Light Over Galena

 December 21st in Galena Alaska

Official Sunrise: 11:32am

Official Sunset: 3:18pm

 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5:8-10

What have we, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to fear? Only our own unwillingness to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Death has no sting. Persecution brings growth and unity with Christ. The rejection by family and friends opens the door to God's families' grace and acceptance. It is only our unwillingness to obey the revealed will of God, and the subtle urgings of the Holy Spirit, that we have any reason to fear. We fear that we will be tempted to walk in the darkness we formerly walked in. We fear that we will love the dark more than the light. We know that we love Jesus and are growing in Him not by our spiritual knowledge or Bible trivia, but by our simple obedience to "come follow me". 

Today marks the Winter solstice, the 'shortest' day of the year. The day in which the north pole faces away from the sun, reducing the daylight hours given to the northern hemisphere. This means...it's dark...a lot. When you are in this environment, you use the daylight to its fullest. You don't waist the time given. And you long for the sun's return, it's warm embrace (and the ability for the human body to process vitamin D) :).  I believe this is how it is with every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We may be surrounded by darkness. The only believer in our sphere on influence. But we long to point toward the Son. We uses every opportunity given by the Son to do the tasks he has called us to do. We don't waist the day.  Eph 5:15-17 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,  making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 

I know what God's will is for your life. Surprised? You shouldn't be, because you do too! God's will for your (and my) life is to "Go and make disciples of all nations..." I hope this is an encouragement to you to fear not, and obey, because even though it's dark...The Son is coming again!

 Meadowlark Lemon's Harlem Globetrotter All-Stars came to Galena and spoke at two school assemblies, a community meet and greet, and a YoungLife Club. The Galena Bible Church made soups and bread for the community meet and greet, and enjoyed Meadowlark sharing his testimony with the community. 

The Students at the boarding school all went home this past weekend. Some of them would be traveling for several days just to get back to their villages, logging several thousand miles of flying. Have I mentioned how big this state is!

SEND North's Cessna 180 which is now stationed in Galena

 On Sunday December 11th, Galena Bible Church sent it's first mission team out to a surrounding village. Three men, and one young lady (my niece Kaylin) flew to the Bible church in the village of Ruby, which is the next village up river from Galena. They preached, lead worship, and had a teen/kids club time after church. The Church there is lead by a local man who wants the encouragement and support of the Bible Church in Galena. They have been looking for a pastor for several years, and we are planning to fly there once a month to support them.

Inside the one room Ruby Bible Church.

Things you can be praying for:

• The dorm kids-Many are returning to home environments that are not positive, or communities that have no church presence.
• Dorm staff - The last few weeks have been tough for dorm staff, trying to love and encourage student. Pray that they would be able to rest over the break, and have their minds renewed for the task of encouragement this coming semester. 
• Support raising - We are coming to the end of the fiscal year. Pray that our financial support would remain strong as we enter the new year.

From our family to yours...A most joyous and merry Christmas!

It is finished!!!...or at least flushable.

Double sink

Men's restroom

Kitchenette

The disappearing hole in the wall.

The Unisex bathroom (for comparison look HERE)

It has been a very busy couple of weeks and I apologies that I have not had a regular update in a while. Three weekends ago we had a crew of four guys from ChangePoint Church in Anchorage that came out and completed the project that the crew of Guys from Gathering Place started back in September. As you can see they did all of the finish work and installed the new sink and kitchenette in the church office. Our plan is to put GFI recepticals along the counter top to  allow us a place to plug crock-pots for church potlucks. We are SO excited to have all of this done.
Guys from both of the church groups asked a similar question at one time or another. "Is there anyone at church that could do these projects?" The answer was "Yes, but there is so much going on in living here that it would have taken us 3 times as long to do what you guys did because we would have only been able to do it a couple hours at a time. Not the three 8hr days in a row that you were able to put into it." The other thing that I told them was that they gave a blessing to the community of Galena by freeing up the men in the church to do what the church is supposed to do, serve people. Now that the men of GBC don't have to worry about the church bathroom, they have been able to shovel neighbors driveways, haul firewood for people, fix community members vehicles, etc, all because these guys gave of their time to come take care of our need for a bathroom redo.

