May 2008

Greetings Friends,

It's finally starting to warm up! The ice broke up on the Yukon River last week, the snow is almost completely gone, we saw a few mosquitoes yesterday, and the birds are returning from somewhere down south. Speaking of birds, we saw one a couple of weeks ago that we hadn't seen around here before.
 
It was a willow ptarmigan, Alaska's state bird. We knew that they were in the area, but hadn't seen one. Heidi was able to get a picture of it. As you can see, it was still wearing its winter plumage (they're brown in the summer). When it held still, it was almost impossible to see against the snow. It was really beautiful, and it tasted just like chicken.
 
Over the past few months, we've been in contact with many individuals in several churches, but it's been a while since our last official update, so if I cover some ground that is already familiar to some of you, please bear with me. We set a new attendance record at our Christmas program. Ninety-eight folks showed up to see our rendition of "A Peanut Butter Christmas." (A Majesty Music production) If you've been in our church, you can imagine how crowded it was. We had people standing in the aisle, and in the hallway in the back of the sanctuary. Two adults and two children raised their hands during the invitation to indicate that they were unsaved. Unfortunately, no one stayed after the service to pray with us, but we're still praying that the Lord will continue to work in their hearts.

Heidi is still teaching a sewing class every week. She has several ladies and children who attend faithfully. We've seen some doors open for Heidi to counsel with a couple of the ladies. I've also been able to begin counseling with the father of one of the young girls who attends the class.

The radio station is still going strong. We've added some new programming hoping to increase the number of folks who are listening. Please keep praying for this corner of the ministry. It's kind of like shooting in the dark-- you never know what (or whom) you are going to hit. We get feedback from the community every now and then, but most of the time, I don't know if anyone is listening or not.

The camp plans are progressing slowly. A few weeks ago, I paid a visit to the "realty office" here in town. I found that the paperwork for the camp was just sitting in a file cabinet instead of being sent down to Anchorage for final approval. I have no idea how long it had been there. Anyway, things are supposedly moving again, and we're hoping to have the deed in our hands very shortly. Please keep praying about that. We've tentatively scheduled a surveyor to come up this fall to mark the boundaries of the property so we can begin clearing the land. I know we've said it every year, but we're really hoping to be able to have a couple of weeks of campers next summer (2009). Keep praying!

This summer is going to be busy, but not as busy as last year-- at least it doesn't look that way yet. So far, we have some folks coming up the end of this month for a few nights of teen meetings. The next weekend, a youth group from Santa Maria, CA will be visiting to help with a youth rally. We're having a group of high school students up from Fairbanks the first week of July to work with the junior-aged kids. Heidi will be counseling at Camp Challenge (a ministry of Hamilton Acres Baptist Church of Fairbanks) the second week of July. Finally, (I think), we're having a group of college students from Bob Jones University up here the last week of July to help with Vacation Bible School. Oh, I almost forgot-- a young lady, Alexandra Slusher, from Hope Bible Church in O'Fallon, MO, will be coming up to help the BJU group with Vacation Bible School.

Prayer Requests

1. Please pray that the paperwork for the camp property will make its way through the system before our surveyor comes up this fall.

2. Please keep praying that the money for the property will come in. So far, we've paid $48,900 of the $80,000. That leaves a balance of $31,100. Many missionaries have forty, fifty, sixty or more supporting churches, but we only have thirteen. That is a great blessing in many ways (it's far easier for us to report to our churches than for many missionaries), but it also puts some extra pressure on those thirteen churches and on you folks who attend them. The $48,900 that has been raised so far has come from two churches and three individuals. I'm certainly not trying to twist any arms-- that's not my place-- I'm simply asking you to prayerfully consider whether or not the Lord would have you give an extra gift to retire this debt. Starting a youth camp is a HUGE undertaking in many ways. We'll never get it done without you folks.

3. We've had three deaths in the village the past couple of months. The most recent was a little boy who would have had his second birthday this month. He was killed by a neighbor's dog. Heidi and I were able to spend some time with the family afterward. Please pray that the Lord will use this tragedy to soften the hearts of the parents. By the way, the boy's father is one of the men who helped us get home when our boat died the summer before last. His name is Clayton, and his wife's name is Dianna. Please also pray for the families of the other two have passed away.

4. Please pray for Rachael and Stephen as they finish up their school for this year.

5. Please pray for the ministry opportunities that we will have this summer.

Just a quick note or two, and I'll be finished.

I may have to give up bowling-- it's simply too dangerous. To keep a short story short, I have discovered that getting one's thumb stuck in the bowling ball is not the only way to launch oneself halfway down the alley toward the pins. To achieve identical results, one can also step in something wet (like melted snow for instance) that causes one's shoe to stop suddenly instead of sliding.

I've also discovered that shoveling the snow off of one's roof can be extremely hazardous. About three weeks ago when the snow began to melt, we discovered that our roof leaks in a couple of spots-- the most annoying of which is right over my chair in the living room. I climbed up onto the roof-- with Heidi protesting the whole way-- and made an immediate discovery: A tin roof that is not only icy, but wet and icy, is very slippery. To keep from plummeting to my death-- well, I suppose that's probably a little too dramatic-- to keep from plummeting to . . . some kind of injury, I kept one foot on each side of the peak of the roof. In order to keep my feet from sliding down the opposite sides of the roof (at the same time) I found it necessary to squeeze my upper thighs together with just about all the force that I could muster. Do you remember the "Thigh Master" that Suzanne Sommers used to advertise? If you do, you've got the idea. Well, everything was fine until I had to take a step. It would seem that it is physically impossible to squeeze one's thighs together while walking. My feet began rapidly descending the roof. It would have been much better if they had been on the same side of the roof at the time. Heidi said that I ended up in a position that would have made an Olympic gymnast proud. I don't know-- I don't remember much after my feet began to slide.

Scientists tell us that dogs can hear frequencies that are beyond the range of human ears. This must be so, because I know I was screaming, and even though Heidi and Stephen said they never heard a sound, at that very moment, the dogs all over town began howling.

One last bit of news. A polar bear wandered into Fort Yukon a few weeks back. A few men from the village chased it out of town and shot it. I think they might be in some trouble. We'll see.

We love every one of you. Thanks again for all of your prayers and your support.

Yours in the Lord,
The Craigs in Alaska