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.