October came and went without snow. The extended fall season gave everyone extra time to prepare for winter. It was a huge blessing for us, as we had not quite accomplished the outside projects we needed to before snow. It was a Sunday in Novemeber when the last project was completed and it was that night that we got our first snow of the season. The ground is now covered with only about four inches, but it is here to stay.

Early October took Mark to Barrow, Alaska, a first time experience for him. The purpose was to transport people to a funeral in Barrow.

While Mark is away, gallavanting all over the state, the kids and I remain at home with our noses to the school grindstone. The last three months were challenging for me as I had been dealing with a health issue. The kids were great during that time. They kept right on going with their schoolwork needing minimal attention from me. I am doing much better now and once again feel like we are on track with our work.

Simulating rock crystals with gumdrops and toothpicks. Who says school can't be fun!

Neakita observing the composition of an igneous rock.

The kids are participating in Pizza Hut's "Book It" program. As their teacher, I set extra-curricular reading goals for them to accomplish and they each earn a personal pan pizza at the end of each month.

Mid-October found Mark in Manakotak transporting people from surrounding villages to a Moravian Church Spiritual Feast. It was standing room only for the services that lasted late into the night.

While there Mark had the extra special opportuntiy to observe walrus being butchered (I left out the really bloody pictures.) Walrus is still an important part of the Eskimo diet.

The kids had a blast participating in this years AWANA Grand Prix Races. Here, Jeremiah is meticulously working on his car.

There were a total of 23 entries.

The kid's cars were fast. If there had been 4th, 5th, and 6th place trophies, they would have won them.

Neakita won 1st place for design.

Honestly, I was amazed at the results of Neakita's car. When she said she wanted hers to look like a violin, I didn't think it would be possible. Since this was her last Grand Prix race, winning a trophy made it an extra special memory.

Alaina's car didn't quite turn out to look like she had imagined it to, but she was content with what it was. Her attitude made Mark and I very proud of her. She had lots of fun racing it.

Jeremiah's car looked great - a real racer.

After the Grand Prix races, we were ourselves racing against time to get Neakita to the auditorium where her orchestra group was performing with the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra. Being Halloween Day, the orchestra members all dressed up for the occation.

In November, Mark took a Child Evangelism Fellowship family team to Nulato to evangelize through Kid's Clubs. This family has been going to Nulato twice a year for the last eight years. The consistency has made an impact. Two girls from the village were themselves trained at this years CEF training camp where they learned to teach children about Jesus with CEF materials. The hope is to some day soon see the teens in Nulato conducting their own CEF clubs, teaching, and evangelizing the children in their own village and then reaching out to surrounding villages. But to see the goal accomplished takes dedication and perserverance now.

Nulato's teen center is were Mark and the CEF team eat, sleep, and minister while they are there.

While there, Mark had the opportunity to help the missionary in that village to take care of his sled dog team. Here are a few of his dogs. Oh, Mark was able to take with him on the flight out there, a new lead dog for the team.

When most of us feed our dogs, we just get a scoop of food out of a bag and dump it in a bowl. In the villages, when people feed their dog teams, first they have to build a fire. Then, a big pot of salmon (heads and all) is cooked over the fire. Sometimes rice is added.

Then the salmon "soup" is ladled into the dog's bowls. Now imagine doing all that in sub-zero temps.

With winter's arrival, I pick up one of my favorite hobbies, fur-skin sewing. I am on my third pair of baby slippers. I've gifted one pair to the newest MARC family member and the other two will wait to see what babies will come along in the months ahead.

My big project for this year was a hat and matching mittens. What fun I have had the last month working on these things.

We had the special treat this week of having a pastor from Togiak and his wife spend a night with us. They had attended a local conference and stayed with us the night before going back home. It was a time of sweet fellowship and encouragement. The village ministry families never cease to amaze me. To describe their work to minister and live as "hard" is an understatement. Please keep the village ministry families in your prayers. Pray for endurance, good health, financial provision, wisdom, clarity in communicating God's Word, and blessings to shower them. Pray that the staff of MARC are a source of help, encouragement, and trusted friendship to confide in to these families.

Yesterday was a bitter-sweet day for me. After a wonderful, uplifting, convicting, challenging, self-searching worship service and message at church, we got to have the children of a fellow staff family go home with us while their mom and dad headed to the hospital for the birth of their third child. Our car was full, and I voiced that with our 2 year old and 1 year old afternoon wards we might get a taste of what it would be like to have six children. Well, I think we would have to have the children in our care a bit longer than an afternoon to truly experience what it would be like, for they were cared for and doted on by our children all afternoon that I barely had the opportunity to play an active role in caring for them. We also had friends and their children visiting with us for the afternoon, so it was really a relaxing afternoon for us even with nine children in the house.

