A few first week highlights

Well lets all be honest, there likely won't be a highlight reel from each week of life in Alaska, but hey there were some great things that have happened this week!

So I'm staying at a friend's house while the house that I will eventually will call home is used by a visiting missions team. We had a special visit by these two little guys who were very curious- their mom had already hopped a shorter part of the fence that they couldn't make it over. Eventually they found the only gap in the fence to the adjacent yard, which happened to be quite near the corner we were standing in (on the other side of the fence of course). 

My first day of real work! The three Anchorage based ministry workers decided a great way to kick off our time together would be a hike up Bird Ridge above Turnagain arm near Anchorage. It was spectacular as you can see! And yes that's my boss!

Finally, a picture pre-move. The CYAK administrative office is moving in to Anchorage as well- convenient for us, it means my girlfriend moves into town! So we rented a little uHaul and brought her and her roommate down to Anchorage with all their stuff. They have a great new apartment just a short walk from the church (which is where their office is). Fun for sure but a long day!

2400 miles of road

First things first, let me just say how blessed I feel to be living in the state of Alaska. This really is a dream for me to be living here and I look forward to building on my already incredible experiences. As will likely be the theme in this blog, pictures will outweigh words so I'll let them do what they do best, tell stories! So here we are, a brief overview of our journey Gig Harbor, WA to Anchorage, AK!

(Hint: Click on a photo to open them in a larger viewing window! Scroll right and left by clicking on either side of the image)

Farewell dessert

Hitting the road (notice how clean the cars are!)

Bridge that was part of Highway 1 in Canada 

Not quite the scenery I was expecting in southern BC

The beginning of the true Alcan

Such vast open spaces

Gone hiking on the aptly named Stone Mountain

We spotted all kinds of cool wildlife along the way

And we had incredible weather

The signpost forest- We found signs from just about everywhere

Even Gig Harbor!

Getting dirty! 

One of the best meals of the trip! Housed in the oldest operational business building in Whitehorse 

Thanks to Chris's bird knowledge we ended up seeing some pretty cool bird species (58 total species I think)

The SS Klondike paddle wheeler, a must see museum 

Adding more National Parks to our life lists- Kluane National Park and Preserve, YT

And that's just the front foothills! 

Dinnertime entertainment

...and then we remembered we had a frisbee

Home sweet home! Getting closer to Anchorage

Another US National Park- 3 of 8 in Alaska for me so far!

Our last night- Grizzly Lake Campground

We did it!

What an incredible journey. We experienced so much and I'm glad to share these few glimpses with you. Thank you Dad and Chris for making the journey up here with me. I look forward to seeing you up here again soon!

This beautiful town..

     Gig Harbor really is a special place, I feel blessed to have called it home..

     Here is a shot from this week  in the harbor as I get ready to move North to Anchorage!! The drive starts up on Saturday morning bright an early. Dad, Chris and I look forward to the beauties of a 2400+ mile road trip together.

        I look forward to moving from that beauty on to a new adventure farther north in Alaska. Beauty to beauty, God is good! 

       Feel free to join me in the adventure by keeping in the loop on the ministry work that I will be participating in with Covenant Youth of Alaska (CYAK). Check out the link to the right to get on the email list for my newsletters!

Post Grad? Ministry in Alaska for me!

  While at this point I do not have really fascinating stories to tell, pictures to share, or video projects to show there is exciting news coming in the next month or so! Following graduation from Whitworth University in Spokane just one week from today (wow time flies) I will be spending just about three weeks at home before beginning an incredible road trip with my dad and brother all the way from Gig Harbor to the great state of Alaska, which I will then be calling home.
  That's right, starting on June 8, we will be driving the Alcan all the way to Anchorage, loaded down with all my things, cameras trained on the moose, and eyes wide for all things wonderful! Now if the question is still lingering in your mind, "what is David doing moving to Anchorage??" I would kindly answer, "good question!" Apologies that I have not been able to tell you in person yet!
  Well here it is- I will be moving there to work with a youth ministry organization called Covenant Youth of Alaska. CYAK focuses predominately on native youth from rural Alaska, but also with native students as they transition into college or young adult life in the big cities. My main job will be serving as the resident director for a men's ministry house in near the University of Alaska Anchorage. I will also serve as the media director for the organization state-wide. This is an incredible opportunity to follow several passions of mine and to participate in the work that God is doing among the youth in Alaska. At this point I am committed to two years in Alaska, though it may well be more.
  Three things- First, I would love to share more of what I will be doing with you sometime if you are interested. Second, I will be sending out a regular update newsletter with stories, photos, and prayer requests. If you would like to receive the update and learn more about my work over the next few years, please send me an email at

