Thursday, December 23, 2010

It is the end of another year. 2010 was anything but dull. We look forward to seeing what joys and challenges 2011 will bring our way. One thing is for certain, God will stretch us and grow us as we continue to follow Him and it will only be through His strength and guidance and your prayers that we will stay on our feet, standing strong.

There have been many happenings in the last few months that I have not had time to share with you, so here I am catching up and getting ready for the new year and adventures to come.

Mark's flight time has increased since being released from the position of flight scheduler. He has enjoyed being back out in the villages on a regular basis. The kids and I have also had opportunities to join him on some trips.

As of January 1st, Mark will be wearing a new hat at MARC. He will take on the role of Chief Pilot. Pray that the Lord will give him wisdom and discernment in his new position of leadership.

Now let's take a step back to this past summer. MARC participated in the Fouth of July parade this year. Members of the staff did an excellent job making an airplane float. The propeller even turned.

Alaina and Katelyn got to ride in the plane.

Neakita and Jeremiah passed out airplane candies.

Mark was photographer and Michele was at home, sick.


Also in July, Papa and Grandma Jane visited. As you can see the kids devour every moment they get with them.

We enjoyed as much fishing as we could get in.


But no visit from Papa is complete without laps around the go-cart track.



We were very pleased with the harvest of our garden this year. We will enjoy potatoes, snow peas, pickled red beets, and cabbage through the winter. It was not a good year for greenhouse produce, however I did can about 16 pints of pickled green tomatoes -yum yum.

Neakita celebrated her 13th birthday with a bunch of her friends.
The party started with an appetizer of chocolate covered strawberries.
In leu of presents, each friend was asked to plan to share a talent for a show. There was illusions, singing, instruments played, martial arts demonstration, and art displays. Neakita has very talented friends.


For Jeremiah's birthday, he and Mark went on a one-night camping trip. They canoed across a lake . . .


and set up their camp.

They fished . . .

and hunted spruce hen.

Jeremiah was a happy 12 year old.


In September Mark and a summer intern, now a new staff member in the process of raising their support, ferried a Missionary Aviation Training Academy (MATA) plane that was on loan to Kako Retreat Center for the summer back to it's home in Arlington, WA. The flight through Canada was incredible, a memory that will last a lifetime.

Mark with new staff member, Kyle, arrived at MATA with new stories to tell.

While in WA, Mark got to spend the night with his brother and family. Mark walked the older neices and nephew to the school bus in the morning . . .


. . . and got to snuggle and play with the younger niece and nephew before leaving to get his flight home. What a joy it was for him to have a bit of time with them. I was at home green with envy.



In October we had two litters of bunnies born. We sold seven of the eleven which provided cash for about five months of feed. It was fun to watch them grow and snuggle the little babies. What did we do with the other four? Well, the orange one we are keeping for breeding and the other three will be dinner. We look forward to more babies in the spring and through the summer months.

Here is a video of the orchestra that Neakita is in, playing "Windjammer" by Carl Strommen
Neakita is sitting on the left, first row, beside the concert master (the lady that walks in and leads the group in tuning their instruments).
In November, Mark and I took another CEF team to Dillingham. (This was a follow-up trip to the one we went on in August, for details see our last newsletter further down on the blog) This time our focus was on training local teens to do the Good News Kids Clubs in their own school and church. It was a great time. Alaina got to go with us this time.


The training sessons were led by a CEF Alaska Intern.


Our teens were used in the training to work with the local teens individually. Here Neakita is teaching a girl to us the wordless book.
The team also held several Kids Clubs, continuing the lessons about the life of Christ, picking up where we left off in August.

Every once in a while a ministry trip has a "perk" attached to it. Mark had one of those in November when he flew a group from a church in Anchorage down to Old Harbor, Kodiak where they would help the missionary family get some things done before winter really set in. One of the things on the list was harvesting deer for the missionary family and the elders in the village. The group spent two days hunting bringing in 10 deer to process and put in the freezers. Praise God for His provision. Mark got to bring a bit of it home for us to sample. It was incredible!

Mark shot a nice BIG doe. The work is not over until it is packaged and in the freezer.



Mark and I headed up the AWANA Raingutter Regatta again this year. It was a great success thanks to the many others that helped us pull it off.
Katelyn did a great job and had a lot of fun with her boat.

AWANA crazy hair night is a favorite of our kids. Here is Jeremiah with his best buddy.

