the close of 2014

This has been an exciting year and during this Thanksgiving season I want to say thank you all for your support and prayers.  It has been awesome to see many great things happening in and around the state and I am confident that many of these happened because people like you, praying.

Exciting news in Tuntituliak- Jason Bavilla has been coordinating community members in helping to get Young Life off the ground.  Two weeks ago Jason coordinated the first ever Young Life campaigners bible study groups.  There is both a guys group and a girls group who meet in a teacher's house and share a meal and then read a story from the Bible.  Jason has also been in conversations with the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and the pastor from the Moravian Church to coordinate efforts for youth involvement.  He has meet with the school board and city council to propose using city facilities for youth events.  So far he has had great support from the people he has talked with and on December 5th & 6th, Tuntituliak Young Life will host its first basketball tournament fundraiser!  It is incredible to see God moving and see that kids from "Tunt" will be hearing that God has hope and purpose for their lives.

The first ever campaigners gathering in Tunt!

News from Sitka: We took our first ever local MEHS weekend camping trip!  Two weekends ago 12 students and 2 adults went 5 miles from Sitka to stay at a large forest service cabin called Samsing.  The weekend was.... magical.  First off- the weather was phenomenal with wall to wall blue skies and no wind.  We arrived in the dark to a warm cabin and bioluminesence in the water (an small organism that responds to motion by emitting light so it looks like there are green sparks in the water when you disturb the water). We watched northern lights both nights, and heard humpback whales singing.  We had great camp fires, a homemade sauna, delicious meals, card games, stories, sung songs, and played guitars.  We had 4 opportunities to open the Bible and read and at the end of the weekend, 8 guys made commitments to walk closer to God.  I was able to hear from several students about the things they face at home and how they see God bringing them hope and giving them strength to stay away from negative influences.  Today we had  most of those guys come for morning campaigners breakfast and our numbers continue to grow.

The guys before we played ultimate Frisbee on the beach

Other great news:

• Chevak is having weekly prayer meeting praying for the youth of the community.  People are volunteering for leadership roles and we hope to have a training time at Chevak in the early part of the year.

• Leaders in Sitka: during our fundraising banquet, several people expressed interest in becoming leaders and are now in the leader training process.  This, combined with the crew that is helping with campaigner breakfasts, means that we have a greater capacity to grow.

• Campaigner groups have both set records for attendance during this last week.  I saw several of the kids who have recently started coming and they were so excited about it and said they don't want to miss future breakfasts. p.s.- the guys group went camping, and the girls group is planning a Friday cookie decorating hang out time next week.

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  The girls campaigner group last Friday

Prayer requests:

• Keep Jason in your prayers as he focuses and coordinates efforts to encourage students and young people in their faith.

• Please pray for the young men who went camping. Many of these guys have renewed or started a relationship with God. 

• Pray for wisdom and guidance as leaders enter into the lives of kids.

• Pray also for Sitka Young Life's financial situation as my primary funding grant has diminished and will be going away in the next year.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers.  I am thankful to partner with you.