It is good to be home. Many ministry agencies call what we just did 'home service' but Galena is home for us.
We were incredibly blessed and encouraged from all of our time spent with family and friends and although we are waiting for churches to meet and decide if they will financially support us we feel the trip was successful.
We arrived home May 1st and jumped right into getting settled and catching up with everyone in the village. May is always a busy time of year, and also a transition into the summer projects. Our projects are compressed because of Chris agreeing to manage a Samaritan's Purse building project starting in July. Some of the projects are getting wood for the church and the parsonage, building a wood shed, repairing the church sewer, and a long list of general maintenance.
Break up happened May 8th this year. Here in Alaska 'break up' describes the river ice moving out. Thankfully it was uneventful, and we now look forward to using the river. Praise the Lord we were able to get all the wood we need for the parsonage and the church.
Graduation week involves lots of community events, a major one being the senior barbecue. Chris grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and enjoyed being with other men in the community who were also grilling. The joint Catholic and Bible Church Baccalaureate service was held at the Catholic church this year, and Chris led the closing prayer. Please pray for graduates as they make life decisions, especially for believers. Also pray for teens returning to their home villages for the summer. Many of them face difficult circumstances.
During this time we also enjoyed a visit from Shell's parents for 2 whole weeks. We had so much fun being together!
Shell and the kids have finished school for the year, and Preston headed off for Nashville, TN with the Galena Academic Pentathlon team. We are incredibly proud of him and so glad that his team qualified for nationals.
Chris just returned from a two day trip to Ruby, AK with the other men from Galena. They joined a Samaritans Purse team who was working on the volunteer lodging for the church building project in Ruby this summer. Ruby Bible Church is actually the mother church of Galena Bible Church and their log church building that was built in the 1950s was starting to rot and had a significant mold problem. Samaritan's Purse asked Chris to be the project manager for the construction of a new church building this summer. We are excited to see what God does through the efforts of Ruby Bible church in the coming years.
In summary:
-Praise the Lord for driftwood coming down the river, a team from Kaleo Church in Anchorage to help Chris get the wood out of the river as well as cut and stack wood at the church, and safety while working on it.
- Pray for teens returning home to challenging circumstances.
- Pray for seniors, especially believers, as they make life decisions.
- Pray the Lord would use the open positions at the school and dorm to bring more believers into the community
- Pray that the Lord would call a youth pastor to minister specifically to teens
