I'm having a pretty hard time believing it's February. In fact, we may still have our Christmas tree on the wall. January and this first half of February flew by, which really is amazing because usually this is the time of year that seems to drag the most for me. The business of the holiday season passes, but the cold and the short days hang on, and spring still seems so far. This year though, January was filled with some exciting things...things that I actually looked forward to as much as (maybe more than) Christmas, so what is usually the longest month somehow turned into the shortest.
Winter Camping (aka Caribou Hunting)
The first adventure of this month was Colby's. To start off the new year, my coworker Jesse invited him to go along with him on a caribou hunt. During the winter months herds of caribou migrate near Bethel, and near the end of December several local people had successful hunts nearby. So Colby and Jesse packed some gear and headed out on their snow machines for an overnight hunting trip. The trip out was a little rough mostly because we are lacking quite a bit in the snow department in Bethel this year. They did a lot of bumping across brown tundra and Colby's machine did a good bit of overheating (it uses the snow to cool). None the less, they made it to their destination and set up camp. I think the temperatures dropped to about 10 degrees at night, Colby slept with gloves on his feet. The next day they hiked around, found quite a few Caribou tracks (herds can range from 50-100 to several thousand caribou) but no animals. Then they traveled home. Good experience, even without success.
Hooper Bay
I made my first solo trip to Hooper Bay from January 9th-11th. I was a little nervous about this, mostly just getting through the travel part on my own, but God worked everything out perfectly. When flying out to the the villages we fly Ravn Air, which is alot smaller and less umm...formal? than what you typically think of in an airport. You arrive at the terminal, check your bags at the desk and then sit down and wait in the large waiting area. When your plane and pilot are ready to fly, they call your name over a loud speaker and say something like "list of names meet your pilot at the door." So you walk to the door, your pilot checks your name off of a list, and you follow him out to one of the little planes sitting on the tarmac, climb up the stairs and hop in. On this particular morning we climbed into a very cold and icy plane and had to sit and wait while the pilot started it, got the heat going, and defrosted the plane and all of us passengers. The flight itself was absolutely beautiful and we landed without any problems right on the frozen coast of cold, snowy Hooper.
 |
| Waiting for the Plane |
 |
| Unloading the Bags |
Laura Came!!!
The week I have been most excited for, honestly since we left home, was the week in January when my sister came to visit. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that she was crazy enough to join me in Alaska in the middle of the coldest month of winter! Although Bethel has it's own kind of charm, we decided it might be best to spend the first part of her trip in Anchorage. I flew in and met her there and we filled two days with as much real Alaska winter fun as we could. We attempted to cross country ski (keyword in that sentence is italicized), we drove up an icy mountain road to the Flat Top trail head for some beautiful views (and then with white knuckles and lots of prayer made it back down), we drove to Girdwood, saw a doll sheep and our FIRST MOOSE, and then she got to help me fill and weigh totes full of groceries in the Fred Meyer parking lot before we headed back to Bethel.
K300
One of the most exciting events in Bethel every year, maybe the most exciting event actually, is the Kuskokwim 300 Dogsled Race. This is a 300 mile race that starts in Bethel, usually goes to the village of Aniak and then comes back down again. It's known as one of the toughest dog sled races in the state of Alaska and attracts mushers from all over. This year the trail was a little different as the unusually warm conditions leading up to the race made the normal course unsafe, but the race kicked off right on schedule!
This year the race started on one of the lakes in the middle of town. Because it is always incredibly cold, our church sets up a "Warming Tent" at the start/finish line where we hand out hot chocolate and cookies and offer a place out of the wind for people to come warm up. Wind chills were pretty far into the negatives at the start of the race, but we all huddled together, bundled up so only our eyeballs were showing and watched as mushers came to the line and headed off two by two. We managed to get our fingers out of our mittens just long enough to snap a few pictures. The dogs were soo excited to be getting ready to run, most of them were lunging and barking at the end of their leads until they got the "ok" to charge forward.
This year because of the poor conditions the race did a double out and back and did not travel all the way to Aniak. They traveled about 75 miles out to the Bogus Creek check point, then turned around and came back to Bethel for the half way point, then did that again. Eighteen mushers started off and 12 completed the whole course. Those who dropped out mostly did so because of the icy trail conditions. We were able to follow the teams online through their GPS trackers and went down to the finish line to see the first place finisher, Pete Kaiser, who happens to be from Bethel, cross the line on Sunday morning.
