Drummondville alone, remarked Yvon, nine young men went into ministry, three went on to teach in Christian schools, and several young women married pastors or went into overseas missionary service.
Through the young people and the radio ministry, contacts were made in other towns. Out of these connections, churches were eventually formed in St-Hyacinthe, Sorel-Tracy, Richmond, and Action Vale.
Yvon officially retired in 1983, but continued to serve as interim pastor in several churches. Marion spent much of her time in translation and preparing courses for students in seminary. On the day she passed into the presence of the Lord in 1991, she was still working on a tenth course. Yvon later remarried and after the death of his second wife he went to live with his daughter and son-in-law. He passed into eternity in 1999.
One of his grandchildren wrote this about her grandfather:
Dear Grandpa, I love you very much. I admire all that you have done for the Lord. To me, you are a hero of the faith. You are an example for me because your life speaks of great faith in the Lord. I want you to know that you leave behind you all the fruit of what you sowed.