Final Words

Well, today is the last day of camp here, though the campers don’t board the boats for their ride home until tomorrow. This is our last chance to speak the Gospel. Roger Huntington gave his testimony last night. It is a stirring account of God’s grace and power in the life of a sinner whose great passion is to see his people, the Athabascan and Eskimo people of Alaska, come to the same saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We pray for that end.

Many of our counselors have formed friendships with those in their cabin. Though they are tired they continue to push ahead. We were reminded this morning in our staff meeting from I Corinthians 3 that we merely plant and water seeds. The fruit of our labors here may not be visible to us but we can go away joyfully knowing that God’s message was heard clearly over and over in our words and actions.

Katy Doebler began sending the girl cabin counselors away for a short prayer time together for their campers. What a wonderful idea. Steve Doebler and Tim McIntyre have constantly encouraged me and offered helpful suggestions. Faith Conway has been a beam of sunshine walking around with a smile and encouraging word. How thankful I am for wise and capable helpers!

The weather has been beautiful and we were able to get out on the water yesterday and do some canoeing and swimming. Some of the boys got to shoot guns like the .223 which they  loved. Yet in all, our counselors and staff have continued to use everything to point the kids back to the Gospel. Target practice is an opportunity to explain sin (missing the mark). Running games become on opportunity to explain the Christian race (Heb. 12:1). Rewarding those who don’t retalitate is an opportunity to explain Christians in action.

We are sad to leave those we just became close to. However, we are excited to come home to you. Thank you for your prayers. See you Sunday morning in church (Lord willing of course).

Salmon Roe

Many of us had the opportunity to try salmon eggs (roe) last night. Roger caught a few King Salmon out of the Yukon yesterday so we could have fresh fish for dinner. The cooks (Lori and Laurie and Lola) baked the eggs for us and most people were willing to try them. I have to say they tasted like salmon meat and with a little salt they were quite delish!

Tim McIntyre has been doing a great job of keeping the kids moving during activity time. He wears them out so that our counselors actually get to sleep at night…the campers are so tuckered out they fall asleep!

Annelise turned two yesterday and so we got her a small treat from the camp store. She is actually starting to warm up to the campers.

We have campers asking questions about the devotions we are doing. All the counselors have put time and energy into their cabin devotions. Kaili has even had many opportunities to sit down one on one with a couple of girls who have asked her to read the Bible with her!

Emily has had a chance to do some skeet shooting with her cabin girls and Roger showed Kaitlyn how to properly shoot a bow so she could help him during archery time. Our guy counselors have a harder time because the boys are roudy. However, they are doing a wonderful job. Jacob and Cory have been following a soldier theme and their campers can’t wait to hear another King David story.

We have been encouraged to be here. Because half of our group was here last year and many of the campers were also we already had an established relationship! That has been helpful in developing relationships, answering questions, and practicing patience.

Some of our counselors are feeling sad knowing they only have a couple more days with their campers. Pray that God would work in them and through them to be bold with the Gospel and capture the time!

God of the Nations!

“For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”                                                                                                                Malachi 1:14b

This week many of our counselors and staff will fight discouragement at one time or another. My great discouragement came last night. We had 60 campers show up! Praise God. One of the boys, Steve, was so uncooperative. By the second day of camp he had started 4 or 5 fights with other campers and had cussed out many of the leaders. Finally, Roger said enough! Roger is extremely lenient however if a camper will not listen it is actually dangerous to keep him here. I was greatly discouraged not because Steve would not listen to me but because he wouldn’t listen to God. When I knew he was heading home I went and found him in Roger’s cabin and tried to share the Gospel with him one last time. He wanted to hear it and didn’t want to leave camp, however he just kept muttering, “I don’t care, I don’t care.” So we lost a camper, and I lost faith.

Let me clarify, I didn’t lose faith in God and who He is. I didn’t lose my saving faith. Inseated, practically in my heart I believe I began to doubt that God could ever change a heart of stone like Steve.

I have been doing my personal Bible reading in Malachi during the month of June. But when I woke this morning I began to think that I needed to get to a more “practical” and “encouraging” book to recieve the encouragement I felt I needed.  Yet I went back to Malachi and found that God’s Word is consistently active (Heb. 4:12) as I had been teaching these campers. That is when I was encouraged by Malachi 1:14b. God is a great King and He is advancing His kingdom among the nations. God is not just at work in Anacortes. He is at work among the nations and He will change hearts no matter how hard. I was deeply cut by the Word knowing that my heart doubted that. I was greatly encouraged by the Word because I was reminded that God saves sinners (Rom. 5:8). Truly God’s Word is a two edged sword, cutting out the sin in one direction and encouraging in the other.