What do you eat for Thanksgiving when you live in bush Alaska? Pretty much the same thing that you eat anywhere else. Galena Bible Church hosted the Galena Community Thanksgiving Service this year, and the house was packed. Karrie Anderson, several ladies from the Catholic church lead in songs, and I shared some "historical thoughts" on why we as believers should be the most able to give thanks. Shell and I celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with the police officer and his family, and one of the single ladies that is an RA at the dorm. I've never baked a turkey before, so I decided that the best way to not mess up was to stuff it with bacon and coat it in Cajun seasoning. I was not disappointed!

The Galena Bible Church attempted to do our first ever mission trip this past Sunday, but thanks to a winter storm, were unable to head up river via plane to preach and minister at Ruby Bible Church. We are working on rescheduling and plan to send 4 people from Galena to serve the church in Ruby with preaching, Teen club, and kids club as well as to encourage the believers in Ruby.

Things you can be praying for this coming week:

• Shell had a permanent retainer that came loose on one side. There will not be a dentist in Galena until January 23rd. Pray that either the other side will come loose, or that we'll be able to get her into Fairbanks soon to get it taken off.
• Medowark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters plus two of his team mates will be in Galena next Monday to speak several times and show off some basket ball tricks. He is a believer, and will be sharing his testimony Monday night at a community event. Pray that God speaks loudly through his message.
• Pray for a young woman from Arctic Village who's father committed suicide last weekend. She has been ministered to by members of GBC and is in need of comfort and guidance. Pray that God would restrain the depression that causes so many native men to end their lives. 
• Pray that the Christmas season would produce fruitful conversations for Galena Christians with those who don't know the reason for the season.

Some Devotional Thoughts On Trapping

The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,
   turning a person from the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:27

I'll get to the normal blogging material in a sec, but I wanted to give you a bush perspective on a popular subject in Scripture first: Trapping! This past Saturday Preston and I had the chance to go with a father and son who are very active trappers here during the winter and spring. They've set up a one mile walking trap line that they can periodically check just by walking from their home through the woods. Preston and I were really excited to get to go with them, as they had not been out on the line in several days and were sure to have some surprises along the way. We were not disappointed. By the time we reached the end of the line there was one marten, one Ermine, and one snowshoe hare in the bag. As we walked back and I thought about the trapping setup (since I'll be able to start trapping in January!) I couldn't help but think about what scripture says concerning temptation, and the devil's snares. Basically there are two types of trap sets: one that uses bait, and one that uses comfort or ease. The one type that uses bait puts the food (usually stinky rabbit guts, or leftovers from the cleaning of some critter) on the other side of the trap such that the only way to get the food is to step on the trap. This results in either an instant kill or a traditional leg hold which keeps the animal there until the trapper can come 'finish' the hunt. In either case the trapper uses the desire of the animal to lure it into the trap. The other type puts a snare in the middle of the path that the TRAPPER walks. You heard right. There are snares set in the path that is plowed by the trapper. Now why would we do that? Well the snow is 3' deep off of the path, but on the trail it was only a couple of inches. The trail is only wide enough for one person (or animal) to walk. So the animals, when they come upon the trappers trail, realize just how much easier it is to walk in his footsteps. The only problem is that there are snares set at head level (if you are a foot tall) along the trail. The trapper can step over them, but the animal goes right into it. In this case it is the easy way that becomes the downfall. I can't think of any sin or temptation of man that doesn't fall into these two lures.

Don't get caught in the trappings of this world. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6

When the Church was a Family

Hoar frost at sunrise over the Yukon (by Keith Ramos)

Photo by Keith Ramos

A couple of years ago I read a book by Dr. Joseph Hellerman titled "When the Church was a Family". The premise behind the book was that during the early church period, the church functioned as an actual family, not just a theoretical family (like the way we casually throw around the term "brothers and sisters in Christ"). The book was a good confirmation for me as to what I had been feeling for years. Namely that the church isn't something that we go to...it is something that we are! The church that I had the privilege of pastoring in Louisiana gave me my first ever picture of what that could really look like. Believers were loving and serving each other. Genuine authenticity, and transparency between Christians, replaced the fake Sunday morning smile when asked "How are you doing?".

