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.