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| 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.
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| 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…”
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| 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!
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