Summit Park: Be proud of your team. God’s Word is going forth. Everyone is making valiant efforts to spread the Gospel in word and deed. We are also having fun. Yesterday afternnon it was very hot and we were able to make it out to the mud pit swimming hole. There will be many stories and pictures to share when we come home.

Please pray for us now! God is a King with an advancing kingdom!

Welcome to the Alaskan Adventure

Hello all,

My hope is to keep everyone back home as up to date as possible. These may be shorter notes but enough to wet your appetite…

The church we stayed at in Fairbanks is First Basptist Church and Pastor Bryan was very hospitable. We enjoyed our stay and visit. Our first night in Alaska was a surprise to many because at 11:00 PM is still looks like 3:00 PM in Anacortes! The sun never really sets so it is always light.

Travels went well, we have all our luggage! We did have a 3 hour delay for no discernable reason. However we are happy to be flexible. As one of our boats was pulling out it ran aground on something and sent Tim flying face first in our boat…fortunatly he is a good sport and wasn’t injured.

The first campers start showing up tomorrow at around 1 PM so please keep us in your prayers! We look forward to sharing our trip with you on our return.

James

Almost There

Parents, friends, interested folks,

So sorry this has been so long in coming. This has been a busy week and the internet has barely worked. It is working right now at 6:30 AM so here is a short note.

Both Monte and I were needed to move into the cabins with boys so we have been counselors and teachers. It is time consuming and tiring but very rewarding.

This week has been good. The JV group is smarter and definitely have dirty mouths. However, we are able to have better conversations because they ask better questions.

Today is our last day and night with the kids. Pray that what we preach, teach, and live out is the testimony that God will use to minister to these kids.

So long and see you soon!

Caffiene Rush…Carefree Rest

Well, after having lived off of what life we could muster from caffiene to get us through the rest of the week, we have made it to our “sabbath rest”. If you could see your teens faces. It’s like looking at a blank sheet of paper. There is no life there. Well…that was until they realized they were FREE. Am I making sense? What can I say…I’m a little tired.

I think perhaps I am exaggerating and giving you the wrong impression. We miss the little buggers already. It was a hard week but well worth it. We prayed this morning that what we did was planting a seed, watering it, or working the soil. We preached the Gospel and lived it out and we are confident that God will cause the growth. We miss the campers because we developed relationships with them.

One of the activities that was a highlight for everyone was our day out on the sandbar. The whole area is covered in thick mud. The river is suprisingly warm enough to swim in and the mudholes are warm enough to splash around in. Even the leaders got a little crazy in the mud.

A highlight for me is to hear kids ask if we will come next year, have the kids give you hugs as they are leaving, and to see a softness in their demeanor that wasn’t there before. Pray that what we did have a lasting impression. I believe the camp was a success given that we measure success by how faithful we were to the gospel, not how many kids came to Christ. It makes us hurt knowing that the kids we ministered to are going back to broken families, divisive situations, and small villages without churches. Pray that God works in this area through the missionaries and pastors who are here all year round. God is faithful!

Kids: Wild Boys and Goofy Girls

Let me tell you that this has not been an easy couple of days for any of us. Relationships are now finally being made between the campers and us but it has been a long, hard battle and there is still half way to go. I will give you some context.

Thursday was not the first day of camp but because the kids come from many villages (some at a great distance) they arrived here half a day early. It felt like a day of camp…er…babysitting at a detention center for kids. The campers came off of the boat (and airplane) and wouldn’t respond to us or even look at us. It was rare to find a kid that would interact with us. Our efforts to get involved were often met with everyone moving away to a different area. It was a hard time and I could see discouragement setting into the faces of our teens. Pray for your teen, they need encouragement and love right now.

Things have gotten much better since then. Sunday morning, some of the little girls were wishing me Happy Father’s Day. In the cabin setting, while some kids still won’t listen, others have begun asking questions. Alex was just sharing with me that his cabin was asking him how to be saved! He is not alone. Other counselors have reported questions about the devotions and God. As well, the song time has become more of a group activity instead of just counselors singing. On the basketball court kids are asking to play with some of our counselors and overall respect is now being given to them.

Last night Roger Huntington (the camp director) gave his testimony during devotion time. He has an amazing testimony and he is Athabascan Indian so he has an intimate relationship with everyone in this area. After his testimony, one boy was crying showing that they are listening.

