Brooks Range Bible Camp

We are currently sitting in the airport in Anchorage, AK awaiting our overnight flight to SC. We have had a great 2 weeks up in Alaska working with some Eskimo kids. The first week we had 28 kids (ages 8-12) come to camp. They were pretty well behaved (for the most part) and had a lot of fun. I’m not sure of the exact number of decisions that were made for Christ that week- but we heard of several stories of kids turning their lives over to Christ. The second week was a little more challenging (as was expected.) The teenagers were a little more stubborn, but not as bad as I had expected. (Praise the LORD!) We had 14 teenagers that 2^nd week- so we had almost a 1:2 (camper to counselor) ratio, which was great! Andrew was a counselor both weeks for some boys, and I was the camp nurse. We had a few cuts and bruises here and there, but praise the LORD no body got really sick.

One girl in particular, Chelsea (16 years old), really tugged at some of our hearts. She (along with a lot of the other teens) is addicted to smoking and alcohol. We’re not quite sure what it was, but it almost seemed like she had some sort of demonic influence in her life. Something just didn’t seem right. For example, as soon as we started reading the Scriptures during our chapel time, she randomly stormed out of the room causing a big scene and threw up outside. The 2^nd day into camp, several threats were made to commit suicide. So three of us counselors got to sit by her bed all night and pray and read Scripture over her. Anyways, the next day we shared some of our favorite verses with her and told her that we had been praying all night for her. She seemed to be somewhat receptive. But at the end of that day, she ended up going home because she said she couldn’t stand it anymore without cigarettes and hated it here. So as the Lord brings her to mind, she could use a lot of prayer. Pray that she would continue to seek after Christ, as her only fulfillment in life. There is a missionary couple in their village- pray that they would continue to be able to reach out to Chelsea.

We are hoping to take the next several weeks to really pray about where the Lord might be calling us full time. We’re hoping that by the middle of August we’ll have made a decision and start the support raising process along with the preparation for the field. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support in our mission journeys!! We’ll keep you updated.

Kingdom Air Corps in Sutton, AK

We flew up to Alaska on July 9. We have been staying at the Kingdom Air Corps Ranch in Sutton, AK with a SEND missionary (Dwayne King) and 50 other pilots/mechanics in training. For the past few days, we've been getting all 7 airplanes ready to fly 4 hours north (north of the arctic circle) to where we will be having camp for some eskimo kids.

Andrew & I were able to fly up to a Christian Urgent Care Center (closely associated with SEND) to look at a potential work place in the future. They are an urgent care center with the capacity to keep 3-4 patients overnight (if needed), as well as some doctor's offices (for routine care). Anyways- that was pretty neat to see a Christian clinic out in the middle of Alaska.

30 of us will be flying/driving up to Brooks Range Bible Camp today for 1 1/2 weeks. We will fly in tomorrow to several villages to pick up about 20 young kids. Then on Monday we will fly them back and pick up a group of teenagers for the second week. Then we head back on Saturday (7/24) to Anchorage and then Columbia.

Here are some specific prayer requests as we prepare to go to camp:

- Safe travels (the weather seems good right now, but please continue to pray that it would remain clear and the smoke from the fires would blow the other direction.)

- Wisdom & discernment of the pilots as they fly through the mountains/clouds & make critical decisions.

- Patience- especially for me as we work with teenagers who culturally lack a lot of discipline (pregnancy only magnifies that weakness)

- Salvation of many souls and that God would use them, in turn, in instrumental ways to bring the Gospel back to their villages.

- Clarity of the Gospel message that will be shared

- Continue to pray for God's plan for our lives involving missions- that it would be so clear where He would have us be full time. At this point, it seems unclear but we're going to continue to trust Him to show us.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support!!!