World Changers

Lately, I’ve been very involved with reporting on the churches hosting the World Changers events. It is similar to Habitat for Humanity, but is a ministry of the North American Mission Board. I meant to include this in the last blog because we attended the first Alaska World Changers in Wasilla on Thursday, June 12. It was held at LaVerne Griffin Camp. We went around to the different work sites where teams from all around the U.S. were in to help rebuild/repair homes. I interviewed students and church staff, along with a few of the homeowners. Mrs. Nancy and I stayed for dinner and part of the worship. It was neat to see many of the homeowners attend the worship night they had.

Last Tuesday was a great day! I was invited by the front desk secretary to come to a women’s lunch to help her with her hand bells. Sylvia is her name and she is a very talented solo hand bell player. It was a very nice lunch and the speaker was good. We also got to see a professional cake decorator, decorate a 3 tier wedding cake. It was gorgeous. But most of all I enjoyed watching Sylvia play the hand bells. She has traveled all over the world to play them and has an accompany pianist.
On Tuesday night, we had a delicious moose dinner with Sarah and Luke. After dinner I interviewed them. They are a young couple who are headed to pastor First Baptist Kobuk. I loved holding their baby, Desarose, who is four months old. She was so precious! It was crazy to hear how much planning was involved in their move to Kobuk. They had to weigh themselves, their Husky dogs, and all of their things because they were allowed 2,400 lbs. cargo on the plane. They had to pack all of their things plus groceries because things are very expensive there. Since it is a remote Native village, gas there is $5.80/gallon and milk is $9/gallon and you have to fly to get there.

Last week I interviewed the ladies at the Alaska Baptist Family Services office about their quilt ministry. My huge project last week was a mail out for the office. They were sending 1000 letters out to some of their financial supporters. I stuck all the labels on the envelopes, used the 3-fold machine to fold the papers, sealed and stuffed the envelopes, and was very glad when I was done! It was a huge project! When I finished I went in Mr. Dave’s office and pressed the ‘Easy Button’. It’s this huge red button and when you hit it, it says, “That was easy!” Haha! I am so thankful that my summer supervisor has a good sense of humor!

We also had a group from Lafayette, Louisiana, at the office all last week painting the office. There were 3 or 4 college aged summer missionaries working, so I got to know some of them and helped paint a little. Last Thursday was one of my longest days since I was at the office from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. But that night was a lot of fun since the Louisiana group did a big Cajun cookout for the office. The food was delicious and I was so excited to finally get some sweet tea! I also played horseshoes with Ms. Debra and hung out with some of the other summer missionaries. We saw two moose right outside the office as we were about to leave and that was pretty exciting too!

On Friday and Saturday we worked on the house project. Shoveling tons of gravel and building their deck. Saturday afternoon I attended my first African American funeral. It was interesting because they had a lot of music during the funeral and it lasted about three hours! It was a nice funeral though and they had an invitation time too. We went to Village Inn for dinner afterwards and then I helped Mrs. Nancy assemble her brand new fountain that night.

On Sunday we attended Cross Country Church in Wasilla. It meets in a movie theater and averages about 75 people, which is a lot for a church here. We went out for lunch after and then drove back to Anchorage. Monday we were in the office and I helped finish up some paperwork there and wrote my article on Cross Country.

Our second World Changers was yesterday in Nikiski, which is on the Kenai Peninsula. It was a beautiful drive and we saw four dall sheep very close up along the way. The water was so blue from the glacier runoff and there were hundreds of fishermen lining the banks, fishing for salmon. Mr. Dave and I left the house in the van at about 7 a.m., but one of the bearings was coming loose on the van, so we drove all the way back to Anchorage, got the Subaru and then headed to Nikiski. We finally made it to Nikiski at about 2 p.m. We ate at Sal’s Klondike Diner in Soldotna for lunch. All the little Alaskan diners have the best service and food! They are neat little dinners with fun barstools, booths and witty signs all over the walls. Some also have stuffed goose, moose, caribou and other wildlife mounted on the walls. When we got to Lighthouse Community Church, I interviewed their pastor and all of their staff. It is a small church, in my opinion, but they are doing so much amazing stuff! I interviewed Bubba, the cook for all of the World Changers this summer. He is cooking for over 200 people at some of the events and his normal day is 20 hours long and begins with fixing breakfast at 3 a.m. in the morning! I was really amazed at how much one church could impact the community. Check out their website at http://www.lccak.com/ for more information about the church. We ate dinner there and then drove back. I drove the Subaru and practiced my stick shift driving on the drive home. It was a really long day though, we didn’t get home until 10 p.m. and then we talked with the neighbors for awhile. It’s unbelievable how late people stay up during the summer and how light it is at that time. The longest day is June 21. We are now finally beginning to gain a few more minutes of darkness each night…but I haven’t been able to really tell yet.

