Welcome to Winter

The girls & I took a trip to Kenai last week. Norah had fun with Uncle Max!

Justin stacks wood for the winter. So far the shed is 3 rows deep!

Greetings from Victory, where it's an invigorating 17 degrees and the sun is shining!
We have experienced lots of adventures lately as we battle against the cold. It's truly amazing what an effort it is to keep up a basic existence in a place like Alaska, and it makes us very thankful for the warm roof over our heads!
We came home from a trip to town a few weeks ago to step inside the house and find that it was only 42 degrees....inside!! (It was about 20 degrees outside.) Power surges around camp while we were gone had temporarily broken our heater and our house was frigid. It was late and we were hungry, so while Justin ran to the camp's woodshed to borrow some emergency logs, I put the girls on the couch with their winter coats and a blanket and started dinner. Justin got a fire going in the woodstove, we pulled out our small space heater, and soon it was a toasty 52 degrees inside! One of the camp's awesome maintenance men came and fixed the heater, but we quickly made the decision to rely on wood heat from there on out.
Justin enlisted the help of a couple of young men from camp and they spent one of Justin's days off chainsawing and hauling wood to our house. In the days since then Justin has spent many evenings out back with the chainsaw cutting the wood, and stacking it. I am thankful for a husband who works hard to keep his family warm, and thankful for a nice big woodstove to heat our home effectively and (somewhat) cheaply!

We woke early yesterday morning to find that our pipes had frozen, and there was no running water in the house. Matt and Andre came to work on the pipes and it wasn't long before I heard running water...coming from the pipe space beneath the girls' room and the bathroom. The pipes were spraying water everywhere and poor Matt was soaked. It was about 12 degrees outside and the wind was blowing off the lake, and Matt and Andre were having to run from house to truck and back again for parts. That is a recipe for hypothermia! The problem was eventually under control, but we need it to snow more here so that our pipes can be better insulated from the outside of the house.

We've had our fair share of sickness here lately, and now to top it all off, Norah came down with a stomach bug today. The crud is definitely going around camp and the community as well. Hopefully we can all be well again soon and not worry about sharing germs with each other!
On the program side of things, Justin is gearing up for Victory's high school retreat from November 16-18. He is also working with the program team on the theme for this summer. The theme has been chosen and now they are just working on the layout of everything.

Some ways you can be praying for us right now:

-That the fall sickness would leave our house and camp
-That we would have wisdom to know whether Norah should get tubes in her ears- (she has had recurring ear infections) we have a consultation next Wednesday with a doctor
-For the high school retreat, that it would be safe and fun, and many young hearts would be awakened to Christ

Setting a New Pace

Our  homemade scarecrow

The view of Index Lake from our kitchen window

Evie loves being a part of the Cubbies group at the church here

This is what we do with our extra time!

Norah's potentially unsafe new 'perch' :)

We are finding out that life moves a little more slowly up here in the mountains! While Justin certainly has an abundance of work to do, my job as mommy is slightly less demanding lately, and it feels so good!
While it felt a little strange at first to realize that I have nowhere in particular to go each day, (since we only plan to do a trip to town for groceries and other errands twice a month), and I had a bit of a 'boredom' syndrome going on at first, I am settling in to the more relaxed pace of living in the mountains far from town. It's a good thing I've got a little extra time on my hands, too, since our little quonset hut doesn't have a dishwasher or washer & dryer at the moment and that means a little extra work for everyone- but we are thankful to be right across the road from the laundry room here at Victory! I know that this nice relaxing time won't last forever, though, so I am trying to savor it while it does last!
Justin has certainly had plenty to do, helping to plan the upcoming Jr. High Retreat here at camp, recruiting staff to help counsel for that weekend, learning to host guest groups (since that will be a rotating duty of his all winter), figuring out the snow removal strategies around camp (we did not realize just how MUCH snow removal there must constantly be here!), and learning to use a chainsaw to cut wood for heating our house. All the work and busyness of the last couple of months seems to have caught up to our family, though, since we are all sick! Thankfully Justin's illness hit him over the weekend and he didn't miss out on too much work. :)
While we are still waiting on word of whether a couple more churches can pick us up on support, we are happy to say we've officially reached a solid 70 percent of our goal! We are praising God for this and praying that he continues to lead people to join the support team for us here at Victory.

Ways you can be in prayer for us:

-That Justin continues to learn his job of Program Director and what that all means
-That we can live as a family with a servant-hearted approach to our ministry here
-That the sickness leaves our house and we can all feel better soon!

