New Team Members

Over the past year it has been really great as God has brought people into my path who have a big heart for youth ministry in rural Alaska.  I want to introduce you to 4 people who have recently joined the rural Alaska Young Life team

Dale Kanen is an Alaska Native (Tlingit) who lives with his wife, Susan, in Anchorage. Prior to his retirement, he worked as a liaison between the U.S. Forest Service and American Indian Tribes. Dale and Susan are long time Young Life Supporters and they helped to bring Young Life to both Sitka and Craig. This summer Dale spent several weeks in western Alaska helping to remodel a parsonage with the Covenant Church in Scammon Bay. The trip included three days in Bethel visiting with community members and leaders who are interested in reaching the youth for Jesus. Dale was very impressed with the number of caring people (from different denominations) in Bethel and Scammon Bay who are reaching out to the youth. "The Yupik people were so friendly and open, I would love to go back."

Dale is the furthest to the left and Caylee is to the right of the lady in red in the front

Chris Van Sieman lives in Palmer with his family.  He has worked for both churches and Young life for over 20 years and will be coming back onto full time Young Life staff in the fall.  He brings a lot of great experience in partnering Young Life with local churches. He is gifted in mentoring and pastoral care.  He is also a very good in the camp setting and can lead worship, give the message, and provide the interactive humor that has become a Young Life trademark.  We are very excited to have Chris join the team.

Chris and his family

Caylee Redford joined Young Life staff last August at Galena boarding school.  She is the area director and this summer she lead a group of 20 students from rural Alaska to Young Life camp in Oregon.  Previous to being on staff with Young Life, Caylee spend 3 years working in the dorms and being a volunteer YL leader.  She is an encouraging leader who kids and adults love being around.

Jay and a friend he met in a village

Jay Ubben met Brent Cunningham at camp six summers ago while Jay was volunteering at camp.  Jay then began a job based out of Anchorage where he spends much of his time in rural communities installing telecommunication systems.  Jay was a Young Life kid and now has a huge heart for the youth and people he encounters in the villages in which he works.  Jay has been able to hang out with kids, meet with elders and village leaders, and be a positive and encouraging light in the villages

All Smiles

Just a quick update- Ezra is doing great!  Last Tuesday he went into the cath lab with the doctors at 8:30 am- 6 hours later we all walked out of the hospital. Doctors inserted a catheter into Ezra's femoral artery and it went up into his heart.  With it they took measurements and then placed a balloon into the blocked valve.  On inflation #3 the valve broke free from the scar tissue and  it started functioning properly again. Ezra did great through the procedure and the medical personal were very impressed with how well he did and also about how cute he was.  We returned to Sitka Monday and we all are doing well. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

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Highlights from the End of the Year at MEHS

Today is the first week

 of summer vacation for students of MEHS.  The last weeks of school blurred by and graduation was yesterday.  This graduating class was a great class and about 1/2 of the graduating seniors had regularly participated in Young Life events at some point in each of their high school career. Here are a few highlights from this past week:

• A year-end combined campaigner breakfast with 30 kids and 8 adults. Some kids said that their favorite time in school has been our morning Bible studies
• I helped coordinate the Baccalaureate service and 5 students gave great testimonies about how God has guided them through difficult times.  Several students shared with their peers that is is God who needs to direct us and our futures.
• During the graduation ceremony students have a chance to let all people know what they are planning on doing in the future.  We had a couple students say that they are going home and will be Young Life leaders..
• Watching the adults of this community (Young Life, Church, and beyond) surround these kids in prayer through graduation and after.  It was awesome to see the bond that people have formed with these kids.  
• The gratitude of parents who look you deep in the eye and say from the heart "thank you for looking after my kid while they were away."  And "thank you for teaching them about God."
• Meeting so many of the wonder parents and siblings of the kids that I have grown to love. Here are a few pictures:  Combined breakfast groups, Baccalaureate, Marcus's family, and Danielle's cap- her cap says it all.

Also, please keep baby Ezra in your prayers as he goes in tomorrow for his 2nd heart procedure.  He will be fully assessed tomorrow and we will know whether he will need surgery- we are praying for a clean bill of health.

Here are a few pictures:  Combined breakfast groups, Baccalaureate, Marcus's family, and Danielle's cap- her cap says it all

End of the year joint campaigners group

the MEHS Baccalaureate Service

  

Bethel Alaska from the air

Summing it all up!

April Guys Camping Trip

Our group aboard the F/V Kathleen

This past weekend 14 of us went on a camping discipleship retreat (3 Leaders and 11 Mt. Edgecumbe guys). We read the Bible, we worshiped, we shared stories from our lives,we ate great food, we relaxed away from the dorms in a great house on an island, and 9 of us climbed a volcano. This was the first time I have ever had guys willing to be vulnerable and share in front of a group of their peers about what really happens at home.  Many of these kids face very difficult things daily at home.  It was great to be able to share about how God can change us and our circumstances.  God is really working in this group of guys and several in the group have expressed a desire to share what they have learned about God with their friends and families back home. Here are a couple of quotes from the weekend.

