Man Cooking

This is what the Northern Lights look like when you have a cheap camera.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving!!

We are so thankful for our prayer team and ministry supporters. The work of ministry that we are doing and the impact on church and culture would be impossible if it was not for you! We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend. For Thanksgiving day itself we hosted 8 students from the dorm. Two young men and six young women from 8 different villages around the state. In fact the Galena Bible Church body hosted almost 80 students in our homes for Thanksgiving meals! Never before have I seen a church host 80 strangers in their homes for a family holiday. Such an amazing blessing! Way to go church!

My blog needs smell-o-vision!

The day after Thanksgiving I hosted a young men's event with one of the RA's at the Dorm. We called it "Man Cooking". The general premise is that young men need to know how to do more than heat up a hot pocket in the microwave before they graduate High School. It also has to be something that they can serve their grandpa and feel like a man while doing it. We hosted 8 young men in our home for this event and I taught them how to make Cajun Rice and Gravy with Moose Roast and Bear Andouille with a side of green beans (cooked with bacon and seasoning). To replace the sausage that they used I also taught them how to make Moose and Caribou Andouille sausage which I smoked the next day. And yes it was all as good as it sounds! The young men loved it, and would light up as you affirmed them as they did well at the tasks given them. Several of these young men have no father, or healthy male roll model. I look forward to doing this event again and having more time to build connection with these young men.

We finished preaching through the book of Titus, and I began this past Sunday preaching a series I'm titling "Blessing Home for the Holidays." This past Sunday we looked at Romans 7 and 8 and how we understand what it means to be conformed to the image of Jesus. We talked about family resemblance, and how we were made in the image of God but look like the world as a result of sin. I then showed how Christ brings us into adoption as children of God through His saving work. At the end I decided to give a formal invitation (something we do not regularly do). A young woman came forward and said that she wanted to put her faith in Jesus! Praise GOD! We have been doing some follow up with her to make sure she understands what that means. I look forward to seeing what the Lord does through this.

Things you can pray for:

• Please be praying for the young woman who put her faith is Jesus this past Sunday. Pray that opportunity to disciple her would come about.
• There is a spiritual attack on marriages that I have seen and I would ask you to pray for the Lord's protection and wisdom as we address this battle ground.
• My grandfather is in the final stages of his cancer and we are preparing for what we know is coming. I (Chris) have been asked to preach his funeral, which is a task I am humbled to undertake for a man who is a spiritual mentor and giant to me. 
• It is getting dark and cold. Pray for the community (especially men) who begin in this season to have thoughts of self harm. Pray that the hope of that the church has in Jesus Christ would penetrate the darkest corners of our culture.
• Pray for AKMissionConnection a new ministry that is being lead by a friend of mine who has the desire to web the Christian community of Alaska and beyond to help reach the state with the Gospel.

Why are you here?

It all started with a conversation involving a drunk hitchhiker. And no, that is not uncommon. It's pretty regular that I give rides to people who are walking about town, and it is quite often that that individual turns out to be at some level of intoxication. So it was with this gentleman. I didn't know it until after I had extended the invitation for a ride home. It was about half way around him stumbling in front of my car that I realized, "Oh boy, he's drunk". And not a little bit drunk, like buzzing drunk, but full out ask you a question  and then immediately not remember that he asked you anything drunk. And it started like this, "Whyyy arrre yyyou heeere?" Among other questions this one surfaced several times. Each time a little more emphatically asked: Why are you here?! Both inquisitive and accusatory. The question held the weight of "Why, of all the places that one could live, do you choose to live here?" It's cold, dark, and isolated. Ethnically we are a minority. Religiously we are a minority. Hey white guy, why here?
I drove him home and he said "I'm too drunk to go home...lets go for a ride!" I said no and he said, "Ok just drop me off at the end of the street." I drove him to the end of the street and he said, "I changed my mind. I want to go home." So we turned around and I drove him home. Then he didn't want to get out of the car. He just wanted to ask me the same question over and over. "Why are you here?" I told him I was here to give drunk guys a ride home. He laughed and finally got out of my car. As I drove away and saw him in the rear view mirror I heard his voice say again, "Why are you here?" And I answered him, "For you."
Why are you here? In the place that you are sitting reading this blog, why are you here? For whom does God have you living and serving to display Christ? Who is watching you and evaluating the worth of Christ based upon the model of Him you portray? In Titus 2 Paul urges Titus to teach bond-servants to be submissive to their masters so that they can do something quite interesting. He says that "in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior." (Vs 10) Many people are very concerned with how they dress because they know that people will evaluate them based upon what they wear. So it is for us in Christ Jesus. Do we put him on daily so that the world around us sees Christ in all his grace, mercy, patience, beauty, and love? Or do we portray Jesus as judgmental, arrogant, belittling, and indifferent? Paul urged the church in Corinth to "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." (1Cor 11:1) What example of Christ will they see? I pray that as they see me, they see the grace of God lived out in a redeemed man.
Why are you here?
Things to pray for:

• Pray for the Students and dorm staff that are at the dorms. Students are homesick and are looking forward to their Christmas break. Pray that dorm staff would have wisdom and patience with the students.
• Pray that God would continue to give us clarity as we seek to engage surrounding villages with the Gospel. 
• Pray for the marriages of the Galena Bible Church. Satan has been working to build indifference and isolation when God desires oneness and intentionality. Pray that God would give Shell and I wisdom as we give council on various levels. 
• Physical challenges - From faulty water wells, to broken transmissions there have been many physical challenges that missionaries have faced over the past month. When there is no one else to do these tasks we can feel overwhelmed. Pray that God would provide the resources necessary to meet every need.
• Please pray for Chris' grandfather in Baton Rouge Louisiana who is in the final stages of cancer.

What is success?

Seven people? Is seven people success? How about forty? Is that success? What about seventy? Is that success. Ruby, Huslia, Galena. Seven, forty, seventy. They're just places, and they are just numbers. But when you understand what they mean they hold a little bit more importance. The Bible church in Ruby runs about seven. The Community church in Huslia runs about forty. The Bible Church in Galena runs about seventy.  How about a hundred, about three hundred, about Six hundred fifty. That's the populations of these villages respectively. That's about ten percent of each village. Ten percent of the village regularly attends the local Bible church of that village. Ten percent! Do most churches impact ten percent of their communities lives? Not in most of my experience. What an amazing impact!

But what if the number is zero?

Zero

Year after year. Winter after winter. One funeral after another. Zero. Zero. Zero. What if a missionary lives the Gospel out in full view of the lives of a culture for one, two, three decades, and nothing. One brother and sister in missions spent 18 years in a neighbor village and finally had to leave because of health issues. No church. Is it success?

This is an important thing for missionaries to understand and be encouraged in. (By the way if you follow Jesus YOU are a missionary.) In Matthew 25:21 Jesus is sharing the parable of the Talents and says, "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"
Good and FAITHFUL...not good and SUCCESSFUL. What is success? It is in fact obedience to the will of God. Are you willing to be faithful in the things God has given you to do even if it means not being 'successful'?

October has been an extremely busy month. Galena Bible Church hosted a community church service in conjunction with the Yukon Jamboree, a sobriety awareness fiddle band event. The Bible Church sponsored Bill Pagerin, a Tlingit Native man who is a brother in Christ and president of a suicide prevention non-profit called Carry the Cure, to be the guest speaker of the Yukon Jamboree, and to preach at the community church service. We had about 80 people attend the church service including several local community members, and residents of other villages that came in for the Jamboree.

Since the end of September I have been preaching through the book of Titus. Two weeks ago we addressed the men of the church from Titus 2, and some amazing conversations have taken place since then by both younger and older men wanting to see men set the example of Godly leadership and character. We are quickly working on putting together a monthly "man skills" event where one christian man from the church will teach a "manly" skill (like how to skin an animal, how to sharpen a knife, or how to make a fishing net) to teens and younger boys, and then will share their testimony of what it means to grow as a man following Christ. We are also working on a men's Bible Study that will be taking place before work one day a week.

