Maybe It's Time To Simplify Christmas

One of the conversations I had while I was recently with my brother was about his family's insistence to keep birthdays and holidays in perspective. He said that they actually purchase few gifts in comparison with so many others. What they focus on are family experiences. They actually practice what they say they value in keeping holidays, even Christmas, pretty simple and doing fun things together as a family. Wow, I always think of doing that but it seems I tend to cave in and buy things to avoid feeling cheap and stingy. Mind you, I don't buy things just to buy things, I always want to provide something that is wanted and hopefully needed in some way. But what if we all scaled back a bit on the stuff and spent more time doing some intentionally planned family event? I bet the memories would last longer than the stuff! Think about it, be brave and try it!

Here are three suggestions to apply it:

1. Focus on traditions rather than things.

When I look back on my fondest memories, they're always about the traditions we've enjoyed as a family. What would Thanksgiving be without turkey and dressing and pumpkin roll? What would Christmas be without the reading of the Christmas story, our tradition of making the kids wait until Mom and Dad are up before playing with or opening ANY presents, or driving around looking at the Christmas lights while sipping hot chocolate and playing Christmas carols on the radio? Christmas for my family is a time to celebrate being with each other, not celebrating the latest gadget, toy, or gizmo.

2. Do Christmas your way, not the marketers way.

Why let "a December to remember" cause you financial pain and stress for the next 60 or 72 months? The pressures that Madison Avenue places on people this time of year is something they should be ashamed of. There's absolutely nothing wrong with giving something far more valuable than things - give your time. Take some time to visit people who are shut in. Take some time to play with your children ... down on the floor. Teach someone what you know: cooking, playing the guitar, knitting a sweater, or painting a landscape. Invest your most precious asset - time - into those you love the most.

3. Create a new gift giving tradition.

Some people only give gifts that are hand made. The materials can be bought, but the finished gift must be hand made. Try it with ornaments if you're not ready to go "New Yankee Workshop" or try the Magi Christmas tradition: three gifts and three gifts only. There is a Victorian tradition that says each person should get "something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.
Don't let the stress of the season ruin the meaning of the holidays.

Kara Brown May 9, 1988 - November 30, 2010

This past Tuesday, in the early morning, my niece, Kara Brown passed from this life into eternal life. My brother and his wife, have been battling this blood disease with Kara for the past three and one-half years. How they have managed to maintain their lives and keep strong relationships going with their other children and be healthy themselves is a testimony to how strong faith can be in times like this. Their commitment to fulfill Kara's wish to die at home was amazing. They took training (which after three and one-half years they already knew the drill) to administer medications to keep her as comfortable as possible and were not willing for others to care for her when they could themselves. Kara was never alone.
The Lord allowed JoLynn and me to arrive in time to see Kara, speak to her while she was still responsive. It was a privilege to be there and watch my brother care for her with such amazing tenderness and responsiveness. My esteem for him is even greater than it was before. It was simply amazing.
Through the week, it was such a blessing to have so many people send emails and flowers letting us know they were feeling the loss of Kara even though they had never met her. Bethel Church, the Assembly of God congregation in Chehalis was especially kind in offering the use of their wonderful facility and preparing a generous dinner for all the guests afterwards. This lifted a tremendous burden by the family not having to make these arrangements while they were making other necessary plans and with family members arriving.
The memorial service was such a great event, so many people came that the line for signing the guest book extended out the doors and around the building so far that they just took the guest book away and allowed people to come in and fill the sanctuary to capacity. Kara touched so many lives it is difficult to imagine without seeing all the doctors, nurses who came that gave her care, students from her high school that she mentored, church friends, community friends, work associates and all who took the time to come, some from other states just to be there to honor her memory.
In the end, the disease conquered Kara's body, but it never conquered her spirit. She remained funny, spunky and positive to the time where she could no longer respond. She was a fighter to the end.
Our great comfort in all of this is knowing she is with Jesus and no longer trapped in a body stricken with disease. She is on the "other side" with many of our friends and family members who have preceded us. It will make it all the more sweeter to see her again when our time comes.
One of her final quotes will stay with me a long time, "The only day wasted is a day not spent in serving the Lord."

So Thankful

I wanted to THANK everyone who was part of this year's Christmas Shoebox effort! Thank you to each one who took a shoebox, went to the store and filled it with fun things and returned it to the church! Thank you to all the ladies who came and packed the boxes and got them ready to take to the Post Office! Thank you to Pam Clark for spear heading this effort again this year! Wow, that is 8 BIG boxes of fun things our missionaries, Linda and Brian Staub will be able to reach out to the village of St. Michael with! We have included the Book Of Hope for each age category as well as warm hats that were knitted for each person.

We did not think to keep a list over the several years we have been partnering with Alaska missionaries, but the places I can remember sending boxes to are: Emmonak, Tetlin, Beaver, Angoon, Ft. Yukon and perhaps other places. Some villages we have sent boxes to more than once.

I know from personal greetings from our missionaries how appreciated these gifts are when received in the villages. This is a great example of true partnership with our missionaries as they endeavor to minister to the least reached people of our enormous state. Each box is a message of love and generosity and....HOPE!

God bless all who have made this effort so rewarding again this year!

Stressed Out?

I have had a number of people that I know, care for and pastor who have made known to me some huge obstacles they are facing in life just in the last few days. It is amazing how many people seem to be carrying a huge load, more than the usual busy schedule right now. It really seems like a season of spiritual/physical attack over a great number of people at present.

Isn't it like the devil to pile on when life is already difficult? Just when circumstances are taxing he seems to come along and increase the stress level by adding things that stretch us even further. If you are feeling what I am talking about, you are by no means walking your journey alone.

Something that I counsel people as their pastor when they hit these unexpected trials is to be deliberate about setting boundaries in your life. When we take extraordinary hits from the enemy, we must find places in our lives to rest and replenish ourselves. This means being able to say, "no" to the right things. I said that intentionally about saying "no" to the right things. Sometimes we in an effort to find immediate comfort for our empty emotional and spiritual tanks we opt out of everything including the very things that actually assist in replenishing our reserves.

The important thing in our crises and trials is to stay connected to the people who love us and care about us the most. Stay involved in your church, keep teaching your Sunday School class, continue to attend and serve on a regular basis. Now this doesn't mean saying "yes" to everything, but do stay involved. God has intended service to be a life-giving exercise. Cut off our service and we can collapse into isolated and disconnected despair.

Do find ways to create "margin" in your life. Margin is those empty spaces in your day, week and schedule that are empty with a purpose. Filling empty time with activity that is empty of meaning and purpose is not what I am talking about. Creating margin is making yourself take a "time out" to sit and listen to God, to talk to Him and to read His Word. David in his most noted 23rd Psalm includes the words, "...He makes me to lie down" (v.2). Isn't interesting that we must be made to lie down? Why does God make us do this? Because we need it. He created rest for us to renew, replenish and restore (v.3) ourselves.

Another huge help when we are feeling overwhelmed is to talk to someone who is trusted, who loves you and is not too eager to tell you how to correct your problem. In short, someone who is a believer and is good at listening. Sometimes being able to talk about what you are feeling to someone who cares is very therapeutic. Opening up to someone who is caring is good for our soul.