Getting Settled In

a last bit of fall fun before leaving Minnesota

this is our new home--Blueberry

We are here at Victory, we are moved in to our house, and now we are settling in!
We had a bit of an adjustment coming in as it was 80 degrees in Minnesota when we left, and 40 degrees in Alaska when we arrived. We were a bit chilly for the first few days!
We had plenty of help from the awesome staff here as we unpacked, and meals brought to us the first week as we tried to find a place for everything and recover from jet lag. It has been a very smooth transition and we are thankful for that!
We are living in Blueberry, one of the quonset hut buildings here at camp. It is a unique little place and it's been interesting for me sometimes figuring out how to decorate a place with inward sloping walls! :)
We met with Jennifer Legg, the assimilation director here at camp, and went over lots of useful information on living here. While we have spent many summers here, we've never spent a winter living here as a family, and conference season can be quite a bit different than summer camp season. We are going to get on a roadkill team (sounds lovely, doesn't it?) and hopefully have a turn at one point or another to help clean a moose, cut and pack and grind and freeze meat for ourselves.
Justin started his first day as Program Director yesterday and he's excited about all the new possibilities for this next summer and the new connections that are being built between camp and local churches and youth groups.
Evie and Norah are adjusting wonderfully. Evie is excited to start Cubbies at the local AWANA group today. She's also so happy to have lots of staff kids to play with, and many of them are right around her age. Norah is still a little confused about where home is at times, but she is settling in.
All in all, we are so happy to finally be landed, and settle in for the winter and for the work of the conference season ahead! (We are just beginning to learn what that all means!)
A quick financial update: Our support percentage is right around 70% at this point. While we are so thankful and praising God for providing, we really need to be at the full amount of our goal in order to live without financial stress. Until we are at 100% we will be living on a smaller income. While it's worrisome, we are also anticipating what God will do to provide and we are doing our best to fully look to Him during this time.

Some ways you can pray for us right now:
-That our support will reach 100%
-That our transition into life at Victory will continue to be a smooth one
-That Justin will learn the ropes as program director and settle into his new role quickly

If it is easier for you to simply send an email or make a phone call rather than send in a pledge card, you can call the front desk here at camp at (907)745-4203 and let the secretary know that you would like to support us. You can also email her at elainea@vbcalaska.org.

Thank you for your prayers and support! 

Our Month-Long Trip

a hike at Silver Creek Falls in Salem, OR

Tubs at Mema's house in Mt. Joy, PA

along the Schuylkill River in Pottstown, PA

At the playground

croquet at Grandpa Elvin's in Winfield PA

Norah decided to climb back into the bathtub!

reading with Aunt Angie and the cousins

a brewing thunderstorm

another playground!

autumn beauty in Bemidji, MN

biking at Itasca State Park

cheese!!

forest fire watchtower at Itasca

It has been well over a month since I last wrote- oh no! We have not had internet access for most of our trip to the lower 48, and combined with a laptop whose keyboard is broken, communication to the rest of the world via computer just wasn't doable for several weeks!

It was perhaps a little bit nice to be away from the time-sucking power of the computer, though, and to enjoy friends and family and playing outside as a family!
So, an overview of our trip:
We spent 5 days in Salem, Oregon. Justin presented at Bethany Baptist Church, where he attended  during college. It was fun to see old friends and our girls had a blast getting to know the Sheets family and their two darling kids. Highlights of our time in Oregon: Hiking Silver Creek Falls, Evie falling into the swimming pool (this was not a happy highlight but a highlight nonetheless), hearing a fantastic sermon in Bethany Baptist on Sunday morning by Pastor Tim Baker, visiting the Trahern family on Labor Day, and soaking up 5 full days' worth of sunshine and 80 degrees!
We went to Pennsylvania for nearly 3 weeks and visited many different towns and communities, visiting family and presenting our ministry at Victory at 3 different churches. It was great to hang out with both sides of Justin's family and introduce everyone to our girls, who have never been to PA. Some highlights of our time in Pennsylvania: taking the girls to a wholesale farmer's market and a petting zoo, spending my 25th birthday with Justin's cousin Josh and his sweet wife Cristina, getting all the little ones together at Mema and Poppop's house to play and run wild, and presenting at the different churches where we had a unique and encouraging experience with each one.
We took a short road trip to North Carolina to visit the Eller family. It was a great time getting our kids together and enjoying the company of good friends!
We journeyed next to Northern Minnesota, where the fall colors are in full display. We've enjoyed relaxing a bit and having a slower schedule, and the girls have loved playing with Grandma and Grandpa every chance they get. Justin did a bit of recruiting for camp summer staff as he presented about Victory at Oak Hills Christian College here in Bemidji, the college that Steve is president at. Some highlights so far have been: deer spotting (we saw 28 deer in 14 miles on the drive up!), biking in Itasca State Park, walking the disc golf course here in town as Justin tried it out, and playing lots of games and enjoying family time.
Through it all, the girls have traveled wonderfully. We have joked that on the day we flew to Pennsylvania where we had a 7-hour unplanned stay at the San Francisco airport due to a delayed flight, the girls were happier than Justin and I! Norah did come down with an ear infection shortly after we got to PA but God gave us a huge blessing in providing quick and free care from a very kind doctor. We were very blessed to meet lots of new folks at the several churches we visited through our trip and were covered in prayer time and time again, for which we are so thankful.
We are still around 60 percent on our support as far as we know, but have hopes that we will have gotten a little further by the time we get back to camp. We are so thankful to have had this chance to say hello to dear ones and get in a trip to the lower 48 before we head up to our new home in just a few days!
Some prayer requests right now:
-That our transition & settling in to camp will be smooth
-That we will have wisdom with Norah's ear issues and deciding whether to have tubes put in
-That we have safety in travel in coming back to Alaska on Monday night
-That God will provide the remaining 40% of our support so we can serve Him singlemindedly!
Some praises:
-The amazing ways we have seen God answer prayer through large and small things, both in the last year and the last month.
-That He is bringing us to Victory after we've waited on Him- He is always faithful!