My article on Eagle River’s sports camp will be published in the July edition of the Messenger, which you can view online at http://www.alaskabaptistconvention.com/. I’m also working on other articles that they are looking at publishing in the future editions.

Preview: I’ve told some of you already, but I’ll be flying solo to Kotzebue on July 3rd. It is a village located north of the Arctic Circle. I will be staying in the church there for three nights and I’ve been told that when I board the jet, it will be from the tarmac since half of the front half of the plane will hold cargo. I’m so excited about having this opportunity!

Please pray for my safety in travel, for the secretaries in the office, and that I’ll have an impact on those I come in contact with. It seems my time is flying by this summer and I hope to continue to see God at work, even in the little situations I’m faced with.

I hope that as you’re reading this that everything is going well for you! Have a great week and God bless!

Trip to Valdez/ Lu Lu Belle

So, I guess I’ll update you all on this past week and the great trip we went on this weekend!

On Monday we did laundry, cleaned and worked in the yard some. In Alaska everyone has to do any home repairs they have during the summer since the winters are so rough. That leaves people very busy with projects each summer. The Baldwins are replacing their deck, which is on stilts. The wood is rotting, so we tore a good bit of it down and will continue working on it.

Then on Tuesday Mr. Dave and Mrs. Nancy took me, my dad and brother to Gwinnie’s for breakfast, which was delicious! They have all of Anchorage’s history on the walls and many moose head. After breakfast I hopped in the Dodge Charger rental car with Michael and Dad and we headed to Eagle River. We made it just in time for the Bell Shoals group’s morning devotional and then drove to the local school, where we helped with the Sports Camp the church was putting on. I walked around to different stations (baseball, basketball and soccer) and took pictures and interviewed the music minister some. I also got to throw the baseball around with some little kids, including one cute little girl named Callie! (made me think of you, Ms. Graham!) It was really good to have a little break to be with my family and members from my church. They fed us chili for lunch at First Baptist Eagle River and then we headed to Wasilla for the rafting trip! I wasn’t so sure about this trip to begin with because we were told that it was about 4 hours long. We even had to cross a small stream just to get to where we were putting the rafts in then we geared up. They went over all the safety precautions and then prayed for us. Our pastor, Gary Payne and Adam Welch fell in the river within the first 15 minutes of the trip because they were in a very small two-person raft that was difficult to control. I felt so helpless watching them from our big raft as they floated down the current and finally were able to grab onto a tree branch and get out of the river. At that time, it was about 3 p.m. and we did not return back to Anchorage until after midnight!! The rafting trip was a beautiful disaster though. We were on the freezing cold river for at least 7 hours. I was dressed warm enough and even wearing these huge waders that did not fit me at all, but when you’re wet and the water is in the 40 degrees, you do whatever you can to stay warm. We didn’t have anything to complain about compared to how wet our pastor and Adam were. There were about 14 of us total on the rafting trip, all men, except for me, Mrs. Wright and her daughter, Gracie. I knew something was 'fishy' when we first started off. The man who guided us, John, was a nice, Christian man, but had no concept of time or when to stop talking. He was also very ill prepared. But, we did have all the equipment we needed, he simply had not been to or rafted the Willow River since last summer, which we found out later. There were two huge blocks in the river that took us hours to cross. Gigantic logs had fallen and barricaded the river, where no rafts could get thru. The beavers had also caused a lot of river damage and we jokingly blamed them for our trouble. So, in the end, the men carried the huge rafts over the rocky terrain and Mrs. Wright and I backpacked all the stuff that was inside the rafts. It was definitely by God’s grace that we made it out of the river because at multiple times I thought we would end up calling someone in to rescue us or end up stuck out there for the night. It was a major blessing to know that it wouldn’t get dark. We finally made it to where our vehicles were at 10:30 p.m. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a very long adventure for me, my dad and brother! They had a rental car to turn in by midnight and a flight to make at 1 am and we were still 2 hours or more away from the airport. I was a little worried, but I knew that if God could get us out of the river, that he would allow Michael and Dad to make their flight. Dad booked it to the airport and we stopped to get gas and directions. We turned the rental car in around 12:45 a.m. and they made their flight!! I was so exhausted and cold when Mrs. Nancy picked me up from the airport, but I got to see the moon and the sun still up and out at the same time on the way home and that was a really neat blessing!

