It's crazy to think that we have been doing VBS for 4 weeks now. The weeks are going by fast no matter how much we would want them to slow down. Life continues on. We continue to make the most of the opportunity that the Lord provides for us. He is gracious to provide so many despite our failures and weaknesses.
For those who many have stumbled onto this blog thinking, "Oh, this looks interesting?" Welcome we are a summer team that teaches Vacation Bible School, VBS, in remote Alaskan villages only accessible by plane or boat. To those who have read previous ones welcome back old pal! Thanks for coming along on this journey with us whether near or far. We appreciate that we are far from alone in this ministry.
This last week we were in Igiugig. In honesty this is a hard blog to write. The children were wonderful, we had a wonderful place to stay, a fun place to do VBS, and team wise we are still doing great! You might be asking yourself then why is this a hard one to write? It's because Igiugig is the only village where I've attended the funeral of a 13 year old. It happened 16 months ago but it still seems strange that he isn't here. Going back the memories of when he was alive start to filter in. You never want to go to a funeral of prior VBS student. The kids still miss him there as they are a close village. The adults miss too! That is why this one is harder to write. I don't know to write without missing him at some point.
Someone asked me this week what I do for self care. I told him,"I cry!" I also said that I worship the Lord because in those moments of worship it is just you and the Lord. Nothing else matters. You are bearing all of your soul to the Lord in heartfelt music, dance, prayer, etc. I know that's what I did tonight along with eating some Mac n cheese, pickles, and ice-cream! The kids got to experience worship with Lord this week. We praised him indeed.
This week we had most of the school age kids in the village. I only knew of 3 that didn't come and 3 that were at Bible camp during the week. We had the rest! It's about 17 kids that we had throughout the week. We held VBS in the local Library which is the old teacher housing. It was so fun to have it an apartment and have multiple rooms. Added bonus the playground was right outside the door! Plus we had a working bathroom! It's the little things in life.
Do you ever look back on a week and it seems like all you remember are certain moments? You remember the bad ones of a kid getting a bloody nose, fingers getting stepped on, and someone falling off the jungle gym. All moments of pain that after a little comfort they bounced back to their normal selves. But yet there's always more to the week. There's the way God was working.
There's the way God is working in our hearts as a team. In ways he challenges us individually to rely on him more. Joyous is not how I would describe the process but it is how would describe the result. I know I can say that I love God more now than I did at the beginning of the summer. We are thankful for that.
I could stop there and just say that God has done work in our hearts as a team but in his goodness he doesn't stop there. He works in the lives of the kids too. As an extension of his goodness he even allows us to see that sometimes. Here's what the Lord allowed us to see this week.
The praise of the kids. These kids loved to sing and do the actions. On the last day of VBS we had 30 minutes of outside play time and one of the girls listened to the VBS the whole time while doing the actions. There were others that would join in on it too! One of the boys who seemed distracted during our opening and closing songs could sing right along when we were outside. I wonder if in these moments the children were praising the Lord that they didn't want to do anything else. The other side that while they were doing things like hanging upside on the jungle gym they wanted to praise the Lord. I think they understood the benefit of praising the Lord even after you've faced hardships at a young age makes the goodness of God even greater. How sweet to have a God where that is true!
The VBS curriculum is Kingdom Keepers put on by Answers in Genesis. In it we talk about the good kingdom and the bad kingdom. Along with that we talk about the armor of God. The kids every week have responded well this. I think in part because they have experienced the impact of the bad kingdom. Suicide rate is 3 times the national average in remote Alaskan villages, drug abuse, alcoholism, and it doesn't take long for the children to see or hear about bad in the world. We get to talk about the good kingdom. The one where Jesus reigns. You can see how the children long for the good kingdom and get excited for it. They also get excited for Bibles!
Throughout the week we talk about Jesus, righteousness, truth, sharing good news with others, the kingdoms, and prayer. On Thursday it is the helmet of Salvation. This is the point where it starts to sink in a little bit more for the kids. Katy presents the Gospel to them again and we offer a prayer for them if they want to pray it. During the lesson one of the kids was asking a whole of questions that were relevant. After the prayer he starts clapping and says, "Let's clap for God and Jesus!" So we did! Sometimes you just need to clap for God and Jesus.
We were able to give out Bibles again making it so we have given out 100 Bibles this summer now and over 100 Bibles throughout the last 2 years. We are thankful for all the Bibles we have been given so that we can give them out. I wish you could see the excitement on the kiddos faces and we get asked several times a days, "When do we get our Bibles?" They love them! We couldn't do it without your prayers either!
Mishap of the week. It seems like there's always one. I decided to do the 40/40 challenge. You walk a mile a day for 40 days and read through the book of Mark. As I was going for my walk on Saturday night at 9:30 at night in the rain I saw a bear. I prayed! The bear could care less about me and we both carried on.
Looking back: Prayers for the kids that received Christ this summer to continue in him. Prayers for the Bibles to be read. Prayers for Katy's ear as she can't hear out of one since her ear infection.
Looking forward: VBS in Naknek this week. A team from Hawaii is up and we are praising God they are willing to help with VBS and the Net. If the Lord wills it that he would use these weeks to start revival in the remote Alaskan villages. Kids that will be at camp this week.
P.S. We also found a letter that one of kids from 2 weeks ago snuck into Jennifer's bag. It was a really sweet note.
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