Chapter 2: North to Alaska: Springtime!

One of the best things about moving to a new place is getting to experience all of the seasons

again for the first time. We are just starting to see signs of springtime in Bethel, the first birds have flown into the area and the hunting talk has shifted from moose and musk ox to ducks and geese, the snow is almost gone, and the willow's are budding (which I really like for some reason). Although the weather is still all over the place, from sunny and near 50, to 32 and snowy (current weather conditions) one thing that definitely came with spring is more daylight! It truly is amazing how much a few longer, sunny days can lift spirits. It is also amazing how much broad daylight until after 10 p.m. affects a person's ability to sleep! We have learned that blackout curtains are a very important part of life in Alaska.

Willow Buds :)

The warming weather and thawing ground also brought with it, possibly Colby's favorite part of living in Bethel (absolutely kidding) Potholes! Now...these aren't just any potholes mind you. These put any Pennsylvania potholes to shame. We go to sleep at night and wake in the morning to find the ground has opened forming massive canyons that sometimes span the entire road. Or hundreds of smaller holes in a stretch of road causing you to feel as though you are driving on railroad tracks. I tried to capture this, but pictures just truly did not do justice. Thankfully the city does try hard to take care of this, but sometimes they will be covered over in the morning and reopen (in slightly different locations) again by evening...it's like whack-a-mole. Supposedly this becomes less crazy as the weather warms and stays warm.

Breakup!

The current big topic around town is breakup! This is when all of the ice that currently sits on the river "breaks up" opening up the river again for travel by boat and eventually barge. Right now, we are in the period of time that occurs in the spring where the river is no longer safe to travel by car/snowmachine, but still covered in ice and not accessible by boat. Because so much depends on the river, this is a big deal! Every year Bethel holds the Kuskokwim Ice Classic event where people buy tickets to guess the date and time that official breakup will occur. To determine when this is a Tripod is set up on the river in front of town. I'm not exactly sure how it all works just yet...but when the ice breaks enough to carry the Tripod 100 yards down the river a clock is tripped marking the exact minute of breakup. The person who guesses this minute, or closest to it, wins a jackpot of $12,500! If you happen to be interested in all of this you can check out iceclassic.org for pictures of past breakups, a live cam of the current conditions, and all of the rules and details of the competition. P.s...we did not buy tickets, so we will not be winning $12,500.

Dates of Past Breakups

Snowmachines to St. Mary's

Early in March, before the snow melted, Colby and Job set out on an adventure to the village of St. Mary's. We know a missionary couple who live there, Israel and Rebecca Warren, who were in need of a snow machine. Job happened to have an extra one, so he and Colby set out, each on their own machines with Job pulling the extra one behind on a sled. St. Mary's is about a 150 mile drive over tundra which typically takes about 6-8 hours by snow machine. There is almost no cell service between here and there, except for at a few small villages along the way...but thankfully I was able to follow their progress on a GPS tracking device. Basically, this ended up being quite an eventful trip. About half way there, below the village of Marshall, the track on Colby's snowmachine tore, which meant for the next few miles the two of them had to ride on Job's snow machine, pulling the spare and towing Colby's behind. They ended up leaving the broken machine in Marshal with a family they met there, and told them they would retrieve it on the way back down. They continued on from there and stopped in Pilot station (another village along the way) where, by God’s grace, they met a family who happened to have a broken down machine, with the exact track that Colby needed. They agreed to buy the track and pick it up on their way back home. Finally, they made it to St. Mary's, had a great time with our friends there, and were both able to share testimonies at the services.

Marshal, Pilot Station and St. Mary's are Orange

Then they had to come home...Amazingly they were able to pick up the track in Pilot Station and were able to get it onto Colby's machine in Marshal (this is apparently a pretty big task and took 4 hours). When both machines were running again, they set out to accomplish the other purpose for their trip...Job wanted to shoot a moose. Finding a moose was not a problem, but getting it down took a bit longer than expected. In summary, they left St. Mary's at 7 a.m. and arrived in Bethel at 11 p.m. All in all, the trip was a success, the snow machine made it to St. Mary's, the moose made it to Bethel (and into a few freezers...including ours :), and the boys made it home safe! There is one picture from this at the end of the blog...Colby made me put it on.

Hooper Bay in March

The day after Colby got home from his St. Mary's adventure, I took off for my village trip to Hooper Bay. I was the only passenger on my flight out this time, and it was a pretty cloudy day. Thankfully I had a good pilot, and he made a great landing on the snowy runway in Hooper, even though it felt like we just dropped out of a cloud as our wheels were hitting the ground.

Because there was a lot of snow in Hooper, there was no longer a road open for driving trucks out to the airport. So of course, I was picked up from the airport on a 4 wheeler (I sat on the back, holding my tote full of things and my lap top and we spun our way through snow drifts back to the clinic) and taken back on a snow machine (this was much less difficult). The trip itself was great, I had a really good turn out of patients, some great conversations, and it was good to see the staff again. I would very much appreciate your prayers for my next trip out there, which is now just a few days away, the 1st-3rd of May.