Ice Fishing
Real Alaskans go ice fishing, isn't that one of the things you picture Alaskans doing? So when in Alaska...one should go ice fishing. So on Saturday morning of the week Laura was here Job drove his van to lead a small caravan of our Pastor (with us) in his explorer, Job's parents in a truck, and our friends Pedro and Brandon in another truck...down the frozen river, past the village of Napakiak to the place where there is supposed to be really good ice fishing.
When we got there we spread our vehicles out in a nice circle to avoid all the pressure being at one spot. Job pulled out an auger and drilled holes in the ice for all of us. The ice was about 2-3 feet thick...several people have asked this.
And then we fished. Ice fishing is cold. Standing on ice when it's below zero outside is just cold. And fishing is fun, but mostly it's cold. It's worth it though! At least one time...I'm not sure how many times it will be worth it to me. But we caught Pike! And then we ate them on Sunday for lunch : )
 |
| The big one is mine...: ) |
Other Things
Other things in life are continuing on pretty much as normal. Colby started back to school on January 22nd. His course load is a little lighter this semester, and a lot of the other life stresses like moving and figuring out life here have calmed down, which has definitely helped him to focus. Work with Job is still going well and he and Job have continued to travel to Napakiak weekly for the Bible study there. They have now traveled there by plane, boat, snow machine and truck...pretty sure they've exhausted all possible means of transportation.
Together Colby and I have taken the lead with our churches Wednesday night children's program, King's Kids. We have a short song time, verse memorization, a lesson and games. Each week we've had between 10 and 15 kids. This is definitely out of our comfort zone, but very much something we felt God was leading us to do. It's good to be able to lead something together, and so good to give the kids a place to go, learn and have fun in the middle of the week.
Finally...
To be completely honest, although the first half of January was fun, full and exciting...the second half just seemed hard. Part of it probably was the usual dark, cold January days...not being able to be outside like we like to be...and knowing that all of the fun of village travel and Laura's visit were behind us. But it was more than that. I think that in the midst of these cold winter months we passed from the rush of being in a new place, surrounded by new people and a whole new culture to a slightly (very slightly...like maybe a scratch in the surface) deeper understanding of the reality of what life is like for a lot of people here. From the studies I've done about missions and adapting to new places I know that some degree of culture shock is inevitable, but no amount of understanding the concept of something can fully prepare you for what it will look and feel like when you experience it in your life. In the past month I felt incredibly overwhelmed by the depth of the brokenness I see everyday. It seems like there is an absolute epidemic of addiction, abuse, loss, and despair and the reasons for these things are so many, so big and so tangled together that it is very difficult to see how there could ever be a real change.
God is so good though, and in the midst of my feeling just...down...He spoke His truth in my life. Through the words of several friends and a really good John Piper sermon, I was pointed back to His word. Three different times in the past 2 weeks I was reminded of Acts 18:9 where God reassures Paul that he should continue speaking in Corinth because He says "I have many in this city who are my people." Corinth was not at all a Godly place, in fact it was very much the opposite of that. At the time, to Paul, the situation in the city probably looked incredibly hopeless. But God reminded Him that he had claimed people for himself from there. I was reminded as I thought about this that I have no idea what God is doing in the lives of the people around me. I can't always see where He's working or who He's calling. But I do know Him and I know that He is more than capable of restoring broken lives and communities. My job is not to figure out all the answers, it's to keep my eyes fixed on Him and keep speaking and living as He's called me to. Very thankful to serve an all powerful, all knowing God who loves me enough to reassure me when I'm doubting, and who loves the people of Alaska more than I do.
Prayer Requests
- First please pray that God would be working in amazing ways in this part of Alaska. Pray that more people would be burdened to speak the truth of the Gospel here and that more hearts would be opened to that truth. Pray for strength for the people who have trusted in Christ to continue to follow Him and to be able to turn from the temptation to fall back into their old lifestyles. Pray that we would begin to see God's glory replacing the darkness here.
- As Colby and I continue to discern how to best use our time and resources here, we would very much appreciate prayers for wisdom. There are so many needs and opportunities to serve, we want to be sure we are not spreading ourselves too thin, but also that we are being faithful to do what God is calling us to.
- Pray for the relationships that we are building here. That we would know how to best help others along in their walk with Christ and continue to develop solid friendships. And that God would also place people in our lives to help encourage us.
A Few More Pictures...
 |
| On the way to Girdwood |
 |
| Fireworks after the K300 Start |
 |
| Sunrise on the River |
 |
| The Clinic at Hooper Bay |
