St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 2 Getting Started

I am not sure how many parts the St.Michael blogs will fill, or how I will choose to tell the story. I am still collecting pictures of the trip and cannot really tell it all sequentially so I will mainly tell eclectic moments of inspiration.

The first picture is of the church building as we arrived. The little quonset hut next to the church on the left is the original church building. The quonset hut was the original house /church in St. Michael. It was built in the very early 1960's. The information on St. Michael is sketchy, but a number of missionaries and people have ministered in this village since that time. From what the missionary who is now there, Brian Staub, told me, the church was built some time in the early 1970's, 1973 I think. I don't know if it has had paint since then, but it was in need of paint when we arrived. That was the first project the team attacked as the weather was excellent (not a given in St. Michael) and it was one of the priorities of the trip.

The second picture is of one of the congregation members who was at their fish site when the team arrived. She brought a nice, fresh king salmon to the team as a welcome and a gift for our meal. This was typical of the kind of welcome we received throughout the village. Very friendly, open and helpful people. The Assemblies of God is well thought of there and the people were glad to see us arrive. They are very happy to have missionaries there after the 38 years of ministry of Phyllis Fenstermaker. It is not easy to find people who will go to places like St. Michael but God has provided for the Staubs to be there. We were happy to contribute to that ministry.

The third picture serves two purposes, one, to prove that I was actually working and the real reason is to show some of the work we did in the parsonage. Last winter when the house was unoccupied, the heater quit working for some reason. In St. Michael in winter this is not a good thing. The house froze up and broke the pipes and flooded the house with about three inches of ice on the floor. When it was discovered, all the flooring had to be removed and the floor fixed in places. So, the picture is of me sanding some of the remaining flooring. It was a big job, one that was helped by one of the villagers lending us a power sander - PTL! I was also reassigned to another task and someone else took over the sanding responsibilities.