The bitter part of my day was finding out that one of my best friends miscarried that morning. It is heartbreaking to see the loss and hurt experienced by those you love. Please pray for them, for comfort and peace, physcial recovery, and understanding for their 3 children ages 6, 4, and 2.

It was around 6:30 when we found out that our little guests have a new baby brother. We quickly packed them up and anxiously headed for the hospital, bursting with excitement to see him.

On our way, we saw MARC's King Air approaching to land from their day's flight, so we detoured to the airport to help the pilots take care of their passengers and the plane. In the picture below Mark is putting the plane away in the hanger. It is always an encouragment to the pilots to have someone at the airport to assist them after a long day of flying.

As we left the airport I got this great shot of one of MARC's navajos with the sunset in the background. The sunset was an incredible display of God's glory.
Finally arriving at the hopsital, we got to revel in the most breathtaking display of God's glory -- one made in His own image. Elisha James was born at 6:02 weighing 6 lb. 15 oz. Mom looked great. Big sister was tickled pink over her new brother. Big brother will come to realize the new addition to the family in the days to come. Please pray for the Boettchers as they adjust. Pray for quick recovery. Grandparents will be arriving in a couple weeks (Elisha decided to make his appearance two weeks early), pray for safe travel for them.

May all glory and honor be unto God in and through our lives each moment.

October is here and we are almost ready for winter. Frost is outside in the mornings and we are running our woodstove continuously. Thank you Lord for a warm home. The garden is harvested and the chickens are cleaninig it out for us. There is still firewood to gather and cut, and other almost finished outside projects that need to be finished.

Jeremiah brought home his first meat a couple weeks ago. He and Mark spent a Saturday morning spruce hen hunting. Jeremiah got this one right as they were about to leave to head home. A good chunk of their hunting time was taken up by helping an 82 year old man who was out moose hunting to get back into his car. In the excitement of spotting a moose he jumped out of his car which locked with the keys still in the ignition. The poor man didn't get the moose and drove home with a damaged hatch window which was how they got into the locked car. Mark "just-so-happened" to have a hacksaw in the truck. Don't you just love how God has us prepared to be useful to others in times of need: just the right tool on hand, scripture to share that we just read or memorized, or a life experience in our past that is similar to what someone else is going through.

MARC's winter flying season has begun. By "winter flying" I mean that our pilots fly groups out and stay with them, working alongside them, and then bring them back in. "Summer flying" on the other hand is a lot of one day trips with a schedule too busy to be able to stay with those we fly. Mark will be flying at least two weekends in October. Please keep him and our other pilots in your prayers for safety, wisdom and discernment, and God's glory.

This week MARC flew Arctic Barnabas Ministries staff to Port Alsworth for their annual Ministry Family Retreat. Port Alsworth is located on beautiful Lake Clark. This picture is a veiw from the beach in front of the church.

It is an incredible location for Alaskan ministry families to escape to for a time of physical and spiritual refreshment. Last Saturday, Alaina and I put together bathroom travel kits for the ABM staff to have available to those attending the retreat who may have forgotten such necessary items. It was a lot of fun sorting and packing the kits. All the items used to create these kits had been dontated to MARC over the last year from various sources.

Please continue to pray for the kids and I as we homeschool. It has been going very well so far this year, but has also been especially challenging for Neakita, now in 6th grade. Pray for clarity and understanding of the materials for Neakita. And pray that I am able to communicate information clearly. Pray they always have a passion for learning.

September is bringing much change. The trees are turning yellow, the fireweed is turning red, it is getting cooler at night, we have started a new year of school with some new curriculum which the kids are enjoying very much, but the biggest change of all for us and all of the staff at MARC is we have a new director.

The Baker family comes to us from Afghanistan were they were serving with Missionary Aviation Fellowship . We are very excited to have them working with us. Pray for them and all of the staff during this transition.

We have a new addition to our family. This is Payton Ann Marie, born to Andy (Mark's brother) and Mary, Thursday, September 3rd. She joins brothers Andrew and Tristin and sisters Alyssa and Ashley. They live in Washington State.

With the coming of winter is the scurrying of preparations. Mark is doing his best to get the greenhouse built before the snow flies so it can be used come April. I can just imagine all those tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchinni, peppers, and flowers filling the greenhouse.

The whole family has been working hard to put up firewood. We have collected about 3 cords worth of logs so far. It was quite the work for me and the kids as we helped Mark load logs and rounds onto the trailer.

Alaina is a very hard worker and has put in much time to help get the rounds split and stacked.