david@cyak.org. 

Third, if you would be interested in supporting the ministry work of CYAK or any member of the CYAK team please let me know (we rely heavily on donated support to maintain our ministry).

Belief (Because Every Life is Empowering the Future)

  I've had the opportunity to shoot some video over the past 24 hours (and the next 24) for a conference called Belief! It has been an awesome opportunity for students from local high schools to recognize that higher education is possible (even if they are in the first generation to go to college). All that said- Here's a video of the first day! Enjoy!

Looking back on what's to come

     I'm getting there. It feels as though it's almost time to be done and on to the next place. The weird part about it is that the next place will be so incredibly different! How will it all look?

     The last week of August 2013 will not see me packing my bags and loading the little blue car to make the four and a half hour drive from Gig Harbor to once again to envelop myself in the pine-cone curtain that is Whitworth University. I say that with some weird emotions. Not only will I not be going back to Lighthouse Christian for my umpteenth year, transitioning to Bellarmine Prep for four long years, or engaging in incredible studies at what will then be my alma mater, but I will be done with my formal education. Wow That was weird to say. Alma mater. Well I guess it is true, I do graduate in less than three months.

     I'm excited to say that while the past has been excellent, challenging, and overall beneficial for my health, what is to come is going to be as refreshing and life-giving as ever. I try hard to wake each day and acknowledge the new day and all that that brings, but soon I will launch into something totally new. With some sad feelings in me I will wave good bye to the Evergreen State and take on one that turns more white in the winter than Washington. That's right, I'm headed to Alaska.

     If you know my story, it has been a perennial place of interest for me, but now it is going to be more than a vacation away or a summer mission experience. Rather now it will be home. I have been working with Covenant Youth of Alaska (CYAK.org) over the past few summers, working with youth from villages across Western Alaska. I have been invited to serve on staff full time with CYAK starting in June. I will be living in Anchorage in a college ministry house with a group of men as the 'resident director.'

     God has continued to open doors on my way up to Anchorage and as of now I am nearly completed with my fundraising for the two(+) year commitment. If you are interested in contacting me about how you can support me though, email me at david@cyak.org. We are in the process of launching a capital campaign in order to purchase the home that the ministry will use starting in the fall.

     It is with mixed emotions that I will be moving away from the great state of Washington, but as the title of this blog implies, I will forever be North and West of somewhere, and that somewhere is awful close to home right here in the Pacific Northwest!

Load after load after load after....

Again, I forgot about this little post! Loading up wood, fixing fourwheelers, getting things done CYAK style! What a great group of people to work with and a beautiful place, this blog was written sometime near the end of July.

     Ok so it really hasn't been that many loads, but seven is a lot if you consider the fact that it takes about two hours to haul stuff up to camp and come back down to town. What were we hauling? Wood! and lots of it!
     Mae is an elder in Unalakleet who decided to donate the massive stack of firewood next to her home to Bible Camp. Using the big red camp truck we slowly have been knocking away at the pile, and finally yesterday we found ground underneath the mound. Needless to say we were slightly excited!

     Not that Mae will ever read this but many thanks go out to her for the donation. It should keep Bible Camp stocked with firewood for about 2 years. That's a huge help to the kind of work that goes into getting the camp read in the spring. Its a load off our backs for next year and a load off her back to have it out of her yard! It is donations like these as well as financial ones that keep Bible Camp running and in full working order to continue to serve the youth here in Alaska. Here's a few pictures of the process- and a few things we ran into on the way up!