January Update

Hello again from Sitka Young Life:

Welcome to the new year. I hope this email finds you well. Things here in AK are really starting to get moving.

Tanana Liz in Tanana now has a great living situation as she is the care taker for the Catholic Church.  She also is working at partnering with 4 other people in town.  She is doing youth events many nights a week and is inviting other adults to join her. Neighboring Young Life communities (Galena, Fairbanks, and Anchorage) are sending people to help Liz further establish a permanent youth ministry program.

"Pile of Fries" at McDonald's

Sitka: We started this semester with a hang out time at McDonald.  We had over 100 kids there and 8 leaders.  We have started our morning Bible study groups and this last week we had 15 guys and 13 girls show up.  On February 25-28 we will host Winter Blast- a fun outreach weekend. There will be fun activities, good food, and a place to hear about and talk about Jesus.  In march we partnering with churches to plan a high school girls discipleship weekend combining kids from town and  MEHS.

Our MEHS guys morning Bible study group

Bethel: Bethel is the largest hub community in western Alaska and at least 1/3 of our kids come from the Bethel area.  A MEHS grad of 2014, Dolena,feels God leading her to start Young Life there.  The community of 6,400 has several churches but not a ministry that combines folks from different churches to reach the kids who wouldn't come to church.  Within the past week there have been at least 5 people express interest in being involved.  Dolena will be working to partner with churches.  Dolena has ties to the Covenant Church which this last weekend hosted an event where 30 kids made commitments to Christ!

Tok:  A hub community in eastern Alaska  (population 1,300) is working with Fairbanks to start Young Life.  Julie from Tok will be meeting with church leadership this weekend to talk more about how to partner with Young Life and there will be a community support meeting in February.

Craig: Craig is the largest community on Prince of Whales in SE Alaska, (population 1,300) and a teacher named Aly is leading the charge.  They have reformed a committee (some folks have previously had started Young Life- but it has been silent the last 5 years).  Leaders are spending time with kids and they have had Bible studies and club meetings.  Also a couple from neighboring Klawock has started a campaigner Bible study group for kids this year.  

My Friend Jay in Emmonak

I have a friend named Jay and he works with a company that travels throughout rural Alaska. He grew up in Young Life and has a great compassion and heart for the kids he sees in his travel. This summer he worked in Emmonak, a village of 800 on the delta of the Yukon River.  He had many stories from his time there and I asked him if he would mind sharing one with you all.  

Arial view of Emmonak

Writing on the Wall

It’s midnight. I was just in bed, getting ready to get some sleep for the next day’s work when I heard some suspicious mumbling outside and some noises against our building. So I got up, threw on some clothes, and snuck outside. As soon as I opened the door I watched one girl bolt, and two others slowly walking away pointing and saying “it was her.” They walked off and I thought that was going to be the end of it but the two girls came back with a couple guys and began ratting out the third girl. They told me her name, her parents, and even their phone number, then proceeded to run off again. The two guys sat down and decided to hang out for a few minutes. I also sat down and started petting our house dog who had just been in a fight the night before that left him with a gash above his eye and unable to put weight on his hind leg.

We began making small talk (at least what I thought was small talk) and the second kid took off his ring to show me. “My dad gave this to me” he said. I told him it was cool, gave it back, and thought nothing of it. Then his friend chimed in and informed me that his parents had recently passed. Then it hit me. They were the couple I had heard about a few days ago: there was a party and a man shot his girlfriend and himself. I didn’t know what to say. He seemed so nonchalant about talking about it.

Right then, I see a couple girls come around the corner – it was the girl coming back to apologize for writing on our wall. I thanked her for apologizing because that sort of thing is unheard of in the village – at least from the stories I’ve been told. When I asked why she did it, she simply stated “I don’t know, I was bored.”  Again another group of girls round the corner. This time calling out the girl that had just apologized, telling her she was mean and trying to egg on a fight. (Much stronger words than “mean” were used as you could imagine.) She then began making fun of one of the boys. This argument/yelling went back and forth for a while before everyone finally dispersed. Side note: The oldest kid in the group was 9^th grade. Although only 1 in the group of 4 had not flunked at least one grade. He told me proudly that he has not flunked “YET”.

I have traveled to many Western Alaskan villages and from my experience as well as accounts from others, this is a typical story growing up in rural Alaska. Children out here need more love than any human can give them. They need a God’s love – A God who sacrificed his son because he loved them so much. They need adults who can show them what it looks like to be loved and truly cared about. They need someone to simply pay attention to them and to walk with them.Young Life, from my experience, does exactly that. They focus on meeting kids where they are and simply loving on them. They make a point of demonstrating to kids that they DO matter and that there IS hope in Jesus Christ. Young Life excel’s in providing the exact entertainment/activities needed so kids are not “bored” and getting into trouble.