Sunset Tour...

We are settling for the academic year back in College Station.  The Lord has shown great grace to us in giving us a furnished house to rent for the academic year... some of our good friends who are overseas with CRU are renting us their home through May.  It is a great grace to us that we have the ability to settle in for the academic year instead of working to sort and sell and put the house on the market now.  Hard as it was to get our belongings out and sorted in a massive sell-off in April it is SO much better on this side of things for sure. 

We cleaned out our storage unit where we had some family heirloom kind of things and totes full of clothes.  The second round of sorting is over and what we have now is loaded in a 7’X12’ cargo trailer so that we aren’t paying for a storage unit.  The limbo of being here and looking ahead sort of wears on me at times but the reality is that this is a good place for our family to be for the sunset of our time in College Station; after being here for 10 years the leaving is bitter-sweet to say the least. 

The thermometer was a reality check as we rolled into town!  Never ready for 108 degrees!

This past weekend Julie and I celebrated 17 years of marriage.  We went out to dinner with the two of us earlier in the weekend.  But as our kids have grown and our family has matured, we wanted to celebrate as a whole family. 

Here is the toast to us, lemons and water.  It was fun to sit and talk about what we value together as a family.  One of the kids said something along the lines of “I like us because we are so different than anyone else.”  I asked why and the reply wasn’t a surprise…”Alaska has made us different.”  True that.   

 

 

We know many people have been praying for us over the past months.  Please continue!  We are using this time to finish raising support as we look ahead to living and doing ministry in rural Alaska.  Housing is a question too as to where we will live in the months that Lake Clark isn’t passable by boat and before the ice is solid enough to cross on snowmobile; it has been a stretch of faith for me as I learn in a new way to grow in faith by not having all the answers right now.  The Lord is teaching me to be able to just rest without all the answers.  Not wanting to dismiss the lesson...

There and Back Again (#2)

Well, as settling in goes we are...well trying! We are so grateful to have the ability to rent the house of some friends of ours who are over-seas this year. Their house is furnished and aside from boxing their family pics and putting ours up it is a really easy way to have this whole crazy transition happen. The other night as I went to pray with the older boys and say goodnight, I caught Sam laying almost fetal and working hard to keep from crying. He was tired and well, we all feel the heavy things more when we are tired but it is kind of like that leaving Alaska and coming back to College Station and not being in our old house. Well, we expected it to not be all warm and fuzzy feeling...but its still hard and harder at sometimes than others.


our new boat on a perfect Alaska summer day!

I have been promising pics for a long time and now that we have high-speed internet there is no real excuse to keep them from you any longer (except that the battery on my camera is dead and the charger was left in AK).

Here are some pictures from the summer…my hope is that this is convincing enough for you to book a ticket and come see us on Lake Clark!

praying over one of the cadet men after he shared his life story

We had 16 cadets, active duty, wives, kids and staff come on the Valor cadet trip this summer. Our strong desire for everyone who comes is that their time in Alaska is a stake that they can put in the ground and remember that the Lord did something in their life. We spend time in the mornings looking at "A Biblical Blueprint of Manhood", serve in the community or enjoy the outdoors during the day, study a biblical model of ministry/movement building in the evening, and late into the night we hear from one of the men share his life story.

the 6 who made the summit on a perfect day for a long hike

Most of the group didn't make it to the top when we took on Tanalian...probably one of my greatest regrets from this summer. We should have been able to get everyone up on the top of the mountain but I let down in my leadership that day. If I were in Army Ranger school I probably would have been "recycled". Oh well, at least no one got hurt in the process!

We had 10 days off between the cadet Valor trip and the grandfather/son/grandson trip.  Some of it was spent with friends and some of those friends like to fish too!

Zach, Sam and Josh helped me "guide" the trip with the grandfather/son/grandsons.  They did a great job and were a huge help both to me and to the men who were our guests that week.  The only problem is that its hard as a dad to tell your 9 year old son to leave the fish in the river for the others to catch.  Even with Zach catching fish there was plenty to go around; we had a great week of fishing, 100+ fish every day. 




