After getting back to Texas and presenting at a Bible class, I have had time to think more about our trip. Although I know our group knew many of our prayers were answered, it seems appropriate to aknowledge them publicly. I'll start a list and other can add as they want.
- Safe travel back and forth by plane
- Avoiding moose on the roads (if people in the hill country are afraid of hitting a 100 lb deer, what happens if you hit a 1500 lb moose)
- Finishing our entire work project
- Nobody getting sick (3 hours of sleep and working all day - wow, God answered that prayer in a big way)
- Tempers staying in check and the group staying united (wow, amazing answer here too - what a great team we had)
- Seeing wildlife (the grizzly at the end was emotional for a lot of us - we were 6 miles from leaving Denali and about to leave, and then we see those cars pulled over with binoculars out...)
- Prayers for locals (in some cases we'll have to see how God works in their lives...many of them continue to be in our prayers)
- Prayers over our food (no allergic reactions, etc.)
- No injuries (power saws, etc., it happens of course, but our group still has 110 fingers)
- Rest and relaxation for Pastor Todd, Kim, and kids (they will stay in our prayers)
- Safety for those back home in Texas (especially my family!!!)
- Good news from Emily's mom (that was a good phone call for Emily to get)
- Spiritual growth in all of us (may God not stop this process now that we're back)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Day 11: The Longest Day
On Monday we drove the only paved road in Denali National Park. We then made the long drive back to Anchorage where we had dinner and made it to the airport around 10pm. Our flight was at 1245 AM and we were back in Austin at about 145 PM.
Moose!
There are some caribou out there... you're going to have to trust me on that one. They were difficult to see even with the binoculars.
We get to see a bear, finally!
Emily eyes the bear from a safe distance:
Houston, Alaska
We passed Mt Ranier as we left Seattle:
I know I speak for everyone when I say that we had an amazing trip. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. Thanks to our Alaskan friends for your hospitality and help. We are really impressed with the amazing work that you are doing.
We should have more posts and pictures in the next few weeks!
Moose!
There are some caribou out there... you're going to have to trust me on that one. They were difficult to see even with the binoculars.
We get to see a bear, finally!
Emily eyes the bear from a safe distance:
Houston, Alaska
We passed Mt Ranier as we left Seattle:
I know I speak for everyone when I say that we had an amazing trip. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. Thanks to our Alaskan friends for your hospitality and help. We are really impressed with the amazing work that you are doing.
We should have more posts and pictures in the next few weeks!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Day 10: the summit
Yesterday (Sunday) morning we drove from Fairbanks to Denali National Park. We arrived at noon and spent the rest of the day at the park and at the small town outside the park.
Today we will spend a little more time at the park before we head back to Anchorage. Our flight home is just after midnight and we should be back in Austin tomorrow afternoon!
2400 foot climb to get up there!
Today we will spend a little more time at the park before we head back to Anchorage. Our flight home is just after midnight and we should be back in Austin tomorrow afternoon!
2400 foot climb to get up there!
Liz's log
We finally finished the playground yesterday and I have to say it's an amazing feeling! The people in the area involved with the project were amazing! It's unbelievable how much the people were willing to chip in. Terry, from Mt Drum Lutheran, got a day permit to cut down trees for mulch and he lent us his tools. Another man from the church, Dana, came by every day when he could and lent us his wood chipper and other tools as well. I can not believe how kind they were to us and how welcoming. I was told that they usually prefer high school groups to come up here because college kids are lazy and high schoolers work harder in their past experience. Well, we proved them wrong. They expected us to maybe finish half of what they asked and we managed to finish everything they wanted: the fence, the swing set, the boat area made of tires, signs for decoration, and many random tasks inside the day care where we helped. We were welcomed into their homes and went on the most beautiful hikes. All in all, I could not have asked for a better experience or a better group of people to help.
It wasn't only helping the people but it was the people that I came with that helped make this experience amazing. While we like to give him a hard time (especially me) Pastor Jim has been amazing to all of us here. He was great at leading on the site and helped us prepare some ridiculously amazing dinners. He had us each tell our story, one a night every night, and then pray over that person for their path so far and their path to come. It was an amazing experience. Just learning about each person here and then getting the chance to pray for them and also having people pray for me and my future. It's something that people just don't do very often and it was a different and yet great experience. There have been some amazing conversations and just an overall amazing time with an amazing group of people. I would honestly love to go on another trip with this group again sometime.
