November 2007

 

Greetings Everyone,

 

Summer has come and gone, and even though according to the calendar it's still fall, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.  The temperature has been below freezing for about a month now, and we have between six and eight inches of snow on the ground.  I think the guy who wrote "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland" must have had Fort Yukon in mind.  It's absolutely beautiful!

 

I want to thank those of you who visited this summer.  We had some really great work crews, families and individuals who spent some time with us helping in many different ways.  Volunteer help really is the backbone of the ministry up here, and that will be even more true as we get the camp established and begin construction next summer if the Lord is willing to go along with our plans.  (You realize, of course, that I wrote that with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek, but that is the way that we do things a lot of times isn't it?  You know-- we make our plans, and then ask the Lord for His stamp of approval.)  Anyway, please pray for us that the Lord would make His will clear to us, and that we won't rush ahead of Him and cause ourselves unnecessary problems.

 

Before I go any further, Heidi has given me a huge list of folks that have helped us out this year in many, many different ways.  Heidi has written stacks of thank you notes, but she is sure that she has missed a few, so here's a great big blanket thank you to the following folks:

• Berean Baptist Church in Littleburn, GA,
• Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Kook,
• Mr. and Mrs. Buckland,
• Brian Graham
  (Hamilton Acres Baptist Church, Fairbanks, AK),
• the work team from First Baptist Church of Newfield, NJ,
• Pastor and Mrs. Thompson of Vineland, NJ,
• Paul and Marion Taylor of Newfield, NJ,
• Joe and Alice Gatto also of Newfield, NJ,
• Frank and Anita Hassen of Newfield,
• Brett Zukowski and the Bob Jones University missions team,
• Calvary Baptist Church in Dysart, IA,
• Bethany Moore of Dysart,
• First Baptist Church of Elmer, NJ,
• Mr. and Mrs. Hemphill of Elmer, NJ,
• Mr. and Mrs. Parker of Elmer, 
• David and Rhonda Meyers of Elmer,
• Tim and Laura Woodward of Eldersburg, MD,
• Betty Johnson of Brazil, IN,
• Mike and Barb Allard of Brazil, IN,
• Bert and Jackie Dickison of Princeton, IN,
• Earl and Lynn Malpass of Fairbanks, AK,
• Mark and Wendy Winans of Fairbanks,
• Les Zerbe of Fairbanks,
• Ronnie and Becky Starr-- currently homeless :~),
• Harold and Rita Walt of Elkhart, IN,
• Lee and Sara Huffman of Quincy, IL,
• Gloria Dougherty of Quincy,
• the Duelm family in VA,
• David and Marion O'Dell of Molino, FL, 
• Mr. and Mrs. James White,
• Grandma Held,
• the anonymous boat motor donor person,
• Susan Firman of Fairbanks,
• Mark and Jennifer Vaughn of Bunker Hill, IL,
• the Dave Young revival team,
• Janet Greeno of Palmer, AK,
• First Baptist Church of Hartland, WI,
• Patty Schiller of Waukesha, WI,
• Mrs. Dorothy Smith of Milwaukee, WI,
• the Faulkner's in Hartland, WI,
• Ken and Carrie Cina, also of Hartland,
  and, finally,
• Mr. and Mrs. Leonard, of Colgate, WI.

That last paragraph sounded a little bit like a passage in I Chronicles didn't it?  As you can see, this is definitely a team effort up here.  I didn't even mention the churches and individuals that support the ministry every month.  I know I've said it before, but there is no way that we could do this without you.  All of you have been wonderfully supportive, and a great encouragement to us.  By the way, we almost certainly missed some folks, so if you should have been thanked, and you didn't appear on the list, please be assured that we are grateful for what you have done, and please excuse us for missing you.  You all have been great, and we love every one of you.

 

Before I get to our prayer requests, I wanted to tell you about something that happened to me last month.  At the risk of being accused of being overly dramatic, I'm here to tell you right now that I was almost maimed for life, and quite possibly even worse-- much worse.  I suppose I should give you a little background before really getting into the story. 

 

When we dropped Andrew off at Pensacola Christian College this September, we stopped to visit our family in Indiana and Illinois while we were on our way through.  Heidi's mom and dad took us bowling with them, and we really enjoyed it.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided to take it up when we got back to Fort Yukon.  There are no bowling alleys in Fort Yukon, of course, but we fly into Fairbanks about once a month for a couple of days to get groceries and supplies, and there is a bowling alley there.  As kind of an early Christmas present for everyone, we bought bowling balls, shoes, bags and all the accessories that any semi-professional bowler requires (more about the accessories in a moment).  Rachael and I were the first ones to make it into Fairbanks to The Arctic Bowl bowling center, and the pro-shop guy drilled our balls for us.  I hope I'm not boring you with a bunch of details, but you need to know that the holes are intentionally drilled slightly too big to allow for your hand to swell or shrink, depending on the weather, etc.  You're supposed to use a little bit of bowlers' tape (the afore mentioned accessory) inside the holes to make it fit just right each time you bowl.  The pro-shop guy showed us how tight his ball fits his thumb (he really had to cram his thumb into it).  I didn't want mine that tight, but neither did I want it so loose that I would have to squeeze my ball to hold on to it when I swung my arm-- a relaxed swing is very important if you want to make a good shot.  Anyway, when Rachael and I got ready to bowl, I put a little tape into my thumb hole to snug things up a bit.  As I have reflected upon certain events that occurred that evening (specifically my near demise), I have determined that what I thought of as "comfortably snug," I should have considered "ominously tight." 

 

I'm not sure exactly how much force is generated by a sixteen pound bowling ball travelling at approximately seventeen miles per hour, but I do know with absolute certainty that when it's stuck on my thumb, it's enough to hurtle my entire 270 pounds about a third of the way down the bowling lane.  There are signs above the lanes saying not to loft your ball, fortunately the signs say nothing about lofting oneself down the lane.  On a more cheery note, it didn't count as a foul because my ball never made it to the pins.  I'm pretty sure all the other people who were bowling thought I had spent a little time in the cocktail lounge before getting a lane.  I think they were feeling pretty sorry for Rachael.  Oh, I learned two other things that evening:  first, the first third of a bowling lane is made of rock maple, and it is hard-- very hard.  Second, the oil that is applied to the lanes is amazingly slippery, and if a person happens to launch himself down the lane, it's very difficult to regain one's feet, unfortunately adding to the impression that one is inebriated.

 

Thanks again to all of you.  Thank you for praying, and thank you for your faithful support.

 

With all our love,

David, Heidi, Andrew, Rachael and Stephen