Surrounded by Faithful People Serving a Faithful God

We were so blessed to be at two retreats back to back where we left knowing God's goodness.  The trip to Seattle and then to Victoria, BC was an awesome time to connect.  Connecting with longtime friends, Crossroads Bible Church, and Julie and I together.  

Crossroads invests a huge part of their resources and influence into missions.  On Sunday they announced all of their missionaries and had us stand up front with flags representing the countries that each missionary is in.  The humbling part to us was the reception we received with people applauding.  I felt like shouting out "its not us!" but I know, or hope, they were not applauding us but the King whom we all get to serve.  Monday morning after the service we boarded a passenger ferry and spent 5 very relaxing and filling days in Victoria, BC.  Great time to be with other missionaries from around the globe; life giving to be surrounded by faithful people serving a faithful God. 

Coming back to Anchorage we had a couple of days getting supplies and food for the next four months or so then met the kids coming off the plane from Port Alsworth.  Some of you have asked and yes, its normal to fly; almost like getting in a shuttle van, well its way cooler than a van...but it is normal for life out here.   

We drove 2+ hours to a camp East of Anchorage where an awesome ministry called Artic Barnabas hosted a retreat for missionary families working in Alaska.  It was a key time for us to connect with people from bush communities across Alaska.  Its amazing what the Lord is doing in drawing people to himself but also a reminder of the hard work it is to reach villages off the road system with the Gospel.  Many families have invested decades and are still waiting for the Lord to move.  Faithfulness and perseverance, with great joy.

I'm making an effort to get across the lake on Tuesdays to work at what we call "the house across the lake" which is where I am at now.  The quiet is good for my soul...it also allows me to make coaching calls to our ministry leaders with fewer distractions.  As I meet with men on the phone some 6,000 miles away I am in awe of God's great power.  This morning the sun streams over the mountains into the windows and we are a part of His work!

 Life in the bush is becoming normal.  There are still times when it is surreal; like yesterday.  Julie and I have enjoyed time together working on firewood. The whole experience of using the boat to get wood is different...  Its hard work to get firewood anyway, but having to move it into and out of the boat adds some sort of strange workout to the woodcutting.  Someone somewhere could make a million on a "P-90X Alaska Wood" workout video.  Last night I took 800mg of ibuprofen...bush candy.  

Please be praying for us as we continue to learn how we can best minister to our community and the others around us.  We love it here and we love being in Port Alsworth...the spiritual battles are real. 

back, like an old friend...

Its been a long time since I have written and as the time gets longer it honestly has gotten harder to write.  How do I fill in the gaps of what we have done and experienced; the emotions that we have felt; the miles we traveled...

I was told by a close friend this week to let it go and just start again...like an old friend.  So, here you go...and yes, I do plan to keep up.   We actually feel the difference when people are praying for us...I am looking forward to sharing what The Lord is doing and how we need you to stand with us.

Last week I got a call early in the morning from a buddy of mine asking if I had time to help him skin out his

one less bear wandering around
the village

brown bear.  Funny thing is that the evening before Jesse was over for dinner and we prayed that he would be able to shoot a bear.  I had been planning to spend the day getting firewood but hey skinning a bear is good too...Not sure if it is the same bear that ran out in front of Josh a few nights before as he was coming home from school after open gym night but either way, one less bear around the village is good with me.

hauling firewood

I did get the firewood done later that day too.  Felt like a good man-day; skinning out a brown bear and moving a couple cord of wood with the boat.  Recharged my soul after being "locked" in the house for a few days doing admin work.

This past week has been the other spectrum on things.  Julie and I have been in Victoria, BC at a retreat that our church in the Seattle area put on for thier missionaries.  It was awesome; staying in a very nice hotel, eating food beyond good, spoiled really.  Sunday we were part of some 40+ missionaries that Crossroads Bible supports, most of whom where there with us for the retreat.  As a group we were highly honored by this church.  Very moving.  One of our friends made a great point that by us just standing up, there could be people there moved to follow the call to make disciples.

We head home this evening after being gone for a week.  I miss Alaska.  I am ready to be back.  I've been reading Timothy & Titus in the slowness of this week; digesting the challenge to lead is re-enerigizing.  I'm ready to go home but only because I'm filled from being away.