On Wednesday I went into the office at 8 and was still very tired, as you can imagine. I always dress casually when I go into the office and I figured there would be no reason to do any differently today, but they had to take my picture for their paper. It was a long day...I'm starting to get used to the 8-6 hour days. We had moose and Brussels sprouts for dinner and I watched ‘The Boys Next Door’ before I headed to bed. It’s a pretty funny movie, if you haven’t seen it!

On Friday we cleaned and mowed and got ready for Sarah and Luke who stayed in my room while we were gone this weekend. They are headed to North Alaska (Kobuk) to work with a village there. I will interview them tonight or tomorrow when we get back to Anchorage. We went to Sam’s, Costco and Fred Meyer to stock up on groceries for this week. It was such a beautiful day, the sun was out and it was about 80 degrees. Mrs. Nancy said for me to put my ‘skimpies’ on, so I did and we sat outside on the deck and soaked up the sun and drank lemonade. It was wonderful!

We left the house at 5:00 am on Saturday to make the 304 mile journey to Valdez for the weekend. At 2 p.m. we attended a pastor’s retirement picnic and I had the opportunity to meet so many people. At every event we attend, they announce, “We have Mrs. Nancy Baldwin with us today and Jennifer, who is a summer missionary.” I’m starting to get used to it now, but was caught off guard by it at first. After the picnic, we went back to the church to help the ladies prepare for Sunday’s ceremony. I washed more dishes than I have in my entire life and stemmed over 200 strawberries.

On Sunday we went on the Lu Lu Belle for their Chapel at Sea service. It is a free boat trip and worship service sponsored by First Baptist Valdez. We saw otters and had a nice time of music and message while on the boat. As we were exiting, I spoke with Captain Fred, simply asking him a little bit about the boat and how long they had been having the Sunday service and he invited me back as his guest for the 5 hr. boat tour! I saved a lot of money and had a wonderful time on the tour that left at 2 p.m. We saw doll porpoise, puffin, otters, sea lions and even humpback whales!! I had the best time and sat up in the top of the boat in the captain’s cabin for a good deal of the trip.

This entire weekend we stayed at Mrs. Linda’s house and it was so nice. We left there at around 6:30 am this morning to make the long road trip back to Anchorage.

-Please pray for Glenn and Nancy Little (the pastor of First Baptist Valdez who the picnic and ceremony were for this weekend), as they are retiring and moving.

First Big Weekend (Trip to Tok)

For those of you who don’t know, I’m spending 10 weeks, mainly in Anchorage, Alaska, this summer for missions and my Journalism internship. My time in Alaska so far has been wonderful! I’m staying with the wisest couple, who have so much experience with missions and ministry, it is amazing! Mr. Dave is the executive director of the Alaska Baptist Convention Board and Mrs. Nancy is such a sweet lady.

We had guests at the house last Thursday night(6/5) that I had the opportunity to interview, Mrs. Pattie, the pastor’s wife of First Baptist North Pole and her friend. Mrs. Pattie is a kindergarten teacher in North Pole, AK, and I was surprised to find out that they continue to go out for recess in the winter, even until the weather is 20 below. She gave me a book entitled, “Recess at 20 below” that includes pictures of young kids out playing in the snow with ice on their eyelashes. Johnny McCoy, the pastor and her husband, was mauled by a bear while hunting with his buddy, back in 2001, and because of this event, he has been on television multiple times. She told me all about how God has used this tragic experience as a platform for him to share Christ with others. She had great stories and it was so nice to meet her and her friend, Mrs. Bobbie. Later on this week, I watched a reinactment they did of the bear attack. It was on the television show, "This Happened to Me" and was very realistic, but also revealed how this horrible event gave Pastor McCoy an opportunity to share his faith with so many.