Now that we are finally done and we have some down time we drove to Fairbanks and Denali and are staying at the Princess Lodge there. Having a lot of down time the past two days has been fantastic, just hanging out together and hiking up another mountain. Even though this hike might have caused a few knee issues it was completely worth going through the pain to see the awesome view at the top of the mountain. Each time we hiked a mountain it was always so great to see the view. With a view like that its easy to believe that there is a Creater and someone made all that happen. It was breathtaking and I honestly wish that I could just stay here for the summer. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to come on this trip and have this experience here helping people and enjoying the beauty.
Editors note: Just like Jewelle, Liz wrote her blog post many hours ago... and I'm just now getting around to picking out pictures and posting it.
It wasn't only helping the people but it was the people that I came with that helped make this experience amazing. While we like to give him a hard time (especially me) Pastor Jim has been amazing to all of us here. He was great at leading on the site and helped us prepare some ridiculously amazing dinners. He had us each tell our story, one a night every night, and then pray over that person for their path so far and their path to come. It was an amazing experience. Just learning about each person here and then getting the chance to pray for them and also having people pray for me and my future. It's something that people just don't do very often and it was a different and yet great experience. There have been some amazing conversations and just an overall amazing time with an amazing group of people. I would honestly love to go on another trip with this group again sometime.
Now that we are finally done and we have some down time we drove to Fairbanks and Denali and are staying at the Princess Lodge there. Having a lot of down time the past two days has been fantastic, just hanging out together and hiking up another mountain. Even though this hike might have caused a few knee issues it was completely worth going through the pain to see the awesome view at the top of the mountain. Each time we hiked a mountain it was always so great to see the view. With a view like that its easy to believe that there is a Creater and someone made all that happen. It was breathtaking and I honestly wish that I could just stay here for the summer. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to come on this trip and have this experience here helping people and enjoying the beauty.
Editors note: Just like Jewelle, Liz wrote her blog post many hours ago... and I'm just now getting around to picking out pictures and posting it.
Jewelle's Journey
Psalm 18:1-2
"I love you O LORD my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortess and my deliever, my God is my rock in whom I take refuge."
Psalm 18:1 was the theme verse for this past week at the Mt.Drum Child Development center. I was encouraged while cementing poles for a fence to listen to the children outside, chanting this verse, " I love you O LORD my strength." Like these kids, I made this verse my theme verse for the week. During my time in Alaska, I needed to draw strength from God, whether it was for carrying a 50lb bag of cement or just being able to wake up with less sleep than I would like day after day. I rejoice in the LORD for his beautiful creation. Today we were in Denali national park where the mountains seem to sings hymns of praise. I am grateful for the time I have to spend with my friends in service and in fellowship. I especially rely on God because we have left but I know that the problems and hurt of the people in Copper Center and Glennallen do not end. I can trust that God continues to care for all the children of Alaska and will use our service even after we have left the state.
editors note: Jewelle wrote this hours ago and I'm just now getting around to posting it... I'm a night owl. I picked out these pictures for her.
"I love you O LORD my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortess and my deliever, my God is my rock in whom I take refuge."
Psalm 18:1 was the theme verse for this past week at the Mt.Drum Child Development center. I was encouraged while cementing poles for a fence to listen to the children outside, chanting this verse, " I love you O LORD my strength." Like these kids, I made this verse my theme verse for the week. During my time in Alaska, I needed to draw strength from God, whether it was for carrying a 50lb bag of cement or just being able to wake up with less sleep than I would like day after day. I rejoice in the LORD for his beautiful creation. Today we were in Denali national park where the mountains seem to sings hymns of praise. I am grateful for the time I have to spend with my friends in service and in fellowship. I especially rely on God because we have left but I know that the problems and hurt of the people in Copper Center and Glennallen do not end. I can trust that God continues to care for all the children of Alaska and will use our service even after we have left the state.
editors note: Jewelle wrote this hours ago and I'm just now getting around to posting it... I'm a night owl. I picked out these pictures for her.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Day 9: On the road again
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Rebecca's Ramblings
I know I promised a bunch of ya'll I'd post for a few days now, so here goes!
As a kid I spent every summer traveling around the States with my family. My favorite parts of those trips were meeting different people and imagining how I would grow up if I was from the same community they were. Since I switched my major from Biology to Human Development and Family Sciences (with only three semesters of college left), I've become especially interested in social policy and in the environmental effects of personality development.
Coming to Alaska has been an extreme learning experience. Growing up, I never really thought about Alaska (or Hawaii) as part of the US, but now that I'm here, it seems more to me like the core of rural America like anywhere else. So far we've met nothing but amazing people. The pastor here is absolutely great, and his wife is not only super involved in the church and its ministries, she also runs their music program, runs the Child Development Center as a volunteer and homeschools their four adopted children. Superwoman? I think so. When we got here were were told that a guy named Dana would be helping us out by overseeing our project, and he came every day after he got off of work. The church president also came to check up on us one day and ended up doing a lot of materials runs, got us a permit to cut down trees on the side of the highway to make mulch, left two trailers at the site so we could store materials, and hosted us twice at his house.
