Monday, May 2, 2011

SPRING!!!

Alaskan Redpoll. Photo by Keith Ramos
Spring is fully under way now in Galena. We have night temperatures that are staying just above freezing and this is allowing the massive snow fall this year to finally melt! I have determined that the proper attire for this season may be scuba gear being that everything is wet. The Sun is up by 4 am and it is still dusk at midnight. Here comes "the land of the midnight sun"!!

Galena Bible Church had an awesome Easter weekend. Saturday morning we held a work day at the church building and did some major Spring cleaning. I'm so blessed by the servant-hearted nature of God's people. In the afternoon, the Good News Kids Club held a community Easter egg hunt and club meeting at the church.
Me telling the story of the real Easter Egg. It was a regular egg with the inside blown out. That way when I cracked it open it was empty, just like the tomb!
 
Bright Easter Eggs are easier to find when everything is still white!

We had 32 children that came from the community. Kids Club is lead by a lady at the Bible Church, who teaches the older children of the church to actually lead the club. They lead the games, songs, missionary story, and Bible verse memory time. It's really awesome to see them leading their piers to know Christ!

Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures that were taken on Easter Sunday. As of yet, I do not have them. We had 73 in attendance on Easter Sunday morning! It was the first time I have counted how many were there. We have had several Sundays that have looked about that full since we have been here. The amazing part is the composition of the congregation. There were two 15 passenger vans of students from the dorm, and 5 or 6 others that found rides with other people. So over half of our congregation was in High School! We had our normal potluck after church, but had a breakfast theme. It was a delicious success!

Along with the many highs of ministry there is also ministry that is eternally important, but not enjoyable at all. Spring has historically been the time when suicide takes place at a much higher rate in the villages. This has been told to me by more people than I can count. It seems contrary to what one would think, since the sun is shining, and it is much warmer outside. Galena lost a young man in this way on Good Friday. He grew up in Galena and his parents still live here. His body was returned to Galena for burial and many people came from villages around to support the family. I visited with the family several times during the week and attended the funeral which was done in the same way as I have previously written. One family that is a part of our Church was related to this man. They also lost another relative in the next village over on Good Friday who died of hypothermia.

Thus is life in Spring. We praise God for the privilege of participating in the work that he is doing. We pray that just as new life begins in Spring, so also would new life begin in the lives of people who would come to know the author of Spring.

Things you can be praying for:
- We still lack the full funds to accomplish our projects for the Summer. Would you please pray and consider how you could help meet these financial needs.
- Pray that HOPE would out weigh despair in the lives of young men in the bush. Pray that we would have opportunity to give Hope to the hurting.
- Pray for us as we continue to make travel plans.

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