On Friday morning (6/6) we left Anchorage around 9:00 am and headed to Tok. It was about a 7-8 hour drive, but we stopped a lot to take pictures and the Baldwins wanted me to experience all the tourist stops along the way. The first stop was a glacier look out point, in which I had my first ‘pit toilet’ experience. It is named aptly because it is a regular toilet at first glance, but it does not flush, there is just a huge drop below that is full of tons of tourist waste! She said they may clean the entire ‘pit’ out weekly. The Baldwins had a very funny story about a previous summer missionary they had with them, that, like me, had never used a ‘pit toilet’ before, but she happened to drop her wallet with all of her things into it, while in a village! So the guys from the village held her upside down by her legs, in the nasty ‘pit’ so that she could retrieve her wallet. I was very careful to hold onto my things after hearing this story! Then, we continued on our journey to Tok. It is in South Eastern Alaska, very close to the Canadian border. Along the long drive, I kept up with the MilePost(The Bible of North Country Travel), which tells me what to expect each mile or so. In red are the alerts and warnings about the road conditions and wildlife. For example, multiple times it read “Watch out for moose”. I got excited about this, but along the drive up, we only saw dall sheep on the tops of the mountains. They looked like little white specks. We began to get a little hungry, so while in Eureka we stopped at a little hometown café(seemed just like the one on Gilmore Girls to me) and had their special of mile high pies, since we were at an elevation of approximately one mile high! I had a chocolate pie, which was delicious and then we continued on to Tok. When we got in, Ms. Nancy and I got settled in our room, Mr. Dave in his, and then went to meet up with a pastor and his family who were leaving soon. We stayed at the West Mark hotel in Tok and went to bed early that night. Then on Saturday, we woke up early, went to breakfast at Fast Eddy’s and then headed to the highlight of the weekend, the Tok motorcycle races! We drove 11 miles out, headed down a very long gravel road, and then arrived at the old WWII airstrip to find that there was a delay in the races. The first delay was due to a plane coming in to land, and then later on the second delay was due to the weather. I interviewed the Baldwins son, Davey Baldwin and a military chaplain, Patrick Genseal at the races. Both had very interesting stories about how they started racing motorcycles and they told me about how they race in Tok five weekends out of the summer. The guys were going SO fast on those motorcycles. We could only see part of the track, but they said it was about 3 ½ miles long, and Davey had his personal best time of 2:36 while we were there! Along the turns they ‘lay the bike down’ and sometimes even rub their knees along the gravel track. One man had a welt on his neck from a piece of gravel that flew up and hit him while driving. All these men have a passion for racing, as many drive over 300 miles and pay a good deal of money to be able to ride on a gravel airstrip in the middle of nowhere! This was the experience of a lifetime and the gorgeous mountains in the back made it all the better!! After a long day at the races, we drove through Tanacross (a native village) and then went to dinner with the Adams(the pastor of First Baptist Tok and his family). It was interesting going to Fast Eddy's again for breakfast and dinner and we saw many of the same people there that night! Great food though and it is the only good-sized restaurant in Tok. After dinner I went to the Adams' parsonage (house by the church) and played with their two little girls. We rode bikes, played dress up, played in the dirt, the whole deal! Tok was a neat little town, but a rough place to live. This family, the Adams were getting packed to leave for Nevada, after serving there in Alaska for five years. The winters were really rough on them. They had a record low of -87 temperatures there this winter and because of the cool weather, they have to plug-in their vehicles during the winter. It is also very dark there in the winter, some days of 20 hours of darkness. The isolation and darkness really take a toll on some to the point of having Seasonal Affective Disorder(S.A.D.) or Cabin Fever. We went to their church, First Baptist Tok, on Sunday morning to hear Mr. Scott Adams preach and I got to tell his girls goodbye. Then we began the 7 hour trip back to Anchorage again, but this time we got to see a lot more wildlife!! Yay!! I saw a moose in a lake on the side of the road and then we saw a moose and her baby on the road about 100 ft. ahead of us, but a motorcycle coming from the other direction scared them off before I could get a good picture. Oh well, I was just very happy to get to see a baby moose myself!

It will be good to be back in Anchorage this week. I’m planning to meet up with my dad and brother, and the Bell Shoals mission group on Tuesday to get some information on and help out with the sports camp. This week I will also be covering the World Changers in Palmer/Wasilla and writing my articles in the office.

-Please pray for the village of Tetlin and the people of Tok as they transition to having a new pastor in the next month. Also pray for Scott and Mary Beth Adams and their daughters(Sarah and Laura) as they move all the way from Alaska to Nevada. Pray for their safety and peace as they drive to Nevada and that they would have a good transition to their new church.
-Please continue to pray for me, that I would become more comfortable driving stick shift and that I would find rest this week, so that I’ll be prepared for another long trip next weekend(to Valdez).