An important help in times of crisis is to have "financial margin". It is too often the case that we live to the edge of our means and even spend more than we make on a monthly basis. Scaling back on our lifestyle, creature comforts and luxuries and putting that income toward paying down debt and increasing savings is a way to create a financial margin that can carry us when the unexpected slams us. "A penny saved is a penny earned" is now considered too quaint to be meaningful. It is still good advice and it does create margin for the "rainy day" that is inevitably coming our way. When crisis comes and we are already over spent it compounds the problem. Better to think ahead financially during good times than to assume we can spend more than we make and that it will always be OK. Our entire nation is hurting because of this pervasive mindset.

Now, a final thought for those who may not be in crisis at the moment but maybe know someone who is, reach out to them. Communicate with them. Do something with them or for them. You may never get an invitation to do so, so you may have to initiate the idea. Don't be afraid of being rejected, it really isn't about you. Regardless, let that person know you are thinking of them and praying for them. You can't do any better than that.

2 Cor. 1:3-5 (NKJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [4] who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [5] For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Now is a good time to put that into practice.

The Ring of Authenticity

I had a couple of interesting experiences this week. I was attending our Alaska Ministry Network's board meeting and the afternoon of the first day Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and his wife, Sandy took about a half an hour of their time to come and visit our board. He was promoting his initiative on ending child abuse in Alaska and asking us to support this effort in all the communities we influence throughout Alaska. While we visited, we heard the Governor speak about his personal faith in God. Now I have heard a lot of "God talk" by politicians before. Very often it is awkward and sometimes down right embarrassing they way they speak of how they view "faith." What is obvious is that they are trying to identify with a voting bloc that could help their efforts for re/election by "speaking the lingo" as if they were familiar with it and attempt to convey the idea they talk that way all the time. As I was listening to Sean and Sandy Parnell it struck me that what they had to say had the ring of authenticity. What they expressed about their faith had the feel of genuine faith that only another believer can discern. They had it, it was real.

The next morning another gentleman was brought into our morning devotions. His first name was Joany which sounds almost like Johnny. He is from Burkina Faso, Africa. He pastors a church there which now numbers around 5000 people. He spoke to us about prayer. Not only were his words compelling, but when he was done sharing his teaching on prayer, he prayed. Oh my, he prayed. You cannot fake prayer. The person who really prays will always be able to expose the one who only postures themselves as one who prays. He prayed a powerful prayer. One had the feeling that it was making a difference right then. It was the real deal.

In a world of facade and appearances, it is exciting when you find the authentic. I pray that others will find my words, my actions and my life full of the ring of authenticity.

Make It An Even 40

Nothing serious here this post. I just wanted to report on my quest to be a healthier, happier Stephen. I am down 40 pounds from the first of 2010. The interesting thing at this point is, I am not trying to lose weight so much as to eat less irresponsibly. To be honest, I miss the carbs. I love the crunch of crackers, the taste of bread, the sweet of sugar and the smoky goodness of chocolate. However I like feeling better, fitting into my clothes, not being out of breath just bending over and tying my shoes, not falling asleep in the afternoons at my desk and not having acid reflux after I eat better than the carbs. So, I just have to remind myself of these things. I had my blood pressure taken this past Wednesday in the doctor's office: 110/64, one of my best ever. My cholesterol numbers are nearly where they need to be, my A1c blood sugar level is just .1 over "normal" and I am still not taking any medications of any kind. I want to keep it that way.

At the doctor's office the doctor said that they see someone lose weight and change their diet so rarely it almost never happens. He held up my screening form and noted all the "no's" that were checked for symptoms and medications and said it was very rare to see such a sheet. I share this to say that all of that was on the brink of going away and I would have become just another health statistic adding to the slide of the decline of health in America. Makes me shudder to think I felt I couldn't do anything about it. I can and I am. God help me discipline myself to stay as healthy as I am able to be for as long as I am able to be so I won't have to ask you to do for me what I should have done for myself.

Ideally, I wouldn't mind losing another 10 pounds, I might really fit into a 34" waist instead of it being marginal at this point. More importantly, I think my numbers would improve to the point I would not be considered at risk for diabetes or high cholesterol.

Just in case you are wondering what system I am using, I am using The South Beach Diet as a guideline. It is no longer my diet, it is just the way I eat now. I don't diet any more, as that implies I will go back to eating irresponsibly again in the future once I lose some weight. Not going to do that. This is just the way we eat now and frankly I like it. Hope I can inspire anyone else out there to find out what they need to do to feel better. I do believe each body has it's own unique needs and the South Beach approach may not work for everyone, but find out what does and stay with it. It's worth it.

Burn A Quran?

Can you believe the national, rather, international froth whipped up by this Pastor Terry Jones in Florida saying he and his church were going to sponsor a Quran burning day? Unbelievable.

First let me clarify my position. I will address why later, but no, I don't plan on burning any Qurans.

What I want to know is how a church of some 55 people got the whole world stirred up into a frenzy? I mean, how did they find this guy? Seems like the media was looking for a pretext to sell some advertising. Seriously, if all 55 members (and if it is anything like the church I pastor, 20% are going to be absent for one reason or another) burned a Quran what kind of monumental atrocity does this amount to?

I have some observations to make about this whole tempest in a teapot.

1. Why doesn't the media get all upset when Bibles or churches or Christians are burned like in the Sudan or Indonesia or Iran or wherever else real atrocities occur? You never hear a word about it. Things far worse than a burned book occur every day to people who are of Christian faith and suffer injustice and violence with some losing their lives. Why isn't the media frothing about that?

2. This once again shows how INTOLERANT Muslims are. The media reports that large demonstrations in Islamic countries were taking place with threats of violence and retaliation. The top general of the U.S. armed forces feared burning Qurans would further endanger U.S. troops. Why isn't this angle picked up on? Muslims are the least tolerant people on the planet. Islamic countries lead the world in human rights violations. Somehow, Christians look like the bad guys in even this scenario.
Muslims can threaten the world and the media always gives them a pass. The Imam who said if the mosque planned to be built near ground zero was forced to move to another location it would result in increased violence. That my friend is a threat. Why is it never exposed as such? The Muslim can threated anyone and we look intolerant if we stand up to it? Give me a break.

3. Burning Qurans is a stupid idea for a lot of reasons. First of all, it is stupid to go provoking trouble. There is enough trouble out there, why create additional and unnecessary trouble? Save it for something that counts. Burning Qurans proves nothing. You haven't convinced anyone to change sides by burning a Quran, it is wasted effort. It is stupid because it furthers the stigma the media is trying to make stick to Christians everywhere. While Islamic terrorists are only a "few radicals" so we shouldn't characterize all Muslims as such, Christians always get the full blanket treatment. The militia that had most of its members arrested in Michigan some months ago were all characterized as "Christian." Actually none of them were and they didn't claim to be a "Christian Militia." However, the media would like the world to think Christians all play army in the woods and plot to overthrow the government. It's OK to profile Christians but not anyone else. Throw enough mud on the wall and some of it will stick.

4. I don't think Jesus would be burning Qurans. I know everyone has their own answer for "what would Jesus do?" but I don't see Him burning books.

