From Winter On

This winter has been a great time to be with kids.  Our weekly club meetings have been growing in energy and caos as kids have had a chance to hear about Jesus.  Our weekly Bible study groups have a solid group of leaders and students meeting together to share breakfast and to look deeper into what the Bible says.  There have been great work parties, trips to basketball games and trips taking kids up snowboarding. 

Outside of Sitka there are some great things happening around the state.   In the town of Galena, there is a state run boarding school and the community of that town is seeking to hire a full-time area director.  Galena Young Life has had wonderful volunteers and seeks to move forward and be able to hire someone full time to devote their time to the 240 students of the boarding school.  There are also two other communities moving forward in bringing Young Life to their community for the first time: Chevak on the west coast of Alaska, and Glennallen- a town eat of Anchorage by 150 miles.  The Kellars of Washington (whose blog entry I included in a previous post) are also seeking God's guidance on how they can play a roll in encouraging Young Life in Chevak.  Ketchikan, a large hub city in SE Alaska is also seeking to hire an area director.

In Young Life there are positions categorized as student staff, and what that means is that a young person is paid a part time wage to work for Young Life.  Our regional director Brent Cunningham has just secured funding for three positions that will be specifically designated for rural Alaska.  In addition, our divisional director is seeking funding for additional positions for communities around the state.  This is really big news because the funding will provide a person to focus on the kids of rural communities around the state.  I will be able to focus some of my time to assist these people in their work. These positions are key to the future of Young Life in rural Alaska and I am so excited about the impact that these people will have on their communities.  I will keep you posted as things develop further.

 
On a personal note- Emily loves teaching, but misses her time with our sweetie pie Ruthann. Ruthann is so much fun... she is so smiley and happy and loves to laugh and is learning new games daily. Our dog Puffin misses the runs she went in her previous non-babied life, and she might even find herself more unhappy when we get our family Easter present, 5 egg laying chicks.  Hopefully we won't find her with a mouthful of feathers!

Our crew up snowboarding

 


Puffin was almost roadkill... escaping by the skin of her teeth!