Time to Finish Strong!

Another week is coming to a close. This week, we have been in Petersburg, which is definitely the prettiest place we have been. We have been doing VBS at FBC Petersburg all week, and it went quite well. I got to teach 5 & 6 graders, Turner did her thing with the Crafts, Jake taught the younger kids, and Aaron did Recreation. Turner and I stayed with a young couple, Jim and Louise, and their two kids, Henry and Wyatt. We were pretty excited to get to stay with some young folks...not that staying with older people is bad...it's just nice to have some variety. So back to VBS...it was great. We only had about 12 kids total all week, but it's not always about the numbers! We started at 9 in the morning and did the whole schedule like we usually do. Me and my host mom did Bible Study together and I got the distinguished role of dressing up as Simon Peter the whole week and telling the Bible story. By the end of the week, I had a nice Crayola Marker Beard going on. I think I can now say I have done almost everything there is to do in ministry. Anyway, my favorite day of most weeks is Wednesday, because it's the day we get to share the plan of salvation. So this past Wednesday, (minus the Peter getup, because I wanted to actually be taken seriously), I got to do just that. One of the guys was really curious and asked tons of questions after I had told them the story of Jesus. That in itself was pretty exciting to me. I also found out that he didn't really go to church, so it really seemed like this was the first time he had heard much at all about Jesus. After Bible study I pulled Aaron aside and asked him to talk to this guy, because I felt like he would have rather talked to another male. So Aaron got to talk to him for a while after VBS was over that day, and lo and behold, the boy asked Jesus into his life! That was so exciting! It is always a priviledge to get to see someone come to know Jesus as their Savior. I am so excited that God has given us that priviledge several times this summer. Another one of my favorite moments of the week was on Saturday with the pastor and his wife. They are both around 78, but you wouldn't know it by the way they act. The pastor went out to recreation everyday and played harder than the kids. Anyway, they fed us lunch everyday, and after we ate Saturday, the pastor wanted us to have a prayer time. He told us that we could pray however we wanted to...if we wanted to all pray out loud at the same time, we could, if we wanted to pray several times we could...whatever God led us to do. He asked us all about specific things that we wanted to be prayed for and we all gave him our special requests. We then got to praying, and it was one of the most God-filled times of prayer that I've ever been in. We just prayed what was on our hearts and praised God.

A really awesome thing that we got to do this week was go out on a boat tour to a glacier. The people that Jake and Aaron were staying with run the buisiness and usually charge $300 for one of these tours. They were nice enough to do it for us for free! So we went out on this boat and glided through bright blue icebergs that were 3 times as big as the boat. We actually had to go through a lot of the really small ones and other little chunks of ice. We got really close to the glacier too. It was absolutely the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. I hate that I can't describe it better, but here are a few pictures.

So Saturday night, well more like early Sunday morning, we got on our last ferry ride of the summer. We headed back to Juneau and got back at 8pm tonight (Sunday). We are doing VBS this week at Glacier Valley Baptist Church. We are all 4 staying together at a woman's house, well more like MANSION! This house is awesome. I feel like I am cheating by getting to stay here. Turner and I have a king size bed, our own bathroom with a jacuzzi style bathtub, and a shower so massive I could practically run laps in it. There's also a pool table and a fooseball table. It's ridiculous. We are very, very thankful for it.

We will be staying at this church for our last 2 weeks. We aren't sure what's going on the 2nd week though. It's so strange to think that this is almost over. It's very bittersweet. I miss so much from home, but I'm going to miss Alaska and my teammates so much when I'm gone. It doesn't even seem like it has been that long. All I know is that God has richly blessed our time here and has turned our meager service into much, much more. I know that what has happened this summer is so much bigger than me, and that God has worked so many miracles. I feel honored that he let me be a part of this.

I thank you for the prayers that I know are still going up. Please continue to pray for:
-VBS at Glacier Valley Baptist Church
-Energy, endurance, patience
-Finishing strong!
-That all of my fellow missionaries will finish their missions strong and will have safe travels back home.
-VBS at my home church this week.