Treading Water!

Norah helps water my potato plants

...And sports her first real pigtails

It's August 8th. We are in the middle of a fabulously fun VBS at Calvary Baptist. We leave for a month in the lower 48 in 22 days.We have 16 days left in Kenai until we move. It's 13 days until Evie's birthday (if she knew how to count down days, she would be doing it!). Justin has 2 1/2 days of work left at his job, and I have 2 days of work remaining. Those are our countdown numbers at the moment!
This Sunday, the 12th, we will be hosting a soup & salad lunch at Calvary to give one last update on our ministry and support process. We are looking forward to talking about Victory, as always! Lunch will be around 12:45, or after the 2nd service if you'd like to attend!
Next weekend we will be taking the kids of Calvary's youth group to Anchorage for one last youth activity. It'll be an awesome weekend with disc golf, putt putt golf (hmm, I sense a theme here!) and hiking in Anchorage. It will be a little bittersweet, I think, knowing that it's our last trip with the precious teens at Calvary.
Our weekend in Glennallen was awesome! We had a beautiful day to drive up and spent the first night at camp. It was great to say hello to staff and campers we knew and to talk about how the summer went. It was so cool to see people that we'd met at the beginning of the summer and see how their confidence in their staff roles had grown and how God had obviously done some awesome work over the summer! We camped at the Tolsona Wilderness Campground just outside Glennallen. We got to say hi to some of Justin's old friends and meet some new folks too! Evie and Norah had a ton of fun with kids there and went through 3 changes of clothes in one day. (You would think I'd have remembered that we had bathing suits for them, and just let them play in the river/mud that way!) On Saturday night Justin and I got a chance to share our testimonies with the people of GCC. I always dread speaking to bigger groups of people, but am always amazed how God seems to help me to make sense with what I say anyways! On Sunday morning Justin talked about Victory and answered questions about camp. It was so fun to talk with people and find all the connections we had, and mutual friends across the state. Alaska's such a big state and yet you can always seem to find someone who knows someone you know! Another reason why we love this place. :) We believe God was glorified through our weekend there and are also thankful that Norah only cried for the last 45 minutes of a 8-hour stint in the car!
All the busyness of this month has left me wondering when we will find the time to pack our things and say goodbye to the sweet friends we have made during our last two years of living in Kenai and attending our wonderful church. I'm trying to focus on the unseen during this time and let God's peace rule in my heart and mind. Above all, we're excited to see the next 'bend in the river' as God's amazing plan for our family slowly unfolds. We are so thankful to Him for His faithfulness day after day.

Some ways you can pray for us right now:
-That this busy month goes smoothly
-That our move to Victory goes well and that we have safety in travel
-That God is glorified through this week of teaching VBS and seeds of salvation are planted in kids' hearts
-Praise to God for always being sufficient!

Thanks as always for your prayers and support!

Summer Stretch

A little bit of Norah mischief...helping herself to items on the bathroom counter

And getting stuck in the 2nd floor skylight of the dollhouse. (Is it bad that this picture makes me smile?)

The girls on a trip to the Alaska Zoo

A trip to McHugh Creek on Turnagain Arm with our friends the Bittles

 July is drawing to a close and we have begun counting down days....Evie is counting down days to her 4th birthday (it's on August 21st), Norah is counting down the days she has left before she is fully weaned (well, she would if she could :) ) and Justin and I are counting down the days until we make the full and complete move to Victory (just under a month).