Well, I don't know if you agree with me or not, but that's the way I have read this thing. In this war of ideas that we are presently engaged in, it will take a lot of intelligence, informed dialog, faith and behaving ourselves wisely. We can't play into our detractors hands. We must decide what hill we will die on defending what we hold dearest and let the rest go. There isn't room in our lives or enough resources to go doing and saying stupid things. Live smart. Live in faith.

Perspective

Isn't it amazing when someone sits down and studies the obvious? We can all drift around assuming we kind of understand and have things in control when we haven't done the homework and the reality is, we don't know what we don't know. Then someone comes along and states the obvious and suddenly we have a point to draw perspective from.

As you might suspect, this blog post was inspired by a perspective I gained just today. How do you get perspective on the number "trillion?". What does trillion mean? Well, it's a lot of something. But since I don't run into a trillion of something on a daily basis(except bad drivers), it is hard to really appreciate what a trillion represents.

Here is the piece of perspective I ran into that I will share with you:
1 million seconds of time takes about 11 days to run out.
1 billion seconds of time takes 32 years.
1 trillion seconds of time takes 32,000 years.
Mind you, that is counting every second 24/7/365, not just the "waking hours" of the day.

Does that smack you between the eyes? Let's then give 32,000 years some perspective. If Adam and Eve the moment they were created from the dust of the earth (which Bible scholars believe was 8 to 10 thousand years ago) started counting 1...2...3...4...etc. they would not be one third of the way to reaching 1 trillion yet! It would take them 22,000 more years!

So, where was the last place we heard the word trillion tossed around like...loose change? Does this give you some perspective? Does this make you shake in your boots?

In the recent past, our country has descended into the pit of debt an additional 7 trillion dollars. Let's see, I am not too good at math, 7 x 32,000 = 224,000. Am I right? It is said that the United States of America carries a debt that including unfunded mandates, national health care, Social Security promises, etc., etc., of 107 trillion dollars. You do the math this time. The analogy is that if we paid back our national debt one dollar per second without sending another dollar (basically forever and ever) we would never pay off our national debt.

One thing that perspective can do for us is make the truth much more applicable to our lives. If this doesn't cause you to go to your knees in prayer, you might need a little more perspective.

I Agree

This is another blog installment that was inspired by a blog I ran across on CNN.com. I am posting a link that I hope you will take a moment to to this article and read. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/07/tf.quit.drinking.friends/index.html?hpt=C2

Understand that I am not endorsing this person's lifestyle or language but I recommend reading this article to point out the fact that it is logical to come to this conclusion even if you are not a Christian. Drinking and Evangelical Christianity were once largely mutually exclusive terms. Growing up in church I was taught that drinking alcohol was simply not part of a Christian's life. As far as I am concerned, that teaching has kept me in good stead for 51 years. Not one dui, under age drinking citation, or alcohol related offense has ever been perpetrated by me. Not a single cent has gone to purchase any alcoholic beverages saving me untold thousands of dollars not only in the non-purchase of such beverages but related costs such as accident damages, taxi fares, jail bail, and the like. To me, I think it is smart to not drink all the way around. The upside of drinking? Can't think of anything worth the risk. There simply is no compelling argument to drink. Any pleasure I might get from an alcoholic beverage I can certainly get from something without alcohol. I have NEVER heard anyone say, "I make my best decisions after I have had a few drinks." Why is that?

All of the logic aside, which by the way is plenty enough for me, the Christian testimony aspect of the argument to not drink is also very important to me. I feel drinking alcohol lessens the effectiveness of my Christian testimony. Let's say, I drink a few drinks and despite my attempts to be disciplined about it, I get a little tipsy, or a lot tipsy or just plain drunk. Seeing I have a history of a lack of discipline around food this is not unimaginable. Is this a great way to represent Christ? What difference am I demonstrating that Christ makes in my life? Even not being "tipsy" am I giving Jesus the advantage by holding an alcoholic drink in my hand? I don't think so. By the way, it isn't good to abuse food either, it also lessens my testimony but let's not get sidetracked.

The odd thing? I have been in this person's shoes (the person who wrote the article) many times, most of those times it was a Christian person questioning why I do not drink. Who cares? Why does it bother anyone else? Why is this strange? Is drinking alcohol the admission to a secret society that I don't belong to? The situation is really odd to me.

Does not drinking make me a better person than someone else? Not in God's eyes. It might make me a more productive person or a more responsible person, or less likely to commit an alcohol related crime or stupid decision, but not of more worth to God than the skid row bum. Simply, not drinking alcohol makes me a better me. It makes me closer to the person I want to be. I am not perfect, most likely won't ever completely be perfect but one less area to screw up in is a good idea for me.

So, to those who can live without alcohol, I applaud you. I know there seems to be some leeway in this area as a Christian, but there being so little benefit and so much risk, why? Keep an open mind and heart to the possibility. I think it is a better way.

The High Cost of Irresponsibility

I have not posted a "philosophical" blog in quite some time. Usually, I like to talk about adventures or people I have enjoyed being with or places I have been. I suppose it is the preacher's itch that prompts a diatribe on a topic now and then.
I have been reminded again and again about the high cost of irresponsibility. The current economic malaise our country has been experiencing for the past couple of years is the most recent reminder. The irresponsibility of so many has brought our country to a very low and humiliating point. Irresponsible people who loan money to irresponsible people who spend more than they earn are some of the ones who have created the current problems. The high cost involved with this? We ALL bear it in one way or another. Some lose their job because the economy is bad. Some have to lay off employees or not hire additional people. The highest cost to all of us is usually additional government intrusion into our lives. With each "crisis" we are told that the government will save us from certain doom by bailing out the most irresponsible ones who created the problem in the first place and making those who have behaved responsibly and did not create the problem pay the bill the irresponsible ones created. It is insanity. Rewarding irresponsibility and penalizing responsibility is a recipe for enslavement by government. As more and more join the ranks of the irresponsible as they are the ones being rewarded by the growing government, there are fewer and fewer responsible ones to pay the bill. Soon, like a boat that grows top heavy, we capsize and everyone drowns.
It is easy to talk about "other people" and complain about their actions. But what are we, ourselves doing to contribute to this problem? Are we voting and participating in our governance processes? Are we spending more than we earn? Do we expect the government to make our life cozy and without problems or do we feel that is our own responsibility?
Many complain about government "waste" and prolifagate spending and "pork". But do we demand that the politicians we elect "bring home the bacon"? We hate our tax dollars being spent on other states projects, but want it for our own. We must examine our own wants and desires if we are to make headway on this growing problem.
From babies being born out of wedlock and their mothers joining the welfare ranks to the person who buries themselves in enormous debt with credit cards, consumer loans and outsized mortgages, we will all pay the high price of irresponsibility.
The problem is, when we are the irresponsible ones, we easily justify ourselves and do not see ourselves hurting anyone other than ourselves or worse, feel we have a "right" to our irresponsible behavior. We feel is it no one else's business that we spend more than we earn, or have sex with people we are not married to or take illegal drugs or abuse legal drugs. How then do we feel it is everyone else's business to bail us out when our problems overwhelm us? Why do we feel everyone must pay for the mess we ourselves created?
I am appalled at current ads advertising "we can cut your credit card bills in half", claiming that they will just magically wipe away money you owe to other people for things you said you would pay for. That is just plain stealing! Our government has enabled us to legally steal from others. This is a farce anyway as those so eager to wipe out our debt simply charge the amount to you that you supposedly "save" to pay themselves. So, in reality we are duped into enabling other people to steal from other people. Money we said we would pay to others is now being paid to someone else that does not have any right to it.
The correct word for irresponsibility is simply, sin. That's what it is. When we sin, it is a problem for everyone. Irresponsible behavior is sinful behavior. No matter what we act in irresponsibly, we are sinning.
This is a terribly unpopular message. Anytime a person raises a moral standard, we are told not to "impose" our morality on other people. What that really is saying is, "I am imposing my morality on you." The truth is, we will operate by someone's view of morality. It is also a farce that insisting on a high moral standard is imposing anything. It has ALWAYS been wrong to steal from others. It has ALWAYS been wrong to have sex outside of marriage. It has ALWAYS been wrong to lie. We are imposing nothing, we are attempting to enforce what has ALWAYS been. So those who accuse us of "imposing" our morality are actually the ones guilty of imposing a new, lower, less moral, morality.
In order to bring about any change, we ourselves must adhere to biblical, moral standards that God has set forth for us to follow no matter the contemporary aversion to moral absolutes. We ourselves must reject justification for our own irresponsibility and the idea that other people are responsible to clean up our own messes or to bail us out of our stupidity. Until we realize there are absolute consequences for sin that we might delay for a time but will eventually catch up to us and our children, we are all riding on a boat ready to swap up for down.