He Continues to Amaze

I'm just going to cut to the chase...God is amazing. I'm in Sitka this week and boy, has God blessed this VBS. We have been doing Bible School at night this week. Our schedule has been inflatables for a while, family dinner, Worship Rally with all the VBS songs, crafts, Bible Study, and Recreation. About those inflatables...they are amazing. I sure do hate putting them up and taking them down, but God uses those in awesome ways to draw kids in. The really extra super cool thing is that they draw kids in that don't go to church. I am always incredibly excited to have unchurched kids come. So the first night after inflatables, we had these 6 middle school boys. They sat against the wall waiting for dinner and asked me, "What religion is this?" I answered to them, "This is Christianity." Then one of the boys said, "Well I'm Catholic and so are 3 more of us. The other two are Muslims." Man, I got excited then! I told Jake about them and he went and sat with them during dinner and struck up a conversation about Jesus. He told them all about how you don't have to do anything to have a relationship with Jesus and to get to Heaven. You just have to believe and have faith. They were so interested in that. They were amazed that you don't have to work to be saved or do a bunch of stuff, like they had been taught by their religions. Jake and the rest of us were really pumped about that conversation. Unfortunately, they left after dinner. The same thing happened the next night. They came for the inflatables and dinner, then bolted. Well we had definitely been noticing this and we were praying that they would at least stay for part of the VBS. Well with God being awesome and everything, that happened last night. Much to our excitement, all 6 guys decided for some reason to stay for the Worship Rally last night. Now if you haven't heard these VBS songs, they are pretty great. I know I write about them a lot, but I have just seen God use those so much this summer. Most of them are straight up reciting scripture and one of them explains the ABCs of becoming a Christian. Well these 6 boys got into the Worship time, and I was scared they would think it was stupid. Little did I know that God had it all worked out. From the beginning of the first song to the last, these boys sang every single word and did every single motion. These Catholic and Muslim boys were singing about only worshipping the one true God and giving up their sin to follow Him. That was hands down my favorite moment of this trip. After the ABC song, I felt God leading me to say something, because I wasn't sure if these boys were going to stay for Bible Study. So God layed it on my heart to share the plan of salvation and to share about Jesus and why He came. I don't take credit for that. It was totally a God thing. I'm so glad He told me to do that because the boys did end up leaving after the Worship time. But that was ok! They got to hear about Jesus and how He could save them. I am totally amazed at how God worked that out. We may never know what happens to those boys, but I firmly believe a seed was planted. God can use that and do mighty things with it. As I said in my last post, words cannot fully express how much God has blessed things and how He has intricately worked out the details of everything to go just the right way. God keeps showing me how big, how able, how strong, how loving, and how incredible He is. I am so glad that He is allowing me to be a part of the plans that He has. If all I get to do for Him is to sing a few kids' songs everyday about Jesus, then I am more than okay with that. God can use anything. I think that is pretty much the story of my summer. He can use the smallest, most ridiculous, most seemingly insignificant things to bring people to Him and to make Himself known. I am so priviledged and honored to be able to serve a God like that.

I hope that whoever you are that is reading this realizes that you can be used by God too. You don't have to travel thousands of miles to do it, you can do it right where you are. Like I said, God can use anyone and anything, no matter how big or how small. All you have to do is have your heart right with Him and be willing. This summer, me, Aaron, Turner, and Jake have had the big title of "Missionary" tacked on to us. I've realized that a lot of people really respect that term and put a lot of store in it. In some places we have practically been rockstars because we are the "missionaries." I'm not going to lie and say that hasn't been great, because it has been. It has made me think though. That term "missionary" shouldn't just be reserved for people who are doing what we are doing. If you are a Christian, you are called to live as a missionary. That can be right where you are, in another country, across the street from you...anywhere. That might not entail you giving up your job or quitting school to travel and do Vacation Bible Schools all the time, but it does entail making Jesus known. Just remember, God can use the smallest of things, just like He used those VBS songs with us. Just take the time to listen to God and to what He wants you to do. That will look different to each person. I'm not saying everybody is called to evangelize and be career missionaries. Like I said, you can do this right where you are, doing whatever you do everyday. Just listen to Him. He'll talk you through it.

