VBS!!!

S.P.A.M 2011 Mission Team from Anacortes WA

This past week has been a busy one. A week ago Thursday we picked up a mission team that had just boated into Galena for a week long mission trip and VBS. They had spent a week serving at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp, and then spent two days in Ruby, Alaska doing a mini-VBS before coming to Galena. They enjoyed one day off before jumping into ministry in Galena. Shell and I housed the four girls from Washington and our niece Kaylin for the 7 days that they were in Galena. The girls were really excited to sleep in real beds and get to use flushing toilets after their week up river.

VBS Games

 The teens did a fantastic job with VBS. Their Youth Leader, James Ruble, taught the kids in an excellent and engaging way. We ended up having about 12 kids that attended VBS and we were so excited about the turnout.

VBS was from 2-4 Saturday through Wednesday. During the mornings the teens served in the community by cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood, cleaning native elders homes, and helping with church projects. In the evenings we tried to give them some fun outings. We went bear viewing at the "mall" (our affectionate name for the city dump). We took James out pike fishing one evening, and though it was rainy, we still managed to pull in 18 northern pike. We also took the teens shooting at our local rifle range, where they were able to shoot 8 different varieties of rifles and pistols.

The Bible Church was so blessed to have this team here and we are so grateful for their service and love for us. Sunday was a great day. We had a large number of people return from their summer trips. We looked at El Shaddi - "God Almighty (God who is sufficient)" and learned of God's sufficiency for the patriarchs, Job, Naomi, and us.

Things you can be praying for this week:
- Safety for dorm staff as they return this week.
- Begin praying for the Teens of Galena, that they would grow a hunger to know Christ.
- Pray that the Galena Bible Church would be ready to accomplish the task of loving these students with an unconditional kind of love.