A Preacher's Day Off

My wife and I were recently blessed to host one of our Alaska Missionaries, Austin Jones and his summer intern, John the Baptist, a.k.a. Ricky the Zion Bible College student. Austin pastors the church in Emmonak which is located on the lower Yukon River in Southwestern Alaska. Somewhat in the same region as St. Michael. Austin came out of Emmonak this trip to take some much needed R&R after a very busy summer. Emmonal is the "hub village" in that area and the staging grounds for the Bible camps the Alaska Ministry Network sponsors each summer. Many people, village adults, children, volunteer helpers, interns and Assembly of God personnel. A lot of the logistical responsibility falls on his shoulders due to the fact he lives in Emmonak and is the "go to" person who can gather and expedite the resources needed to run the camp. So, he contacted me to see about some fishing on the Kenai. I was glad to borrow a boat and supply the fishing equipment as I knew I would enjoy spending time with Austin and get out on the river myself, something I have not had much opportunity to do this summer due to my busy schedule and this being the wettest summer in the recorded history of the Kenai Peninsula.The Lord was gracious to us to limit the amount of rain that fell on us the two days we were able to go out. The Lord did not deem it necessary to provide an abundance of the fish we were seeking however we did catch a few. It was fun to share our home with Austin and John the...er, Ricky for two days. We not only fished but shot billiards at our favorite local billiards place. We also had a brief sunny afternoon which enabled us to take the 1968 Mercury Cougar, the coolest car in the world to play billiards. We also share an affinity for fine firearms which we enjoyed using at the range. JoLynn fed us sumptuously with delicious cookies, halibut and other good things from her kitchen. Austin and Ricky were headed to Seward to continue fishing and preach on Sunday before Austin headed back to Emmonak and Ricky back to Zion Bible College. Since Austin and I are currently both Presbyters with the Alaska Ministry Network, we'll see each other again in October and have lots of stories to share.

Guy Fun

Recently our men's ministry when on what is now our second annual white water raft trip. What an exciting trip! The anticipation builds all morning en route to the place where we don our dry suits, life jackets and helmets. The safety pep talk on the shore of the six-mile river has the effect of pumping adrenalin into your blood stream as they speak of danger of the white water variety. The first thing once all of that is out of the way is for you to jump into the river and swim across to the other side. In a stream that is flowing pretty swiftly and about 40 feet across at that point and 40 degrees it takes about 120 yards to get across. This is the hardest part of the trip. When you clamber out on the other side with any bare skin, principally your hands, aching like an ice cream headache you are thinking this might be more than I am ready for. But, at that point you load into rafts and are introduced to your river guide and you embark on the adventure. Aching hands and cold are of less importance as you face the upcoming rapids.

I took this video with my little camera tucked into my life jacket so it doesn't get the best pictures but hey, I was busy paddling. It does give you an idea of the action we enjoyed bouncing through the rapids with our fearless river guide barking out paddling commands. Outrageous fun! The back you see much of the time in the video is Brad, my son who took the day off to go with me on this trip. I was so glad he was able to go and we could share the adventure.
We all managed to survive the day and one of the group had the dubious distinction to be the only one who fell out of the raft going down the rapids. He not only was the only one who fell out, but he did it twice. Needless to say he was the target of the many comments disparaging his abilities. Man talk for bonding. This final picture ist he "after" picture at the end of the day. Yes, this is the same handsome group of men as the beginning but wetter, tired and feeling the rush of a great day risking death and living to tell the tale.I hope there is a third annual event, it is one of those things I want to see if I still muster the sense of adventure and expend the energy to enjoy the older I get. It is also a way to spend some quality time with friends and experience life in a new way.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 13 Things We Take For Granted

You may wonder why I would show a picture of a common P-trap to open this installment of my blog. Well, in St. Michael, a P-trap is not common. When was the last time you thought about a P-trap? Maybe you never have thought about a P-trap. When the missionary's house in St. Michael froze up last winter the P-trap under the bathtub/shower had water in it as it was supposed to. However, when water freezes, it expands which isn't usually a good thing for plumbing. So, when showers or baths were taken, water leaked onto the floor. No problem you say, just go get a new one at the store or call a plumber. Good thinking unless you live in St. Michael. No P-traps at the local AC and no plumbers either. A little problem becomes a big problem. What you are thinking is that tangle of pvc is probably about $10 worth of stuff. Unless you live in St. Michael. Then that little conglomeration of plumbing is about $130. Let me tell you why. We could have brought one with us, even if it meant that Dennis restricted us to only 20 pounds of personal gear on the plane, but at the time no one knew this P-trap was broken. It was only discovered after our arrival. Such situations are afact of life there.