I will post the pictures of a few of our other trips when I can get my camera turned on!  In the meantime, here are some pics to whet your wistle until you can schedule a time to come see it in person. 

cave-falls--creative name I know..

View off the front deck of the house. Of the 100's of pictures taken of this view, not one of
them does it justice but it will have to do until we can see you there!

There and Back Again (part 1)

If I remember my Lord of the Rings trivia correctly that is the name of the book Bilbo wrote and gave to Frodo to complete.  Anyway, we are back in the “lower 48” making our way back to Texas.  We flew into Seattle on the overnight flight from Anchorage Monday night.  I woke up as the plane’s tires screeched the runway at 5AM Tuesday morning and then drove us from Seattle to Julies’ grandmothers place in Montana.  Needless to say, it was a long day but it was totally worth it in having a place like hers to recover and recollect our family.  We slept really late on Wednesday, enjoyed the quiet and since there is no internet or cell coverage it allowed us what seems to be a milder re-entry this summer. 

Our last two weeks in Alaska were packed with great people.  We hosted a great men’s group from VA (and one token CA guy!) with a ministry called Outpost.  They are a great like-minded ministry and we love to have them, they come and give as much to us I think as we can deliver to them.  It was fun to have them as most of them live their entire lives in the city and never get out to experience a glimpse of what life in the backcountry is like.  Everything we did was new and it was fun to see their lives open up to the deep waters of the Gospel over the week we spent together. 

The last week was an adventure for us!  We hosted a group of 14 high school kids and leaders.  They came up to help with building projects on the property but needless to say Julie was elbow deep in the kitchen feeding a crew that with our family and the help we pleaded and coerced to come help us pull it off—totaled 25 people.  Our house is not that big!  But it was a great experience and we loved having them. 

I will upload some picture tomorrow.  In the meantime I am going to go to bed and get some sleep since all of the sights in Price, ID have been seen…thank you for praying I look forward to providing a more complete update.

Be Still...

“Be still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10.  Still, hummm.  I am trying to be still but I still don’t know what that means.  Part of the problem is that I love to work and therefore my work is what I live to do.  Over the past few days I have been wondering what I will do when there isn’t anything to do.  I know that when we move next year there will be periods of the year when there is little to do, not just in activity work wise but activity in general.  I find that in Texas when I’m bored I just get in the car and go do something…”oh yea I need to run to Lowes to look at…”.  Here I am not as able to hide my inability to stop and be still by filling it with a purchase or a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  It has been a couple of days since I’ve had to do anything to make life happen here, all the projects are actually up to date (except for varithaneing the interior walls…but we’ll call that not essential).  I don’t have to go out in the rain and work so I haven’t which has made me kind of crazy on the inside.  Not just crazy inside the house but on the gut level; on the inside of my soul.  I think my addition to two things is coming to the surface. 

1)      The addition of importance.  I feel important when I’m doing something.  People notice and to be honest to the world-wide-web, I like to be noticed.  I want people to say good things about me, I actually like to be important.  If you have ever listened to the comedian Brian Regan he does a stick about a guy driving while talking on a cell phone who gives him a pinky wave…on a heart level that’s me.  I love to look important but I don’t feel like I am important while not accomplishing.  I rebel against even writing that because in the back of my head I think, “well, it’s better than being lazy!”  Agree?  I think that rebuttal is part of my problem…I have a desire for both and yet my bent is not toward laziness its toward too much activity so that when I stop I feel lazy.  The bottom line is that my significance is not in Jesus it is in me.  When it comes down to it I want people to notice me.  Maybe being hurried and looking for significance in insignificant things is just as sinful as being lazy?  Hummm, don’t think I like that…

2)      Addiction two plays off of that, I am addicted to me.  I have a deeply rooted pride that is so well hidden that to get the roots of it out of my soul it will need to be dug out with a spade.  In my life I think that the importance of what I do is sadly not merely for the advancement of the kingdom of God on this planet it for the advancement of my kingdom on this earth.  How sad.  I want to either delete this whole entry or try to justify myself but even that is a defense of a deeply hidden pride.  Even in this confession I think there is an element of pride…and in that confession I confess there is pride…and in the confession of that confession I…; well, it’s there and I have to make strides to get it out of the way if there is ever to be rest for my soul. 

