September 24th Update

We are officially in fall/winter mode! We've started school and all other things winter.
At least one of our kids is excited to have started AWANA! Just kidding. Evie is loving Sparks, Norah is loving Cubbies, and Grady is super excited to be a Puggle this year at our AWANA club. Justin is commander again this year and I am enjoying teaching Grady and a couple other awesome little boys in Puggles!

This is the view of Victory Peak from our backyard. The leaves are falling fast! Soon this will be all bare branches! The thermometer this morning at our house said 28 degrees. Brrrr!

Creative, kooky Evie made herself a robot costume. You know it's getting cold outside when our kids find these types of ways to amuse themselves during long days spent inside!

On a family hike up Teepee Ridge to look at the fall colors. Grady has learned how to smile on command!

Family pose on a fallen tree

Mercedes and Dagonet love to hike and tag along on our family adventures. Dagonet (our shepherd mix) is getting old, though-- we have to lift him into the car now, and he can't keep up with the 4-wheeler anymore. 

A bunch of hams!

We got picked for the road lottery into Denali National Park and got to drive our own vehicle in the 60 miles to the visitor's center rather than ride the park bus, which is usually the only way to get in. Here the kids have conquered a grizzly. ;)

We visited the Park Headquarters sled dog team! Evie loved Sylvie the dog because she was so quiet and mellow. Evie doesn't do unpredictable. ;)

Sad day! No pets allowed! We told Evie she'd have to stay behind. It's fun to introduce the oldest jokes in the book to your kids and they actually think they're funny!

In most of AK it's still fall, but at the higher elevation inside the park, it is most definitely winter. And beautiful.

A happy Norah going for a short hike in the snow.

We saw ground squirrels, a hawk, bull and cow moose, lots of dall sheep, and grizzlies. We also got to see a standoff between a bear and some sheep as the flock of sheep tried to pass the mountain slope that the bear was on. It was exciting! Who knew a bear could be intimidated by sheep?

A bunch of happy campers at Eielson visitor center! You would never know they were bribed to smile with the promise of a piece of chocolate....:)


Here's what's new with us right now...
You might remember in our past few blog posts that we've asked for prayer both for us and Victory Ministries as there has been a lot of transition here at camp lately. There have indeed been lots of changes and we've come to see a lot of this as growing pains. We believe God is changing Victory, and we know He is working in the lives of everyone here. Without going into deep detail because that would take an entire blog post of its own, we need to tell you that through months of prayer, seeking God's face, some heartache, and a lot of excitement over the mystery of God's good plan, we have made the choice to leave Victory. This isn't what we saw happening when we first moved here three years ago. But it's yet another way that God is showing us that He has a plan for us.

In some very cool ways, we have felt God working in both Justin's and my life and we have heard Him speak very clearly to us. We both know that we are being led to invest our hearts and lives in a church somewhere, and Justin's role needs to be that of a Youth Pastor. While we don't have a specific church that we will be moving to yet, we are in process with a couple of places to see if that is where God would have us minister. Most likely this will mean we'll be moving out of Alaska. Until then, we are fully and wholeheartedly continuing to serve at Victory.
 We're planning to personally make phone calls to each of our supporters in the coming weeks to chat about this period of transition, but if you want to speak to us sooner or even if you're not a supporter and just have questions, please feel free to facebook, email, or call us. Here's our contact info:
Justin's email: justinscotthostetter@gmail.com
Lynsey's email: lynseyhostetter@gmail.com
Our home number: 907-746-5304

Please continue to pray for Victory...God is most definitely at work here! Here are a few requests that we'd ask you to keep in mind and in your prayers:
-Please pray for staff unity. There has been a huge staff turnover and that means that God will be bringing new people to Victory to fill those empty roles. Pray that the Victory staff team will continue to have one purpose, and that purpose would be to love God and others and show the overwhelming love of Christ to everyone who comes on the grounds.
-Pray for Nadine Gillespie, one of the founders of Victory. She is an astounding 95 years of age and is just now beginning to have a lot of the physical troubles that come with living such a long and fruitful life! She isn't able to be home at Victory right now because of several small strokes that have impaired her quite a bit. Pray for peace for Nadine, for wisdom for her family to know how to best help her, and for Nadine's health to improve.
-Pray for our barn manager, Doug Thiessen. Doug has had issues in the past with bleeding spots on his brain, and most recently had surgery to fix one spot. In some unanticipated turns, Doug's health has not improved like doctors assumed it would, and instead it's gotten worse. Speech and walking are almost impossible for Doug right now and this makes everyone's world turn upside down. It's been absolutely incredible to see Doug's joyful heart through it all and to see him and his family leaning on God. But please pray for a miracle!
-Please pray that God would show us in His good timing where He's sending us. We want to live our lives in a way that blesses others and brings glory to Him. Pray we can continue to do that here at Victory until we leave.