This man is Ray Schemanski. He is one of the miracle workers we had on this trip. We had miracle workers with flooring, electricity, carpentry, paint and Ray pretty much everything else, plumbing included. The closest P-trap to St. Michael he could determine was in Nome. So Ray called an air service in Nome and asked them to expedite the needed parts to St. Michael on their next flight to St. Michael which happened to be in two days. Mind you, we could have had them fly that day, but that would make the P-trap about $300 more expensive. We were only going to be in St. Michael 4 days, but two days would work. So, Ray spent nearly the entire morning working out an order (try describing plumbing parts to an air service secretary over the phone), paying the price of the parts, the expediting charge, the haz-mat fee (for the cement to bond the parts) and $10 parts quickly become $130 parts. Only instead of arriving in St. Michael they ended up in Elim, another village many miles away. So, more phone calls, more time spent describing the parts, and arrival literally hours before we were to take off back to Kenai.
This is life if you live in St. Michael. It takes a lot of time and effort to do just about anything, oh, and lots of money too. Things we take for granted in the world we all live in are not to be taken for granted in St. Michael. Lots of patience, ingenuity, creative solutions, salvaging, re-purposing and money are needed to live here successfully.
I have included a video I have already posted so you can watch it for something that may have slipped your notice the first time. First, forgive me for the long video. I am learning taking video is much more interesting than watching most of the time. When you watch this time, as we fly over the village, note the silver lines that connect all of the houses all over the village. This is another thing we often take for granted, water and sewer. Those silver snakes that you see in several previously posted pictures and this video are the village's water and sewer system. Yes, it is above ground and the boardwalks and roads all must work themselves around or over this grid. It can't be buried in the ground as the ground is frozen year around except for a squishy top layer in the summer, and if it were to break down or get damaged in the winter, getting into the ground when it is frozen just isn't going to happen. So, one pipe in these silver snakes is for fresh water, which by the way is excellent, coming from one of the volcanic crater lakes in the area, and the other pipe takes alway everything that goes down the P-trap and more. The pipes of course are separate from one another (everyone asks this question) and the rest is insulation around an electrical wire to keep it warm and flowing in the bitter cold of winter. The residents call this their "million dollar" water and sewer system. Not because it cost that much, it cost much more than that, but because that is how much it costs to produce the electricity to keep it from freezing which is diesel generated. All very sobering to think about. However this affords the village with wonderful, safe water to their homes and flush toilets as opposed to hauling water in,in buckets and hauling out everything that goes down the P-trap and more also in buckets. When was the last time you were thankful for your water and sewer? Live in St. Michael awhile and you will think about it a lot and be thankful. 17 people from Kenai who shared one flush facility were thankful!
Without belaboring the thought, there are a lot of things we take for granted in our lives that we probably shouldn't. There being so many of these things that we would be too overwhelmed to try to list them in any meaningful way, we just pretty much forget they are there until something goes wrong and then we get mad. When you support your missionary on the field somewhere, remember they may not have all the conveniences of your home. Keep them in prayer and keep your support for them strong.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 12 MARC

One of the great advantages we enjoyed on this missions trip was the services of MARC. Mission Aviation Repair Center in long form. This ministry operates to serve mission stations all over Alaska regardless of affiliation. If you know anything about Alaska, you know that only a very small percentage of our communities are served by road access. You simply cannot drive to most communities in Alaska. So, the aircraft is a vital link in transportation. This is where MARC comes in. Lets say, a team of people want to go to St. Michael to do some work on the facilities there and they need to take a lot of stuff with them. Since there are no commercial air carriers who fly into St. Michael, there would have to be a more complicated and expensive route to get there. MARC will fly such a team directly to any destination with their stuff. It is a huge advantage.

MARC was a fairly small operation for many years, begun in the earlier era of less regulations and red tape by an incredible man, Rold Amundsen. They used their personal aircraft to fly missionaries back and forth, supplies, groceries and the like with the meager funds that were available. But it worked and the ministry kept going. Eventually they added missionary pilots, mechanics and office personnel who were supported by outside churches and missions agencies. The real boost came fairly recently from the organization Samaritan's Purse, led by Franklin Graham.
Franklin has a great interest in Alaska and comes to our town often. Samaritan's Purse has done a lot of work in the Alaska Villages. Perhaps the most significant was Hooper Bay. A couple of years ago the village suffered a catastrophic fire that burned several houses and buildings in the village. You don't just go to Home Depot and get some lumber and start rebuilding. It is a huge effort. A village that suffers such a blow as that can simply cease to exist because the logistics of rebuilding are so great. Samaritan's Purse spearheaded the effort to get teams of people and materials out to Hooper Bay. It must have cost millions of dollars to do what they did. Much of it was run through MARC. Because of this relationship between MARC and Samaritan's Purse, MARC is able to use the aircraft of Samaritan's Purse for other missions efforts such as ours.
What you are able to load on these aircraft is pretty incredible. Essentially if you can fit it in the door, it goes. Weight of course is of great concern so other things get limited. For instance Dennis, our team leader limited us to a total of 25 pounds of personal gear per person. That 25 pounds included our sleeping bag, pillow and foam pad - if you wanted to bring such things. Yes, I did. I told Dennis that I have lost 30 pounds since the first of the year so I could then take 55 pounds? No dice. I didn't tell him but my stuff actually weighed 26 pounds altogether. I got away with it! Ha! Anyway, we were loaded pretty heavy.

Back to the great advantage MARC affords us is we are able to "piggy back" on trips they are already scheduled to take. In our case, the large aircraft we took was scheduled to deliver goods to White Mountain which is much further North than St. Michael. So, we piggy backed on the return route as the aircraft was empty. We only had to pay for the return leg, not a whole round trip to pick us up. The same with the smaller aircraft on the way out. It was already scheduled to fly into Hooper Bay which is not far from St. Michael (relatively speaking). So we only had to pay the
leg from Hooper Bay to St. Michael, only one hour instead of the whole round trip. Also, the flights are direct instead of having to change out planes to go from one place to another. It's really the only way to fly. My pilot, Brian was a great guy, we had great fellowship on the way stopping in Napakiak (Na pok iak), Bethel, Hooper Bay and St. Michael. What a great adventure!

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 11 Problem Solver

I have to introduce you to a man who is an incredible leader. Dennis Merkes. That's him in the middle of this picture. Dennis is an extraordinary problem solver. Really, he is amazing.
This trip happened at all because of the gift he has to tackle a problem and find a solution. 36 hours before departure for St. Michael we received a phone call from the missionary, Brian Staub who was in St. Michael a day ahead of us, telling us that the container with all the materials in it with which we were supposed to work with was not going to arrive in St. Michael as it was scheduled in time for us.

Game over. That was my thought. There just isn't enough time to find a work around solution, or so was my thinking. Not Dennis. I dropped the bomb on Dennis about an hour after the phone call which was about 6 pm. Without going into a very detailed and lengthy description of someone who is determined to make a plan work, suffice it to say, Dennis had us back on track to go to St. Michael with materials. A few phone calls and a lot of manic effort to purchase and gather replacement materials literally hours before our scheduled take off brought us all back online. The other 13 team members were none the wiser as everything to them went just as we planned.

This next picture looks like everything is going just fine. It is actually, but you don't know why it is. When you land in St. Michael, the airport or we should just say the landing strip is at least three miles out of the village. No shelters, no place to make a call, nothing. You are dropped off, the plane flies away and you are there all by yourself. Where is the missionary? He was supposed to be here to pick us up. Nothing. So, Dennis sees this pickup truck coming up the road. He meets the driver. No, he is not there to pick up a group of people. So, Dennis asks, "could we load our stuff in your truck and you take us into town?" With a little monetary persuasion a deal is made and 14 people, all the stuff we brought with us pile onto and into this Nissan pickup truck.
Now I am not mixing up my numbers, we took 16 people total to St. Michael, I had not yet arrived (another blog post to come) and Dennis Doss (we had two Dennis', two Larry's on this trip) hitched a ride with the same Yupik Eskimo man with the 4-wheeler/trailer that was to help us out in a couple days (I think he is actually an angel God sent to help us out on this trip). The way it all worked out you would have thought it was planned.