The beginning of Psalm 46 says: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” The psalm goes on and describes the world on the brink of wars and physical destruction and yet at the end the Psalmist says what we quote all the time, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Context is important as it is not necessary at the couch level of stillness it is at the level of utter trust in God while all around is chaos.  However, it is applicable to the need to trust in our Western culture of rush and not just rushing but the need for the rush of feeling important.  In his book “Replenish” Lance Witt quotes James Gleick with something that strikes a chord.

               

“Our ability to work fast and play fast gives us power.  It thrills us.

If we have learned the name of just one hormone, it is adrenaline.  No

wonder we call a sudden exhilaration a “rush.”   (italics are mine)

The needed cure for me is to find my utter value in the finished work of Jesus Christ through the cross and resurrection.  I am going to start by playing a board game with my kids on a Thursday afternoon…

Catch-Up



two days of the trip we float the river getting dropped
off the top of a mountian by Super Cub and portage
to the river.

We had a wonderful time guiding and serving the Lunsford family out at South Fork.  South Fork is where we did our leadership trips out of for the first 4 summers we were in SW Alaska and our family has a lot of love and memories of this remote camp.  South Fork is where each of the family fell deeply in love with Alaska.  The camp is truly remote about 60 miles or so by plane from anywhere.  The fishing was good and when you put good fisherman on good fishing they catch a lot of fish—somewhere around 100/day. 



The whole family worked hard with the older boys helping me guide (I’d drop them off with a couple of men while I jet boated another group to new spots).  This is the second trip we did with the Lunsfords.  Jack is in his 70’s and invests deeply into his grandsons.  It is wonderful to see his heart to develop men who love Jesus and have a purpose in this life in how they serve the Lord in his kingdom work. 



"hold it out, it makes the fish look bigger!"

Our family had a couple of afternoons on the front and back end of the trip to fish as well while we were out at South Fork.

Kent with his first pike. 
He is hooked!

This past week we have had some great friends come out and visit us. Its been nice to have a slower pace and to let our guests just enjoy being here with our family.  We have had some time to take them fishing and to tinker around the house getting simple things done which make life easier.  Julie went with a group of ladies on a backpacking overnight this week.

Julie with one of the puppies.
I married way out of my leauge...YES!

Did I mention that we are getting a puppy?  Yep…its true, I broke down... Who could say no?  Our friends Eric and Sarah here in Port Alsworth are going to help us out and take care of it until we get back out here next May.  It is a utilitarian decision on my part, I want the kids to be able to play outside and enjoy living here and having a bear dog in the spring and fall is just wise.  But I do like them too, they are awful cute.  We are all excited to have him for a couple of weeks before we head back to Texas. 





R-E-S-T Is NOT a four-letter word!

The past week has been very good for us as a family.  We have had a great time of rest in the midst of getting some things done.  One of the things I have been thinking about over the past days is that R-E-S-T is a four letter word to me most of the time.  Actually it is sometimes looked at in my heart as the worst of all the potential four letter words…W-O-R-K, A-C-C-O-M-P-L-I-S-H…  I have a really hard time letting myself actually stop long enough to rest. Not the kind of rest like laying on the couch watching the Sox loose, or sleeping –in till noon and being tired all day.  The real rest when I am still enough to listen to what the Lord might be telling me.   The kind of rest where I can be still to listen to my wife, and we can talk and process things without just giving details—that’s what I am after.  I have a long way to go but maybe having the space to even think about these things is a start…

We are headed to South Fork tomorrow morning, its out in the deep bush about 80 miles from Port Alsworth.  That is where we spent a lot of our summers doing the cadet trip.  We are guiding and hosting a great man of God who is taking his grandsons on an Alaskan fishing trip.  Jack brought a different set of grandsons up three years ago that we guided and it was one of the best times of my life in the outdoors. They caught a ton of fish but watching Jack invest in things that matter with the young men he has influence upon made it one of the most memorable weeks of my life.  We are looking forward to helping set the tone for another great week. 