I want to thank you all for the continued prayers. They help! Please continue to be in prayer for:
-Our last night of VBS tomorrow
-The continued ministry of FBC Sitka
-The 6 boys that came and their salvation, as well as their family's salvation
-Safe travels on the ferry this Saturday to Petersburg
-VBS in FBC Petersburg
-Strong finishes by all of my fellow summer missionaries in their mission fields

Love and Peace,
Lyndsey

God Is Good. Enough Said.

It seems that it has been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that. Internet service has been sparse over the past week. This past week we went to Orton Ranch Christian Camp, which is put on by FBC Ketchikan. That means that we got to work with a lot of people and kids that we had already met a few weeks ago. That was really cool, because we had already established relationships and connections with some of the kids, so we didn't have to spend as much time doing that. So before we went to camp, I was not excited at all about going. We were told that we weren't going to be able to go, so I think the big problem for me was that I didn't have enough time to mentally prepare for camp. I had several people specifically praying for me that God would change my attitude towards that. And so He did. We eventually got to camp after a two hour boat ride and a nice little hour hike in. Throughout the whole traveling process I got to talk to the kids and was immediately dubbed "Lyndsey Lohan." So the way the whole camp worked was that we got up, gathered around a flag pole and did a little lesson about US history and did the pledge and sang the National Anthem. Then we did breakfast, a Bible Study from VBS material, free time, lunch, another Bible Study, more free time, dinner, Worship Time with VBS songs, a sermon, Missions Time, even more free time, then off to the bunk houses. As you can see, we were pretty dang busy. For the Bible study time, all four of us missionaries took one a piece. I got to do the plan of salvation using the ABC's. I'm always excited to get to do that. The free time that we had in the afternoons included swimming and tubing down this river that we were right beside. Yes, they swim in Alaska. And it was every bit as cold as you would expect a river in Alaska to be. Despite that, they loved it! I braved the frigid water myself.
So at night, me and Turner stayed in the bunk house with 12 girls...no other adults or anything. They were all between ages 7-12. The were a few behavior problems, but nothing too major. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with the girls. One of my favorite parts of the day was right before we all went to sleep. Some of the girls asked to do a Bible Study (which I thought was an awesome request from 10 year olds), so I obliged. The first night I read them Romans 8:35, which talks about how we can't be separated from God's love, no matter what. The next night I decided to switch it up a little bit and tell them a story. So with half of the girls huddled up on my bunk with me and the other half on Turner's bunk, I told them the story of Queen Esther. The last night, I told them about Balaam and the talking donkey. I thought it was really cool how the girls hung on to every word of the stories. I really think they got something out of them too. So the last day we had at camp was probably one of my top 3 favorite days that I've had the entire trip. That morning, one of my girls decided to give her life to Jesus. That made this entire trip worth it for me. Later that day we got to hang out with the kids more and play in the river for a long time. I feel like the fellowship with each other that day was really special. A cool thing that happened during that time was that this little 7 year old girl named Christian that hadn't talked practically the entire time started opening up to Turner. I had tried to get through to her earlier in the week, but for whatever reason, she didn't want to talk to me. The first night we were there, we were told that her parents are going through a divorce and things are pretty bad in her home right now. Having known that, we were really eager to love on her. So her opening up and having fun with Turner was a pretty big blessing and a pretty big answered prayer. It also showed me how God has formed this team so well. All four of us on the team each have our own different gifts. It's pretty awesome how God has a person that seems to excel in a certain ministry area everywhere we go. I think that is pretty exciting. So back to the last day of camp. Before our sermon that night, we did a worship time with all of the VBS songs and motions. If you have read any of my past posts from my first week here, you'll know that in the past I have realy hated VBS songs. That night, I made up my mind that I will never knock those songs ever again. That night, with those songs, we truely worshipped God. I'm not sure if I have every seen kids that young really worship God, but they sure did that night. God's presence was thick in that place. Just to hear those 19 kids singing those songs to God at the top of their lungs was one most heavenly things I've ever experienced. After that, we had our sermon from our camp pastor for the week, and at the end, he called us four missionaries up to the front. He told the kids to come up to any of us if they wanted and we would pray for them. So they time came, and almost every kid came up and was prayed with. I got to pray with several of my girls. I can easily say that was one of the biggest God moments of this trip for me. There was something so special about getting to pray specifically for each one of those kids. By that time we had gotten to know each kid fairly well and knew what to pray for with each of them. At the end of the night, as we were about to go to bed, the pastor told us that the kids had something they wanted to do before bed. They had made each of us our own poster that they had all signed that said, "Thank you so much for teaching us God's Word." The pastor also told us that doing that was all their idea. That was definitely a humbling experience. We got to see just how much influence we had on them. It reminded me big time of the responsibilty that God has given me this summer. I felt kind of small and very blessed that God can use little ol' me from Tar Heel, North Carolina to teach kids about Him and show them His love. Every couple of days I get that feeling...that I can't believe God is using me to do this. I keep thinking about how this time last year I had no idea I would be in Alaska this summer. It is still pretty unreal to me. This experience is so much bigger than me and it reminds me of how I can't do any of this by myself. I'm pretty in awe of God right now. I can't fully describe to you how amazing He is and how He has worked everything out so perfectly. I think about all of the people we have come in contact with already...and we still have 4 weeks to go. We were all talking the other day about how we will have come in contact with literally hundreds of people by the end of the summer. Who knows how God has used those encounters. Who knows how many seeds have been planted. It is so amazing how God has worked all of this out.

