Denali National Park Sandhill Crane Migration

I had the incredible privilege to go into Denali National Park last Monday with friends from the church and God gave an incredible showing of his creatures! Check out this short video featuring sandhill cranes in migration! Conservatively I think we saw 6,000 to 8,000+. What a remarkable day! More pictures to come- We saw bears, sheep, pika, caribou, moose, eagles, ptarmigan, kestrel(?), and many more!

So good it deserves a post of its own

  Well in my last post there was a missing picture of some truly delightful pizza... I decided that it was worth a post of its own so with out further to do- pure deliciousness!

Summer's end and fall beginnings

  So far this whole end of summer and beginning of the school year thing gets an A+. Seriously, the only major drawback (and we're talking that one annoying A- in the grade book that brings you down to a 96%) has been the quantity of rain we've had over the past few weeks. If it wasn't for the rain we'd still be outside enjoying life hiking, picking berries, biking, walking, frisbee-ing, you name it. The one thing we certainly wouldn't be doing is blogging! Apologies for the delays folks! These rainy days are certainly reason to get back on top of things.

  I was trying to think back on where left off- it looks like you all got a brief overview of the time I spent traveling around Western AK and then got a short introduction to the Arigaa Discipleship House. Now that the guys are moved in and have launched into their second full week of school I figured I'd grab a shot or to to show you what the house is looking like these days. It's great to live with a mostly neat and tidy group! Many thanks go out to donors and friends who helped to outfit this place. We all feel blessed and are very grateful!

  A quick overview of who's who here in the house- Hunter is from Unalakleet and is a second year aviation student. Deion is also from Unalakleet and is studying communication. Samuel is from White Mountain most recently and is studying to enter the medical field. Deven is from Anchorage and is studying engineering. I'm David and... well, ya.

  Photo wise I have a few things to share with you; first things first- while in Nome, I visited with some friends of Byron's who just so happened to be setting up a garage sale. Short story shorter- I own a pizza stone. Back here in Anchorage, Lauren and I began to experiment. The pizza was really delicious! Home made dough and all the fixin's. (I'm telling you- if you come to visit, we'll make delicious food).

Pizza Pictures coming soon... 

It's on Lauren's camera- and I just wanted to get

this post online... Check back tomorrow- it'll be here!

It'll be worth the wait.

  Ok, that was fun, but this last monday Lauren and I hopped in the car (for the third time...) to go North to 'the valley' to pick some delicious lingonberries. They were so ripe and plentiful the first time and the second time that we figured, what the heck, let's do it again!

Fall color is just starting to show up! man this place is beautiful!

Lingonberry = low bush cranberry 

   I received the fabled family cranberry sauce recipe from mom and we went to work. (Look at that shiny new food mill- I don't think they've changed that design one bit since mom bought her's new!)

  Great success with the first batch! Then it was on to bigger and better things- mostly lingon (Swedish lingonberry jam). It's even spiced. We don't mess around.

  While this was all fun and games- the real test of our merit will come in the form of salmonberry-blueberry jam. If we get it right, those little jars are truly some of the most delicious cupboard treats for the rest of the year! ('getting it right' refers to the lackluster performance in the spreading category that last year's jam scored.) We'll see how it goes!

  On the theme of making things- over here at the ministry house Sunday nights are a happening time! It's family dinner night and so far we've done a bbq, rocked some spaghetti, and other things. This week's menu I think we'll step it up a bit and take some salmon out of the freezer with rice and potatoes- or maybe a little teriyaki chicken! On the personal side- whole wheat bread is on the to be baked list. Looking forward to the delicious smells in this place!

  The end of summer also means a bit more time for reading, and I have already tackled Introverts in the Church by Adam McHugh and The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. Both highly recommended! Next on the list might be Jerry Sittser's Water from a Deep Well. 

White Mountain, Nome, Unalakleet, Home!

It's been a whirlwind the past few weeks since the Stebbins trip that I posted about a month or so ago. I've spent a week in White Mountain, a small village a short flight north of Unalakleet, helping out during a youth basketball camp that was run by some of the CYAK summer interns. Then I was able to make a short two night trip to Nome to attend a planning meeting for a new youth center connected with the Covenant Church there. Exciting stuff to be sure!

Then I made my way back down to Unalakleet for a week and a half up at Bible Camp. It was great to spend some time up there with the rest of the CYAK staff and some of the team members. We spent three days doing some future vision work then spent the remainder of the time hanging out and working on projects around camp. It was a great time to bask in God's glory, be together, pick berries and catch some silver salmon!

Sunday, Lauren and I flew back to Anchorage to get down to work preparing for fall ministry! I'm so excited to say that we will have four guys living in the Arigaa Discipleship House with me this year. They are all students at UAA and come from a variety of backgrounds. God is good, I'm excited to have the house full and am looking forward to the opportunities that will come with living with this group of guys.

This past week I have been frantically cleaning, purchasing needed supplies (THANK YOU to those of you who donated specifically to help get the house set up!), cleaning, organizing, cleaning, communicating with the guys, cleaning, and running errands. It feels great to have my stuff settled in my room (Monday's job) and to really start to call this house home. I'm looking forward to the year! The guys move in on Monday and Tuesday!

All said- time for some pictures!

The village of White Mountain (pop- 190)

Bonfire and S'mores- a CYAK summer staple

Playing ball! God granted dry weather the whole week!

We had a great time connecting with students- some of whom we'd seen at camp before

Community gathering at the end of our all ages three on three tournament

Intern Donald taking on our director Byron! 