Since coming to Galena I've seen Galena Bible Church make the subtle shift from "friendly church" to "family". I don't think there are many churches that fit under the category of "friendly church". Even fewer would I classify as "family" and so I am so blessed to be a part of one that I really believe is working together as a family. Does this mean that we have arrived? Absolutely not! I don't want to be saying any of this as if I am bragging, because NONE of it is my fault. God's been moving in people's hearts and we've just been trying to keep up with His leadership. But what a unique place to be in the middle of nowhere with the potential to reach into surrounding villages with the Gospel! One quote from Hellerman's book that stood out to me was that "everything we do in church is a reflection of what we theologically believe, whether we are consciously aware of it or not." In other words, it's not what we say we believe that makes us who we are, it is how we live that shows what we believe. Later in the book he writes about the early church and says "People did not convert to Christianity solely because of what the early Christians believed. They converted because of the way in which the early Christians behaved." Kind of like what James said that "Faith without works is dead". It's hard for me to communicate what I'm seeing because it is so close to me, but I hope you are getting a picture of what God is doing. And I pray that maybe through the Galena Bible Church God would awaken a real revival in other Churches, where the world would know that we are his disciples by how we love one another.

           I have this fresh on my mind because that's what has taken up my time/what we have experienced since my last blog post. ChangePoint Church in Anchorage sent out one of two teams that will be here in November. Three guys came out to build a better connection between the teens of GILA and the teens of ChangePoint that have served at the Bible Camp during the Summer. They brought paper plates, bowls, and utensils that they had gathered from their students, and then served in whatever way we had need. They shoveled a lot of snow while they were here, and spent the rest of the time encouraging dorm staff, and the SEND Missionaries here in Galena. The inter-connectivity that God is building between churches is amazing to watch.

          GBC kicked off our first youth group two weeks ago. We had 16 teens from the community and GILA! 13 girls and 3 guys. The girls are doing a book study called "Lies young women believe", and the guys are doing a study by Francis Chan called "Courage". Many of the teens that came profess to have made a decision to follow Christ, but cannot tell you what that means. We are excited to begin to share the Gospel with these teens in a clear way and to disciple them to be who God has made them to be.


          Things you can be praying for:

• GBC Youth Group meets tomorrow night. Pray that teens will come and that we will be able to clearly teach them. 
• ChangePoint is sending another team this weekend to complete the bathroom project and install a kitchenette in the church office. Pray for safe travel, and that our building materials will be able to make the freight flight on time. 
• Pray that the SEND Missionaries would continue to be encouraged as they transition into bush life. As the days get shorter (Sun up at 10:30 and dark by 4:30 now) and colder (-22F currently) it is easy for cabin fever to set in and discouragement to disrupt effectiveness, especially for Missionary wives.
• The SEND Plane may be making its way out here this week or the next. Pray for safety for the pilots and clarity for us as we seek to use this tool effectively.

My supporters are always in my heart and I pray for you often. Please let me know if there is anything that we can pray for specifically.

Blessings,
Chris Kopp

The weather outside is frightful...but the fire is so delightful.

To all that gave toward us being able to purchase the wood stove for the parsonage...THANK YOU!! What a blessing! We've been able to run the wood stove for about 2 weeks now and have not had to burn any fuel oil yet. This will help save the church thousands of dollars every winter. Those savings will help the church be able to do much more intentional ministry outreach.

Last weekend we hosted a SEND North Galena team building workshop. I have mentioned before the partnership that Galena Bible Church has made with SEND North in helping to equip potential Alaskan Bush missionaries in the ability to live and do ministry in rural Alaska. The vision of this partnership is three fold:

1. Providing an opportunity for missionaries to ease into the difficulties of living in rural Alaska (lack of supplies, difficulty of travel, DIY projects, extreme living conditions, etc.) so that they are able to transition from city life to Bush life.
2. Helping prepare them to minister in a different culture and context than they have before.
3. To have them in Galena means that they are exposed to students and adults from villages all over the state through GILA, Kokrine Hills Bible Camp, and Galena training events. This provides opportunities for them to develop a heart for a specific village before they go.

