The End of School...

Our campaigners group

Good morning from SItka:

Seasons are changing here but the clouds are still here.  Emily finished teaching school last week and so we shift to the new season of summer and baby preparation. We anticipate the birth of this little one and we are now trying to pick out names.  We don’t know the gender yet, but will find out when the baby is born- the due date is July 25^th. The end of the school year came fast and furious.  There were many school and Young Life functions to facilitate and attend.  We finished Young Life club this semester with the largest club we have ever had hosting about 140 kids around a camp fire.  We also finished our campaigner groups hosting the most kids we have had all year- about 25 kids gathered for breakfast and to study the Bible.  This year Emily and I had a chance to host our first MEHS parents during the week of graduation.  Nelson Kanuk’s parents, William and Sharon, stayed with us and shared their stories from Kipnuk. I was able to take them on a boat ride and William was able to help me fix my motor so we could get home. The campus of Mt. Edgecumbe was bustling with hundreds of people, but it is now quiet as all 400 students scattered to their homes across the state.  My job has also changed seasons and I am now working on things involving the entire state.  As most of you know, my position is new this year and has recently developed in significant ways and  I want to take some time to share these developments with you.

About 2 months our regional director Brent Cunningham was meeting with a friend when the two of them talked about a new vision for Young Life in the state of Alaska.  Alaska is a large state with people spread through the land.  Brent’s new vision is to reach all the communities of the state and give kids a chance to hear about Jesus in a way they can understand.  Many great churches, great families, and great people are already invested in many of these communities.  Many groups of people have been reaching out to rural Alaska for many years.  Part of this evolving vision is to use Young Life help build Christian support for kids in the different villages.  Rural Alaska is a very harsh place to live and many young Christians feel alone in their faith.  Abuse, depression, and suicide are very real for these young people and building supports can be the difference between  life and death.  

When Brent and I were talking about the future of my position at Mt. Edgecumbe, it seemed natural to expand the position to include networking with the 240 different communities.  In this way I will be working with Sitka Young Life and Alaska Young Life.  I will be spending half of my time working on Young Life at Mt. Edgecumbe and half of my time working at building a network around the state.  As school ends, my focus has shifted to focus on the state and I am excited to see what God will do.  The needs in each village are big, and God is the only one who can bring healing and hope to people.

Please pray for:

1.)    Volunteer Leaders- we will need new leaders to work with students of MEHS

2.)    People to pray- we will need people around the state to pray for their villages AND we will need people outside the village willing to adopt a village and pray for the kids who live there.  If you would be willing to pray- please let me know.

3.)    Finances:  I will be planning a fundraising trip in the next couple months and pray that I will be able to share the vision and pray that people want to become involved.

I have included some pictures and a great Blog entry from Heidi Kellar who lived for four years in a village called Chevak.  When I try to wrap my mind around what ministry in rural Alaska looks like, Heidi’s blog entry is a snap shot of the heaviness that exists in villages.  God wants to rescue his people and he calls us to get involved and messy. Our lives are his to give away.

Blessings,

Aaron Routon

p.s. The above picture is from our last campaigner breakfast which is a bible study.  The video below is of one of the breakfast guys and his village Nelson Kanuk (second from the right on the bottom row) and his village of Kipnuk .  The video was professionally made and deals with the effects of environmental changes on his village.   The picture below is of Nelson's parents when they stayed with us during their visit to Sitka for Nelson's graduation this spring.

William and Sharon Kanuk... Sorry they are upside down