Here are my prayer requests:
• Our teens: that they are able to fight the discouragement that could overwhelm them. Some still are having trouble because they aren’t being listened to or respected.
• PRAISE: God has been working in this place. Campers are asking questions and our teens are growing in their faith.
• Pray for lost souls. We want to have a lasting impact on the Athabascan Indians and that comes through the power of the gospel that we are proclaiming.
• Dori with our two kids. Annelise especially is being very clingy and that is hard to deal with in this place.

HERE WE GO!

Well, here we go! Kids arrive today. You can feel the anticipation in the air. We have everything prepared except last minute general cleaning like sweeping, restocking TP, and other such things. It is nice because I will have a chance to quietly go over my devotional material and our teens will have the chance to canoe, hike, and relax before the storm.

Hey, big news! Roger Huntington shot a bear on his cabins front porch. So we feel like we are really in the boon-docks. However, don’t be alarmed…the bear was the size of a lab, just a little huskier. Granted you wouldn’t want to mess with him but he was only here to pick through the garbage. Anyway some of our teens and little Jacob got to see the bear. Jacob looked for about half a minute and then said “where’s the wolf?” Oh that boy! I would have gotten a picture of the bear but the “funeral” happened before I could retrieve our camera.

I have been greatly encouraged by I Thessalonians 1 this morning. Paul was the ultimate missionary across many cultural boundaries and to every kind of person (rulers, slaves, Jews, Greeks, etc…). Yet his message was always the same: that of repentance and faith in Christ alone (vv. 9-10). As well, Paul marked his ministry by prayer (vs. 2). We will be trying to model the Thessalonians who labored in love through the power of the Holy Spirit (vv. 3-4) and who also imitated godly men with the purpose of sounding forth the word of truth (vs. 6-7). Please pray for us to that we carry the same distinctives. 

Work Week

The beginning of this week has been much the same as yours…back to work. There is still much to do to prepare the camp for the kids who are coming in on Thursday. We have helped in many different duties including: Setting up the volleyball court, hauling fuel barrels, setting up the archery and rifle range, cleaning the cabins, organizing crafts supplies, hanging curtains, mopping floors, and many other various helps.

Tonight however we had a nice breather from our labors as we headed across the Yukon and landed on an island covered in thick mud (and bird poo). We had fun messing around. Of course Alex, Ryan, and Cory had to jump face first into the mud…they even built a slide into a stagnant pool that had millions of bird and moose tracks around it (most of us know why it was warm).

Keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow is the final preps before the kids come in. There have been many unexpected changes and additions to our responsibilities. We are being stretched and yet I am amazed at the attitude of our kids. They continue to smile and put effort into what they do. However please make these requests the object of your prayers for the next couple days:

• That tempers don’t flare and relationships grow deeper
• That we are flexible to added responsibilities with humble attitudes
• That our strength comes from God and that we don’t boast in ourselves.
• That we are prepared mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for the kids who come in next week.

Seattle-Anchorage-Fairbanks-Tanana-Kokrine Hills…at last

We made it. We have safely arrived with only one missing bag (4 of us without our sleeping bags; we left a bag in Fairbanks. Ah…the joys of traveling with large groups).

However, for Jacob it has been a very successful trip. He has been talking about going to AK and seeing a moose and a bear for a couple weeks and guess what…we saw both before we even made it to the camp. We landed in the small Fairbanks airport and right next to the baggage claim were two stuffed bears, a brown bear and a polar bear. Next we saw more bears and a moose and many more animals at the incredible Museum on the University of Alaska campus in Fairbanks. Of course, since Jacob has seen what he came for the trip is a complete success and should be done. He wanted to know if he could sleep in his own bed tonight.

The small airplane flights were fun. Elizabeth got to sit in the copilot seat during the small flight to Tanana and nobody got sick!   The boat arrived shortly after we all landed.  A decievingly small boat, but it did the job.  We had to stop halfway through the trip for a bathroom break (for the girls of course).  They trudged through the mud and were almost eaten alive by mosquitoes, but they made it!  We are here and well, had a nice meal, devotions with the staff, and are learning how to breath mosquitoes instead of air. The camp is nice with running water and electricity despite the fact that it is hundreds of miles from anywhere! Tomorrow we begin orientation so pray for us:

• that we look for ways to be helpful
• that we are free from bickering and disunity
• that we mesh well with the other staff arriving here tomorrow

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