My ride to the airport

My ride back to Bethel

Easter

For as long as I can remember Easter has been my favorite holiday for a whole bunch of reasons. I really like that it's in spring time and usually comes with flowers blooming and grass starting to turn green. I like that it's a stress-free holiday, with no pressure to buy presents, but still a time to see family. I like that there are Sunrise Services...because I like to be awake before sunrise anyway, and it's so great to be up at that time and praising God with other people! And mostly I like that it's a time set aside to reflect and be thankful for all that Easter represents, the forgiveness and grace that God pours on us because of Christ's sacrifice.

Easter was a little different this year. There was no green, no family and no sunrise service haha. But! God reminded me again this year that the day is not about any of those things. It's about Him. True joy on Easter, and every day in all circumstances comes by taking our eyes off of whats going on around us and placing them on Him. All of that said, our Easter was very nice here. We did have a brunch at church and a packed service and got together with a few friends from church to play games in the evening. So maybe not the normal, but still a really great day!

Other Spring Events

One of the biggest events of the year in Bethel is the Cama-i Dance Festival. This is a 3 day event each spring where Native dance groups from around Alaska, and really around the country, gather to celebrate their heritage. The high school in town fills with craft vendors and groups ranging from elementary school classes to local and international Native dance groups dress in traditional attire and perform. It is a massive community event and nearly everyone takes part in some way. We were able to stop by and take it in for a few hours

In March I was able to make a quick jump across the country to take a 3 day continuing education course in Philadelphia, and then spend a few days at home visiting family. Even though it was fast, and Colby had to stay here, it was so nice to be able to catch up with a few people face to face and catch a quick glimpse of Pennsylvania spring time!

And before you feel sorry for Colby...While I was away he was able to go to a men's retreat with our church in Palmar, and then spend several days with Job's family. He even got to experience skiing in Alaska at Alyeska, a ski resort south of Anchorage in Girdwood.

St. Mary's

St. Mary's from the Air

The weekend after Easter, our friends Israel and Rebecca Warren, asked Job to come preach at his Sunday Evening service in St. Mary's while Israel was away. Job agreed and asked Colby and I to come along. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, after church, the three of us piled into Job's little plane and he few us out to St. Mary's. By air it only takes about 1 hour to get there, as compared to the many hour trip by snow machine that Colby and Job had made earlier. It was an absolutely beautiful flight and when we got close to St. Mary's Job flew low so I could see the 1 million moose (slight exaggeration) that were standing on the brushy islands. There's still a lot of snow out that way, so their dark brown bodies were easy to pick out (still too far away for pictures though). St. Mary's itself is gorgeous. Unlike in Bethel there are rolling hills and trees which was a nice change. Job lead the evening service at their little church, then I helped Rebecca with a children's program. Afterwards we all had dinner together, then we climbed back in the plane and flew home! Very fast, but very fun and worthwhile trip.

Pilot and Copilot

Backseat Pilot?

Back Home :)

Other Updates

Other areas of life here continue to go very well. We're both definitely enjoying work here, and I think both still learning a lot. Colby is still taking classes, but has a much more manageable work load this semester. This has made a huge difference as he has more time to focus on and absorb the information from the classes he has, and also has more time to get out of our apartment and work which makes him much happier. He has continued to travel with Job to Napiak on Thursday nights for Bible study there, and meets with a group of guys in Bethel for a Bible study on Tuesday.

King's Kid's is still going, and actually really growing. This past week we had 22 kiddo's show up! Each week we have song time, verse memorization, a lesson, a snack and games. There was definitely a learning curve there as far as what works and doesn't work well, and we still have a long way to go! But it's been great to see all of the kids coming out, and really amazing to see how much they remember from the lessons from week to week. We would very much appreciate your prayers for all of the little hearts that come out on Wednesday nights, and for us as we continue to try to work on organizing and improving the program.

A few weeks ago we also got to take part in what was probably the first ever Christ centered marriage conference in Bethel (at least the first in a long time). A few friends that God placed in our lives who happen to live in Soldotna, flew to Bethel to host this. Derek Black (from Soldotna), our pastor, and the pastor from the Moravian church spoke on various aspects of marriage as God intended it to be. Considering that it was a first time event there was a great turn out! Pray that God will use the the teaching from His word that occurred there to begin to transform marriages throughout this part of Alaska and that we can see more events like this begin to take place in Bethel and in the surrounding villages!

Prayer Requests

Continue to pray that God would be working in the hearts of the people in Bethel and the surrounding villages and that people would truly seek to know and grow in Him. The more time we spend here, the more we are able to see God moving and we are very excited to be a part of what He's doing.
Pray for wisdom for us as we make daily decisions and eventually bigger future decisions about how to use our time, money and resources. Pray that we would seek to honor God with every part of our lives and that he would clearly lead us as we move forward.
As Colby nears the end of this semester and faces final tests and lots of papers, pray that God would give him focus and motivation to finish strong, as well as a deep understanding of what He's teaching him through this time and how to apply it.
And of course, we very much appreciate prayer for our relationship. We made it through year one, and a winter cooped up together in Bethel which is a good sign!! But pray that we would continue to grow in our ability to communicate with each other and just be less selfish in general to be a better model of Christ's relationship with us.