Everyone pitches in, including our friends two year old little girl.

Jeremiah had a great birthday (Aug 22). He invited five friends to celebrate with him. We had a rocket for each of the boys and went to the local ball field to shoot them off. Jeremiah turned 11.

Our garden is growing great. We have been enjoying picking from it to include in our dinners.

Last week Jeremiah and Alaina got to go with Mark to ferry the Child Evangelism Fellowship's Cherokee 6 for it's Annual Inspection.

Okay, I just can't resist telling everyone about our chickens. But don't fear, my posts won't always include the chickens. I will do my best to not report so extensively about the chickens from here on out.

I just love having chickens. They are therapeutic for me. When I am stressed I just go sit on the coop step and all the stress goes away.

Our chicks have joined the hens in the coop. The transition went very smoothly to my relief. We have had some surprises as to what breeds the chicks are. We thought they were all Easter Eggers, but it was not so.

As previously suspected, one of our chicks is a cockerel. His name is Arrowhead (Jeremiah named him) he is an Easter Egger (a cross between an Americauna and a Black Copper Maran) He is a sweet boy. We plan to keep him.

Neakita's chick, Goldie, we are waiting on to see if it is a pullet or a cockerel. Leaning towards a pullet but not totally sure. It is an Americauna.

Jeremiah's chick turned out to be a cockerel as well, so we traded him in for this sweet lovable Rhode Island Red. She is by far the sweetest chicken we have. She will sit down right beside me and let me pet her. She is very easy to pick up and hold as well. Jeremiah has not decided on a name for her yet, but I call her Rhodie.

I asked the owner of the hatchery we got the chicks from to come over and see them and our set up. It was a big help to have her visit. She brought with her three pullets just in case we wanted to trade out the cockerels. Jeremiah instantly fell in love with this little lady and bought her with his own money. Her name is Belle. By far the prettiest chicken we have. She is an Americauna.

This is Katelyn's Easter Egger pullet, Peachy. She is also a cross between an Americauna and a Black Copper Maran. See the feathered feet. This indicates that she will lay olive green colored eggs
Alaina's little Bonny is also an Easter Egger, a cross between an Americauna and I don't know what (I should find that out). She is a cute little runt and the bravest little chick we have. She will sneak up behind the hens and steal food scraps. Belle will too, but the others stay clear away.


Last but not least is my girl. Her name is Margarete, the name of the lady thought to be the inspiration for the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I wanted to name her Snow White, but the kids argued that we already have a Snow White (our white zebra finch), so I had to figure something else out. Margarete is a Delaware.

On Monday, Mark and prospective staff pilot, Mike (their application is in), flew passengers for Alaska Christian College to Unalakleet. From there they took Vision Camp staff home to Elim and Covenant Youth of Alaska board members home to Anchorage. Besides a strong headwind, the flights went quite well.

Please continue to pray for safety for all MARC flights. There are weekly Wednesday and Saturday flights to Unalakleet, where Covenant Camp is getting a new chapel, and weekly flights to Eagle where Samaritan's Purse is building new homes to replace the ones lost in spring thaw flooding.

This week and next week, we are doing some review work for school before we begin the new school year the first week of September. I am impressed that the kids have not lost any ground over the summer break, but have exceeded my expectations of where they should be. Besides getting up earlier in the morning (which is just as hard for Mommy as it is for the kids), I think starting another school year will go quite smoothly. Even though I am confident about it all, I would still appreciate your prayers in this area. No matter how much confidence I might have, I still can not MAKE the kids learn, it has to be their own desire. I can present the materials and information and make them do the work, but that does not guarentee they are learning. So please pray they will have a heart's desire to learn.

Our chicks are growing fast. They will be ready to put in the coop in another four weeks. I never knew how soft chicken feathers were. We handle these little girls (I hope they are all girls anyway) at least twice a day.

Our coop is now occupied by 10 beautiful, sweet chickens. We aquired these ladies just last night from a few friends. We have four Australorps that will lay light brown eggs,

four Black Sex-Links that will lay brown eggs,

and two Leghorns that will lay white eggs. We'll have a nice assortment of egg colors. Especially when our Easter Eggers begin laying in January, with their blue, green, and pink eggs.

By lunch time, Jeremiah had collected two eggs. Not bad for the first morning in a new home.

Several years ago I had organized a monthly prayer luncheon for local women in full-time ministry. It's purpose: to create unity by means of building relationships with each other. It went strong for a year and then Katelyn was born and it did not continue on after that. Now, five years later, with the help of another ministry wife, I have hope that such monthly meetings may become reality once again. We had a delightful luncheon yesterday, where some ladies met for the first time and others got to know each other better. We discovered common interests in hobbies and who enjoys activities that another one can't stand.