"K.C.", Home at Last

Sam, me, Lyle, Heidi, Zach

Sam and Zach in Pile Bay!

The adventure of taking the new boat (named K.C.) up to Lake Clark is over…well, almost over.  Sunday afternoon we flew to Pile Bay, AK  (population, 4) which is on the very SE end of Lake Illiamna.  The word awesome is over used, but the flight and the hours we were able to spend in Pile Bay was truly awesome.  While there are just a handful of people living but Pile Bay, much of the freight that goes into SW Alaska comes through it during the summer months.  Being there with Sam and Zach was an experience that I am so grateful to have had with them.   Sunday afternoon we worked on trying to figure out a way to get the lumber we had shipped in the boat from Homer along with the trailer (we had planned to carry the trailer on top of the boat) secured in a way that we could get the boat on step.  Well, the weight was just too much and we opted to have it barged over instead…so while the adventure of getting the boat up the water system to our house is over we still have a few details to work out.  Oh well, we get to add a step and in the long run it will be good since we can make the trip back up the Newhalen River and see our friends in Nondalton on the way. 

Pulling out of Lake Illiamna

Putting into the Newhalen River after the 13mi portage

We stopped at “Agate Island” on the way up Lake Illiamna and spent a couple of hours picking he coolest rocks, they are polished naturally on the pebble beach.  Very cool place for a picnic!  We got to Illiamna (the village) and had no trailer to put the boat on since we left to be barged over from Pile Bay.  The portage to the Newhalen River is about 13 miles so were literally stuck up the river without a paddle.  We got out of the boat, prayed and walked to the store.  We walked in the door and Lyle saw a friend of his who offered, without us asking, to put the boat on his trailer and to pull it over the road for us.  Not surprised but grateful for the Lord’s provision.

We were hungry and tired but stopped to see our friends in Nondalton for a few minutes and what a blessing they are.  They are an incredible family living in a village where I think they are either the only white family or one of the few. We love them and really they are an inspiration to us as we look ahead to living here.  Beyond the time in the boat with Lyle, Heidi, Sam and Zach; the time in Nondalton was really worth the entire trip to me although I wouldn’t have wanted to lose any of the adventure of boating up the massive Lake Illiamna; it was all worth it…

Today is a catch up day for admin.  Amazing how much I get behind by doing just the minimum over the past couple of weeks. Not much else I can do about that but plan a day or two to catch up after the trips. 



Zach taking us the home stretch in Lake Clark

We love the new boat!  It is efficient on fuel, we only used about 10 gallons yesterday running for over 5 hours wide open.  The seats are 100% enclosed keeping everyone dry from the sea spray and its WAY warmer being out from the wind.  So blessed, it’s the nicest vehicle we have owned…thank you again to those of you who helped make it happen, we want you to come and enjoy it with us!

Alaskan Leadership Adventures Cadet Trip

A bit tired!

Well, the most intense and first trip of the year is in the books.  We are tired today for sure.  I sat down on the edge of the bed to untie my shoes last night ready to take a shower and in the mean time one of the kids jumped in and to brush their teeth.  Between them finishing and getting my shoes off I fell over and crashed.  I guess it was funny enough for dad to have his feet on the floor snoring loudly to take a picture. 

Hard to explain what happens on these trips, there is so much that the Lord does.   Many of them show up with no idea why they are here, not just in Alaska but on the planet, they leave with a purpose and sense of direction.  Of the 12 men who came this summer only 3 of them have a father in the home so when they hear the word leadership there is really no context for what godly male leadership means.  It is exhilarating to hear them talk at the end of the trip of hope for their lives to really matter.  A couple of men in particular really had a marked difference in their countenance when they left yesterday afternoon. 

The whole group of us--22 strong!

Here is a bit of what a couple of them wrote in the guestbook.  I don’t write this as a boast,  I am truly humbled to have the opportunity to interact with men in this setting, it is truly the Lord Jesus working in their lives.  Scripture and truth make the difference.  We had some great other leaders come help this year which made all the difference to us.  Thank you Jimmy, Perry’s and Montgomery’s!

