Busiest Week of our Lives

Sorry for not writing...we have been moving from about six a.m. until after midnight everyday for the last week. However, as busy as it has been, it has also been tremendous amounts of fun. The days are filled with laughter, fun, serving missionaries, and encouragement as we move from task to task.
Praise God! So many prayers have been answered and more are answered daily. The whole team is in good health!!! There have been no fights or angry outbursts among the team!!! And the team together as a whole is growing more and more unified. We have bonded and grown close in many ways. Also, Emmett and Candice made it back from camp and had a wonderful time.
Last Sunday we had an incredible opportunity to go to 3 different local churches. At one church our team lead the music. The teenage boys tagged along with a staff member at ABC to another church. The 3rd church however held the most blessing. The 3rd church was a local native church. It was also the church where Wynelle Edigers sister served 27 years ago. 27 years ago her sister was in a plane crash off the Alaskan coast and her body was never recovered. Meeting those people who knew her was such a blessing to Wynelle. This has been a very emotional trip for her.
The conference this week was a success. We worked so very hard to make all the little details fit together so that the missionaries could have a few relaxed days. VBS was alot of fun with all of the little missionary kids. It was completely different then in Kansas though.
These last few days we have been working at Alaska Bible College. We put together a rock wall (which was tons of fun), we laid sidewalks, cleaned vehicles, moved branches, packed dirt, and picked up rocks...lots of rocks.
Tomorrow we are going on an Alaskan cruise for one day with high hopes of seeing the whales. Monday we travel to Victory Bible Camp to work there for a day. Tuesday we travel back to Anchorage and fly home.
Just wanted to let you know a few cool things we have seen...we saw 4 moose, 2 bald eagles, and a 50 lb king salmon.
A fun thing we did this week was go see a salmon wheel. It was this really cool thing that caught salmon headed up river to spawn. We even caught fish out of the tub at the bottom with our bare hands, and of course we got to eat it.
Continue to pray for us for safe travel home as we wind down the week. See everybody on Wednesday. Love you all!

In Christ,
The Alaska Team

Made it to Glennallen :)

Praise the Lord!!! We made it to Glennallen this evening. The whole day was just amazing. All we saw along the highway was mountains and trees!!!! The scenery was breath-taking!

On our way to Glennallen we stopped at Victory Bible Camp. I don't believe that there are enough to accurately describe the beauty of the camp. The whole set up is different than anything any of us are used to as far as camps go. The two youngest members of our team are fortunate enough to be able to return there on Monday to be campers for a week at Frontier camp. Both chose to stay in cabins instead of teepees...hmmmmmm. While at Victory this afternoon we met up with the other team from our church for lunch. It was pretty neat to eat with them and see what they have been doing all week. After lunch we took a tour of the grounds.

VBC is about a mile and half total from one end to the other. It consists of five different camps...Rancher camp for horse lovers, Frontier camp for the middle schoolers, Alpine camp, Wilderness camp, and S.A.L.T. (a leadership training for high schoolers.) Also, at Victory is a very big lake. The teens as well, as Ken and Ivan took a swimming test in 50 degree water. Our bodies were numb and cold, but it was alot of fun. The braver members of the team tried out and Alaska Lake thing..."BLOBBING!" They jumped unto a blowup tube thing in the lake, and someone else jumped onto the other end and sent the first person flying into the water. It was pretty intense.

Overall, we had a fabulous day. Praise God! God is Awesome! All the Time! Continue prayer for strength and good health. God Bless!

Love, The Alaska Team

We Made It!!!!!!!! :)

Well, we made it to Alaska with minor difficulties. On Wednesday, we left Meade shortly after 1:00 p.m. We traveled to Denver and had a blast doing it. We spent the night in a hotel, where there was plenty of fun to be had in the pool, visiting to be done by the adults, and of course, a full nights rest.

God gave us a great wake-up call on Thursday morning. Everyone in the hotel awakened to the fire alarms going off at about 7 in the morning. So, eventually the building was slowly evacuated. Turned out to be nothing...:)

We arrived at the airport and managed to clear all 20 of us through security. Praise the Lord! Hahaha who was worried? We boarded the plane and flew to Seattle, then from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska.

Currently, we are in a hotel in Anchorage. Tomorrow morning we will begin traveling to Glen Allen. We are making a stop at Victory Bible Camp along the way.

The beauty of Alaska is breath-taking. There are mountains right outside my window. You can see God's hand in creation everywhere you look. It is definately a change from our wonderful Kansas plains, I mean, they have snow here in the mountains. It is incredible...We serve an awesome God and Creator :)

Some prayer requests are for strength as we are all weary from travel as well as the three hour time change. Another is for health. A few members of the team are fighting colds and other health issues. Pray for the people we are going to meet and encourage. Pray that lives will be touched. Pray that our team will grow closer to God together as well as closer to each other.

Thank you all for praying! We are having an amazing time and it will only get better :) We love everyone and we thank everybody for the prayers, encouragement, and support!
Love,
The Send North Alaska Team 2010

7 Days Till Take-off

We are the Alaska Send North Team from the Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Meade, KS. We are flying out of Denver on July 29, 2010. While in Alaska we will be serving SEND missionaries from Alaska and Northern Canada for a week while they are having a conference. We will be cooking for them, putting on VBS for the missionary kids, and leading them in praise and worship. We will also be doing a work project for a few days at Alaska Bible College (ABC). In addition we will be traveling to Victory Bible Camp to do a work project and some sight seeing.

A little more information about us. We are a team of 20 people. Pastor Ken Harder is the team leader. Many ages are represented on this team. Our youngest is in grade school, there are 11 teenagers, and the rest are parents or young adults. We are all very excited for this trip and we cannot wait to arrive in Alaska. Please pray for us all that we will have team unity, safety, and good health. God Bless!