Things to be praying for:

• Shell and the kids are in Louisiana and Texas for two weeks visiting family. I'm holding down the fort in Galena. Pray for their protection.
• Pray for the Students at the boarding school who are experiencing homesickness, and other situations that cloud their ability to receive love from the dorm staff and members of the church.
• Pray for one young teen guy that recently decided to go home even after many of the men at the church poured significant effort into encouraging him to be the man God wants him to be. Pray that the Lord would lead him back to the truths lived before him.
• Pray the the Lord would continue to build a true unity amongst the body of believers at the Galena Bible Church so that this community would know we are disciples of Jesus by our love for one another.

Giving Thanks

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. (Luke 17:15-16)



I hope and pray that most days I would be like the Samaritan leper healed by Jesus: immediately grateful for the work of Christ in my life. But if I'm honest (a noble quality in a missionary, I know) I'm quite regularly like the other lepers that were healed but did not return to give thanks to Jesus for His work in their lives. Why do we do that? God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and all we can do is occasionally remember to thank him for our food. Lord where is the heart in me that falls at your feet giving thanks for healing me of the life ending disease of sin and death. Why not give thanks instead?

I had one of those moments during moose season this year. It was the last day that I was planning on hunting. The reason there haven't been any blog updates since August is that it's been moose season. Every opportunity is spent in the field with others to find a bull moose. For me up until that point I had seen only cow moose (female moose). I was thinking about how much I wanted to shoot a moose, not just for my own need, but so that I would have the ability to be able to give moose away and be generous. An average Bull Moose has close to 500 pounds of meat on it's body. That's enough for my family and enough to be generous with as well. It was about 6:30 in the evening on the night of the last hunt and I was hopeful. I had just sat down and in my spot about a mile out of camp when I heard the shot. It was from the direction of where my brother and nephew were hunting about a mile and a half away. I waited a couple minuets and then messaged them on our radios. Sure enough they had shot a moose. General rule of group moose hunting, is when a moose is on the ground everyone stops hunting and starts cutting and packing. So I started the mile and a half march over to where they were. I felt a bit down. "God," I thought, "It's not like I haven't been working hard at this for the past month. I really wanted to get a moose so that I could be on the giving end not just on the receiving end." (I think the parental term for this emotion is "ungratefulness".) And so this one sided conversation went for about a half mile. Then it (the quite voice of the Holy Spirit) hit me like a full charging bull moose: "What do you think you've been doing the past month?" I stopped on the trail and thought about each person that I had taken hunting on different trips through the season. Some (very) late night heart conversations around a campfire. Some whispered prayer times overlooking a field. Some pastoral care over a lukewarm MRE. I HAD been giving. But I had only been giving out of what had been given to me: God's amazing grace to a leper named Chris. At that moment I looked up and a double rainbow arched over the field that I was standing in. (For Real) And the last mile of my hike was a SWEET fellowship with my Father, who patiently gives what we really need at the time that we really need it. And then when cutting the moose my brother and nephew decided to give me the ENTIRE moose. So I did have a whole moose! I ended up giving about 180 pounds away. I turn back and give thanks. What's going on with you that you can do likewise?

Things to pray for:

• There has been an extra-ordinary amount of loss in the village recently. Tragic deaths, major family health problems, and hard relational circumstances have seemed to hit many in the faith community very hard. Pray that God's grace would in deed be sufficient to the believers and that His peace that passes all understanding would be tangible.
• Galena Bible Church is hosting a community church service at the City School gym this Sunday. Pray that our guest preacher (Bill Pagerin) would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to clearly share the Gospel.
• Galena YoungLife is hosting a Basket Ball clinic Oct 11th-14th. Pray that the YL Staff would have opportunities to share the Good News.
• This past Saturday Galena Bible Church sent 4 guys to Ruby to help the Bible Church there with some construction work. Pray that the team that came from Anchorage this week will be safe and will be a blessing to that small fellowship.