There are currently three SEND missionary families in Galena, and one couple 90 miles north in Huslia, Alaska. During the workshop, we met together to learn more about each other's gifting and to pray for God's leadership in church planting in Alaska. Galena Bible Church hopes to become a sister church to these new church plants and to be a support to their growth and development. In the coming weeks, SEND will be stationing a plane in Galena and we will begin to use it to support a group of believers in Ruby, AK, which is about 50 miles up river. We are so excited to see what God has in store for the interior of Alaska!

The Galena Bible Church has been doing very well. We finally remembered to take a picture at potluck. The church has been doing a great job of providing enough food for everyone. We've had some people donate paper and plastic ware, and that has been a huge blessing. THANK YOU for helping us serve these teens and our church family! For our newer readers: We do a potluck every Sunday because students from the dorms only have two meals on weekends. Brunch 11-12:30 and dinner. If they chose to come to church they basically opt out of Brunch. So Galena Bible Church decided last year to do a potluck every Sunday to remove that hindrance. As such we have seen our student body grow at the church.

 This past Saturday there were 5 guys and one young lady that helped rebuild a set of stairs for a family that is a part of the bible church. The existing stairs were dangerously rotten and went from the ground up to the house which was elevated about 9' off the ground. This would have been quite a fall if the stairs had failed. We worked in the driving snow and 5F temperature to get it finished in one day. It was such a beautiful thing to see God's people taking care of one another.

Things you can be praying for this coming week:

• Tomorrow night we kickoff our Youth Group. Pray for the volunteers (myself and Shell included) that we would be effective at discipling students.
• This coming weekend, ChangePoint Church in Anchorage is sending 3 guys on a mission trip to Galena. Please pray that we can utilize their time for the most impact.
• Safety - The weather is cold and we've had more snow than usual for this time of year. Pray that as people begins to navigate the land via snow-gos (snow mobiles for non bush speakers) that they would be protected.
• Spiritual Protection: The enemy is keenly aware of what God is doing here, and I have seen signs of attack. Pray for courage, and steadfastness for us and the rest of the believers as we continue to serve in spite of challenges.

A Fiddler Floated Down The Yukon

Are you scared of heights??

We've now been in Galena for almost 10 months and I keep waiting for the season that "slows down". Maybe next week. The past couple of weeks have been a blur of events, projects, and spiritual conversations. Two weekends ago I was asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for the 2011 Yukon Jamboree, a fiddle and folk band concert that promotes sobriety and highlights musicians from 5 villages, and several student bands from GILA. It was a great privilege to be asked to serve since this is a "native" sponsored event. In between introducing bands, Shell and I educated some of the locals on the Cajun two step. There were a couple of other couples from Church that are proficient in country dancing, and even swing!Who said Christians can't dance.
We successfully  hooked up the plumbing at the church and once again have a flushing toilet. We still have a lot of finish work (paint, flooring, trim, etc) to do, but we are in good shape with the rest of the project. Since the Church bathroom is operational, I began working on the wood stove in the parsonage this week. We should have that operational by the end of today. 
YoungLife sponsored a Basket Ball Clinic for JrHigh and High school students Thurday, Friday, and Saturday. They averaged 45 students at each event. Saturday night the Church housed a youth event where the lead Basket Ball coach for the clinic could share his testimony and personal walk with Christ. This time at the church was advertized as a Christian event (no bait and switch here) and was still attended by 46 students!! We pray that Cornelius Williams' testimony impacts the lives of these students in a life altering way.
          Cornelius preached for me on Sunday morning, and was a blessing to us as a Body; not because of what he said, but because of what he received. He shared with us what we have been sensing from the Holy Spirit: This is a healthy body! Praise God! I have asked some of the people that have attended the church for a long time if they have EVER seen the body acting as they are now. Their answer was without hesitation: no. Community is going really well at Galena Bible Church, and when I have time I hope to blog about it and give you a snap shot of the Acts 4 type church activity that is taking place here.

