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 highlig
ht 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).
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