Julie and had part of our honeymoon in Victoria.  We hadn't been back so that was special to be there again and to have time to just be together.

18 years ago on our honeymoon we were introduced to the real difference of halibut
 at "Barb's"...somethings stand the test of time!

The whole family will be at a missions conference this next week outside of Anchorage.  MFR is a great time for us to connect with others who are serving in the bush.  We are going ready to learn from them...

Changed lives...

Valor men's trip at "cave falls"
35 mile boat ride and short
hike from our "lodge"

85 degree day...

It is so awesome to see the Lord work in the lives of people as they come here and encounter so many things that are out of their normal life experience.  To us it all now pretty common place but to watch the thoughts bounce around in the minds of people as they fly out of the city life of Anchorage to the little village of Port Alsworth then take the boat ride across Lake Clark to our place it is all very un-normal.

As the first few days of jet lag, transitions, and adjustments pass the days that come after those are precious, sometimes, life changing.  The Lord enters into that space and people are able to really listen to God speaking as we interact around his Word and in the unique community that begins to take shape as men and women open up about their lives. 

the top of Tanalian Mountain

And…its fun.  We get to go places and do things that are amazing adventures. 

Julie is coming back this afternoon with the girls after being out for a three day trip.  I know they will come back tired and a little wet from the soaking rains, but I also know they will come back having a trust that only being in the wilderness together can bring. Its fun…it's exhilarating, its exhausting…it’s a complete privilege to seek the Lord as He works in the hearts of people.

Zach's birthday fish

As Julie has been gone the past few days with Kaitlyn, Josh and Sam are working as activity counselors at the Bible Camp in Port Alsworth this week leaving me lots of time with just Zach.  Its been fun to read to him a lot and to take him fishing as much, well almost as much, as he wanted to go.  I get to take lots of people fishing but he is by far my second favorite fishing partner.  And he is a really good fisherman, maybe the best in the family. 

We leave to go to Cru Staff Conf. in CO in a few days.  Excited to see our staff, really bummed to be leaving after just getting here.  The good news is that we get to come back this time!

We are alive...and connected...!

The men’s Valor cadet trip left Port Alsworth yesterday.  It was an awesome group.  The men were all college aged military cadets who will be graduating and heading into our military.  The group bonded as we learned together—I am more and more convinced that used with God’s word, the wilderness is probably one of the best teachers.  Maybe that’s why Jesus spent so much time there with his disciples…

We (myself along with two other great leaders who came to help me lead the content) spent time in the mornings going through a series of studies that we have worked to put together called “A Biblical Blueprint for Manhood”.  In the evenings we looked at what scripture says about how to help lead a movement of discipleship and evangelism.  Late in the nights we took turns listening and sharing life stories.  It’s amazing to me how many fatherless men there are and how hungry they are in wanting to know what to do to change their futures. 

Today we slept in.  I think the average sleep during the cadet trips is only 4-5 hours a night…not enough!  When we got started late this morning we worked on equipment (generator, wheel bearings on the trailer, boats).  The highlight of the day….ready….is internet!  We are hooked up to high-speed internet for the first time!  It feels almost as good as the first showers we were able to take here a couple of years ago.  We are keeping the connection a secret from our guests so that they can truly be unplugged.  Our family however is more than excited to be back online. 

Tomorrow we welcome in Cru’s outdoor ministry called Lifelines.  There are two Lifelines staff coming and doing the content so I’ll just be doing the outdoor leadership part which will be fun. Love teaching and love the guiding part, but it will be nice after the past two weeks to be responsible for just the wilderness adventure part.   

Thank you for praying, we are blessed to be doing this thing.  Of all the billions of people on the planet we are the ones who get to do this…very grateful. 

Transition “From” Becomes Transition “To”.

Well, we are underway.  Our church and friends celebrated us well over the past weeks and we are sent with full hearts.  On Sunday we were “commissioned” in both services at church.  I was not prepared for the emotions of being in church for the last time.  We walked up on the stage at the end of the worship set after singing two of my favorite songs...tears.  It was a little raw to say the least.  We are so thankful for our church that knows us and believes in what the Lord is leading us to, it is rich.   