Now the reason the missionary did not meet our group at the airport was because the truck he had would not start. So on arrival in town, Dennis goes to work fixing this truck because it is very clear we are going to need this truck while we are there. As they determined the battery wass dead, a little Yupik lady walks by on the boardwalk. "Do you know someone with a battery charger?" Dennis asks. She nods. In a few minutes she returns with a battery charger.

This next photo is a great example of Dennis' gift. See that large, heavy, hard to move piece of iron we are hauling away? It has set behind the house in St. Michael for who knows how long. How did it get there? Why is it there? Who moved it? Questions that will never be answered. In my mind it was there when God created the heavens and the earth. It was destined to be there until the end of time. Then Dennis walks around the back of the house where I was working and questions why this thing is there. He says, "hey, I think we should move this thing out of here." I think but do not say, "Right! Not on my back!" So Dennis pushes on this thing as it is standing upright and tips it over. "See?, he says. Now we can roll it." So I am automatically drafted into this new endeavor. As God saw this going on, He sent a wonderful little Yupik man by on his 4-wheeler pulling a little trailer. Dennis says, "could you haul this thing to up dump for us?" The man nodded and we roll this thing onto this trailer that looks like it could tow about three little kids. I thought we were going to bust the axles out from under this little trailer. Since God thinks of everything, He also sent angels to keep us from breaking this man's little trailer. It was amazing. Mission accomplished and Dennis went off to solve another problem somewhere. I was left standing there shaking my head how this whole thing worked out in about a minute and a half. What a lesson learned.

The whole trip was pretty much that way. I think Dennis was pretty exhausted by the end of the four days, but after getting home and resting for a day, he was ready to go again. I have learned that the best thing I can do around Dennis is to stay out of his way and let him work out whatever he is after, because he will find a way to get what he feels is important. God bless him.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 10 Boardwalk

You might think I am talking about a space in the game of Monopoly. Not. Nothing close. Navigating around St. Michael is done mostly on foot. If you don't have a 4-wheeler or a truck, you get to walk. Since everything is easily within walking distance it's not too inconvenient. Who built these boardwalks is an unknown. When they were built is also unknown. I saw a picture in the local government building where we were given free showers by the generosity of the local people in charge there, of young native men putting up "new" board walks by salvaging material from "old" board walks back in the 1930's as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (in case President Obama is reading this, it is pronounced "core" not "corpse" as in Marine Corps). So board walks have a lengthy history in St. Michael. It is a necessity not just a niceity. The board walks keep you from disappearing into the mud of the landscape. Yes, the landscape looks like a green carpet but do not be fooled, that is only a creative covering for bottomless mud. It's not like quicksand but more like "slowsand". Everything does sink that sits on the ground very long. If a person were to walk in the same place day after day, say like on the way to up dump, it would quickly become a muddy trench where water collected and never dried up. The ground here is at the water table pretty much, even on the sides of the hills around the village. Even on top of the hills it is in the water table. There will never be a forest fire in St. Michael as first, there are no trees anywhere, but more to the point, there is way too much water for anything to burn.

It must have been some time since the board walks were built as some of them, in particular, the ones in from of the church are in pretty rough shape. If you were not watching your step, you could easily twist an ankle or break a leg or at least take a nasty fall. It gave rise to an idea that on a return trip to St. Michael we would make repair of the board walks on the block that the church is on a priority.
As you can see, the boardwalks are not just for walking, but really a hard somewhat level surface where people can meet and the children play. It would be nice for the church to have boardwalks that people could do these things without the dangers of falling through the holes.


I made an interesting discovery one day when wandering through the weeds. The board walks have evolved over time. I found in the tall grass older, smaller board walks of two side by side planks that were apparently no longer used and overgrown. These meandered all over, most likely places previous residents often went. Now, they are slowly becoming part of the earth again. These older board walks seemed a little more pragmatic, not really laid out in an organized fashion but purpose built to go to specific places as directly as possible. For the most part these board walks stayed closer to the little bluff above the beach and offered a scenic walking tour of the beautiful vistas that surround St. Michael.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 9 - Things to Do

Fortunately it was not just work in St. Michael. We did have the evenings to look around the village and see whatever there was to see there. I really enjoyed walking around the village and seeing how the people there live their lives. Especially on the fist two days, there was such beautiful sun and relatively warm temps, it made walking around very pleasant.

For newbies like us, there was a lot to see as we were first timers and it was all an adventure. For those who live there, well, not a lot to do except what you make for yourself to do. It becomes very real to a person when you are standing in St. Michael to realize that if you are not connected to the land in a very strong way, fishing, gathering, hunting, etc. it would be a very bleak existence indeed. I suspect this has much to do with the high suicide rate in these villages. When you get cable TV and the perception is that the life "out there" is like what they see on cable programming, it becomes very dissatisfying to go outside to hunt and fish. So much of ministry in a village like St. Michael is giving the people hope and encouragement.

There are basically three things to do in St. Michael. The first is walk the beach. Now this is very interesting to do. There is the huge remnants of a previous civilization left on the beaches of St. Michael. 100 years ago, St. Michael was the last stop the stern wheeler boats made before they landed on the gold rush beaches of Nome, just across Norton Sound. St. Michael offered a protected bay from the numerous fierce storms that develop on the Bering Sea. At one time, there were 10,00 people in St. Michael. It is difficult to imagine. Sometime in the 1920's the whole gold rush came to an abrupt end and the sternwheeled boats were left on the beaches. I saw historic pictures in the local government offices showing these huge boats hauled out on the beaches. Almost all of the wood is very long gone as the elements make quick work of that. However the immense iron members of these boats remain.

The second thing to do is to visit "Up Dump". What? Simply it is the village dump and it is located over the hill from the main village. So, you have to go "up" to the dump. Everyone calls it "up dump". To be honest, it is a jolt to the system to come over the rise to up dump. One gets to taking for granted that everything is beautiful and pristine and wild. Seeing up dump reminds one that the realities of modern existence and the things we throw away are an issue, and especially so in a place like St. Michael. Living in a city our trash gets hauled away from our sight and we assume it doesn't exist anymore.

Apart from the shocking reality of up dump, it is a little entertaining and interesting and sometimes a place of resource as most dumps are. A perfectly good purse is laying on the ground, and you wonder, "why did they throw this away?" With all the dead 4-wheelers laying around the houses (dozens of them) in town, why don't they haul those to up dump instead of cluttering up their yards?" It goes on an on like it would if you visited your local dump. Going personally to the dump is just a part of life in Alaska for most people. Going to up dump reminded me of the many times I went with dad to toss out some perfectly good trash. He would sometimes remind me that if I didn't do well in school, I could always get a job at the dump because they paid you and it was all you can eat as a side benefit. I didn't know if he was joking for a long time. I think it was a subtle hint to do well in school or a life of up dump was something I could look forward to.

I mentioned the dump as a place of resource. This was true of our trip. The picture of the missionary, Brian Staub shows him extracting some lengths of PVC pipe that came in handy for burying an electrical line that they ran to the quonset hut. There was lots of it in the dump for some reason. It's kind of like a free hardware store.



