Alaska Mission Trip
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It is quite cool. Today it did not get out of the 40's during the day. We are within two blocks of the Bering Strait. Today we have replaced windows...insulated some piping under one of the buildings. Turned a refrigerator into a deposit box for the local food pantry. Painted, cleaned, organized the thrift store (clothing bank) and now Merri is helping to teach VBS.
I thank you for your prayers for us. The quarters are quite simple...some would say , sparse. But we are really blessed by the whole group....There are 18 of us from Central PA.
Blessings for now. You are a gift to us.
Pastor John & Merri
Loving God...Loving Neighbor...Serving the World
Greetings to all from chilly Nome, Alaska. It has been 50 degrees or more only one day if for a brief time. On Sunday, we went to Salmon Lake and had a picnic in the drizzle and rain. At one time, there seemed to be a few snow crystals or flakes falling in the drizzle. Our group learned the doxology in Inupiak for Sunday worship. We had a church fellowship luncheon also, I had some muktuk - whale blubber cooked and raw....it was a small piece...a very small piece. We also had halibut and salmon.
Our work details are comng to a close...building a picnic table....painting....sorting clothes in the thrift shop...putting up lighting....finishing the fence enclosure around the community center....taking 7 pickup truck loads of debris and garbage out to the city dump...insulating a door....painting signs....replacing wood treads on the boardwalk sidewalk. These projects have kept the entire group busy.
Blessings,
Pastor John
Greetings in Jesus name. Today we are completing all of the projects. We will begin to fly back tomorrow with a stop over at Anchorage and Seward. We may have an opportunity to go on a plane ride across the glaciers. This morning for breakfast a coule from the church made our group sour dough pancakes with an egg bake that had we think moose sausage in it. It was delicious.
Last night after a full day of work we went out panning for gold until about 9 pm - we did get some...miniscule dots of gold. We also took some time to put our feet into the Bering Sea...it is cold somewhere in the 40's...
We have seen the sun for two days now. It is great to lift the spirits. Even if it is in the 30's when we wake up, it soon warms into the 40's. This still feels cold with the ocean breeze constantly at hand.
We have enjoyed hearing the personal stories of some of the others who are on the mission team - 18 in all. Please keep in prayer Pastor Paul Wilcox. He was able to announce publicly that he is battling an extrememly rare form of cancer and that is why he did not accompany us on our trip. He began chemo today.
Merri has done some shopping and we will show you all our gold panning equipment...I think it will make a good children's message.
Blessings from,
Pastor John and Merri
Nome is a city located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea.
The origin of the city's name "Nome" is still under debate. The city's name may come from a point of land located twelve miles (19 km) from the city. Cape Nome received its name from an error, when a British mapmaker copied a map annotation made by a British officer on a voyage up the Bering Strait. The officer had written "? Name" next to the unnamed cape. The mapmaker misread the annotation as "C. Nome", or Cape Nome, and used that name on his map.
The city is the commercial hub of northwestern Alaska, as well as the site for the finish of the 1049-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage each March.