Hopefully the "Cattle on a thousand hills" includes moose.

Didn't know that a three wheeler was a family vehicle.

In Psalm 50:10 God says "For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills." That's good news for the missionary in Bush Alaska. However, so far, God has not let us have one of them. I successfully took a group of 6 people plus myself 30+ miles down river to hunt for moose. We saw several cows (female moose), and a calf or two, but no bulls. I should have taken a picture of the boat loaded, because we were a sight. Seven people, one three wheeler, all our gear, 40 gallons of fuel, 10 gallons of water, 3days worth of fire wood, and a lot of hope for meat. It was my first time to navigate the Yukon on my own, so getting there and getting back was a very exciting event. All of the people that went attend the Bible church and most didn't really know each other, because they are new to town. It was a great opportunity to hear the heart for ministry that all had. God is MOVING and we are so excited.

Keith Ramos and I left out this past Sunday afternoon and hunted until Wednesday. We found a beautiful spot and saw over 10 different moose. But all were cows and calves. We are going back this Sunday after church and are ready to stay until Friday or until we get a moose. We did have a blessing come our way. One of the church members shot a black bear and gave us two quarters of it. You haven't had good breakfast sausage until you've had bear sausage!!

My Nephew Daniel hanging bear quarters while I'm away hunting. Thanks Daniel!!

Watching dad cut meat is only fun for so long.

Church has been awesome the past several weekends. Sunday school has been going great. We've had about 11 or 12 children in their new Sunday school class, and we've been having all of their parents attend the other class plus some without kids! We have too many attending the adult group for the small classroom that they have to meet in, and are looking at our options with that. We had two other community members attend church for the first time this past Sunday and the Body seemed to really rally around them. Potlucks have been going well. We could really use some help with paper products. If you would like to help in this way please let me know.
Yesterday Shell and I helped with the monthly YoungLife Flight that is provided by Illiamna Air Taxi. They flew out several people on the flight, some were YoungLife supporters who came to see Galena. Some came to stay over the weekend and put on a wrestling workshop and share Christ with the students who attend  that. There was one couple that came that I was especially excited to see. One of the new dorm staff's parents were coming out on the flight to visit them. Come to find out the dad of that dorm staff was my first Youth Pastor when I was in the seventh grade. And now I'm his son's pastor! BIG state, but small world.


Things you can be praying for this week:

• Safety and harvest. If we don't get a moose, there is a good chance that we will not have enough meat to make it through the winter. We are hoping to have enough to be able to share with the other families that have just moved to Alaska and can't hunt. Pray that Keith Ramos and I will find success and a safe return.
• Safety for the the other church members and community members who are on the river hunting. Some are traveling as far as 6 hrs. by boat to hunting areas.
• Pray for dorm kids. As I have mentioned before, dorm life is challenging for a lot of these teens. Homesickness, and cultural shock lead to depression and a desire to go home for several of the teens. Pray that God would strengthen the dorm staff to be encourager to the students. Pray that believing dorm staff would be able to show Christ's love and care for these kids.
• Sept 23rd Four men from Gathering Place Church in Pineville Louisiana will be traveling to Galena for a week long mission trip.  Pray for safety and stamina (I think their total flying time with layovers is about 28 hours.) Pray for them for that week that they'll be able to get done all the projects that we need help with.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support. Please feel free to comment or email me. I love hearing from you. Also feel free to share this blog with anyone who might be interested in Alaska missions.

Praise and Prayer

Hello friends! I'm a few minutes to do a short post to bring  you up to speed on the Awesome things God is doing and how you can pray specifically for us and Galena.
1. Praise - Shell and Clint flew into Anchorage to see a pediatric cardiologist and optometrist. Our local Dr had heard a heart murmur on Clint and wanted to get it checked out. The cardiologist confirmed that in fact he heard two heart murmurs, BUT they were both quiet (this is how they gauge the severity) and that they sounded like the kind that Clint would out grow! Praise the Lord! Shell and Clint arrived home safely yesterday morning.
2. Praise - Last Sunday we had 64 people attend church! There was even a lifelong Galena resident that came for the first time in her life!
3. Prayer - Tomorrow I leave to take 6 other people down river to hunt for moose. I will not be hunting, but acting as a transporter, and pack mule for any meat that is harvested. 5 of the 7 people going need meat for this winter and we'll have the ability to get 3 moose between those able to hunt. Pray that God blesses and fills our freezers. Pray for safety as well.
4. Praise and Prayer - Today we start Sunday School again. We are so excited about the Children's ministry opportunity that God is building before us. Please pray that we would have the enthusiastic volunteers that we need to make it an impactful experience. Pray for Brad Fox as he begins to do the Adult discipleship aspect of our Sunday School as well.
5. Prayer and praise: The past month has seen 3 village elders deaths, all from natural causes. This past week a long time resident of Galena passed away. His brother attended our church from out of state while visiting him here. He shared with me how most of his brothers life had been spent in anger toward Christ and the things of God. BUT he also shared with me that the previous week, his brother had asked him what he needed to do to be right with God. His brother lead him to know Christ! Yesterday at the funeral his brother was able to share the clear Gospel to a community hall full of Galena residents! Pray that this act of God's grace would penetrate the hearts of people who knew this man.