 “You are a great model for a future family for all of us.  Many of us come from broken families and it is comforting to have tangible hope for  Christ centered families…I had nearly lost hope for myself to become a man but you rekindled that.”  “…You have guided me in developing a passion to become a man in Christ and I look forward to the future lessons.  Julie, thank you so much for the amazing food and more so for the example of what a Biblical woman and wife looks like…”  

Praying over one of the men after telling his life story.

There is no way that we could do this on our own; we are just people putting the time and effort out in an environment where there are little distractions.  Thank you so much for praying for us.  I woke up this morning at my usual 6:30 and had a couple of hours over the Word to process the trip.  One of the things I was struck with was the overwhelming sense of someone (or more) who were praying for us.  I don’t know if I had ever had that sense before, maybe it was the Spirit of God interceding for us…I don’t know but I do know that over the course of the past weeks that many had been praying for us and mostly for these great men. 

My prayer for them as they head back to the fight is that the stake is now in the ground and “true North” can be found.   They left with a plan of the next steps over the months to come, I pray that each of them will see the Lord continue to use that in their personal lives and in the leadership they give to building movements of God’s purpose where they are living. 

I am headed to Lake Ilimna tomorrow afternoon to get the boat moved home.  We will stay one night in Pile Bay and make the boat trip on Monday.  I think it will just take one day to make the trip if the weather is good.  I’m looking forward to the adventure.  Sam and Zach will be coming with me along with my “guide” and friend Lyle and his wife Heidi.  The boat if full of treated lumber so seating maybe a challenge but we’ll figure it out. 

Thank you again for praying for us over the past few weeks.  We have a bit of break for the next week during the week I will finish up the septic (true indoor plumbing!, right now we use the outhouse and the “grey water” pours out a pipe by the front deck) and a few other small projects   Zach has asked me almost every day this past week to take him fishing which I have said I will do a lot after the cadets leave—bummer…but not really!

Exhausted but Exhilarated

Well, I will start out by saying sorry…I just haven’t had time to pull pics off the camera, write a few sentences and post it.   I want to, but with the 1:00AM bed time and a 6:30 alarm I just haven’t had the capacity to sit and sift pictures. 

The cadet trip is going really well.  We have 22 people in the house this week with the cadets, staff and help that are putting it all together.  Needless to say it is sometimes really loud, really crowded and almost always filled with laughter.  We are so blessed to have the opportunity to interact with people in this setting.  The Lord is at work in great ways, we are seeing lives touched as we walk through the Scriptures of what Biblical manhood and leadership should look like.  Part of the power is giving each man the opportunity to share his life story, it is so rich and powerful.

We head out for two nights on a packing trip tomorrow, come home on Tuesday and then get them ready to head back to Anchorage on Friday.  Our desire is that each of them leave with a plan of what they will do when they get home both in their personal life and in their involvements in helping to build movements. 

I hate to cut this short but I do need to…pray for us; strength and energy as well as wisdom in leading!

All Creation...

I am sitting at my new desk which looks out our second story window over the lake.  The wind is blowing hard today so the crew which has been going over to serve a missionary family in Port Alsworth stayed on our side of the lake today.  It was good to see the interaction of these men as they did some tasks together and began to form friendships.  I love what the Lord Jesus does in this place.  It’s no wonder why…as I look out the window at the lake and the snow covered mountains I can’t help but worship.  What a wonderful, powerful God we serve. 

The past two mornings we walked through Genesis 1-3.  The Lord has made us.  He has made us for His glory.  He made us for relationship. It is impossible to be here, to look at his Word and yet again not be changed by His truth. 

The trip is going well. We are always surprised at what the Lord does leading into the third day. The first days are always hard and I wonder each time if there is going to be anything significant that the Lord will do.  I know that much needs to happen in their hearts as they come; this place is so unique and different from anything else most of the men have ever experienced: There is the daylight that is almost constant, the removal of technology (I am actually posting this in covertness), the surroundings which are totally awe inspiring, the content of Scripture, on and on; it is just new…oh and a bunch of new relationships. 