We fly out to Salem, OR on August 30th. We will be presenting at Bethany Baptist Church while we're there-it's the church Justin attended while he was in college. On September 5th we're flying to Pennsylvania to visit family and present at East Side Bible and Calvary Bible Church. We're hoping to make a quick jog down to North Carolina while we're there to visit our friends the Ellers! On September 23rd we are flying to Minnesota and driving to Bemidji to stay with Steve and Brenda, Justin's parents, and Justin will do some staff recruiting for Victory at Oak Hills Bible College, where Steve is president. We will be returning to Alaska on October 1st.  At least I think I have all the dates right! It's going to be a long trip but we are really looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends and striving towards being at 100% of our support goal.

It is pretty crucial that Justin be able to be at camp to work with the program this fall and we are trusting God to see us through to our full budget at that time. It's very easy to doubt sometimes, when what we're doing looks rather foolish from a world's point of view. I had a chance to talk to a missionary who is visiting Calvary right now and confide in her that I worry sometimes that we won't be able to raise our support and we'll be stuck in limbo forever. She smiled and urged me to throw myself upon the mercy of Christ. She said she has never once been disappointed by taking a step of faith. It was so good to hear those words!

We are gearing up for Vacation Bible School right now at our church. I'm teaching the 3&4 year old class. Our theme this summer is Incrediworld - an amusement park theme from Answers in Genesis. We'll be studying different animals in God's creation. If you live in the area, and have kids through 6th grade, bring them over! It's August 6-10th and we start at 6:15pm.

Victory is in the middle of their last week of camp. We'll be able to stop in and say hi to everyone on Friday on our way to Glennallen. Glennallen Community Chapel is having their annual church campout and outdoor service this weekend. Justin and I will be sharing our testimonies for the church on Saturday night, and on Sunday Justin will present our ministry at Victory and give a short devotional. We're looking forward to camping out and as always, getting to talk about Victory and what God is doing there!

Ways you can be praying for us right now:
-That God will move mountains and we will get to 100% of our support
-That God will plants seeds of faith in young hearts during Calvary's VBS- 8/6 through 8/10
-That the staff at Victory finishes strong and leaves camp praising God for the work He did this summer
-For increasing measures of faith in God, and for us to partake daily of His grace.

Thank you for your prayers! We love hearing from everyone and knowing that we are being covered in prayer. Don't ever underestimate how powerful it is when God's people pray for each other!

-

Norah waits for the parade to start with her Uncle Levi

                          

At Juneau Falls in Cooper Landing

The exciting point of the hike was almost losing our dog Dagonet over the falls

It's almost mid-July and the summer days are flying by! This summer has already been different from any summer we've experienced so far. We know we are growing in our faith and being stretched in our trust in God, and that's a good thing.
We got to enjoy a visit from some dear friends from North Carolina this past week. Josh and Melissa Eller brought their two precious boys and visited the Kenai Peninsula. It was so good to see Melissa, who I grew up with, and to introduce their family to Evie, who they had never met.
Aside from Justin working full time and me working part time, we've gotten to do some fun summer things!
We took in the exhilarating 4th of July parade in exciting Kenai Alaska (...do you detect the note of sarcasm? :) It's funny to look back at things like this that I went to as a child and remember my excitement, and then see the same things as an adult and watch my children enjoy them just as much as I did. Despite the cloudy skies that intermittently spit rain, it was a fun family activity. Afterward we went to my parent's for a barbecue and had a great afternoon with family and friends.
We got to hike to Juneau Falls, which is 4 miles in on the Resurrection Pass trail, last week. It was just the right type of hike for busy folks and it has inspired Justin and I to try and do the full hike- from Cooper Landing to Hope- which is about 38 miles. More on that in later posts!
I have been studying 2 Corinthians in my personal time and it's amazed me to see the clear system of missionary support that God inspired Paul to urge the church at Corinth to apply. Sometimes I feel that we're lost or in the dark on the support raising front, and it's easy to take the world's point of view and look at it as mere fundraising. But knowing that it's a system focused on God's provision, which inspires outpourings of grace, which in turn allows us to give all thanksgiving to God, brings him glory! And isn't that our final goal?
We've had several people ask us specifics about our support goal and details of where we're currently at and what our future plans are. Don't hesitate to contact us- we'd love to hear from you! You can find us on facebook or email us to get on our list for e-updates. i_love_jesus7777@hotmail.com for Justin, or super_lyn_z@hotmail.com for me.

Some ways you can be praying for us right now:
-For the rest of the summer at Victory- this week is the short week with the youngest campers. Pray against homesickness, and for God to speak big things to little hearts.
-For family time as we struggle to find moments where we can all connect together throughout the week.
-For our support to continue growing.
-For health & safety through the rest of the summer as our health insurance has ended. The girls should be able to have insurance soon.
-Praise God with us as we thank him for his provision and care for us. Pray that we would always be aware and humbled by his grace toward us!