So at the current time, I am sitting in a Waffle bar in Juneau waiting to get on a ferry to Sitka. It's about a 10 hour ride I think. Sitka is supposed to be gorgeous...everyone we have talked to said it is the most beautiful place in all of Southeast. We are pretty sure that we are doing Bible School. I'm excited about that.

So I want to thank everybody for their prayers. I appreciate them so much and I know for a fact that they have made a difference. Please continue to pray for:

-The people of FBC Sitka
-Opportunities to share Jesus outside of VBS
-Energy
-Boldness
-Team unity
-Health and Safety
-Opportunities for my fellow summer missionaries all over the world

Grace and Peace
Lyns

We are now in a little town called Coffman Cove, home of around 200 people. It's a very isolated place. It took a 3 hour ferry ride then a two hour drive through the middle of nowhere to get here. I've never seen any place like this. There is a "gas station", which is a little shed with an old time-y gas pump. There's one store called the Riggin Shack, pictured here. Me and Turner are staying in the church and the guys are staying with the Pastor and his wife. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is no cell service out here. That's a little bit of a bummer, but I'm living. We have wireless internet, so I can't complain too much. This week got off to a rocky start when all 4 of us got sick with a stomach bug that was ridiculously unpleasant, but it has definitely taken a turn for the better. Our job this week is right up our alley. The past two weeks we have been sort of taking a back seat and doing random things that needed to be done. While that's been nice and all, we get to do a lot of hands on stuff here. We start our mornings at the school gym doing a few hours of inflatables with any kids that want to come. We thought that about 4 or 5 kids would come, seeing that it's such a small population. Boy, were we wrong, and glad of it! We've had about 20 kids each day. Now I know we shouldn't get too caught up in numbers, but I'm pretty excited because that's 1/10 of the population of the town. Not too shabby. After a few hours running around like crazy in the gym, we take the kids over to the church and give them a snack and do a Bible Study. I've actually been in charge of snack this week. As in, I have been baking brownies and making Kool-Aid for these kids. That's usually not the role I take. For whatever reason, I got offered that role, so I've done it. I've enjoyed it. Anyway, all four of us have taken a day to do a Bible study with the kids. Yesterday Aaron took the kids through what Jesus did for us on the cross and his resurrection. Today Turner took them through the ABCs of becoming a Christian. Tomorrow Jake is taking them through what it means to live like Jesus wants us to, and Friday I'm doing why it is important to tell others about Jesus. It's a very broad span of topics, but we wanted to hit on all of the important stuff with them while we can. Since this is a community wide thing and not just a church thing, there are plenty of non-churched kids. We are aware of that and want to make the most of this opportunity we have with them.