In December, Mark took a group from Arctic Barnabas Ministries to Golovin for a three day visit with the new Covenant pastor and his family. I was able to go on this trip as well. I was especially excited about the time I got to spend with the pastor's wife as Mark and I have been friends with them for the past six or so years. We spent much time talking, catching up, building stronger relationships, and laughing. It was a time of encouragment and strengthening for all of us.

And to top it off, the guys got a linen closet installed in their bathroom.




This year we cut an authentic Alaskan tree for our Christmas tree.

The moose stood by to watch us in our endeavor.


Our task was accomplished and we were on our way home.
We think it is the best tree ever.

Merry Christmas to you all. And as the new year begins keep your eyes on Jesus and watch to see how He will stretch and grow you.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Our latest newsletter! Double click on it to enlarge it to read.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Summer Highlights

YeeHaw! I am finally finding time to give to this blog. Oh, what a summer it has been and it is by no means over yet. I have been drowning in life and only now getting opportunities to come up for itty bitty breaths. Please pray me through the rest of the summer. Since it has been so long since communicating with you I will only give you a glimpse of the highlights of our summer. Mark has been doing quite a bit of flying this summer. Unfortunately there are no pictures because he does not know where his camera is.

In April, our three girls participated in their annual year end music recital. Alaina began the program with a piano solo. Katelyn was adorable playing her violin with another little girl her age. Neakita participated through the entire program with the exception of the cello solo and the duet played by her instructor and a fellow orchestra member on the viola. This year Neakita's orchestra group performed and also played along with the student soloists. The program was exceptionally well done.


In May, Mark was extremely busy giving flight instruction to a friend from one of the villages in addition to his regular responsibilities. Much after-hour time was put into the instruction. It was a joy for the kids and I to get to know his student during that time.

Can't you teach it better than that, Mark? It looks like he has become a bit confused by it all. Hee Hee!

Is he giving you a headache, Mark? Haa Haa!
We had a lot of fun during those weeks!


June began busy and ended crazy busy for us.

Neakita went to Christian Youth in Action, Child Evangelism Fellowship's training camp. The first week of camp they learned how to communicate the gospel to children.


During the second week of camp they practiced what they learned by doing kid's clubs at local homes.

I was able to host a club at our home.
We had a lot of kids attend the club at our house that they split the age groups up and had two clubs going at the same time. The older kids are in a group on the left side of the picture and the younger kids are in a group on the other side of the driveway. It was so cool to host two clubs at the same time.

We raised meat chickens this year. We got them as day old chicks, raised them up and . . .

. . . butchered them. It is great to have stored away chicken for the winter. Yes, the kids helped us with the butchering too! They are a great help in all the work we do to fill the freezer, whether it is chicken, fish, or moose.

All four kids have been playing outdoor soccer with the Boys and Girls Club this year. Here is Katelyn in one of her moments of playing her best. She has decided, however, that soccer is not her sport. Neakita on the other hand LOVES to play soccer and has really progressed in the skill of the game. Her team worked their way to the championship game. They earned second place! What a thrill the game was!

Alaina and Jeremiah played on the same team this year. It was a fun team that worked very hard together. All the kids have exceptional coaches. It is a sacrifice for anyone to commit to coaching a team.


We celebrated Alaina's big double digit birthday - #10. It was loads of fun with all her friends! We had a sleepover and the girls stayed up until 2 AM.

We had the most fun set net fishing this year! We camped on the beach for two nights. Mark set up a great camp for us. Although it rained most of the time, we were warm and comfortable. We get most of our year's supply of fish this way. The rest we get by dip netting and rod and reel fishing.



The end of June brought a visit from Mark's mom, step-dad, and brother. What a wonderful time we had with them here. We were on the go pretty much constantly, but we made time during the last two days to rest before they headed back home.

Zac was ministry flight crew member for a day. He helped take a group of bible camp counselors out to KAKO on the Yukon River.
During Grandma and Papa's visit, Neakita was a part of a big orchestra concert here in town. Her orchestra group had the priviledge of being the opening performance for the world famous Young Peoples Symphony Orchestra out of Berkeley, CA. It was an exciting evening.

July has continued to be overwelmingly busy, so I will have to wait until the next time I can squeeze in blog time. Please be patient and know that when there is not an entry for a long time it is because I am far too busy with life and ministry to get time on the computer which means I need your prayers all that much more.