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!