Thanks you for you love and prayer for us!!

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

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.

And then there was more...

Eight crates, one pallet, and a trailer. That's what Inland Barge dropped off in Galena a week ago Friday. 11,300 pounds of crated goods to be exact.  A couple of the men from church helped me unload the crates into our Explorer and we began the process of making trips back and forth. While we hauled boxes and totes, Shell began putting away groceries.

Inland Barge Co. Offloading supplies in Galena. This is our version of an 18-wheeler showing up at Wal-Mart.

The forklift is unloading my three wheeler. Also notice over the excavator, There is a small boat, on a snow machine (mobile), on a trailer, on another trailer on a dump truck. The top three of those items are mine.

I have learned a new appreciations for my wife's organizational skills. It is no easy thing to put away a years groceries. We did manage to borrow a forklift (Thanks Roger) to drive one of our big crates back from the barge landing to our house. This is our Sam's crate that you saw in the previous post. It was such a large crate that Jason Harris (church member) had to drive it backwards 3 miles to our house. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it, but it was rather funny.Since then we have unpacked all the crates, unpacked boxes (most of them), brought the crate material to the house from the barge landing and disassembled it, put away the stuff that goes in the garage, hauled boxes to the dump multiple times, assembled a table and chairs and 2 cabinets for the bathrooms, and assembled the boys bunk beds.

Church the past 2 weeks has been a  sweet experience as it usually is here in Galena. We've had a decent summer crowd (about 23) and a great time of worship and fellowship. I began a teaching series that we will continue with through the beginning of school starting. It's on the names of God. The first week,we looked at Hebrew "Elohim" translated God. We saw how this shows God to be the God of Reality (El - Power, might and strength seen in creation), The God of Mystery (Elohim being singular plural, IE trinity), and the God of Humanity (YHWY Elohim - The LORD). This past Sunday we looked at Yahwey (YHWY- The LORD). It is through this name that we know God as relational. We've had our usual potluck after church and ate like kings. One of our sweet native elders cooked smoked she-fish that is dried and then boiled. As we would say in Cajun country "Po dats some good stuff yeah!" (translation: It was really good.)

We are making preparations for Summer work projects, and are also working to coordinate service projects for a missions team from California that will be here the end of the week through Wednesday of next week.They'll be doing a VBS through the Bible Church and will be assisting in community outreach through ministry projects. We're excited to meet our extended church family as they come and serve with us.

Things you can pray for this week:
-Pray for the VBS team as they boat 3 hours from Kokrine Hills Bible Camp to Ruby and then to Galena. Pray for safety, and endurance as they have just done a week long camp with kids at the Bible camp.
- Pray for the Send missionaries who serve in Galena as they prepare to do their shopping. Pray that God would provide the resources for them to be able to accomplish this very large task.
- Clint (our middle son) lost his glasses some time during the unpacking process. We will have to fly into Fairbanks to get new ones. Pray that we will be able to get that together soon.

Thanks for praying. -- The Kopps

There and back again...a Kopp's tale

Photo by Shell Kopp

 We're finally home. After 41 days of being away from home it was such a blessing to finally sleep in our own beds again! We had such a great time visiting with so many of you, and wish that we had been able to spend more time with you individually. If we didn't get to see you personally, we're so sorry. Maybe you can come visit us?? Our trip took us through Houston AK, Anchorage AK, Houston TX, Lafayette LA, Baton Rouge LA, Shreveport LA, Pineville LA, Bellville TX, and Fairbanks AK before we finally made it home. That's a lot of miles!!
Ray Johnson, a bush pilot and believer flew out to Galena and picked our family up in his Cessna 180. We covered the cost of the fuel and got an amazing view of the Alaska country side from Galena to Big Lake AK.

3 hrs plane ride makes for sleepy time.

God blessed all our efforts. We added new individual ministry supporters, built crates and shipped our Louisiana belongings to AK, visited with 7 churches, had a little bit of a vacation, and finished the trip off with 12 months of grocery shopping. I was telling a lady on the airplane back to AK that we were going to be shopping for 12 months of groceries. She said, "Yeah it feels like that sometimes doesn't it?" She had a really funny face when I emphasized that it was "really" 12 months of groceries. Many people have asked how that works so here are some photos to try to help explain:

 I found out that Wal-Mart cash registers max out their ability to sell products per transaction at 503 items. So we had to break up our 8 carts into two orders. Wal-Mart was stop number one on our list. We then went to Fred Meyer (grocery store) and picked up what we couldn't get from Wal-Mart. Our last large purchase was from Sam's Club, which is the bulk of the annual purchase.