Today I had a pretty cool opportunity. The school that we are doing the inflatables at only has one teacher, and he opens up for us. He's a Mormon. He brings all 5 of his kids to play and his wife comes too. Sadly, he won't let his kids come with us when we do Bible study because they only want what they teach to be heard. They are super nice people though. I had been praying yesterday and this morning that God would somehow give us an opportunity to talk to one of them and God opened up the chance for me to talk to his wife pretty extensively today about her beliefs. She was incredibly open and super nice about all of my questions. I got to ask her all about what she thinks salvation is, how she thinks it is attained, how the Mormon church works, the importance and origin of the Book of Mormon, what Jesus means to the Mormon faith, and tons of other questions. I got to share with her what I believe and how it differs from what she believes. We ended up talking well over an hour. The conversation was really good, but quite frustrating by the time I was done. I don't mean that in the sense that we were arguing about beliefs or anything, but instead that there are tons of similarities between Christianity and Mormonism, so I'm pretty sure she thinks they are basically the same. They are definitely not, because there are some major key differences, the biggest being that they believe works are necessary to obtain salvation. There are some other things she talked about that I'm unsure of, so tonight I'm planning on doing some studying and digging to find out what the deal is. They have a big belief in some priesthood stuff. Not sure what all that is about quite yet. Hopefully I can figure some of it out and have another chance to talk to her. Please pray that I get that opportunity and that her heart will be open to God's Way.

As for what we do around here at night, we are hanging out with youth. There are 4 that show up, and we do a Bible Study/Discussion with them and play a game or watch a movie. We figured we would take a different approach with them as far as Bible Study is concerned. We found out that they are all Christians, so we are each taking a night and teaching them and discussing how to live out the Christian life. Last night Jake taught on 1 Timothy 4:12-13 and the importance of using our spiritual gifts to make a difference for Jesus. We also got into a really great discussion about worship and the different ways people do it.

On a side note, we have a sweet ride for the week! Here's a picture:
I've been really excited to get to drive this week.





Prayer Requests:
-As of now, we have nothing to do next week. We were supposed to go out to a kid's camp, but we aren't able to because of some ferry scheduling. Please pray that God will open up an opportunity for us for next week.
-More opportunities to talk to the Mormon family, and that they will let their kids come to our Bible Study
-Energy
-Team Unity and Good attitudes (We've seen each other everyday for 4 weeks...but we still love each other!)
-Good health
-Opportunites for my fellow summer missionaries

Thanks for all the prayers!

Ministry Sometimes Means Inflating Slides

So today marks the end of our week at FBC Ketchikan. It has been an incredibly productive week. Just to give you a run down, we have painted a Sunday School room, the church sanctuary, cleaned out and organized the church office and multiple storage rooms, baked 20 dozen cookies for camp, knocked out a wall, and put on 2 Block Parties complete with 2 18 ft. inflatables that we set up and took down (at 300 lbs each). The purpose of these block parties was to draw in kids so that we could tell them about a youth camp and children's camp that will be going on in the next two weeks. The church here actually owns a camp called Orton Ranch, which we will help lead the week after next. The Block party yesterday went really well. There were tons of kids and we handed out all of the pamphlets for camp and had several sign up on the spot. So that was exciting. We were actually supposed to go out to this camp yesterday to take groceries for the youth camp that they are having next week, but we weren't able to for various reasons. By the way, it's a couple hour drive out to the camp, then a 2 mile hike in...and a difficult hike at that. I must say, God knew what he was doing, because I definitely didn't have the energy to make that trek to camp. Doing the Block party the day before was quite physically draining. So we got to chill all yesterday morning and sleep a little bit before doing our 2nd Block Party. Let me tell you, yesterday was a true Alaskan day! It was cold, rainy, and windy...but we still managed to do the party. It was a good time.

Today we are moving out to Coffman Cove. It's on Prince of Wales Island, which is the 4th largest island in the U.S. This town only has about 200 people. There is one small grocery store and a gas station. Sounds like Tar Heel! That will definitely be an interesting experience. We also hear that there isn't any cell phone service and I don't have high hopes for much Internet. But I will live! We aren't completely sure what we will be doing yet. The schedule says Youth ministry. That could mean anything.

