June/July 2010
Hello everybody!
It's been a busy few months, and I have a lot to tell you. First, though, for those of you who were feeling sorry for the anonymous Mike and Barb Allard of Brazil, Indiana, I'll have you know that Barb confessed to attempting to poison me shortly after the earthworm/motorcycle incident (something about Ex-Lax laced brownies), and then Mike threatened me with cyber-terrorism, and yes, he could do it too. As Barb once said, Mike's a computer geek. After all these years of supporting us and sending gifts to the Fort Yukon kids, their true colors are finally beginning to show. The whole thing is pretty despicable if you ask me.
On the lighter side, our first work crew of the summer is in Fairbanks preparing for their flight into Fort Yukon. As I am writing this, the group is helping Les Zerbe put his airplane back together so they can fly up here. He had to replace all six cylinders, and wasn't quite finished with the job when the crew from Calvary Baptist Church in Quincy, Illinois arrived. I'm sure their confidence in Les's plane is very high right now. It should be a memorable trip for them-- more about their visit in just a bit . . .
I hope all you fathers had a great Father's Day. Mine was pretty good, though it had kind of a rocky start. As you probably know, Heidi broadcasts live from the local radio station every Sunday morning for a couple of hours. She takes a lot of requests and dedications, and she decided to dedicate a song to me to honor my twenty-one years of being a father. She told her listeners that we have been married twenty-five years, blah, blah, blah, and then she played a song called, "God is Good" or something like that. The song was all about thanking the Lord for being with us through all of our trials. It talked about Job, Daniel in the lions' den, etc. She claims that it was an accident. Somehow all of her chortling and snickering leaves me in doubt.
Camp property news: the deed has been re-written, giving us a different twenty acres (well, some of the acres are the same ones). Anyway, the good news is that everyone is happy now, and we shouldn't have to worry about any more opposition to the deal. The downside, of course, is that we are basically starting the paperwork over again. We've been promised that it will go much more quickly this time. We'll see. That reminds me of something that could be important to some of you. Because of the lengthy delays, we had to dissolve the camp corporation (the IRS was getting impatient). If any of you that have made donations directly to the camp would like a tax receipt from the church, I will be glad to send you one. I don't know if it really makes any difference, but I'm thinking that it might save you a headache or two if you are audited. Since the property will be in the church's name, the donations were technically to the church anyway.
Three Weeks Later . . .
Wow! The Quincy group arrived, and I wasn't able to get back to this letter until now. I realize you weren't aware of the time lapse, but it happened all the same. We had a great couple of weeks with the crew except, of course, for the day when Devin lost the village golf ball-- more about that later. The foundation and floor of our new fellowship hall is complete, and we're looking forward to our next group that will be helping us cut logs.
The Lord did some great things for us the past few weeks. One thing in particular really stands out. The group and I boarded Gerald's barge the morning after their arrival at 7:00 and started the seventy-five mile trip up the Yukon river. We arrived in Circle around noon, and found the truck from Lowe's waiting for us with the lumber that I had ordered for the fellowship hall. They unloaded the truck, and as I looked at the pile of stuff I realized that something was missing: the floor joists-- twenty-one of them-- each one was to have been thirty-two feet long. I asked the guy who had sold me the supplies where the joists were, and he said, "Don't you remember? I told you we couldn't get the joists-- we don't carry them anymore." Now, my memory may not be what it used to be, but I know full well I would have remembered if he had told me that he couldn't get the joists. He did tell me that he couldn't get the laminated beams that I wanted in time for the group, but unless I had a serious mental lapse, he didn't mention the joists. Anyway, I was thinking something like, "Great. I've got a group of people up here who have traveled 4,000 miles to help us build the foundation of the new building, and we're not going to be able to do anything." I remember praying, "Lord, what are we going to do? We just can't do this to these folks." About that time Gerald said, "There's a bunch of stuff behind the clinic that they didn't use when they were building. I think there are some joists back there. Maybe you can buy them from CATG (Council for Athabascan Tribal Government)." When we got back to Fort Yukon, I went to the clinic and found the stuff that Gerald was talking about. There was an unopened bundle of floor joists-- twenty-three of them-- 31' 2" long. Ten inches shorter than we wanted, but I wasn't about to complain about that. It was apparent to the group that God had anticipated our need and had supplied; then we found out that someone else had already asked for the joists. To make a long story short, after some unnecessary anxiety (didn't we already say that it was obvious that the Lord had supplied our need?) the guy who had spoken for the joists said we could use them if we would replace them by August-- which brings us to a very serious prayer request: we used all of the money (and then a little more) that we had for the foundation, and it's going to cost us about $3100 to replace the joists ($1400 for the joists; $1700 to have them shipped up to Circle). Anyway, we took step of faith when we used the joists, believing that the Lord had supplied them, and also believing that He would supply the funds to replace them. God uses people to answer those kinds of prayers-- specifically, you. If you can help out, we would sincerely appreciate it. I think I told you before, but just to refresh your memory, the new fellowship hall is mainly to use for Kids' Night. We had forty-two kids show up last week, and we simply can't handle that many in the church (not easily at least). The new building will almost double the space that have now.
The Quincy folks sang special music for our services, and put on puppet shows for the kids. The ladies in the group also helped Heidi paint a couple of rooms inside the church, and I don't know what else-- I know they worked very hard. We had a great time with them, and we can't thank them enough. We also want to thank the rest of the people at Calvary Baptist in Quincy who had a part in giving toward the building project, and praying for them and us as we worked. You all have always been special to us. It's not every missionary that feels like he has four or five home churches, but Quincy always feels like home to us. We appreciate that.