 We use free shipping crates that the trucking companies discard after use to ship military personnel up to Fairbanks. It's about 3 1/2 feet wide, 7 feet tall and 7 feet deep.

Just our Sam's order filled this crate because we purchased a table and chairs from Sam's. So we actually used two creates this year for our Fairbanks shopping. Once the crate is filled you drive south on the Parks Hwy for an hour to get to Nenana AK where the barge companies are. They offload your crate and weather proof the tops. When they have enough freight they will load the barge and head down river. Once they leave it takes 3 days for them to get to Galena.

What the woodpile looks like finished.

Things you can be praying for this week:
- Pray that our stuff gets to Galena in one piece and without water damage.
- Pray for the Galena Bible Church members who are serving at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp sharing the good news of Christ with kids and teens from all over the Yukon Koyokuk region.
- Pray for the Fox Family. They are a new SEND Missionary family that has moved to Galena to learn about living in a rural village. Pray that God uses them to further His kingdom in Galena, and that God would give them clarity about where they will serve in rural Alaska.
- Pray that support continues to stay consistent through the summer slump.

School's Out for Summer!!

For a video of the Yukon river breakup click HERE

I've been hearing teachers everywhere singing the short song bit from Alice Cooper's "Schools out for Summer" over the past week. On Saturday, Galena bid a fond adieu' to all 200 of the dorm teenagers and sent them home to villages and cities all across the state. Most of the teenagers that attend the Bible Church do not live in Galena, and those that do are mostly going on vacation, as is most of everyone else in the church. Time for the annual shopping spree, trips to see family, and some leisure vacation too. Several of the native families are going to "fish camp" this summer. In Athabaskan culture, and other native Alaskan cultures,  families traditionally move to a different location during the Summer to catch salmon. They'll use set nets, dip nets, or some will use a traditional fish wheel, though there are fewer that use this method today.

This past week was a very eventful week. Last Saturday was Galena Prom. The GILA and the City School join together, and it was a very special event. The community is invited to for a portion of the evening, so Shell and I found a baby sitter (thank you Amanda) and threw down some Cajun Two Step to "Johnny Be Good".  Last Sunday was GILA students' last Sunday to attend church with us. I was so proud of those Godly students. Even though they attended prom, AND the after prom that was held at the school until 6am, they still made up their minds to come to church AND stay awake!! I really had to remind myself that these students don't have ANYONE here telling them to go to church. I preached on "Sending Just Like Jesus" and concluded the series that we had been doing by looking at Acts 1:8. I challenged them to bring the Gospel home, and if there wasn't a Bible believing church in their village, to start one.

 
Wednesday was a devastating day in Galena. We had another fire. A gentleman in town was cooking dog food for his sled dogs (a normal practice of sled dog owners) when his fire that was in a 55 gallon drum was carried by the wind to nearby grass. It quickly spread to his home, shop, back yard, and even began to burn a neighboring home. We heard the city siren go off as we were out splitting fire wood. I (like every other available man in Galena) raced in the direction of the smoke and began fighting the acre wide fire. We were unable to save the house or the shop, but managed to put the fire out on the neighboring house and we prevented the fire from moving beyond the property (there are dense woods that border the property on all sides). One dog died of smoke inhalation, but I was able to save another dog that was chained to his dog house. I burned my hand on the chain because it was so hot, and the dog had ember burns over his body. The Dog was flown to Fairbanks for veterinary treatment. The man lost everything in that fire, but the community has really rallied around him for support. They held a raffle Saturday night and raised over $7000 for him. I think when I return from my trip south that I will speak with the the volunteer fire chief and find out what I need to do to "officially" be on the volunteer fire department.


Thursday night Galena Bible Church hosted the 2011 Graduate Baccalaureate Service. This was a voluntary church service for graduating seniors and their families. We had over twenty of the thirty five seniors, and the church was full!! One of the church council members gave a challenge to the students, and several students from the church sang "Carry Your Candle". Karrie Anderson lead the congregation in a couple of songs, and the high school principle represented the Catholic Church in Galena by praying a blessing over the students at the close of the service.

This Sunday was our last Sunday with several of the dorm staff. We have a desire as a church to be a sending church. As such we had those individuals not returning for next school year to come forward, and we prayed over them. These believers have done an amazing job of showing students Christ's love and will be sorely missed. We are looking forward to the new families that are moving in to take their positions for next year. Several of them are believers.

We are in a mad rush to complete our final projects before leaving Galena for a month. Firewood still needs to be cut split and stacked. Grocery lists still need to be inventoried and completed (12 months of groceries is a lot of work to plan for). Building materials still need to be priced and itemized for summer projects. With that this will be our last blog post until we return to Galena, July 9th.

Things you can be praying for over the coming month:
- Pray for safety in the many legs of our journey south and our return.
- Pray for our support raising endeavors as we speak with individuals and churches.
- Pray  that in the midst of our schedule while traveling, we might find some to rest.