Once again, time has flown since our last blog update. I
can’t believe it’s already the middle of June! Here are a few updates:
Summer camp has started! Luke is just finishing
week 3. He has been absolutely loving it. The usual routine is for counselors
to lead a camp for half of the day, and then attend a class/bible study and do
a work project for the other half. This week was a little different with half
of our counselors out doing camps at a nearby village. So he got to travel to
different beaches with 2nd- 4th graders for the morning camp of “Sand
Engineering” and swim with 3rd through 8th graders in the
afternoon for “Splash” camp. A fun but exhausting week.
Meanwhile, I have been handing over the reins of
lead teacher for the 3’s and 4’s preschool this week. It has been a very smooth
transition and the new teacher will be absolutely great. Today my last day!
After just 5 months of teaching preschool I have learned a few things:
- You absolutely CAN carry on a conversation with
a 3 year old - and an entertaining one at that
- It is pretty much a gamble to do any sort of
craft involving paint with this age group
- Be silly with kids – they love it
- They are WAY smarter than we give them credit
for
- Kids need to be active or they will be crazy
- They have an un-ending supply of energy
- They MUST report each “boo boo” – even the
faintest scratch. Even if you can’t see it, they want you to make a big deal out of it
- The most important thing we can do is just love
them
Even amongst the relief of
finishing and the excitement of joining camp, I do admit I will miss those little
ones. (At least most of them… )
Our Kodiak Baptist Mission staff has almost
tripled! The summer staff started coming in at the end of May. It’s been fun to
get to know people from all over the country who come to give their summers in
service at the mission.
We have continued to enjoy the great outdoors of
Alaska. The wildflowers are starting to bloom, the mountains are finally
turning green – it seems as though summer has finally made it up here! This
last weekend a group of about 12 of us hiked to the nearby village of Ouzinkie.
It was a 7 hour hike through the trees and along beaches – it included some
bush-whacking and even climbing down a waterfall. The village is actually on a different
island, so we hiked as far as we could and then the rest of our group, who took
a boat over, picked us up and took us the rest of the way. We all stayed the
night at a house the mission owns in that village, ate a dinner of smoked
salmon, potatoes and seagull eggs and then took the boat back the next day. It
was fun to see the village – we are excited to spend a week leading camps there
next month.
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| Hiking through the moss |
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| Bushwhacking up a hill |
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| A beach along the way |
SUNSHINE! We had 6 days IN A ROW of sunshine! We
couldn’t believe it. It even got into the 70’s a few days this last week. It
was gorgeous. We’ve heard that some summers they don’t even get one day as
beautiful as that. Hoping those aren’t our last…
We have finally gotten several
opportunities to get out and kayak – something we have been really looking
forward to. One of our trips was very exciting with a huge sea lion that
consistently surfaced just a few feet behind Luke’s kayak. We were convinced he
was following us. It’s hard not to think about how easily he could tip us! Next
week we have the opportunity to lead a kayak camp together for 5
th-8
th
graders.
We had some friends come visit from Denver. They
came for Crab Fest, the biggest festival all year in Kodiak. The kids talked
about it for weeks leading up to it. There is a small carnival that comes in, a
bunch of food booths and great activities including a survival suit race in the
ocean. The only unfortunate thing was – there was no crab for Crab Fest this
year! Our friends were greatly disappointed but ended up getting a hold of some
anyways. We had our own seafood feast at Ted and Kathy’s complete with king crab,
king salmon and scallops. Luke and I got to try crab and scallops for the first
time and decided they aren’t half bad – our seafood horizons are greatly
expanding.
We were able to raise pretty much the full amount we
need to get through the summer. We are SO SO grateful for all of the friends
and families that are supporting us. Praise the Lord for His provision!
Those are all the updates we have so far. We are so thankful
for all of your prayers. In the coming weeks, please pray for:
- Safe travels for Heidi and Tim’s trip up here
next week
- Energy and patience for
every day of camp
- Servant hearts
- Good health for all of the summer staff (we just
went through a week where almost everyone got sick for a day or two).
Especially pray for one girl who came up to be a counselor for the whole summer,
but got mono her first week here.