• "Young Life has helped me see that my life is valuable, and I without Young Life I would be in a very bad place."
• " When I first started coming to Young Life things in my life were very hard and going to Young Life has really helped things in my life get better."
• " I constantly feel like I am not good enough and looking in the Bible reminds me of the truth."
• "I had fun at camp and learned a lot of things.  It is pretty amazing what God does."
• This was the best weekend ever in all m my time at Sitka".
• 5 of the 7 guys who climbed Mt. Edgecumbe said it was their favorite thing they have done at Mt. Edgecumbe.

Us on the top of Mt. Edgecumbe

We are so honored to get to glorify God and it is a privilege to see how he changes people.

Prayer Requests

• prayer for these guys and the rest of the Mt. Edgcumbe students as they return home in 2 weeks.
• BETHEL:Young Life:  Bethel is the largest hub city in rural Alaska and there are a group of people who would like to start Young Life to reach out to all the kids who wouldn't come to church.  Prayer as we build partnerships with existing ministries and look for volunteers.  Strategically... Bethel is the best place to reach a huge portion of rural Alaska.
• Committee: Sitka Young Life is looking for more adults who feel called to do behind the scenes work to help make Young Life more effective.

Thanks for partnering with us.

Areal view of Bethel

Seward and Beyond

This weekend 75 people from around the state meet in Seward. It was a great time together with 4 new communities represented: Craig, Tok, Tanana, and Bethel.  With these new YL areas we discussed principles of good ministry and made connections with one another. Some personal highlights were:

• An elder from Tanana saying that she felt God calling her to once again work with the village youth.  She was so excited she called her sisters and friends.
• Galena Young Life will fly to Tanana this weekend to meet with interested adults and help facilitate a youth event.
• Craig saying they have 8 leaders and are starting club for middle school students
• 4 people from Bethel (the biggest rural hub community in rural Alaska) said they were ready to do what it takes to bring Young Life to Bethel.
• There were over 10 Alaska Natives represented at the event and 3 MEHS graduates!
• Another exciting thing happened today at lunch.  One of my morning Bible study guys interviewed me on a research paper he was writing. His assignment was to research something he wanted to do for his community.  And he was researching how to start Young Life in his village.

Pray requests:

Tanana- Galena Young Life's visit and recruiting further adult volunteers in Tanana

MEHS guys camping trip next weekend- 15 guys going to a cabin for a discipleship trip

Liz in Tanana requests prayer that God gives her clear direction for her future.

Ezra will need to go to the hospital to have another procedure done in the next two months. We do not yet know how intrusive the procedure will be... we will keep you posted.

The picture is of our rural Alaska group in Seward.  There are 8 rural villages represented!

JAM 2016

Last weekend we partnered with 4 local churches to host our first ever Jesus And Me (JAM) girls' discipleship weekend.  Over 20 women volunteers and 33 girls attend as they covered topics like personal devotions, prayer, life after high school, lies people believe, grief/ loss/ depression.  Each girl received a new Bible, took part in worship and Bible study.  Activities included s'mores, panel discussion, manicures, illustrated faith, and boat rides.  It was an awesome weekend.  Here are some quotes from girls from this past weekend:

• "I am glad I learned more ways to pray, like that I can write prayers and pray while I sing. I think that will work well for me."

• "I want to do this forever, I love it here."

• "The weekend was amazing. I had really put my daily devotional time on the back burner and I'm really excited to get back to doing it."

• " I came to this thing to get out of Saturday school. I didn't know I'd end up learning so much about God and end up having a personal relationship with him! It is awesome. I am excited."

Group picture

The girls getting their nails done at the spa

Illustrative faith and Bible Journaling

girls going for a boat ride

a leader and a girl whose family said that she never smiles for pictures

Basket Ball in Rural Alaska

This past weekend Sitka hosted the regional basketball tournament!  This event was a very big deal.  Below is an email sent out by my boss and dear friend Brent Cunningham.

Other news & Prayer request: This weekend we are partnering with the local churches to provide a girls discipleship weekend.  We are flying up a speaker from Seattle and have 20+ local women helping facilitate this event. We are hoping to reach 50+ girls from both Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka High School. Pray for girls to come!  Pray for the speaker the leaders and facilitators!  Pray for the holy spirit mighty hand to be at work!  

"Basketball is everything in rural Alaska.  Winters are long and cold.  The gym is the place where LIFE happens.  ESPN just aired a great "ESPN short" on basketball in Toksook Bay, Alaska.  I've been to Toksook to visit some kids from Mt Edgecumbe High School over Christmas break.  Mt Edgecumbe is our high school in Sitka that has approximately 400 students from 120 different villages.  

If you really want a little glimpse of what life is like in bush Alaska...watch this video.  It will capture your heart.