Greetings Everyone!

I trust that this edition of the Chronicles finds all of you well. We’ve had a really busy summer so far, and I imagine you have too. We just returned from a week at Camp Manitoumi. Andrew worked in the maintenance department, Heidi and I were counselors, and Rachael and Stephen were campers (they definitely had the best role to fulfill). The heat was stifling, a tornado came through much too close for comfort, we lost power, I had to take Andrew to a doctor with a terrible case of poison ivy (Andrew had the poison ivy– not the doctor), and I learned that it is a really, really bad idea to try to open a tube of Ora-gel with a razor-sharp pocketknife in the pitch dark– other than that, we had a terrific week! More than twenty campers were saved, and many decisions were made for the Lord.

Please pray for us especially hard the next few weeks. We are leaving this morning for Evanston, Wyoming to present our ministry at Uinta Baptist Church this Sunday, the 25th. After that, we are heading up to Fairbanks where we are meeting with some EBM board members, Harvey Mehlos (a great friend and strong supporter from Wisconsin), Pastor Bob Harris of Fairbanks, and Brother Earl Malpass, who runs a missionary aviation ministry out of Fairbanks, and who also seems to be familiar with every fundamental work that is going on in Alaska today. The purpose of the meeting is to develop a strategy and specific goals for our ministry. We want to figure out where we should head first, and what steps we need to take to accomplish the Lord’s will for us in Alaska. It promises to be an exciting trip. Please pray for our finances as well. It’s also going to be an expensive trip!

 

Please continue praying for George and Judy Pine and their family. George and Judy are currently undergoing EBM’s intensive missionary training. Next, they will begin raising their support so they can join us in Alaska. George and Judy have a real heart for the ministry. They are a great addition to the team. We still need at least three or four more families to join us. Perhaps the Lord is speaking to your heart about full-time service.  Pray about it!

Judy, Julia, George

Rebecca, Georgie

I’d like to tell you about an event that occurred on our trip to Fairbanks last March. We hadn’t been able to find a motel, so we were traveling through British Columbia much later than we wished– it was around 1:00 a.m., I think. The area through which we were driving was particularly wild and lonely, many miles from the nearest town. We hadn’t seen another car for hours. It was bitterly cold; the road was ice covered, and a new layer of snow was accumulating as we slowly made our way through the wilderness. We pulled off onto a cutout to take a short break. I had seen a wolf about an hour earlier, trotting alongside the road– yes, a wolf, not a coyote– I know the difference! I’m not sure exactly what possessed me, but I decided to howl as loud and as long as I could to see if I could get a response from the surrounding timber. As the echoes of my howl died in the stillness, a chorus of low, melancholy cries rose into the night air . . . along with the hair on the back of my neck.

Heidi’s claims that I trampled her underfoot as I made my way back to the van are grossly exaggerated, and that thing about locking the doors of the van before the kids got back in is also easily explained: I was merely anxious to get back on the road and find a motel.

 

Prayer Requests

1. Please continue to pray that we will be able to keep a full schedule of meetings.

2. Currently, our support level is right around 50%. Please pray that our support will continue to come in so that we are able to get to the field quickly. Brother Malpass told me last spring that there are a few villages with one or two families of believers, but without a church. He said that they gather together every Sunday hoping that a missionary will show up to preach. Sadly, most weeks they must return to their homes disappointed. The field is truly white unto harvest in Alaska.

3. Please pray that the Lord will provide property for the camp, and an airplane.

4. Pray for our upcoming meeting in Fairbanks. Pray for wisdom for all of us as we seek to discern the Lord’s will for our ministry.

5. Please pray that the Lord will continue to bless us with good health.

6. Finally, please keep praying for the kids as they do their school work on the road. They did a great job last year, but it’s going to be even tougher now that we are on the road full-time.