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.