Monday, August 22, 2011

Fall means "HURRY!!"

Fresh from the garden: Kale, Carrots, and broccoli.
We grow 'em weird here!
 I feel a bit like Paul Revere as I hurry about the chores of early Fall, only the chant that you can here me yelling is, "The snow is coming! The snow is coming!" There is a business that has occupied my time and the time of those around me in wrapping up the details of summer before the barges quit running, school begins, moose season starts, and the snow comes (there should be a dramatic "dun dun dun" sound when your read that last statement.) We've been spending time getting to know the new believers that have moved into the community, and have been helping them work through the details of firewood and meat for the coming winter.
My first attempt at homemade Cajun Moose Boudin to make room in the freezer. It is quite good if I do say so myself.
Church has been such a blessing. The teachers and dorm staff arrived back in Galena 2 weeks ago, and the dorm kids arrived this past Saturday and Sunday. Church was full once again, and we didn't even have all the dorm kids there!! We are so excited to see what God has in store for this school year.
We'll begin Sunday School again the first Sunday of September. Shell is organizing a kids Sunday school class and we'll be starting another class for teens and adults. We completed our series on the names of God with a sermon on Yahweh Roi "The LORD my Shepherd" with a study of Psalm 23.
 
 I did manage to get a couple of fishing trips in over the past couple of weeks. Being that I'm not a resident until I have lived here a full year, I was unable to do any Salmon fishing with a set net. Instead I caught Pike.
Going to take a lot of these to feed the family through the winter...


Oh wait...they do come in a bigger size

Meat is not a readily available commodity in the "Bush" unless you go get it yourself. Like firewood, and groceries, meat is one of those "chores" that you have to get when it is available to harvest so that you will have it through the winter when nothing is accessible.

MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY!
As I have mentioned before, the Bible church hosts a potluck ever Sunday so that we can minister to the teens at the boarding school. If we did not do this they would have to choose between coming to church or eating lunch. Since there are only two meals served on the weekends that would be a big sacrifice!
*Would you, your Church, your Sunday school class, Bible study group, or small group like to collect food to cover a main dish for our potluck? We have people willing to prepare the food, and everyone else brings a side or a dessert. Your main course would help the small group of believers be able to effectively meet this need.
If this is something that you would be interested in helping with please let me know.

Things you can be praying for in the coming weeks:

- Pray for safety for the hunters that will be traveling the waterways of the Delta in search of this year's meat. Pray that the believers would be able to be successful in helping each other meet this need. 
-  Pray that the believers who serve the dorm students in different capacities would have the ability to show Christ's love for them. 
- Pray for Shell and Clint to have safety in travel to Anchorage to see a pediatric ophthalmologist and a pediatric cardiologist.  We discovered Clint has a heart murmur that needs further evaluation, and while he's there he'll get new glasses

Monday, August 8, 2011

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.