That all the world may know.

Galena SEND North Team doing bush style Church planting.

How far is the nearest 'like faith' church to where you are sitting right now? I'm not talking about the church that you necessarily attend. I'm talking about the closest church that shares at least the basics of Biblical Christian faith and practice where the Gospel is being preached and God is being worshiped. Could you walk there if you wanted to? Do you pass one or five as you drive to your church? What if you couldn't get there by car, or by walking? What if you had to fly, boat, or Snow Machine (Snow Mobile for non-Alaskans) if you wanted to attend church? Would you go?

Many of the villages in bush Alaska have no church presence whatsoever. Most that do have a church have one that probably does not have any type of pastoral leadership. Many villages that have a church may have one that is not of "like faith and practice". And so as one believer in a village recently told me, "My wife and I mostly stay at home on Sunday and try to study the Bible by ourselves, or we'll watch videos that our family sends us." For this couple the nearest church of like faith and practice is 36 miles by air, or 51 miles by river...one way! How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Rom 10:14-15)

Galena Bible Church has been under such a blessing from God over the past several years that we are now to the point where we are healthy enough to give attention and resources towards planting and supporting churches in surrounding villages. As you may recall we've made several trips to Ruby (41 air, 50 river miles from Galena) to support and encourage a mission church in that village. This past week we took 7 gift bags (soft sided ice chests with Gorilla-tape, a flashlight, chocolate and such) to Nulato and gave them to the faculty and administration of the city school there. We had a warm reception from the entire group and found some possible opportunities to connect again with that village.

On the Galena front, this past weekend was quite the busy one. A team of seven guys came out from ChangePoint Church in Anchorage and helped with our Youth Group Kick-Off, YoungLife Club Kick-Off, physical ministry to members of the church, and hosted an Airsoft Event for dorm kids that had over 70 participate! Including the ChangePoint team we had almost 80 people in attendance at church yesterday! Amazing!

Things you can be praying for:

• Discernment as we seek the Lord's direction for missions out of Galena Bible Church.
• Provision - as Moose season is upon us. For perspective sake: 1# ground beef in Galena = $8. Average adult bull moose weighs 1200# and has 560# of meat. 
• Protection - moose hunting involves lots of boating, and time in the woods.
• Personal - We just found out that my Grandfather (one of my three Spiritual Mentors) has terminal cancer. Pray that the members of my extended family who are not believers would see how he finishes and follow his example. Pray for me as it is very difficult to be away from them in this season.

Supply and Demand

Kinda like you're floating on air.

Grocery Shopping Bush Style

Do you remember learning about supply and demand when you took economics? The simple principle is that in general if there is a high demand for something the supply of that thing will either increase or the price will increase for the limited supply. If the demand is low then the price or quantity of the supply will decrease. Supply and demand. It's what makes our commerce economy function. Anyone else noticing that the price of food is going up? It has. We just bought a years worth, and I can say with certainty that the price has increased at least 10% from last year. Demand for food is still the same I'm assuming, but the supply has been the issue. Too much rain in the deep south, too little rain in the mid-west, all causing a reaction to the supply chain, and the price goes up.

God's economy and our economy are not the same. However there is a connection between the principle of Supply and Demand in God's economy. There is a demand for the Gospel. The Imago Dei in us cries out for it. The demand of broken, lost, and spiritually dead people is high. It's always been high. Human beings need the Gospel. It's essential. The exchange that takes place between the demand for the Gospel and the supply of the Gospel is not measured in dollars, but rather in the souls of men. When the supply of those carrying the Gospel is low the cost goes up. Souls are lost. This dear friends is THE MOST COSTLY THING IN THE UNIVERSE. Don't believe me? They are so valuable that Jesus exchanged his life for them. What could be more valuable than that! When the supply of those living and sharing the Gospel is high the cost is low. More people come to know the Lord. They see what he is doing in the lives of those saved by his Grace. The danger in this situation is that that the Gospel can become cheapened. We forget that not only did it cost Jesus his life, it will cost us ours as well.