But, we are past day 3 and it is really cool to see the Lord at work amongst them as a group and I see glimpses of what maybe He is wanting to accomplish in them individually.  There are men who are listening and not speaking during the times we are interacting with Scripture, pray for them that if there are barriers to them in their relationship with Jesus that those barriers would be removed for the rest of their lives.

This is a new year from me in that I am passing on much of the teaching. I love to teach in this context, I can’t imagine a greater place to instruct men but here.  They listen, they reflect, they are not in a hurry…and I really love it here and listen better to the Lord too which makes it a lot easier to lead people through Scripture.  But, the transition to letting others take the material and make it their own needed to happen.  If I am really about building up disciple-makers I need to let go and make sure that others grow in their capacities and that is happening.  Pray for them—the other leaders; Jimmy, Stephen and Jeff (he comes in on Friday). 

I know I said next post there would be pics but I honestly haven’t had time to get them off of the camera.  I will post some pictures soon though—promise.

Thank you for praying.

Very Quick Update...

Just wanted to let you know that we are alive and doing well.  It took a little bit but we now have internet access (thank you Ness’) at a neighbor’s house. The cadets come in on Saturday and I think we are ready…not just physically but I sense the Lord stirring our hearts to be prepared to lead them spiritually.  We desperately want this trip to be a stake in the ground for each man; that orients their lives from this point forward.  Please be praying for that along with us.  

I will post again soon…with some pics…thank you for praying for us.  We are doing well.   

"We're really doin' this man"!

On the way down to Homer everyone fell asleep while I was driving and in the quite moments by myself I was struck anew that we're really doing this thing. Kind of like in Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd tells Harry “We’re really doin’ this man!” as they drive off in the wiener car. Well, not really like that but maybe even less normal than Lloyd and Harry… Yesterday’s drive was just one more thing that felt like we needed to get done in order to make the summer and our transition up here reality. We need a good boat on the lake and in order to get a good boat out on the lake we needed to pull it down to Homer so that it can make its way up the water shed and into Lake Clark. Well…in the quite moments of the sleepers in the car I was struck by how stinking cool all of this is. How come out of all of the billions of people on the planet do we get to be the ones to do this? It is not easy for sure and I guess not very many would actually want to do this but WE are the ones wired weird enough to be doing this. That is cool!

Dinner on the Homer Spit

After we dropped the boat off (into to dirt lot with no fence or any think to keep it in the dirt lot…felt weird leaving it) we tried to walk on the beach while the tide was out but the 30mph wind and the 40 degree weather kept it short. We went to our motel and minus the sketchy run-down trailer park like look of the place we walked in and the kids ran to the window and ohh’ed and ahhh’ed at the view, which was spectacular. What an awesome place. The volcanic mountains run right down into the water, it is really not worth the pictures we took, the awesomeness of it is lost. It’s one of those places where the grandeur just sucks you in.  

At dinner we had one of those family times that make your heart swell.  We sat long after they took the check and quit filling our water glasses and talked about our dreams together and the awesomeness of God in making a place like this and of the sadness of leaving our life in Texas and of how much we missed Josh being apart from us this week.  It was sweet.  It made Julie’s eyes leak…

View from our motel room

I head out tomorrow with Sam and Zach to open the house.  I know there are friends in Port Alsworth who want to see us and that’s nice. I am looking forward to being in our own home again and in a place where our kids can be in their own space.  Thankful for our travels and the abundant provision in our journey to this point.  God is so good to us! 

If I can't write often it is because we are limited in our internet.  There is a promise that it is coming, but for now please know that we covet your prayer.  Please be praying for the cadet trip May 25-June 8, I want the Lord to deeply move in the lives of the men coming.  Pray for the teaching to impact not just the great experience of being in Alaska but that their lives will be markedly different from this point on.  Pray also for safety and good leadership on my part.  Thank you for standing with us!  "We're really doin' this man! We're headed to Aspen!"...Or Port Alsworth!...

No Bigger...Please!