We also have had two of the high school youth come help us with construction. Alaska only gained its statehood in 1959, so very few people were actually born here, making it an extremely interesting mix. You're basically either a native, a retiree, or were relocated for a government or energy-based job. We've been told by a lot of the people here that the local economy depends tremendously on the government jobs, and that they are also the only ones that pay enough to get by. In addition, many of the service-based workers are spread thin. Little Man, who is the maintenence/cleaning guy here at Mt. Drum, is also the head of the volunteer fire department (which covers an immense area up here in a region where fires are common in the summer) as well as a former head of the local Boys and Girls Club. Laura, one of the church members, is the only social worker in the Copper Basin area.
She also cooked twice this week, once for youth group and again for the recovery group that meets here on Friday nights, which she also leads. Addiction is a huge problem here. You may have heard about the problems with alcoholism and drug abuse in Native American populations. They're especially prevalent here, and its interesting to ponder the causes of the problems. I'm not an expert so I'm not going to point any fingers, but I think it's important to point out some of the current problems held by the native population. Our government not only took away then destroyed their land, but we also decided that we could somehow give them something back to right their wrongs. Their solution? Reservations where each family gets a room the size of an efficiency. Some of us got the chance to see one of them, and it was basically a single room with a kitchenette and an attached bathroom. For a family of five. I've been to few different reservations in a few different states so I know that this isn't the case everywhere, but it upsets me more here in Alaska, especially when you consider that 15.6% of Alaska's population is either American Indian or Alaskan Native. Compare this with the fact that only 11.5% of Texans are African American, and it becomes apparent that the problems of the natives are the problems of the rest of Alaska.
As a kid I spent every summer traveling around the States with my family. My favorite parts of those trips were meeting different people and imagining how I would grow up if I was from the same community they were. Since I switched my major from Biology to Human Development and Family Sciences (with only three semesters of college left), I've become especially interested in social policy and in the environmental effects of personality development.
Coming to Alaska has been an extreme learning experience. Growing up, I never really thought about Alaska (or Hawaii) as part of the US, but now that I'm here, it seems more to me like the core of rural America like anywhere else. So far we've met nothing but amazing people. The pastor here is absolutely great, and his wife is not only super involved in the church and its ministries, she also runs their music program, runs the Child Development Center as a volunteer and homeschools their four adopted children. Superwoman? I think so. When we got here were were told that a guy named Dana would be helping us out by overseeing our project, and he came every day after he got off of work. The church president also came to check up on us one day and ended up doing a lot of materials runs, got us a permit to cut down trees on the side of the highway to make mulch, left two trailers at the site so we could store materials, and hosted us twice at his house.
We also have had two of the high school youth come help us with construction. Alaska only gained its statehood in 1959, so very few people were actually born here, making it an extremely interesting mix. You're basically either a native, a retiree, or were relocated for a government or energy-based job. We've been told by a lot of the people here that the local economy depends tremendously on the government jobs, and that they are also the only ones that pay enough to get by. In addition, many of the service-based workers are spread thin. Little Man, who is the maintenence/cleaning guy here at Mt. Drum, is also the head of the volunteer fire department (which covers an immense area up here in a region where fires are common in the summer) as well as a former head of the local Boys and Girls Club. Laura, one of the church members, is the only social worker in the Copper Basin area.
She also cooked twice this week, once for youth group and again for the recovery group that meets here on Friday nights, which she also leads. Addiction is a huge problem here. You may have heard about the problems with alcoholism and drug abuse in Native American populations. They're especially prevalent here, and its interesting to ponder the causes of the problems. I'm not an expert so I'm not going to point any fingers, but I think it's important to point out some of the current problems held by the native population. Our government not only took away then destroyed their land, but we also decided that we could somehow give them something back to right their wrongs. Their solution? Reservations where each family gets a room the size of an efficiency. Some of us got the chance to see one of them, and it was basically a single room with a kitchenette and an attached bathroom. For a family of five. I've been to few different reservations in a few different states so I know that this isn't the case everywhere, but it upsets me more here in Alaska, especially when you consider that 15.6% of Alaska's population is either American Indian or Alaskan Native. Compare this with the fact that only 11.5% of Texans are African American, and it becomes apparent that the problems of the natives are the problems of the rest of Alaska.
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