This week we were wet, tired and overwhelmed at moments. Had a bunch of mishap moments too. I could focus on those aspects to an extent that I would miss out on the grand moments of the week. For as many tears as we had there were more smiles. We had kids genuinely want to spend time with us this week. We interacted with around 70 kids/youth throughout the week. We handed out over 50 Bibles!
If you're new to the blog we teach Vacation Bible School, VBS, in remote Alaskan villages only accessible by plane or boat. We started off this week not knowing if we had housing.
On Monday we headed into Manokotak packed for one day of VBS. We were left in the rain as our pilot had to go fly kids to Bible camp. There we were, waiting for our ride (which was there pretty quickly.) It was at this point we jokingly said, "Come to Alaska they said." Little
did we know that this wouldn't be the last time we would be in the rain. We found out right away that the house was available for us to stay at! It was a huge answer to prayer and a blessing to be able to stay there.
VBS we had over 40 show up the first day. It was fun to see how many hugs we got and how many kids remembered my name along with Zach's and Katy's. They instantly loved Jennifer too! We ended up flying back to Naknek that night to finish up packing for the rest of the week. Landing in Naknek that night close to 8 gave us time to eat supper and finish packing for the next day before we flew out again. Oh yeah and I think we slept too!
Tuesday we were a little delayed with normal life things. You know those days where the time goes quicker than items get crossed off your to do list. We ended up taking two planes. In the small planes we are limited to how much weight we can pack. Do you know how much it is you pack for 5 days, 4 nights? Do you know how much a sleeping bag weighs? How about how much weight your food tote is? Puppet stage? Craft tote? Every week we have to weigh those items before we take off. The longer the distance to fly to the less weight we are allowed to have. Needless to say we didn't make the cut this week for weight limit and took two planes.
We had more kids Tuesday and even started late. Kids love to enjoy outside as much as they can up here and with it still being dusk at midnight it has it so they sleep in. It was a learning curve for us to have as many kids as the prior week we only had 7 a day. We tried to learn everyone's name throughout the week but I don't think we were ever successful in that endeavor. After VBS we had 5 kids over to the house. They enjoyed getting to play a game where we hide a cup and then they get to seek it. Who ever found it got to hide it next.
Wednesday, okay most days for VBS this week just seemed like a blur. When you're responsible for that many children its hard to remember anything else but that they all got a snack, the gospel and were safe. Our event at VBS was that there was a miscommunication of where one kid was going after VBS. We had to make a separate trip to drop him off at his house. He got to where he needed to be to the best of our knowledge. I believe this was also the day that Jennifer had to get off the van to shoe a dog off the road so Zach could continue to drive the kids to VBS.
That night we had teen night. Teen night is the highlight for most of the kids/youth. We go pick them up and then hike to a certain spot on the mountain. It's grown over the years to the point that in 2019 we had 19 youth to now it is 30. Once we got to the top of the spot of the mountain it started to rain. Praise the Lord no one got hurt as they were scurrying down the mountain. We had all of them come into the house. Lots of people on the floor and lots of shoes in the entrance. While playing the game heads or tails the quarter accidentally got flipped into a teammates pants. There was a time of sharing God's word with the youth and we drove them home.
As I was sitting there surrounded by all the youth there was a blessedness. I had known a handful or more before they were old enough to come to teen night. Seeing them still interested in God was wonderful. It was also wonderful to see the youth for the first time knowing that it is a growing movement as well. I'm truly blessed to have been able to see these kids grow up throughout the years. It makes my heart swell to think of the goodness of God for allowing me to see that.
Thursday came and we still had lots of kids! Around 53 at some point of VBS. We told the
kids that we would walk to the river with them meaning they were too young to go to teen night the prior evening. If you haven't guessed what the weather was like when we walked down I'll let you know I was thankful for my rain coat. It was raining yet again. We ended up having 7 kids show up. They came back to the house where we made them some soup and asked them what the song was about. (Sidenote we didn't ask them what the song was about I was just really tired when I wrote this! I found it too funny not to leave in the blog.) The kids played the game where the cup was hidden again.
On our last day of VBS we had lots of emotion as it
was our last day. Katy also had to shoe a dog away so the van wouldn't run it over. It was also the day that we gave the kids/youth Bibles. During the VBS Zach left with some students to go meet our pilot, Josh. While Zach was away leaving us girls with 30 students by ourselves we tried to do craft and lesson.
There was this great time of doing the limbo. Who ever created limbo was a genius. A stick and some music can entertain 30 kids for 30 minutes. All you have to do is stand there and hold a stick. Anywho we were blessed to have Lacey, a local missionary, be able to pack the Bibles and label the boxes for us. It made it such a breeze. We passed out 54 Bibles that day. Bibles that have pictures in it for the younger ones. Bibles for the youth. We're praying that they are being read. That souls are being changed through the word of God for the better.
Giving those Bibles out was a vision that became a reality. 2 years ago we gave Bibles to kids in Ekwok and then I thought how great would it be to do that for all the villages we go to! So we started the steps in order to make that happen. Here's some thank you's for the people. We had Lacey put the Bibles on the registry and pack them. We had Josh who flew them in. We had Jeremy who helps maintains the planes. We had Zach drive the Bibles. We had the Church that let us use their van to be able to drive to go get them and the gas that it costs too. We had people and churches buy Bibles for us to be able to give them out. We've had people support FLAPS so we could have planes up here. A group from MATA comes up to help make sure the planes are ready for summer ministry too. We have people who have prayed for us as a team and have prayed for these kiddos. Due to many people serving and being obedient to the Lord we were able to give 54 bibles out which is something I don't take for granted. Thank you for your investment to make an eternal difference in the lives of these children. I wish I could describe the depth of which it meant to me.
On Saturday as we were driving around with Josh in Naknek and King Salmon we got a flat tire. It was a good thing we learned how to deal with setbacks like pros! While Josh and Zach changed the tire Katy, Jennifer, and myself had a dance party! When life gives you time to dance you dance! Josh and Zach were gracious enough to not leave us girls after the tire was changed too. We didn't embarrass them too much!
Looking back: Continued prayers for the kids who received Christ week 1. Prayers for the Bibles to be read in Manokotak and for kids to go to the Bible Camp.
Looking forward: Prayers for the next week in Kokhanok. Safety in flying. Prayers that we'll be able to have energy throughout the week sleeping on the church floor and hauling our own water! Health as a team. For the souls of the kids that we will interact with this week. Additionally Jeremy is traveling down for annual conference. If you're going I highly recommend the FLAPS breakfast! (not paid by FLAPS to promote them.) Lacey and Malachi will be traveling into Anchorage for a doctor's appointment and of course food shopping.
Thanks for reading this week's adventure of what I call a normal summer.
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