Vol. 3 No. 2 April, 2004

Greetings from Fairbanks!

Yes, we’re finally here– for a couple of weeks anyway. Since I last wrote to you, we’ve moved from Newfield, NJ to Quincy, IL, and then on to Fairbanks, AK. The Lord has been taking great care of us. It’s exciting to see Him continually demonstrating His presence in our lives and ministry.

Before I get into a story that I’d like to tell you, I’ll give you a quick update on our progress. Our support is currently between 40 and 50 percent. We have located a missionary house in Quincy, IL where we can base ourselves while we raise the remainder of our support. The folks there at Calvary Baptist Church have been wonderful to us. Not only have they provided us a home right in our price range (FREE), but they even furnished it for us! We now have three bathrooms (that’s a big deal when you’re used to sharing only one), the kids have separate bedrooms, and we have access to a gymnasium. It’s a shame that we will be there so infrequently!

We have also found a small cabin on Mt. Aurora, about twenty miles north of Fairbanks, AK. We won’t be up here much until we raise the rest of our support, but we will be here occasionally for meetings, and to look for property, etc. Besides that, we had to relocate anyway, and we figured that we might as well establish our residency in AK rather than get driver’s licenses, insurance, and all that stuff in another state, and then have to do it all over again in a few months. By the way, we were pleased to note that our auto insurance decreased $800 per year by moving to Alaska– and that was after we added Andrew to our policy as a driver in training– which reminds me of a huge prayer request . . .

We had a couple of adventures during our relocation that I thought you might enjoy– especially if you are one of those people who derive some measure of sadistic pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

The first adventure was our auction. We needed to sell just about everything we owned before we moved away from NJ. I think I’ve told you before that we intend to locate in a very remote area of this state. The only way to our camp will be either airplane or boat, and the boat option will definitely be seasonal. Consequently, we won’t be able to have things that are too big to fit in the airplane that we believe that the Lord is going to supply for us. We contacted an auction company in NJ, and scheduled a day for them to come and remove all of our furniture, and just about everything else that we didn’t think the folks at First Baptist Church of Newfield would miss out of the parsonage (that was a joke for all you Newfield folks). The day arrived, and the auction company arrived and emptied the house. We had to wait for a little more than a week for the auction to occur, and for our check to be prepared. I should tell you now that we had no delusions about the worth of our stuff. We had decorated our house in a style that we liked to refer to as, "Early Sanford and Son." We’ve never considered ourselves to be poor, we’ve just never had a lot of money– sometimes that will make you seem poor. (Heidi is sitting here beside me giving me an unpleasant look, so I guess I’d better explain this a little more) The truth is that we had a few really nice pieces of furniture, and quite a bit of pretty good stuff: a beautiful china cabinet and dining room set, a couple of television sets (one was the big console variety), electronic equipment, etc. We expected a fairly decent check. What we got instead was $639. We felt pretty sick at first, but we eventually realized that the Lord was just reminding us once again that this world truly is not our home, and the things that we see around us have no real value.

Heidi commented that we would have been much better off if the house had burned to the ground, but, as I reminded her, hindsight is always 20/20 (that was a joke for all you Bunker Hill folks). Memo to self: in the future, never hire an auctioneer with a speech impediment.

I have a couple more stories, but I guess they will have to wait until the next edition.

Please keep praying that we will be able to keep our schedule full. Also, please pray for Heidi and the kids as they continue to try to keep up with the school work. Please continue to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel with folks while we are on the road. Finally, pray for our van. It has begun to make a few strange noises. I don’t think there is anything seriously wrong, but it’s enough to make me a little uneasy.

If you haven’t taken a look at it yet, check out our web site at www.craigsinalaska.org The site is still under construction, but I’m working on it as I have opportunity. Right now, opportunities are scarce because my wireless connection for my computer doesn’t work up here.

David, Heidi, Andrew, Rachael and Stephen Craig