I know that there will times that looking back is normal and there will probably be a longing for friends and comforts, but we go being celebrated.  Julie and I feel like we should be the ones celebrating others as we left, we have been loved well in College Station.  Thank you, our lives are markedly different than when we arrived 10 years ago; we are grateful for depth of relationships. So, it is with great excitement that we go forward but it is also with heavy hearts in leaving a wonderful community of friends; bitter-sweet.

Tomorrow we fly to Anchorage to do “the dash” for a few days in prep for 3 leadership trips June 5-11 July. We need to take care of some moving business, get supplies and food for 30 people for the 5 weeks of trips. 

 It’s a lot to transition to, but we are ready…well, almost ready.  I can tell like never before when people have been praying for us.  I don’t know what exactly it is that I can tell but there is no doubt that there is a difference.   Please continue to pray for the Blom family as the transition “from” becomes the transition “to”. 

Bucket List



For a few days of spring break last week we went three hours southwest to San Antonio to see our good friends the Feldts.  They are in the Air Force but have been in SA for a pretty long time as Brent finished up residency for doctor-hood.  Maggie mentioned that she had some things on her Texas bucket list.  I don’t think I have a bucket for Texas…I have one for Alaska but there’s not much in Texas that I have left to do.  Before my Texas friends disown me, it has brought to mind some things that I’ll really miss from our 10 years here.  Here's my current top 5 things I'll miss...not in order, just how they roll off my brain. 

Aggie baseball with Zach and Josh

1) Zach, Josh and I went to the Aggie ball game on Saturday.  I’ll miss that…sitting in the shade (I would not have as many romantic feelings if we had to sit in the sun) watching a really well played 2-1 game.  When its 75 degrees and a slight breeze sitting at a ball game with a couple of my kids—yea I’ll miss that for sure.     

2) Friends are of course a gimme, doing life with friends is one that we will miss from here.  Good friends that bring food over or ask if we can bring food on the spur of the moment.  I know that happens as the norm in Port Alsworth too, but there is something about good friends who we have shared a lot of life with…

3) To be fair, I’ll miss the days at the pool.  I guess days is not quite accurate as the “day” is too hot, so I guess I’ll miss the evenings at the pool. Will not miss the days…

4) I’ll miss my office where I can go and read, study the Word, prep/plan for things.  The Office.  Julie calls it “The bachelor pad for married men.”  It would be fair to add “Married, middle aged men…”  I share the office, which is really just a small one bedroom guest house near campus, with 3 other ministry leaders which help me process stuff going on in my ministry and life.  The "Married man bachelor pad" and the friendships are life giving.  I will miss not having a place outside of the home-life routine to detach and concentrate. 

5) Julie and I get up on Saturday mornings and go to Blue Baker, a bagel shop, for breakfast.  Simple and routine...we touch base about all sorts of things; schedule, money, people, our people.  Most of the time there are no fireworks, it is just great to get up and go somewhere to talk and to do it whenever we can.  We will miss that...there are no bagel shops in Port Alsworth...Hummm, maybe there should be?

While I was in Anchorage a few weeks ago I registered our Suburban in Alaska.  The other day when Julie came out of a store someone was bent down behind the car snapping a pic of the Alaska license plate.  They nonchalantly tucked the phone in their pocket when she walked past them and opened the car door.  Makes me chuckle every time I think about it.  Maybe we helped complete another person’s Texas bucket list; to see an Alaska license plate… 

Relief!

I didn't know it, but I needed the Lord to refresh my vision in moving to Alaska and our need to be in Port Alsworth.  We have a place to contribute to the community and a role in the outreach to other Native Alaskan villages.

It was refreshing to be with friends. It was encouraging to have them share and enter into the process of helping us find housing. We are sad to be leaving our great community in College Station but we are going to great community and friendships in Port Alsworth.  We belong there...

The house we have been spending or summers in is perfect for our Biblical Outdoor Leadership Adventures. It is across 3 miles of water from the village of Port Alsworth and offers solitude which is perfect for the leadership trips. But we have been looking for a place that would allow us to be part of the village community during fall and winter months when life slows and people have time and energy to connect.  Durring the late fall and winter crossing the 3 miles of lake can be a tenuous commute at best, and impossible at worst. Some parts of the year you can cross in a boat; some on a snow machine; sometimes neither. Thus, the need for a second option during the winter.

