For starters, the ministry organizations I was involved with for the
majority of my time in Alaska were Send North and Arctic Barnabas Ministries.
Send North is a part of Send International and their goal is to “mobilize
God’s people and engage the unreached in order to establish reproducing
churches.” Arctic Barnabas stated mission is to “strengthen and encourage
pastor and missionary families to effectively advance the Gospel of Jesus
Christ throughout remote Alaska and Northern Canada.”
Due to schedules always changing I
quickly learned that flexibility was essential while living in Alaska. I didn’t
have a specific schedule planned for my time there other than a hopeful idea of
possibilities. When an opportunity came up to go into the bush or go to a
conference and it was affordable I jumped at the opportunity. When things
weren’t happening else where I would be at the hangar helping wherever I could.
I spent the first week and a half in Kenia working with Arctic Barnabas, going
to meetings, learning more about their ministry, and meeting the staff. I then
was given the task of washing planes, sorting bolts, and making a list of a
bunch of Piper Navajo parts. During those first two weeks I went to MARC, Samaritans
Purse, and Soar Ministries hangars for a visit. Then, a seat opened up for me to go
with a team to Port Alsworth to help in the kitchen for a family camp Tenaylian
Bible Camp was hosting. The camp went from Friday to Sunday. Haley and Owen stayed behind in Kenai when I left for the weekend and helped look after the children of a family that was also going to the camp.
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Weighing and organizing the airplane for our 3 hour flight to Galena.
This was the primary Airplane we flew in our whole time in Alaska. |
The next week Haley, Owen and I
flew with Paul to Galena, which is considered a hub village for Send
missionaries to get further implemented into Bush life before they would
be sent into an even smaller village. This was a planned trip (after our trip
to Aniak fell through) to stay for three weeks helping, learning, and observing
ministry, culture, and the basics to living in Bush Alaska.
While there I was given
the freedom to take some initiative in learning from the missionaries. I spent
a lot of time helping the pastor and other missionaries with odd jobs like chopping wood, moving wood, and chopping some more wood. Through that time I was able to learn
a lot about the struggles they face living in such a secluded place filled with
people who don’t have much hope or trust in anything. We also went to a few
community events like the schools science fair as well as some youth events
held by Young Life. Other than helping with different chores, Haley, Owen and I
got travel to Buckland, which is a village about an hour west of Galena to
visit a young missionary couple who just moved there to minister to the youth.
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| This is an arial picture of Buckland. |
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| Chopping wood with Chris Kopp |
Also while staying in Galena
another seat opened up for me to travel to Huslea, which is an even smaller
village than Galena, where the Ernst family has lived for the past 23 years. This trip gave me an even
greater perspective of what it would be like to live in a village in Alaska. I
only spent a day there before traveling back to Galena. By this time we only
had a little over a week left before we headed back to Kenia. Over all, our entire
trip to the bush was very successful in learning so much about life, ministry,
and the importance of fully relying on God’s word. The final two weeks back in
Kenia I worked at the hangar and Haley and I got to attend a weeklong
conference Send North was having for all their missionaries who were serving in
the Bush. This in itself was extremely helpful and encouraging.
My goals for this internship were
to; better understand practicalities of living in Alaska, specifically bush
Alaska; see the overall process of ministry (serving bush villages); get a
better understanding of family dynamics with native cultures; build
relationships; grow in my walk with God; gain further discernment of direction
for future; be intentional about learning; grow deeper in prayer; learn more
about weather and planning flights around it; serve as Christ served; learn the
needs within big and small villages; and learn dynamics of small villages and
the role of the church with in it. God answered my prayer even more abundantly than
I thought. Not only did God give me many opportunities to learn many different
aspect of Alaska, and build a lot of relationships, but He also grew my family
closer together through this experience.
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| Port Alsworth ... amazing |
Personally I was stretched in many ways. One in particular was regarding what I was putting my confidence in. I think I put a lot of pressure on my
self to “be” a good Christian and “be” a good missionary and “be” a good dad
and husband, but I find I fail a lot. In doing so, other people's opinions
matter more than they should a lot of times.
God was working in my heart before
this internship in this area, but on this trip I read a verse in Jeremiah 17 that said,
“But blessed is the man
who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.”
As I was learning about
the suicide rates, sexual abuse, alcoholism, hopelessness among people,
and the average expectancy of missionaries living in the bush, God gave me that
verse. I was encouragement to let go of thinking that I have to make myself “good
enough” and I have to push myself hard enough to get through whatever it is
that is going on at the time - and instead trust in the Lord and have confidence
in Him, not in myself.
One of my goals was to get further discernment of whether or
not Alaska is where God is calling us to and I believe God did give us more
clarity, but not in the way I first expected. Instead of getting more clarity
on Alaska specifically I believe God has given Haley and I a greater peace and
contentment in waiting on Him. I think it also goes back to the confidence
thing. We know God in His timing will give us the next step. I can trust that He
is in control no matter what the circumstances are on the outside, He will always be
faithful. Alaska is a possibility, but we didn't get the "green light" while we were there.
More Pictures Below!!!
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Minutes after this picture was taken, we saw a big brown bear on the shore behind Owen. If you zoom in on this picture... it is in there we just didn't know at the time!
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| We saw LOTS of Moose on our trip. |
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| View of the lake from the Spadey's home in Kenai |
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| The marina in Homer |
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| In Port Alsworth |
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| Haley and Owen were backseat buddies on all of our 4 seater flights. I sat next to the pilot in the front 2 seats. |
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| Going through the mountain pass |
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| Owen did great on all of our flights in the small aircrafts! |
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| ... Haley, not so much :) The longer flights made her queezy.... but it's ok, she's pregnant |
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| The place we were house sitting while in Galena. |
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| Took a day trip to Russian River on our last week in Kenai. There was a great trail to walk. |
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| There is the Bear we saw on our walk! (center of the river bank) |
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A moose and her twins walked right through the back yard of the house we were staying at in Kenai.
(this picture was taken well after 10pm and its still very light outside) |
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| On a trail during a day trip to Seward our last weekend in Alaska. |
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| The end of the trail (for us anyway... it went a few more miles) |
Thank You So Much to those who supported us to go on this internship!!
One regret is, I wish we got more pictures of all the people we were able to meet...
