CRC Missionary: 'We Would Have Died'

Nigerian missionary John Orkar and his wife were among the 240 stranded motorists who were rescued from their vehicles along a frigid, snow-swept stretch of Hwy. 402 in southwestern Ontario this week. They were en route to visit family in Michigan.

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee community development worker, who recently retired, was taken with his wife to a town hall in the community of Watford, where they received warm food and a place to sleep.

"We really thank God, otherwise we would have died in the car," he told a reporter for CTV National News of their rescue (see him at 2:35 of this news clip).

By Wednesday, the storm has let up and traffic stared to move again. But it was two days of life-threatening winter weather for those traveling on the highway between London and Sarnia.

In the spirit of the Christmas season and out of sheer good neighborliness, a Christian Reformed Church congregation in the area also opened its doors to motorists stranded from the heavy snow and high winds.

East CRC in Strathroy, Ontario, is the church that has took in motorists, according to what someone reported on their Twitter account. About 75 people had taken shelter in the church by early afternoon on Tuesday. One couple said they felt like "Joseph and Mary at the inn."

As snow covered and closed roads in southern Ontario on Monday and Tuesday, interim director of CRC Home Missions Ben Vande Zande’s vehicle was stranded. He was taken to a truck stop and from there was given shelter in a farmer’s home.

It is still too early to tell if other CRC employees made it through the deluge of snow by taking a route through Detroit, or if they were traveling that stretch of highway

The CRC has offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Burlington, Ontario.

Heavy snow and zero visibility forced the Canadian government to declare the eastbound 402 in Sarnia a disaster area. Helicopters worked to remove stranded people from their vehicles, according to news accounts.

The Ontario Provincial Police estimate 360 vehicles were stuck as the storm dumped snow over Highway 402 about 20 miles east of Sarnia, Ontario.

With both directions of traffic closed on the highway, the Blue Water Bridge, which connects Port Huron, Michigan, with Sarnia, Ontario, suspended passage of commercial traffic into Canada Monday.

The heavy snow brought people into Strathroy, seeking help and shelter.

"Church members were alerted at 3 p.m. Monday their help might be needed because local motels were full. The Salvation Army brought food. Firefighters brought 50 cots from the nearby Gemini arena," says the London Free Press.

"About 50 people struggled into the church Monday night and another 25 arrived late Tuesday. Another 80 were expected by bus to arrive at the town's Gemini Sportsplex Tuesday evening," says the newspaper.

The church has a kitchen and attached gym, where kids played basketball and parents played cards Tuesday. Cots and mattresses in classrooms provided sleeping quarters.

People hoped to get back on the road today, Wednesday, following a night in which snow squalls blew in off Lake Huron.