We are all wired/gifted so differently and because of this, we can support each other and work effectively as a team. Praise God for diversity among His body of servants.

The ministry organizations represented were MARC, Samaritan's Purse, Arctic Barnabas Ministries, and SOAR International. Please pray that the Lord will use these times of fellowship to unify us and strengthen us as we work together to serve the people and ministries in Alaska and Russia.

On Monday, Jeremiah got to go on a day flight with Mark. Unfortunately no pictures were taken. They flew to Tuluksak, Manakotak, Dillingham, back to Tuluksak, and then home to Soldotna. The flight was to take people home from a Moravian Church of Alaska Singsporation. About a year ago we received an email telling us what a difference these Singsporations make in the lives of those that attend.

After coming home from the singspiration, parents and some community members have noticed a change in some of the youth. A grandmother said her granddaughter has been listening to gospel songs and her attitute has improved. Another parent mentioned that her daughter helped out around the house and she has noticed a change in her behavior.

There are youth that have given themselves to Christ in the past few days. On Friday, Eric called wanting Larry to talk to a student that was in his office. Apparently, he was scared of death and hell. So, over the phone, Larry led the student to Christ.

Atmautluak had their first youth service yesterday. The pastor told one of the coordinators that they should have more services like that. Then, I had a call from an elderly woman this morning that she had a dream about having a youth service outside. I guess she had thoroughly enjoyed the singing and the message last night.

After coming home from church, a teenager called saying she wanted to accept Jesus as her personal Savior. Her mom had talked to her and wanted Larry to share the plan of Salvation with her over the phone. God is so good.

It is thrilling to receive testimonies like this. What a priveledge it is to be a part of the work God is doing in Alaska.

Mark was taxiing out for a flight and the nose tire went flat. With wheel and tire changed out, he was once again ready to go. He arrived at Anchorage International to pick up more passengers, but now was stuck out in the middle of the taxiway with another flat tire! The one he had just changed! The airport had to close the taxiway. He sat there watching the 747's and other airliners taxi by and takeoff. Arrangements were made to move his passengers to the pick up area where they would stay while Mark waited for another MARC plane to arrive with another new wheel and tire. Thirty minutes later the "cavalry" arrived, the wheel and tire replaced, planes switched for there was no way Mark was going to take the chance of having another flat tire in the course of the day, passengers loaded, and he was off - a little late in the schedule, but on his way. The passengers were excited to finally be in the air. Mark took them to Council on the Niukluk River where they would go by boat down to Tom and BJ Gray's fish camp where Jonathan and Indira Maraj will hold evangelistic meetings. Jonathan and Indira spend two to three months a year here in Alaska filling empty village pulpits and conducting Bible Studies. Many lives are changed as they proclaim God's Word. Alaska is one of their many stops around the world. They spend the winter months in India, Malaysia, and Trinidad. It is our privilege at MARC to be a part of their ministry. Please keep this dear couple in your prayers. Pray the Lord will bless them with continued health, with strength and endurance to minister to the hearts and souls of the people, with the finances they need to continue in their ministry, with wisdom and discernment, and with overall protection.

Katelyn had the privilege of being a flower girl last Saturday. What a thrill it was for her. The wedding was a beautiful one that seemed to not have even one glitch occur. The bride was stunningly beautiful. The groom was just plain ecstatic that after waiting seven years for her, she would finally be his. The reception was delightful, a genuine celebration. I had a hard time keeping the tears in check. If I am this way about a dear friend that I had babysat at one time, I am going to be a mess at my own daughter's weddings. However, I was told I would be too numb from all the preparation and the event itself to become emotionally unstable. There may be hope for me yet.

Neakita had one of the best weekends of her life. Sunday was her 12th birthday for which she invited six friends to celebrate with a slumber party. We shipped Jeremiah off to a friend's house so he would not have to suffer with a house full of girls or was it so the girls would not have to suffer with his presence. Hahaha. The girls had a blast orchestrating a "dance contest", painting each other's nails, eating carmel corn and watching movies, making bead jewelry, working a puzzle, playing with the various critters we have, and just hanging out together. I was told the next morning that they didn't settle down and go to sleep until 4 am. They did a good job letting us sleep. On Tuesday, as a special birthday Daddy-Daughter date, Mark took Neakita to see a Lipizzaner Stallion Show. It is an event I don't think she will ever forget about.

My neighbor and I have been facilitating a rock class for our kids this summer. We are learning about Igneous Rocks using the Ring of Fire curriculum. The kids are having fun while they learn and I am learning stuff I never knew before -one of the side benefits of homeschooling. It is all very interesting.