So this week has been pretty great. As I've said in my previous post, we have learned the meaning of flexibility in missions this week. I'm actually glad we got to do all the work that we did. I liked the feeling of productivity and we really helped the church out a lot. One of the things I've learned this week is that doing God's work may not necessarily always mean coming in direct contact with lost people. This sounds a little crazy a first, I know. Let me explain. This week, we have been helping out a church by doing some manual labor. Well I honestly believe it helped make a difference. By us getting all of that stuff done, we are allowing other members of the church to go out and share Jesus because they are not having to spend time inside of the church doing what we did. This all goes back to 1 Corinthians 12 when it talks about us having many parts of the body, but we are all part of the body, nonetheless. I think us being behind the scenes this week has shown us yet another part of ministry. A lot of times we don't have appreciation for the people that do the more menial tasks, but they are necessary. Now this isn't to say that we are always supposed to be behind the scenes. I firmly believe God will ask us to do bold things in order to reach people for Him. My point is, the behind the scenes stuff and the out front center stage stuff is all necessary and important. This week we got to experience the behind the scenes stuff, which I'm grateful for. I think it's really cool how we thought we would just be teaching VBS, but God has given us different and unique assignments each week. I feel like we are getting a very well rounded missions experience. I'm very grateful that God is showing me all these different aspects of ministry. I never thought I'd learn so much on a trip where I was supposed to be the teacher!

Prayer Requests:
-Safe trip to Coffman Cove
-Ministry at Coffman Cove Baptist Church
-ENERGY!
-Team Unity
-Ministry opportunities for all of my fellow summer missionaries

Flexibility Includes Painting and Cookies

So this week has gotten off to a great start! We are now in Ketchikan at the First Baptist Church. As you probably know, it took a 36 hour ferry ride to get here. It was actually really great. I didn't expect to like it at all. We camped out on the top deck of the ferry in lawn chairs and sleeping bags. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Most of the time we were weaving in an out of these little narrow bays that were enclosed by snow capped mountains. We even got to see some whales! So we got off of the ferry at 6am...not so fun...and got to our host home, then went to church services. The highlight of my day was finding out that they have a drumset...and to make things even better, they don't have a drummer, so I got to play with the band during Worship. With no practice, by the way. It was awesome! I hadn't played drums in about a month and a half. Talk about withdrawels! A big surprise came when we found out that VBS here got canceled. This was were the "flexibility" part of the summer came in the we have been hearing about so much. We found out instead that we would be helping the church out with some different stuff and hosting a Block Party geared towards kids, and complete with bounce houses. On Monday, we went to the local high school with the pastor (who is also the Culinary Arts teacher at the school) and baked about 20 dozen cookies for a youth camp they are doing next week. That was fun stuff. Last night we went to an older couple's house for dinner. And boy, it was a real Alaskan meal! We had grilled silver salmon and homemade frenchfries. A-MAZING! Then we played this amazing game with dominoes called Mexican Train. It was a blast. The man had us playing a million rounds. He was quite the competitor. By the way, I won. Them being an older couple, I didn't expect it to be such a good time, but they were awesome. It might sound superficial, but the people in this church are a lot of fun! Today we painted the sanctuary of the church and catalogued the Director of Missions library. It's been a pretty good day. Tonight we had prayer meeting. It was great. We song some worship songs and just straight up prayed for 30 minutes. It was good stuff. To back track a little bit, a woman from the church took us out to eat Chinese food for lunch, then the pastor's oldest son took us out for Mexican food for dinner. So exciting. I love me some Mexican food! It was really nice to fellowship with some people from the church. They really have a heart for lost people and they are definitely a praying church. They are also very welcoming and want to do everything they can for us. So for the rest of the week, we are doing some odd jobs around the church...filing a lot of papers, maybe some more painting, pulling up blueberry bushes...and then there is the Block Party on Thursday. Hopefully it will be great.

So something that God has been showing me over the past 3 weeks is that there are so many people that have gone through so much stuff in their lives, but they are still faithful and close to God. I've had many conversations with people from several different churches while I've been in Alaska, and so many of them have so much pain and hurt in their lives. In many cases, these people are some of the most predominant leaders in the church. I've talked to people about their painful divorces, difficult loses in their family, and many other things. It's amazing to see that despite all of the bad that they have gone through, they still choose to follow Jesus. A lot of people tend to blame God for the bad things that happen in their life, or stray away from Him to find quick fixes, but there are so many people that depend so heavily on God instead. That just amazes me. I have a hard time not letting things get in the way of me and God, and I haven't had any huge tragedies in my life. But these people that I talk to have had some of the worst things imaginable happen to them, and they are rock solid in their faith. I definitely look up to these people a lot. This summer is definitely as much a learning experience as it is a mission experience. I feel like God has taught me a lot already, and he still has 7 weeks to teach me a lot more. My friend, Maria, wrote a blog talking about "seeing and being" Jesus...meaning that we should try to see Jesus in other people in order to know how to be Jesus to others. I feel like that's what has been happening with me. I have been surrounded by some of the most Godly people I have ever met, and I have learned so much from them about how to shine the light of Jesus. I suppose that this week, even though we aren't doing a whole lot of hands on evangelism, I think God still has some cool stuff in store for the week. I'm sure He has a lot to teach me this week too.