I mentioned that Devin Cargill lost the village golf ball. If you've been reading the Craig Chronicles for very long, you know how much I hate to embarrass anyone, but the truth must be told-- my version of it anyway. Here's how it happened. I was taking the group for a tour of the village when we stopped at the Fort Yukon Golf Course. Don't laugh-- we really have a golf course! It may be true that our golf course has no pro shop. And it has no club house or golf carts. It has no green fees. Come to think of it, it has no fairways or greens either, but it does have lots and lots of rough-- our golf course is never mowed-- we Alaskans like it rough. Cheryl Sastic said that if you golf here, you need to keep a weed eater in your golf bag, but then Cheryl is always exaggerating-- there's no way you could cut through that undergrowth with a weed eater-- but I digress. There is a bag containing three or four clubs at the first hole (I've only been able to find three holes, though Stephen assures me that there are five), and a golf ball. I'm not kidding. Anyone is welcome to use the clubs to whack the ball around, but you are expected to replace everything when you are done. Everything, that is, except your divots-- you don't have to replace your divots. Most of the time, you can't get your club head that close to the ground anyway. The vegetation stops it well short of the dirt. Getting on with the story, Devin didn't know how our course worked. He thought the clubs had been forgotten by some hobo who had gathered the incredibly cheap, beat up, mismatched set during his freight train travels, and that the ball had been inadvertently left behind as well. The red stripe painted on the circumference of the ball apparently didn't clue him in on the fact that this was no ordinary lost ball. (I'm assuming, of course, that his thoughts were similar to what I've ascribed to him. Why else would he do what he did?) Anyhow, Devin asked a few people to take his picture while he posed with a club, pretending that he was about to hit the ball (he was always posing and asking people to take his picture-- one evening we even took a short movie of him shocking himself with a 3,000,000 volt stun gun-- though I must admit that was entertaining-- even to the point of possibly being the highlight of the visit). Okay, after his impromptu photo session, while everyone else was making their way back to the van, Devin decided to impress everyone with a massive fifty yard drive. Actually, I didn't see him hit the ball, but I saw his practice swings, and I'm pretty sure he was going to top the ball-- he had trouble keeping his head down. I didn't find out that he had hit the ball out onto the "fairway" until after we left the course. My heart is heavy as I keep picturing all of the little Fort Yukon kids walking the two bear-and-mosquito-infested miles out to the golf course, and then looking at one another with tear-filled eyes as they ask, "Why would anyone take the village golf ball?"
Prayer Requests
1. Please pray that the Lord will supply the $3,100 that we need to replace the floor joists that we "borrowed." Please pray that the funds will come in soon enough for us to replace them by the first of August. This is a matter of maintaining a good testimony.
2. We have an evangelistic team coming up later this month, the 18th through the 23rd. Please pray for genuine revival and for the salvation of many of the unsaved folks who will attend the meetings. That same week is the "Gwitch'in Gathering." They are estimating that we'll have around 2,000 visitors in town that week. We're hoping to see a lot of them in our services. Our evangelist and his assistant will also be helping us with VBS meetings during the afternoons. It's going to be a busy week.
3. We have four of our teens down at Camp Challenge this week. Please pray that the Lord will work in their hearts. We have five junior campers scheduled to go down to camp the same week as our revival meetings. Please pray for those kids as well.
4. Please pray that the camp property deal will not run into any more snags, and that things will be finalized soon. We could have had several times the number of kids going to camp if we could have had it here instead of 240 miles away. Also, please pray that the rest of the money to pay for the property will come in. We would really like to be able to retire that debt. I'm sure that the Starrs would appreciate it if we would retire that debt as well. :~)
5. Please pray for Andrew and Taya, and Rachael and Stephen as they all seek the Lord's will for their lives, and deal with the stress and temptations up here.
6. Keep praying for that airplane. When we finally get the camp running (and we will-- God has clearly shown that He is in this), the airplane will become a necessity. To this point, it has been something that we can do without, even though it's been really inconvenient at times.
7. Please pray for several folks up here that need to trust the Lord as their Savior. I've mentioned folks by name in the past, but I've decided that it's probably not wise since these letters are posted on the internet. We've had a number of opportunities to share the Gospel, and we're praying for fruit.
8. Please pray for our next group that is coming up in August all the way from Fort Meyers, Florida. Pray for safety as we cut logs and transport them back to town.
9. Please pray for Dr. and Mrs. Sastic. They are wonderful co-workers, and sometimes I fear that they work too hard. I don't want them to be worn down to a frazzle. Please pray that the Lord would strengthen and encourage them.
10. Please pray for Heidi. She works harder than anyone I know. This ministry wouldn't survive without her. Please pray that the Lord will strengthen and encourage her as well...
Well, I suppose I should wrap this up. Oh, I almost forgot-- the police shot a bear underneath the school about 75 yards from our house the week before the Quincy group arrived. Kind of exciting. I also almost forgot to tell you that Devin went out to the Country Club a couple of days after the "incident" and managed to find our golf ball. At first, I was kind of surprised that he found it-- but then I remembered how far he hit it . . . We love you all! Thank you for your prayers and for your support. God is caring for us in a wonderful way, and He's using
you to do it.|
We are yours in the Lord,
David, Heidi, Andrew, Taya, Rachael and Stephen Craig
