Spring is coming!

The snow is melting fast dispite the new snow that has fallen at night this week. My chickens have found some patches of dirt in their run and are happy ladies. The flower seeds I started a couple weeks ago have sprouted. I look forward to planting the next batch of seeds this weekend and in the weeks to come in preparation of filling our greenhouse. I can just taste the homegrown tomatoes now. Mmmmm, Mmmm! Mark is looking foward to the homemade pickles. I haven't been able to grow and can pickles since we lived in Tennessee.

On Monday, Mark flew the family he took to Anchorage, back to Old Harbor. Their picture is in the previous entry. Here is a note they emailed Mark once they got home. It is very encouraging to us to receive a note like this.

Mark,

Thanks so much for bringing us safely home on Monday. We so appreciate your ministry! Traveling with you was peaceful, and as hassle-free as travel in AK can be. Josiah really enjoyed his co- pilot ride too. :) Really fun memory seeing him up there with shades and charts. God bless,

Today, Mark and Don flew a ministry team from a Christian school in Anchorage to Nulato. The team will spend their days volunteering as teacher's assistents in the public school. During the evenings they will have evangelistic programs in the school gym for the village children and teens.


This is a picture of the village of Nulato. The runway is in the upper right hand corner. Nulato is located on the Yukon River.

Please pray for God's blessing upon the minsitry of this team. Pray that the Lord will open the hearts of the youth to receive His gift of salvation.

Winter finally came during the month of March. Jeremiah ended up snowblowing four times within one week.

But when the snow brings work, it also brings opportunities to have a lot of fun.

What I like are all the birds the cold and snow bring to my kitchen window.

There are no more babies in our home, at least none that belong to us. Katelyn lost her first tooth and another is close to falling out as well.

Mark recently flew down to Old Harbor on the Island of Kodiak to pick up a ministry family and take them to their mission organization's annual staff conference. At this conference they have to opportunity to spend time with other families in their organization. It is one of the few times these families have a chance to be together to encourage eachother and build relationships as co-workers.

Welcome 2010

Our new year began with celebrating Katelyn's 6th birthday.
Katelyn had a marvelous afternoon partying with some of her friends.

January has actually been a quiet month for us. School keeps us busy and on the go. Responsibilities at the airport has kept Mark here at home base. However, the month is ending in a flurry of busyness as February moves in. We will need your prayers through the month ahead. There is much I am responsible for in the coming weeks outside of home and school (and home and school are all consuming). Pray I can focus on each day as it comes and what needs accomplished in that day only. The potential for being overwhelmed is great. I am seeing God work graciously towards me and it is clear to me that His hand is in all that needs to be done. My number 1 rule - Keep my eyes on Jesus. And my purpose - to glorify Him alone.

In November, Mark was flight following three of our pilots. Weather was not cooperating which can be a source of frustration when it is your job of get groups of people from one place to another for an event that they have been planning on and looking forward to for awhile. I was given permission from Sue to reiterate a portion of their most recent newsletter. It explains very well what went on .

"One weekend, back in November, three MARC pilots using two airplanes provided round trip flights for 81 teens and adults who attended a five day Alaska Moravian Youth Fellowship event in the village of Goodnews Bay. Because of some very difficult weather conditions at Goodnews Bay (frequent snow squalls moved through the area for much of the first two days) several of the flights were delayed and some even had to be cancelled. Our pilots worked hard to get the teens and adults into the village. Occasionally they would land at one of the surrounding villages and wait for the weather to temporarily lift before they would try to land there.

On one particular flight, our King Air flew to within six miles of Good news Bay before snow squalls moved back in over the airstrip. Because It was getting late in the day, the pilots chose to turn around and fly back 100 miles to the airport of origination and wait for better weather the next day. The main speaker, Pastor Clifford Jimmy, was on that flight and the pilots were frustrated with their inability to get him to the event. It wasn't until the following morning that the pilots learned WHY God had not allowed them to land at Goodnews Bay the day before. During the night, Pastor Clifford Jimmy developed heart complications and was Medevaced to Anchorage for medical care. Had he been in the remote village of Goodnews Bay, it is very possible that the medevac flight would not have been able to pick him up because of the poor weather conditions that persisted there.
We are thankful that God is Sovereign and that His plans and purposes are far superior to our own. We are also very thankful for the Lord's care for Pastor Clifford Jimmy and the safety He provide our pilots and their passengers. We have been told that Pastor Clifford Jimmy is home now. Please continue to pray that our staff would make wise decisions with regard to safety as we fly and as we carry on daily maintenance activities."

We don't always get a glimpse of God's purpose when flights do not go the way we plan them. But when we do see the reason why, it is an encouraging reminder that God is in control of ALL aspects of our lives - not us.
When we really think about that fact, it brings a flood of relief to know the truth of it, fore if we were in complete control, what a mess we would make of life.

It is in those times when God's purpose is not revealed to us that our faith and trust in God kicks in over-time. There is peace when we put our trust in God's Sovereignty. When the storm is raging all around, we can either kick and scream and shake our fist at God OR we can trust that He is in control and the out-come will be in our best interest, molding us into the person He desires us to be. He is then able to use us to benefit others.

December has been an interesting month as far as our weather goes. We had several days of ice fog. It was a beautiful display of a winter wonderland, but there was concern about trees breaking. Right before Christmas it warmed up and and we are now left with icy snow on the ground.

We had a strange sighting of a flock of flamingos in town. Here is a picture Jeremiah took of them gathered at McDonalds. Every few days they would show up in a different place.
We enjoyed our Christmas celebration. We were all healthy, which was a great blessing to us. We enjoyed advent using the Jesse Tree readings. One of the kids' Christmas gifts from us was a gingerbread house kit. They had a great time making it and eating it. I was quite impressed with the result.

I received a wonderful unexpected gift. Oh, boy, this gives me a chance to talk about my chickens! A church down the street had a four evening Bethlehem Revisited production. As we were walking into it, Mark told me that he heard that the lady with the chickens was looking for a new home for her chickens once the production was over. So when we saw her I asked her about it and sure enough she had more chickens than she desired to have and was looking for someone to take 9 of her Barred Plymouth Rocks. I eagerly volunteered to take them and she brought them to our house on Christmas Eve. Oh, how exciting it was. They are beautiful birds that lay us large light brown eggs.

Well, since I am already talking about the chickens, I just have to include a picture of some of our grown up babies. They were beautifully roosted on the pallets in the run today in our 25 degree weather.
From left to right we have Margarete (a Deleware), Arrowhead (Black Copper Maran/Ameraucana mix rooster), Rhodie (Rhode Island Red), and Peachie (Black Copper Maran/Ameraucana mix)

We enjoy our fresh eggs immensely. Here is a picture displaying the array of colors of eggs we get from our ladies.

We have enjoyed our Christmas break from school. I am afraid it will be difficult to get back into the swing of school again on Monday. Please pray over this matter with us. It has been a challenging year for Neakita and the challenge continues to loom overhead. Please pray Jeremiah will be motavated by the shear thrill of accomplishment in his work. And pray that I can keep up with Alaina and Katelyn. Pray that in the midst of it all, I find ways to make it fun for the kids.

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.