Julie and I were driving around town running errands together working on scratching off items from the pages of lists of supplies for the summer. It was actually really nice to be out together and yes, conquering the list.  As we were driving with the radio on in the background Focus on the Family came on. The guest was a guy who does some sort of men’s ministry so I turned it up so we could listen; he was talking about how men today don’t live for things big enough. After a few minutes of listening, Julie looked at me and said "Please don’t think about doing anything bigger, this is plenty." We both laughed.  But to be honest, I do think bigger...Russia is just across the Bering Sea...wouldn’t it be cool if we could raise up a generation of believers from rural bush Alaska to reach the East Coast of Russia? Some day maybe—but for today this really is big enough...for now...

Dropping off dry & can food to fly out to PA

We have dropped off 4 loads similar to this to our friends at Lake and Penn Air to fly out to Port Alsworth.  I can see the light at the end of this season of the Anchorage Dash.  My Lowes/Home Depot/Spenard list is almost all marked out and Julie has most of the dried goods bought.  What’s left is the perishable food which she will get later this week. 

Right now the schedule looks like we will be dropping the boat off in Homer tomorrow and back to Anchorage on Tuesday. Sam, Zach and I fly out to Port Alsworth on Wednesday; Julie and Kaitlyn will follow on Friday or Saturday. It will give the boys a chance to get the fridge and freezer on and open the house making sure we don't need anything sent out that Julie could get.

OK about getting the boat out to Port Alsworth...we will bring it down to Homer tomorrow and it will sit in a lot waiting for the first barge of the season to go across the Cook Inlet. I am still green at this so I don’t' know all the ins and stuff but from what I've gathered the road that is on the North side of the barge line takes awhile to firm up from the snow melt. After it comes off the barge (some time in early June) it is pulled up to Pile Bay on Lake Illiamna where I will pick it up. Pile Bay is on the East end of the huge lake of Illiamna, I will dive the boat up with a buddy and have it pulled back out of the water and over a 13 mile stretch into Six Mile Lake which is connected to Lake Clark. Sounds like a great adventure, but I am also really thankful that I'll have help bring it up from Pile Bay! The bummer is that we won't have it in time for the cadet trip.  The plan for the 17 coming out at the end of the month is to make do with what we have and I will rent a boat or two from other friends in Port Alsworth for those two weeks of the cadet trip.

One leg high kick, part of
the Native Games.
World record is 9'8"!

For Mother's Day we went to the Native Heritage Center here in Anchorage. We love learning about the people and their culture.  On the front end of things it seems almost impossible for us be able to enter into thier lives. But, the more we are around them the more our hearts grow for them.  Jesus needs to heal.  

Thank you for praying for us!   

The New Ride



Julie, Kaitlyn, Zach with our friend Krista

We are so grateful! Months of looking on Craigslist and other for-sale-by-owner sites and we found this boat. It has 3 hours on it, the previous owner had it and got sick, which is really sad...and was never able to put in water. Its on '06 and basically just sat under shrink wrap for years. We had a few families who donated a generous amount of money to make this purchase happen. So grateful!

Now how to get the boat out to Port Alsworth? For those who don’t know, Port Alsworth is on Lake Clark about 160 miles by air from Anchorage. The first option was to take it 60 miles across Cook Inlet from Homer and portage it between lakes into Lake Clark. Sounds like a crazy fun adventure but the "road" between lakes probably won't be useable until sometime in June. So...not sure as of now how we are going to make it work but one of our bush savvy friends is helping me figure it out and make it happen. If possible we want to have it out by May 26 when the cadet trip comes. We have 17 people coming and having the boat out by then would make it a much easier trip logistically and so much safer to transport our people.

Talked to Josh this evening. He is doing well, a little home sick for the family which I totally understand--we are missing him a lot too. He split and stacked wood all day today and was pretty tired and headed to bed when I talked to him at 8:30.

Pray with us that we can get the boat out by May 26th.

Josh is off...