Housing options tend to be slim in the bush. Building is so expensive off the road system that if you build a house it is probably one you will live in year-around; or it is built as a fishing/hunting cabin not usually built for the deep Alaskan winters.

Our dog Kodiak, in Anchorage the day before he

got “tutored”…hope he can forgive me some day!

On Wednesday afternoon I flew back to Anchorage from the bush and that evening I began to call through the short list of “hey, you should call so and so…they may rent”. I got to the last name on my list and left a message...the next morning as I sat in Starbucks reading Ephesians I got a call back from that last contact and heard "yes we would love to rent you our house in the winter." I was sitting there with tears of thanksgiving filling my eyes trying unsuccessfully to look innocuous...especially when I called Julie and told her the news.  Relief.  Thanksgiving.  Gratitude.  Did I say relief…?

The family we will be renting from is a really cool Christian family who is going to Botswana, Africa for a couple of years to fly medical evac from bush villages to the city. What a great blessing! Julie and I are so relieved! The kids will have the opportunity to go to the Port Alsworth school and we can begin to put deeper roots into the community.

The Gospel needs to go out to SW Alaska, how privileged that we might come alongside and play a role in helping...

Thank you for praying! This is truly an adventure and we are so grateful to have people praying with us.

I got home on Saturday afternoon in time to help Josh and Sam tie their ties for a dinner banquet and dance.  They took a cotillion class this winter and the ball was this past weekend.  They are studdly men!     

    

North to Alaska

Thank you for praying for us…I can honestly tell the difference.   I have had a couple of people tell me this week that they have been praying for us and I can say with all sincerity that “I know.”   Have you ever had a time when the Scriptures, the sermons, the words spoken in passing seem to all kind of say the same things?  It has only happened a few times to me…but it has happened to me this week. 

Faith

Answers…I want answers!  This journey is a journey of faith, when I get ahead of where we are at I feel anxiety.  BUT, when I rest in God’s provision and in His goodness and in His blessings through Christ and in the indwelling of the Spirit there is the real answer.  I love being in a place where I can hear God, I honestly just wish it weren’t so uncomfortable!!!!  A good friend of Julie who spent a number of years in a very difficult country in Africa told her this week “the harder it is, the more glory God gets.”  Wisdom.    

Tomorrow I get to go to Alaska!  I am going to get things ready for our summer leadership trips and work on details for our move.   I know so many people who have wanted their whole lives to go to Alaska…don’t want to rub it in, but at 3:57 CST tomorrow afternoon I will be on my way to Alaska!  Pretty stinking cool!  I’m excited to see good friends, mountains, cold weather…and Kodiak, our dog. 

Pray that I will have discernment in finding a home for us to live during the time that it is not safe to cross Lake Clark to Port Alsworth; our property is 2 ½-3 miles across the Lake from Port Alsworth.   We want a place to rent for a few months early in the winter as I will need to travel some still during the academic year as I will be continuing to do staff development with our teams working at military schools.  Long term our heart is to have a part in helping to see the Gospel go out from our village throughout SW Alaska and being a part of the community throughout the winter seems pretty valuable.  There are a few other options that we are open to but from what we know today, which I’m sure is just a fraction of the big picture, we would love to rent a place in Port Alsworth during the freeze up time.  There is a ton we don’t know yet and will learn over the next few years for sure…

The kids are doing well.  This is Sam reciting his poetry this morning in school.  He did a great job, as usual.    Kaitlyn got a 103 on her spelling test which means she gets to go out with me for frozen yogurt this afternoon.  Not a bad deal, she has motivation to work at spelling and I get to have a date with my daughter—maybe I should get her a flower and make it a valentine…

Thank you for praying for us. We are so blessed to have so many who care and encourage and pray for our family!  Pray for us this week that the Lord will clearly lead and that I will clearly listen!

True Truths and a Handful of Lies

I have read a number of missionary stories over the years; many of those stories have stirred my faith. Every good story has a protagonist who overcomes, someone who brings about a good in the midst of other unspeakable evils. In the missionary stories, it is someone who has faith beyond circumstances because they have "seen" The Lord and will do anything to make his name and work paramount. While I know that a biography might scratch at a unbelief or doubt it will rarely portray what that person really felt as they moved away with all of their belongings packed in a simple wooden box, which became their coffin when they die of malaria.