Imagine with me for a moment that you are a 16 year old high school student. You attend a Bible camp during the Summer, hear the Gospel, realize your deep need for Christ and his transforming work, and become a disciple of Jesus. Demand met. You then return home to your village of 137 people, and now by default you are the MOST spiritually mature person in your village. What do you think the cost of the Gospel is going to be for you? Welcome to Alaska missions.

The Galena Bible Church in partnership with SEND North is working to get the Gospel into the hands of those who desperately need it. Thank you for your continued support prayer and encouragement as we seek to bring the Gospel to rural Alaska.

Things you can be praying for:

• The Fox family will be traveling to Allakaket to do a VBS. Pray that the Lord opens opportunities for continued missions there.
• Galena Interior Learning Academy (GILA) has 240 students enrolled for this coming school year. This is the most it has ever had. Pray that faculty and staff would be prepared for the challenges that this number will present. 
• Dorm staff will be returning this week to begin training before school starts. Pray that the believers among them will serve the Lord with gentle grace.
• Galena Bible Church will be starting Youth Group on Sunday the 26th. Pray that we will have wisdom to know how to best connect with students.

Of Kindom building and chickens.

Matthew 4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

Hold still.

We just recently (like 8 weeks ago) got 6 baby chicks that we are raising to have as laying chickens for eggs. This is mostly because Shell wanted to have them, and thought it would be fun for the kids. It is also because a dozen eggs at the store costs about $9. I have yet to determine if these eggs are going to be cheaper than the stores eggs after paying to heat their coop when it gets to -70 next winter. (I am praying diligently that we won't see those temps for several more winters.) Right now though, the chickens are simply consumers. They don't give anything back. They just eat. They eat a lot. I mean really, I've been really impressed by the amount they can consume. Too immature to produce something usable, yet the potential is there. However, if October comes and we don't start having some eggs show up in the roost, we're going to have 6 fryer chickens in the freezer, 800lbs of chicken feed for sale, and a new play house for the kids. The goal of chickens is maturity: either mature egg layers, or fat plump fried chicken. Either one is acceptable in my sight. I will accomplish my goal and plan one way or the other.

How do you build a coop that stays warm with just a light bulb?

That’s kind of what I have observed God doing in rural Alaska. There have been small pockets of believers that have popped up in different areas of the state. They either matured into fruit producing churches, or they’ve dried up. Either one is, I believe ultimately God’s plan. He makes, grows, feeds, uses, and ultimately ends movements in His Kingdom. His will is going to be done, and His plans will be accomplished. Thanks be to God that He is long-suffering, patient, compassionate, and just. Galena Bible Church has seen days of immaturity. A season where there was no evidence of Kingdom work, or growth going on. We have, by God’s grace, been in a season of harvest and maturing. 

This past week we had the privilege of seeing my niece and nephew be baptized in the Yukon. They have both been believers for several years, but both came to the understanding of baptism as something they needed to do publicly. About 20 people gathered on the north bank of the Yukon (which is a very cold river) to witness the baptism. I shared the story of the understanding of baptism in the Ethiopian eunuch, and my brother Jason baptized his daughter and son as his sister and brother in Christ!
 






 
 Our community experienced a tragedy this past weekend. Friday night a fire broke out in a home in Galena and claimed 2 lives. Our local radio station general manager and his wife are believed to be the two bodies found in the rubble. Most of the men from the church showed up to fight the fire, along with many others from the community. In great tragedy there is a community togetherness that is present and a blessing to see.  You can read more about it at the Anchorage Daily News site HERE.


Things you can pray for:

• Pray for those directly effected by the lose of these community members.
• Pray that God would give opportunities for the Bible Church to show the love of Christ in these trials. 
• Pray for Martin & Silke Hornfischer as they travel with 40 teens to to Warrior Leadership Summit in MO.
• Pray for Gunner & Adrian Johnson as they lead the camps at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp for the next 5 weeks starting this week.