With beginnings in one of the most remote areas of the world, and a ministry among primitive aborigines from 1946 to 1961, Gleason and Kathryn Ledyard were gradually led by the Lord into another equally unique ministry. (Read about their Arctic Ministries and exciting adventures in their book Eskimos.) In the early days it was visiting Eskimo camps by dog team, traveling over the snow-covered Arctic tundra at a snail's pace of four to five miles an hour, sleeping in igloos weeks and months at a time. Or there were those many years when the Ledyards flew their own ski or float equipped airplane on trips as long as two months through the Canadian Central Arctic, often traveling 5,000 miles on each trip. Gleason and Kathryn came away from one bad crash without a scratch or bruise, and Gleason survived a second one. During those years, Kathryn conducted school, and the Eskimo children started to learn English along with other subjects. Gradually, English Bibles were introduced, but the Ledyards wished there was a translation that could be easily read and understood. It wasn't until several years after the Ledyards came out of the Arctic and extensive surveys were made in relation to home missions, that the work of translating an easy-to-read text was started. After four years, working long hours each day, the translation of the NEW LIFE Testament was completed. Considerable research was done as the project progressed. A list of all the words used was recorded and the result was a basic vocabulary of 850 words. (See partial list.) The whole Bible was completed in 1986, the cumulative work of 16 years. Each succeeding year, the outreach ministry of Christian Literature International has grown. NEW LIFE Study Testaments and Bibles — the concept of which got its start in an igloo in the Canadian Arctic a half-century ago — are being used and appreciated by millions of people world-wide.