The last "something to do" option in St. Michael is the AC. I think I might have mentioned that AC stands for "Alaska Commercial Store". It was formerly "Northern Commercial" which had served the needs of Alaskans for many decades all over the state, but now under a new owner, it mainly provides staples for bush residents. Interesting enough, in St. Michael, the AC is the going concern. In Stebbins, it is the Native Store that is the main provider of goods. The native store in St. Michael went out of business and the AC in Stebbins is pretty small. Regardless each carries lots of things we crave enough to consider paying the price they charge. Doritos are $9 a bag, Sunny Delight breakfast drink is $16 a gallon. Milk is $10 a gallon. Soda is 2.50 a can. A Wii you can buy at the local department store for $200 is $400 in St. Michael. You get the idea.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 8 Stebbins

The second day we were in St. Michael we had a small break in the afternoon to go 11 miles away to Stebbins, another Yupik village on the same peninsula as St. Michael. Stebbins is the larger of the two villages. St. Michael is about 400 in population, Stebbins 800 or so. Stebbins is a neat little village, a couple things stand out about it. First, you notice someone must have planned for all the houses and building to be laid out in a neat grid. The streets are for the most part pretty straight and the houses all spaced evenly apart from one another. St. Michael looks less planned in comparison. I still never got the logic of the street system in St. Michael. Most likely because

their logic developed their streets from the foot paths that followed the path of least resistance or went wherever due to need to go there. Interesting enough, Stebbins being bigger and having a few more amenities like the Native Store (much bigger than the AC) and a real Post Office, two amenities are not present here. A sewage system and a water system. Don't know how they missed out on those two things when St. Michael enjoys both.

So, the honey bucket is still a reality in this village. All the honey buckets are brought from the houses to little collection containers around town for someone to haul the contents away. In fact we saw the man who takes the collection containers to be emptied by towing them behind his 4-wheeler. We noted that he drove very slowly. We also noticed he was very lonely, probably because he didn't have much of a sense of humor.

While we were in Stebbins we checked out the Assembly of God church there. This is where missionary legends lived and ministered. Harriet Brown spent many winters here. John Covlasky also ministered in Stebbins and helped B.P. Wilson and Ken Andrus construct the original building in 1961. John Covlasky would travel by boat when weather permitted from St. Michael to Stebbins to minister in the days before there was a road and snowmobiles were very reliable.

While we were there a young Yupik lady showed up and asked if we wanted to get inside the building as we were showing it lots of interest. She had a key! So, we went in to inspect it. Small. The living quarters were pretty small. There was a little kitchen with a "vintage' electric range and a refrigerator. Winters might be pretty long in such a small place. By the way, click on the picture of our group standing in front of the church and see the address. I don't know if that is the real address or not!

A ways off from arriving in Stebbins we were met with a rather distinct pungent odor. We surmised this was a honey bucket village, but something told me this was a smell of a different kind. It was different. Herring. LOTS of herring drying everywhere. This last picture is me standing (up wind) in front of racks and racks and racks of drying herring. Two weeks it takes to dry herring due to their tremendous oil content, at that in a pretty constant stiff breeze right off the Bering Sea. If I thought St. Michael had a lot of king salmon on racks, Stebbins had those beat ten to one on herring. Didn't see much salmon drying in Stebbins.

The herring are just split open whole and left whole. They are then woven very skillfully into braids of dry beach grass. It is fascinating to see. I couldn't do it that way to save my life. They acted like it was no big deal. So there are hundreds of little herring sticking out from these braids of grass by their heads. The residents really like their herring.

On this trip half the team went to Stebbins. The next day the other half of the team went the 11 miles into Stebbins. I wish I had gone the second day as sometime early that day the villagers of Stebbins spotted a pod of beluga whales near shore in the Bearing Sea and were able to harpoon one and bring it ashore. Our team were able to watch them butcher it up. I haven't seen pictures of this yet, but will attempt to include them if I do.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 7 Yupik Culture

One of the really great things about being in St. Michael this trip was being able to see the residents putting up fish for the winter. The primary fish they were processing was king salmon. One of the testimonies given at the Sunday service was thanksgiving for the strong fish harvest. Apparently it stronger than in recent years and their drying racks were filling up.

Speaking of drying racks, they were lots of places. I passed by one home and the entire porch was a lined with drying fish, little huts made of driftwood and what might be considered a "clothesline" in our neighborhood sufficed for drying fish. The blue tarp is also employed quite often for the occasional rain shower. What would we do without our blue tarps?

Apparently the men do the catching and bring it home, the women do all the processing. Did I mention I like some aspects of Yupik culture? Actually the women really seem to love it. I really mean that, they seem to very much enjoy working with the fish. They visit and work away. Each one seems to do a certain part of the work. The oolu knife is very much a work tool there. They have several of them, different sizes and with different shaped blades. No tourist item here, they are very sharp and not for show.

In a matter of maybe two or three minutes the fish is gutted, headed and filleted. It is then placed in a brine for a time and "washed", then hung over a pole in the drying hut or porch or clothesline. The winds blow and keep the bugs off and gently dry the moisture out of the meat. The heads of the fish are collected for "dog food". The rest is taken out to the bay to feed the King Crabs which they also catch for free. It is fascinating to watch them go about their work. They were quite patient with us asking questions and looking over their shoulders.

Oh, just a little moral to the story, don't get caught stealing salmon out of the net. That little harbor seal learned that lesson the hard way. Actually, they were very happy to get the seal. They render the seal fat for oil, into which they dip most all their food, especially the dry salmon. In the harsh environment the Yupik people live in this provides long lasting energy and body heat to stay warm in spite of the cold and wet. You don't stay warm long eating twinkies in the cold of St. Michael. One friend who tried some described it "like turning on a heater inside your belly". I'll take his word for it until I need to try it for myself. Not that I am afraid mind you. I'm just not cold at the moment.

From the looks of things the ones out there working will eat well this winter. Less business for the AC perhaps but lots of prime king salmon to enjoy.

A Note To Readers

I am no computer geek. I recently discovered that if you "click" on any picture, you will get a full size picture instead of these tiny ones. The details emerge that are lost on the small pictures. Give it a try! When you are done looking at the picture, just hit your "back" button on your browser and you will be returned to the blog.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 6 Heavy Lifting

One of the more significant tasks we undertook on this trip to St. Michael was fixing and leveling the floors in the house and the quonset hut. We were totally unprepared for this but it became very obvious this is something that needed to happen.

Right off, walking into the house it was very obvious that the floor was not level. A check from the front of the house to the back proved that the back of the house was 9" lower than the front end. Putting any work into fixing cracks in the walls or trim would be an exercise in frustration if the house itself wasn't level.

This is where our leader, Dennis really shines. One of his greatest strengths is that he is an amazing problem solver. If it had been left up to me, my assessment of the situation would have been, "hmmm....that's too bad." Not Dennis. No matter we did not have 10 ton jacks with us on this trip. No matter we didn't even have a real level - ever hear the expression, "that level is half a bubble off of plumb"? That was our level. No matter this project wasn't even on the radar screen when we took off to St. Michael. Dennis plunged right in and set about finding a way to make it happen.