Prayer Requests:
-Block Party on Thursday
-Energy (We are doing 7 AM mornings again)
-Opportunities to share Jesus

I'm On A Boat!...For 36 Hours.

So this week is winding down. We are going to be leaving Emmanuel Baptist Church and heading to FBC Ketchikan, in Ketchikan today. Did I mention that Ketchikan is a 36- HOUR ferry ride? Crazy! We get to camp out on the deck with our sleeping bags. It's going to be an experience, for sure. From what we hear, we should be able to see some cool stuff along the way. I'm really hoping for some whale sightings. Anyway, I'm pretty excited about going to a new town. I love it here in Juneau, but I'm ready to check out a new place. I originally thought this whole trip was going to be based completely in Ketchikan, so I did a ton of research on the area before I found out I was going to be traveling all over Southeast. It seems like a pretty cool place.

So yesterday, I got to do one of the coolest things I've ever done. A lady in the church, who's extra apartment me and Turner are also staying in, invited us out to her lodge. This place is out in the middle of nowhere and it is GORGEOUS. There's massive mountains with huge amounts of snow on them that sit on the shore of the ocean. The boys went out with the lady's husband and they took a little bass boat up to a river and
they were jumping huge beaver dams and logs. Us girls had a more tame experience, though awesome, nonetheless. The lady, who's name is Naomi, took us out on her jet ski to this island that has huge sea lions on it. I'm not talking 3 or 4 of them. I'm talking like 40 sea lions all beached up on this cliff. The ride to the island was about 15 minutes and it was the most gorgeous scenery I have ever laid eyes on. I was speechless riding through everything. I kept thinking that God did a phenomenal job when He made everything I saw yesterday. I have some pictures...but they still don't do it justice.

We've continued to do VBS this week. It's been good. We've had about 15 kids total all week. I've had all girls except for one boy. They are all so sweet. Love them. I have a very well behaved group. That has definitely been nice. They're also very inquisitive. They love to ask some questions! We went through the 10 commandments this week and of course, we got asked what adultry is. Try explaining that to 5-7 year olds. Ha. They have been asking a lot of good questions though. What is sin? What is repentance? What is worship? It's cool that their minds are wondering all this.

So today, we got to do something pretty exciting. The people that took care of us so much last week, Breehia and JK, had a little baby boy a few days ago, and we got to go see him. His name is Tell Carver Mitchell. Fun name, huh? Very Alaskan-y. They called us up this morning and invited us to come see them. It was great to get to visit with Breehia. She's really awesome. It was just really great to see some people from last week. We were pretty stoked that they thought enough of us to call us over. Speaking of people from last week, they are still being so awesome to us, even though we're not at their church anymore. JK got us all these amazing rainboots to borrow while we're in Southeast AK. We're definitely going to need them. Also, another lady, Stacie, from last week as been a huge encouragement to me this week. If you read the last post, you'll know that this week has not been easy. Well Stacie has been sending me notes of encouragement on Facebook. They definitely meant a lot. Two other women from last week, MeLissa and Susil, have also been big encouragements to me this week too. I just can't say enough good things about the people at FBC Juneau. That's not to say that the people this week weren't great to us too. They definitely have been.

Thanks to everybody that has been praying for me and my team! I appreciate it a ton.

Prayer Requests:
-A safe ferry ride to Ketchikan
-VBS at FBC Ketchikan
-Good attitudes
-Energy and focus
-Good relationships with FBC Ketchikan
-That God will give us opportunities outside of VBS to minister to people.
-My mom-She found out this week that she has fluid on her heart.