I am not that person. We are leaving much here in Texas, which is becoming more difficult to come to grips with but people move and leave all the time...actually, what I find to be difficult over the past months and has begun to weigh me down is that I don't know what we are moving to. Simple in most places in the country...but the bush of Alaska is not like anywhere in the country. We have a wonderful property that is on a lake 3 miles across from the village we want to build our lives in. Problem...

This winter there is no ice on the lake and has been relatively uncrossable. Next problem, the town of Port Alsworth does not have condo units for rent...I am stressed especially as the time gets closer. Where are we going to live? Are we making a stupid decision to move? We are leaving and going...Lord, where?

In the midst of personal doubt Julie and I have done what all of humanity does in times of crisis; prayed...a lot! We have also sought the Word as True Truth counter acts doubt and self. I am learning much, which actually might be the Lords point in all this waiting for answers of what our life might turn out to look like...Ephesians has leapt off the page to me in the past weeks.

My life is identified in Jesus. In the first chapter alone the word "IN" is written something like 14 times in context of being "in Christ" "in the Beloved". Where do I belong? I belong IN...

Then the question why? It is simple and complex... God loves. His love is knowable and unknowable; unknowable because it is too big for me; knowable because He chose to make it known to me--even before the world was made.

The last truth that I have been clubbed with...he blesses us. No, not in the Joel Osteen way...his blessing is in the heavenly places. What? How does that give me comfort in moving my family to Rural Alaska and not having a place to live? Mark Driscoll said it like this (paraphrased) "this world is as close as a Christian will get to hell; conversely, it is as close to heaven as a non-believer will ever get". My blessing is not just in the here and now...thank God! It is worth it for us to go and give our lives so that those who will never know anything better can know the reality of Ephesians 1:3 "...every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."

I still have anxiety. I am flying to Alaska next week; please pray with us that through being there we might find housing during the winter months. Pray for us also in the midst of these doubts that the true Truth of God will be what we are listening to, that we will seek him and listen. We need people to pray with us during this time...thank you!

In the middle

We are about half way through the “sunset tour”. It is challenging to be waiting to go.  We feel at times like we are stuck in the middle of two great things, we still love where we are and yet we have great anticipation of where the Lord is taking us as a family. This is the year to prepare to move so we are steadily checking things off the lists; eye doctor, physicals (are you really supposed to do those every year?), raising additional support to live in the AK bush, braces, visits…well you know, most of those things that should be done anyway and don't get done until there is a real need to get on it.  

Part of the WFR class is to
take turns playing
the wounded guy
 

In prep for the move I have taken some really cool outdoor leadership/certification classes over the past months. I am actually sitting in a Starbucks in CO studying (is writing a blog considered studying?) for my Wilderness First Responder class. The WFR has been SO good…who would have guessed that a kid who fainted when I saw the smallest drop of blood would be loving the idea of knowing how to treat an open pneumothorax (…it cost us a lot of time and money to learn that word, thought I’d use it at least once!) in the backcountry. It is not an easy class, I study most of the hours I am out of class and cramming all of the content into 80 hours over 9 days is fast and furious but I’m enjoying the challenge. 



LifeLines Guide school class

A couple of months ago I also took a guide class certifying me to be a “backcountry trip leader”, pending the passing of this WFR class—which means I better get studding... All stuff that I probably should have done 10 years ago when we started doing outdoor leadership trips, but it was never on my radar until now. I am so thankful that the Lord has spared us from any serious injuries over the past 10 years.  It is not because we have done everything right all the time!   It is nothing more than His mercy!

The family is well…the reality of moving away from friends and pulling up roots from the past decade is becoming more of a reality.  While we are all kind of ready to get on with the move we are also enjoying the time with people that we care deeply about.  It is one of those weird tensions in life that I am not sure how to deal with some times.  

If you think about it pray for the ability to finish our support, we are at 25% of our needed goal.  Pray for our fam to be loving eachother and walking through this transition with faith.  Thanks! I'll be better at writting too, had some problems with blogger that I think are finally solved--thanks Stevo...