The boys got to make their pizzas before the teens arrived. Hooray for Pizza!!

         Shell and I have also been busy getting to know more of the boarding school students through hosting dorm events. We hosted "Bakers Autonomous"- 14 teens descending upon our kitchen making fudge, cookies, and rice crispy treats. We also hosted another pizza making event with Jane Thistle similar to the one that we did not long after we arrived in Galena. Both of these events were an awesome opportunity for us to get to know a bunch of the dorm kids, and model a Christian home and loving relationships. A couple of the dorm kids have asked if we can be on their "sign-out" list, meaning we would have permission to check them out of the dorm individually. We're looking forward to having them over.

Some things I ask you to pray for:

• Pray that this Spirit of Unity can be shared with other churches, and that we would guard against the certain attack of the enemy.
• Pray that People who are not believers but who are attending church events would understand the difference between religious activity, and Christ's design for their relationship.
• Pray for our Youth Group that will be starting in a couple weeks. Pray God would lead volunteers to step up to disciple Christian teens to boldly live out their faith.

Full Freezers and Warm Hearts

We have Moose!

Well, actually we now have hamburger, breakfast sausage, maple breakfast links, roasts, stew meat, ribs, backstrap, tenderloin, and 25 lbs. of moose andouille sausage. Have I mentioned how BIG a moose is? An average Bull Moose has about 300-400 lbs. of meat.  The church worked together with great effort to make sure that everyone's meat needs were met.  There were more people at church this year that could not hunt than could hunt.  (Law requires you be an AK resident for one year before you can shoot a moose).  So the church family rallied together and organized pairs of hunters with non hunters with the intent of the nonhunters going along to help with the whole process of getting the meat out of the wilderness and into freezers.  Consider it grocery shopping by boat.  When the church operates as a family it is easy to see God being honored. Acts 4:34a comes to mind: "There were no needy persons among them".  I believe part of my 'job' is to help meet the physical needs of the church as well as the spiritual.

Moose Heart...Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Right after my last post, I received a phone call from the chef at GILA, the boarding school.  He was wanting to show appreciation for what the believers have been doing for the community, so he invited us to cut meat that had been donated by guided hunters, most of whom only want the rack  Fifty percent of the cut meat goes to elders and to the GILA cafeteria to feed dorm students.  The other fifty percent we got to keep.  So we invited three other families in the church to help us cut four front quarters, four sets of ribs, and about 200 pounds of neck meat.
I hunted with Keith Ramos the following week from Monday to Friday. We came home with a moose, but not one that we shot. Steve Pavish took a medium sized bull and gave it to us to share. This completed our meat need for the winter. I thank God for the generosity of his people.

I arrived home from hunting on the 23rd and 4 guys from The Gathering Place Church in Alexandria Louisiana arrived on the 24th for a week long mission trip. Job number #1: Cut meat. The above meat pictures are from our 10 hour cutting party. The guys were such a blessing to us and our community. They cut meat for 5 families, gathered, cut and split firewood for a lady at church, leveled a porch, helped clean before winter snow, and worked at the church removing the failed sewer tank and beginning the bathroom remodel. I think the guys attained sainthood for their work removing the tank. Once we got it out, we found 3 quarter sized holes IN THE BOTTOM! 

The way it was.

As always we loved having the guys stay with us. They are already planning on coming again, and bringing their families with them.
Well, I feel that this is an inadiquate post for the business that has been the past month, but the business isn't over. I'm off to go work on the church bathroom some more.

Things you can pray for this week:

• Pray for a young native guy who I got to spend some time with today. He made a profession of faith last year, but has just started college and is struggling. Pray that he will connect with the believers I put him in contact with in Fairbanks.
• Youth Group: The Bible Church is going to be starting a youth group this month. Pray for guidance and leaders as we begin this ministry.
• YoungLife Basketball Clinic: The YoungLife youth ministry will be hosting a basketball clinic in a week and a half. Pray that the last minuet details fall into place and that the Holy Spirit will lead students to attend and hear the Gospel.