Yesterday morning we saw Josh off at Merrill Field, the small air plane airport (I think its the busiest private airport in the world). He is going to be working for a guide this summer in Port Alsworth. We are really excited for him this is his passion--the boy loves planes. Hard for us to have him gone, he will be working and living at the Alaskas Wild River Lodge 5 days a week but we do get to have him home on the weekends. Kind of weird having our 14 year old off and gone but we are excited for him and grateful for this opportunity for him. Seth is one of the best people to work for...great chance to have him learn the ropes from the ground up. 

I think we have found a boat! Thank you for those of you who have been praying about that with us. We have a need for a better second boat, one that can handle the wind on the lake. This boat will actually become the #1 boat...its way deeper and has a cover to keep the rain off of our people.  We exchange money and title today! I'll tell you more about it later when I can post some pics. 

Off and running doing the "dash"...

Anchorage again and at last!

It is good to be back in Alaska!  It has been a LONG journey to get here this year, not just in miles and time but in a lot of emotional energy.  We will be making the fulltime move to Alaska next May, 2013.  We have conflicted emotions as we leave the best community our family could have ever experienced in Texas to what we sense is the place we have been wired for living in the bush of Alaska.  We will stay with Cru (campus crusade), I will have the opportunity to expand on what I have been doing best over the past few years in my job  working with our staff teams.  We’ll also grow the summer leadership trips so we can do more of them and use the things we are learning and apply them to our other teams. 

We left College Station on March 12^th.  Its been so good connecting with many of our long time ministry partners.  (When people open their arms and homes to us even when we unload with 6 humans—with two teenage boys who consume a large quantity of food, you know you are in the presence of great people).  So good to be part of the Body of Christ…

When we left home on the 12^th of March we put our house on the market so that we could have it up for sale during the summer giving us the margin in time to list it for what we felt was the top end of the market price.  We really expected to have it sell later in the summer but as it goes it was on the market for just 3 weeks and we got an offer that was very fair.  So, Julie flew back last Wednesday and began the process of sorting what we will keep and selling off all but a few precious pieces of furniture (my mom’s cedar chest, a sewing table from Julies grandmother, a drop leaf table…).  It was hard, very hard actually to see the things which are parts of our lives go out the door.

Some of those things don’t seem worth much and really needed to be replaced like the bunk-beds.  I would pray with Zach at night and sometimes silently pray that the bunk above him wouldn’t fall and crush him at night.  But you know what, those beds were the beds that my brother and I grew up sleeping and playing on…not “worth” much, when some on comes to look but worth more than money can pay to me.  I have been mulling over Luke 18 a lot this week…not so much the Rich Young Ruler, but Peters response “Lord we have left our homes for you” and Jesus’ gentle reply which he in effect says, “don’t worry about it, it is worth it now and forever” (paraphrased by me).  I’m so glad Jesus said that…I do believe its worth it.  

We asked the Lord to sell the house and he did.  We closed on May 2; this past Wednesday—it’s a line in the sand, we are in for real…   We do get to go back for one more academic year which is joyful to think about.  It seems easier to say “goodbye” to the home and stuff without having to say “goodbye” to the people at the same time.  We have a great rental in College Station for next school year which is fully-furnished in the same neighborhood with some of our closest friends (and a community pool!).  It seems like a perfect way for us to spend the twilight of our 10 years in College Station.   

Well today is a transition day after 124 hours in the car and 5805 miles from College Station to Seattle we are in Anchorage today. I’m ready to get going on what we call the “Anchorage Dash” as we prep for the summer trips.  We are so excited for the people the Lord is brining to learn with us this summer.  I think we have somewhere in the neighborhood 50 people coming to what we’ve started calling the Alaskan Leadership Adventures Lodge.  Its good to be back!

Pray for us

We head out tomorrow for the great land of Alaska to begin our summer ministry trips.  We will leave Seattle at about 1pm and land in Anchorage to begin the shopping, planning, food lists, etc, etc....

Pray for our family as we enter into this summer!  We will be in Anchorage until the ice is off Lake Clark and we can get across the lake to our lodge.  From what it looks like today it will be at least a week, probably more like two weeks... 

I'm entering blog land, please be patient with me as I aquire a new language but I'm excited to share the journey!