Finally fall!

Growing up in Colorado, fall was always my favorite season. I have great memories of taking drives through the mountains to see all of the Aspen leaves changing colors. For the past 8 years I have lived in the land of heat and palm trees. I have missed fall! When I told some friends up here in Alaska that I was so excited to finally live somewhere with four seasons they just laughed. Apparently they think that the very short fall we have here before the snow comes doesn't count- but I know better! I am soaking up every crisp, crunchy day!

Hiking on the trail that starts in our yard

It has been a very full month so far! Steve is really enjoying teaching his math courses as well as the Old Testament course. He says that teaching in this environment is very different from any he has experienced before. Not only does he get to invest in the students academically, but he is also involved in their day to day lives in a way he has never been at any school before.  

Steve's Old Testament Class

 Chapel Time

First time students receive their bibles from ACC. For many this is the first bible they will receive.

 Our friend Simone, from AZ, who served as campus pastor for a week

Since the beginning of August I have been working part time in the development office helping to raise operating costs for Alaska Christian College. One of my tasks is to help the other support-raised missionaries connect with people who share their vision for Alaskan Natives. I enjoy my work, but the best part about my job is the fact that I get to spend all day while the kiddos are at school working on campus along-side our incredible students. My office is right next to Steve's (we have dubbed it the Hallam wing) and we get to serve in this ministry together.  I enjoy the daily breaks in my regular tasks for time with students during story (testimony) time, chapel, and mentoring times. 

Mentoring time with Marlene making kuspuks

 Noah modeling his new kuspuk

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and notes of encouragement.  I can't tell you how much they mean to us! You can't imagine the difference they make. Please continue to pray for our students. We still have full retention, which is a total miracle! Many of our students have a lot to overcome, but they are in the best possible place to succeed. With your prayers and support we truly feel like we are making a difference in the lives of these students.

Some of our students at the beach 

Back to School

The school year has officially begun for both our kids and the students on the ACC campus. Most of the ACC students arrived on campus last Thursday evening after long trips from all over Alaska. For many this trip took multiple days, and many forms of transportation. 

Campus feels completely different now that the students are here. There is a buzz of excitement, smiling faces around every corner, and hugs and fist bumps throughout the day. Last weekend was filled with "get to know you" activities including a hike up to Russian River Falls where salmon spawn and bears feast, a bonfire on the beach and tours of our town.

Noah hiked most of the 5 miles on his own- this was a short break near the end of the hike 

Quite a few of our students joined us for the hike- more noise= less chance of bear attack, so I was overjoyed by the turnout!

There was plenty of evidence even if we had missed this sign- you definitely had to watch your step!

Carmen and Alyssa were my hiking buddies- they kept me going when my legs started to complain. Carmen is one of our students from the recently flooded village of Galena. She lost her home in the flood. Rebuilding efforts are underway, but please continue to pray for Galena as winter quickly approaches.

The spawning red salmon were GINORMOUS!  It was amazing to watch them swim against the current and jump up the steps of the river.

Helping each other out with some shoulder rubs after making it up to the falls.

Steve got to re-connect with Eugene, who we met last November when we were here interviewing.

Classes started today, as well as many other activities on campus. One activity that I am really looking forward to is the mentoring time that we will have each week. This week all of the mentors and mentees met together for some games and ice-breaker time. We will start meeting one on one in two weeks. My mentee is going to be Marlene, a sweet student who is going to do me the GREAT honor of teaching me to sew during our time together. She sews beautiful kuspuks, a type of tunic that Native Alaskan's wear. We are going to make some for my kiddos and family members/friends that want them. Let me know if you are interested- hopefully I will be a kuspuk-sewing machine after my time with Marlene!

 Listening to the instructions for one of the games during todays mentoring time.

Grace and Noah started school last week. It has been so wonderful to hear how much they love their new school. This was definitely something I worried about when we were discussing moving to Alaska. Their school is right across the street from ACC, just a short walk away. We can easily go back and forth to be able to volunteer, attend school functions, etc. The kids love that their classrooms are right across the hall from one another so they see each other often throughout the day.

 

First day of Kindergarten

We are still loving the Alaskan life. Granted we have had gorgeous weather to enjoy! We spend much of our free time at the beach down the street from our house. We often see wildlife at the beach including bald eagles and a seal we have nicknamed "Sammy." In just a few short weeks (around 6 from what we hear) the beach will be covered in snow, so we are soaking it up while we can.

Bedtime walk at the beach

The kiddos like to "rock climb" during low-tide

 Fishing for driftwood with Dad

Please continue to pray for us as this semester kicks off. Our biggest prayer right now is for retention of our students. It can be a very difficult transition from life in the village to ACC. Some of our students have never been away from home. Ever. Their villages are completely isolated with no roads in or out. This is their first experience of "city" life, and it can be very overwhelming. Added to that is the strain and worry about being in an academic setting. We currently have 48 students. We could easily lose 10 of those in the first few weeks. We are praying for a miracle- that all 48 will choose to stay and see what God can do with their time here.

When in Alaska...

We have been so blessed to have lots of friends and family already visit us here in Alaska. Steve's mom has come a couple of times and his dad got to come over the fourth of July. My mom is arriving a week from today. It really means so much to us that loved ones are willing to make the north-bound trek!  Currently we have a family staying with us that came up with a work team from Palm Desert, California. They are staying an extra week and it has been so great to get to know them. All of these guests have given us ample reasons to explore our new home. We have visited Homer, AK, with its cute, artsy shops and majestic glacial mountains. It poured rain but was still a great day. I found my new favorite book store, crammed full of used books.