Over and over again it was so obvious that the Lord provided things we required to do work that we would just be astounded. So it was with the jacks. A "chance" meeting with one of the residents of St. Michael resulted in him supplying two heavy lifting jacks for us to use. Once our electrician, Jim was working a rewiring project and couldn't go any further because he needed two romex clamps. They couldn't be found on site, at the AC or in the next village, Stebbins. So, Jim went to look again, through the bits and pieces of salvage material we had saved to see if he could make something work. Just as he exited the church building and was crossing the "street" (not really a street) he intersected with one of the village residents and greeted him. He mentioned to him what he was looking for. The man said, "I think I have two of those at home." He was gone for about 10 minutes and came back with three. That sort of thing happened so often we realized how involved the Lord was in this trip.

So, Dennis assigned Ray and Mark to crawl under that dank, dark space under the house to begin the process of jacking up the house. The house has been there for about 30 years. There are no true foundations under houses in St. Michael. Because the ground is so saturated in water, there is no practical way to pour a conventional foundation, neither is there any way you could get enough affordable concrete to St. Michael to make it possible. So, all the house are built on pilings. Over time these pilings sink into the soft soils during the short summers. As I mentioned the back of the house was sinking faster than the front of the house, most likely because it receives far more of the sun. So, Ray and Mark worked most of one day jacking and stacking more piling material under the floor support beams until the house was pretty much level. Inside the house this made an amazing difference. Walls that were separating came back together, cracks disappeared and you could walk across the room without feeling as if one of your legs was shorter than the other.

The next similar but different project was the quonset hut floor. This being the original building from the early '60's we assumed wrongly that the floor was rotted out. Not the case. What a testament to US Army engineering. It was quite solid and sound despite being inches above the watery ground for decades. What had happened, was on a previous construction project, the building materials were stacked in the quonset hut to be stored until they could be used. It obviously exceeded the weight limit of the floor and broke the main beam, collapsing the floor. So, once again, Dennis decided this had to be fixed.

They opened up the floor, quickly seeing the problem and went to work. They put treated blocking under the broken beam to use as a base to first jack up the floor. Once they started jacking it was obvious that the floor was not going up as expected, but the jack and the blocking were being pushed down into the watery ground. Another layer of treated blocking (all this blocking was found laying outside the church building, obviously there for some time) was required before the upward force was greater than the downward force. Once the floor was leveled it was supported and repaired and the floor sealed back up. It now will become a youth and children's ministry center instead of an unusable building.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 5 Church!

Spiritual encouragement was a great part of each day. We began the day with devotions and ended the day with devotions. Several members of the team shared some thought or scripture as assigned, sometimes minutes before it was to be delivered (Dennis, not me!). Usually before the devotional thought or scripture we would sing. You can see how hard pressed we were for musicians as I was the main one. I haven't played guitar for years. You can tell by the fact the ONLY songs I can play are "vintage", you know, "This Is The Day", "Come Bless The Lord", "Just A Closer Walk", that sort of thing. What a great team, they all said how much they appreciated the music. It was enhanced greatly with an acoustic bass played by Bill and another guitar player Tommy. The occasional percussion instrument joined in as well. The percussion thing got a little out of hand for me as I was leading the Sunday service. There happens to be a cardboard box FULL of noise making instruments on the platform of the Assembly of God church in St. Michael. These were liberally handed out to any child willing to "play" them by well meaning team members. The resulting cacophony was too much for this rhythmically challenged worship leader. I not only could not hear myself play my own guitar or the other players I think I could have replaced the words to "Give Thanks" with the Pledge of Allegiance and no one would have known.

We had a great service on Sunday. Each day we were in St. Mike we would invite the residents we met to our "potluck" we would sponsor on Sunday. We had no idea how many would come which is a concern as that being our last day we only had so much food left and running to the AC was not only pricey but maybe inadequate for what we might need. However, it was all very manageable in the end. The ladies prepared all the remaining food and put on a nice spread. The reason I put "potluck" in quotes is that we were the only ones who brought food. We ended up feeding about 24 adults and 25 children. We had a great time. Lots of visiting and sharing with the residents and enough food to go around.

Well meaning team members started handing out balloons sometime after the kids were pretty much done eating. This was a great hit and made these people very popular with the kids. They loved squealing the balloons and batting them around the room. I was brought by one of the children a balloon that had obviously been inflated and deflated, inflated and deflated a number of times. It looked "moist". I was asked if I would blow it up and tie it for them. I hesitated. I thought I might change my sermon text to Mark 16:18. I tried best I could to blow up this balloon without putting my lips on it. I am still alive. Fun pandemonium. Great for a potluck, not so good for church. When church started the kids hardly noticed. I was trying my best between the aforementioned cacophony and the balloons.

Anita, bless her heart, had a sudden thought that she and another volunteer, Larry would take the kids to the next door quonset hut with the newly fixed floor (more on that later) for children's church. This enabled us to have a more subtle time of church for the adults and we had a very nice service in which there were testimonies, thanks giving for the abundant fish run and my message which everyone participated in from Hebrews 13:8. Two people responded for salvation!

The pictures of Anita and the kids in the quonset hut are awesome. Anita said she had to think of every Sunday School song she ever knew with motions and all the Bible stories she could think of and some she made up to hold their attention. The picture of the little guy on the steps is cute. He is not praying, he is peeking through the hole in the bottom of the door. Too shy to go in, he still wanted to see what was going on inside. He was coaxed, he was encouraged to join in with the fun (for the kids). Nothing could persuade him to enter the quonset hut. Until the one magic word was spoken. Candy.

St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 5 Kids!

The children of St. Michael are precious. For not having a lot of the conventional distractions that city kids take for granted, they seem to be pretty content. Of course in a place like St. Mike, they have run of the entire place and they keep their own hours. Typically They stay up late with the summer sun and sleep in until about noon. This was evidenced by the fact that when we began our work which was about 8 in the morning, nary a child was to be seen until lunch. From then on, they were ever present.

They all seemed to have bikes, all in various states of hammered condition. One little boy had a bike with a pedal that was hardly there. I tried my best to think of how to improve it to no avail. However, his chain kept falling off as well. I scrounged a couple of wrenches and tightened it up some. The lack of lubrication made it difficult and I could not find a can of WD-40. I resorted to using a piece of drift wood that was shaped somewhat like a hammer to pound the axle back far enough to give sufficient tension to the chain. He rode off quite happy that his chain would stay in place a little better.

Some of the more experienced and thoughtful people on our team had the forethought to bring treats for the kids. This was a stroke of genius. The first time the children appeared they were offered candy which is like gold. It probably was not good for their dental hygiene but since that was not a likely concept it most likely didn't do any additional harm. It did buy us favor. Through the next couple of days bouncy balls appeared which could only be bounced on the only available hard even surface which was the church floor. Scratch bouncy balls for the next trip. Jump ropes were especially popular with the girls. Some had never jumped rope before. Jumping rope was possible on the boardwalks which are all over town (more about that later). The little balsa wood gliders were especially popular with the boys. Anyway, it was very thoughtful for the team members to think of the kids beforehand and bring them some unexpected treats.

One of my favorite quotes of the trip came from one of the three boys that were helping me take a load of trash to the dump (more on that later). To make conversation I was asking them questions about life in St. Michael. Their favorite thing to do in St. Mike was "go to the AC". Why? I asked. "Candy." I asked them if they had ever been to Stebbins, the next village 11 miles away by road. Two had, one had not. I asked if they had ever been to Anchorage. One little boy replied, "I sometimes always never go there." I am still figuring that one out.