Having fun with students on top of White Mountain with the town in the background 

One of Bering Air's many workhorses

New Covenant Church under construction by Samaritan's Purse in Nome

A little rock climbing fun, Byron showing off the moves

Looking out over Nome (pop. 3,700)

Great to get a tour of Ernie Hanson's old stomping grounds

New regional hospital in Nome, quite the complex

Different Bering Air chariot for the ride back to Unalakleet

Forgot to mention the two quick days of ball camp for Unalakleet kids

They sure had fun!

Donald going at it again with the little kids, actually just explaining rules for the next game

Executive Director Byron giving a CYAK history lesson

Frank, our visioning mastermind, and Josh, a team member from Mountain Village

Bible Camp Director Nick showing that sometimes it does have to just be all fun and games

Here it is! Home sweet home!

All cleaned- Ready for a gracious furniture donation to arrive

There's order to the madness I promise! We're getting close to ready!

Bedroom's are looking good, almost ready for students to move in!

It's all just so exciting isn't it! I look forward to updating you on the next few weeks once we're all settled in and rolling into the fall full of classes for the guys, work for me and who knows what crazy adventures to be had!

Stebbins Bible Camp 2013

Here's the group- night 5 and we all survived! What a blessing to share time with these wonderful people- 'Gloooory!'

I returned this afternoon from a small village called Stebbins where we held a Bible Camp for a group of students from the village. The backstory leading to this week of camp is incredible and a great place to start.

Kellen Katcheak and his wife Marlene began their relationship about 10 years ago. For the first 6 or so years their relationship was abusive and substance/alcohol bound. Their three kids started life in a very challenging environment. About four years ago, Marlene finally decided the abuse had gone on long enough and called the State Troopers on Kellen. He was taken to prison for 11 months in Nome. A pastor in Nome came to the prison to do ministry work and Kellen heard the word of God loud and clear.

Flying to Stebbins

Kellen and his son Kael on our way from Stebbins to camp

Kellen's story from that point on is completely different. Hearing Marlene tell her testimony about the last three years of their relationship is impressive as she describes not always being sure that the change that happened in Kellen's life is truly here to last. Now they have four children and they are inviting other youth into their home to love on them and teach them about God's love. In a place where abuse and neglect are so rampant, this story is incredible.

Kellen's heart is on fire for the Lord right now and he caught the vision of having the camp for the youth of Stebbins.

Our camp on the Nanuqaaq river

Students arriving the next morning

Friday July twelfth Byron, an intern, myself and several students flew from Unalakleet to Stebbins to join in the effort to make this camp a possibility. The group of students and leaders made their way all the way out to Kellen's family fish camp on the Nunaaqaq (pronounced 'noon-a-kak') river twenty miles south of Stebbins. The week was certainly not easy, but God was glorified and many students were introduced to the concept of a loving God who is with them at all times. The camp consisted of about 27 students and 15 or so leaders.

Keeping meat in our tundra chill! Just dig a hole till you hit permafrost, drop your cold stuff in and cover with 2x8s

Having fun playing games!

More games (this one's funny,
it's called Aquu Aquu- I'll tell you about it if you ask)

Baptisms at camp

A rare Alaskan summer sighting of the moon

While there were some lessons learned during year one of the camp, I do think that there will be more of this camp in future years. We had two of Kellen's aunts along with us to teach the students about the land and how to hunt, fish, and sustain themselves on the resources that God gives from his good land. It was fun to watch kids learn how to do each of these things and to see them interested in their culture. For some of the kids, coming to a fish camp like this was a first time experience. There were even a few kids who had never seen a bear in their lifetime!

We spent quite a bit of time around the camp fire (it's three days later and my clothes still smell campy!) keeping warm, cooking food and telling stories. The students had a great opportunity to help out with cooking native foods, learning what it takes to feed a family (even such a big one like our camp family..), and enjoying laughing and sharing with one another. We did have quite a bit of rain the first few days, which made things very challenging as many of the kids were under-prepared to deal with it. God gave us good wind and no rain the following day though to hang up kid's clothes in and get things dried out! We said a special 'Praise God!' when we saw the glorious sunshine peek through the clouds!

This is where the smokehouse and fish rack started.. Lots of work to do!

Helping Teddy, one of the elders, put a tarp over the roof of his cabin

Checking net and counting fish!

Unloading fish from the net, well over 250 in all


Aunt Becky, another elder, teaching young girls how to cut fish

Personally, I was able to interact with a wide variety of the students and try my hand at a few new things such as, building/repairing the smoke house and fish rack at camp, cutting fish (heading and gutting was my job), going on a seal hunt, and helping out where needed in all manners of getting a new camp off the ground.

We saw moose, bear, seal, birds of all kinds (cranes and terns were my favorites), and lots and lots of fish! We put out three nets to catch fish but had to pull them back in just about 20 hours later because we already had too many! Looking at the pictures you can see that we cut and hung about 250 chum salmon. They were nearly half dry by the time we left and will be smoked in the coming days.

Chapel under the tarp and around the fire

Aunt Becky teaching people how to make fry bread

Just a couple fish drying (this just a bit more than half of all that was caught)

Shooting always makes for a fun afternoon activity

The last days of camp gave us some better weather

Beautiful sunsets closed out the last two days of camp

What a beautifully remote area

Going seal hunting

Kellen beginning getting ready to teach the boys how to cut a seal

Remember, if you click on any picture it will enlarge and you will be able to click through the rest of them using the arrows on either side.