With the work team from Cornerstone Covenant Church we went to visit a dog lot where a team (plus quite a few others) of sled dogs live. What a different life that would be! There were around 40 dogs and when it was dinner-time things got pretty loud! I am excited to go watch some of the races this winter- they sound pretty amazing to see.

We are getting settled and learning our way around. Grace burned her finger on our fire place so we found the ER (she is fine, just a bad burn on the tip.) They did make fun of us for having our fire place on in June. Taylor (the dog) got sick so we found the vet. Grace's teeth were hurting so we found the dentist. Then we all got the flu this week and found our doctor. Necessity is the mother of introduction! ;) 

Steve has been working very hard on campus getting his courses developed and ready for the students. He has also been taking courses online to get his Masters in Applied Mathematics which will help Alaska Christian College  to meet their accreditation requirements. Every time I think we are done with school, more seems to come our way. Good thing we love it!

Steve and I have been really weighing our options as far as the kids schooling is concerned. We decided to enroll them at the public elementary school that is right across the street from ACC. We will be able to walk back and forth to volunteer and participate in the kids school events. We were nervous because they are getting a new principal and have been going through quite a few changes. We emailed the new principal to see if we could meet with him and he got back to us last week. He explained that his family just moved here this week and they are just getting settled but arranged to meet with us right away. He was incredibly nice, has kids the same age as ours (we already have a play-date scheduled) and seems like he has a great vision for the school. We already have him agreeing to play softball on our church's team :)  His family is from Montana but have been living in the bush in a small village for the past few years. They decided to move into town for their kids, but he has some really good insight on teaching the Native students within their culture. He will be an invaluable resource, and we are so excited and feel so much better about our decision to send the kids to his school.

We are counting down the last few weeks until our students return. The work teams are getting the campus ready, and Steve and the rest of the staff are preparing the academic side of things. Steve will be traveling with another staff member (and friend) Sean Hoffbeck who is the Dean of Students at ACC to the small village of Unalakleet the first week of August to attend a student leadership conference. This will be a great opportunity to get a better feel for village life as well as develop some strategies for raising student-leaders in our college. Steve is nervous about the lack of showers, but last we heard there was running water to at least use for sponge baths...probably....maybe. You can see Unalakleet's location on the map below, it is quite a bit farther North and West than we are located. You can read more about the village here: Unalakleet, Alaska

Although the kids seem to think that it is FREEZING here (I keep telling them, "just wait!") we have been enjoying the nice cool weather. There has been lots of bike-riding, playing outside, animal encounters, etc. and we are loving every minute of it. Steve ran (literally) into a moose on our front porch a few days ago when he was rushing out the door, but fortunately it was already moving away from the house at a pretty fast pace and didn't backtrack to "hoof" Steve. We see moose, caribou (reindeer), and bald eagles most commonly. There have been bears in the area but we have only seen "evidence" of the bears, and fortunately have not run into any actual bears.

We feel so blessed to be working with such a great group of people at Alaska Christian College. We have had lots of opportunities to spend time with everyone and it seems like our team is really going to mesh well. The Hamilton family (President at ACC) hosted a fourth of July BBQ at their house where everyone was able to come and spend time playing fun games and eating great food. We are looking forward to many more opportunities like this one to get to know our co-workers better!

 The "bat" game where you spin around a baseball bat...Alaskan-style (note the axe substation on the left)

We are excited for what the next month holds- especially meeting all of our new students! Thanks so much for all of your support, prayers, and encouraging words. Life here is definitely different, but we really feel like we are home.

We are here!!!

We have been in Kenai for a week now, and are finally starting to get settled in. The kids are absolutely loving the location of our new home. The above picture was taken right behind our house. Every day I am astounded by the beauty here in Alaska. Grace loves that the beach is nearby (even though it is frozen for quite a bit of the year!) Noah loves that we live at the end of a quiet street, so he can ride his bike and scooter to his hearts content without worrying about cars. We feel so lucky to be able to live here!

The actual move went about as smoothly as a move to Alaska can possibly go. Loaded up with 8 suitcases, a dog, two kids,  my mother in law Marsha and I boarded the first of three planes that would get us to Kenai. 18 hours later we finally arrived in our new home town.

The kids favorite part of the trip was the last leg on the puddle jumper from Anchorage to Kenai. It is only a 15 minute flight (that saves you a 3 1/2 hour drive), but Noah and Grace loved every minute of it! (The plane in the picture turned out to NOT be our plane. Ours was much smaller) :)

The drive to Anchorage to pick up Steve's truck and the pallets that we shipped was absolutely breathtaking! Around every corner was a more beautiful view waiting.

We have heard more than once this week that we must have brought the Arizona heat with us. We have had record breaking temperatures here. There was a heat advisory last Friday morning when temperatures were said to have hit 80 degrees. We are trying to take advantage of the good weather in between unpacking boxes and getting settled in to life at ACC.

 One of the things that has been hardest to adjust to is the ever-present daylight. This picture was of a late night shopping trip with Marsha at Walmart taken at about 11:30pm. Last night Steve and I were putting in a late night painting when he called me over to the window. He told me he thought the sun was finally setting (this was at 1:30 am). We watched the sun go down...and then come right back up again about 20 minutes later. :)

Steve started work at ACC June first, and is getting settled in to his new office. Our students are at home in their villages for the summer, but there is still much to be done. This coming week begins the visits from church work teams that will spend the summer updating and maintaining the campus. Steve and I will have the opportunity to host several of these teams. We will be able to work alongside those teams, bring them to dinner in our home, and show them around our beautiful city. This is such a wonderful time to build and strengthen relationships with those people who have been faithfully supporting and praying for our ministry. I would invite any of you who are interested in finding out more about ACC to look into putting a team together for next summer!

Before I close this post, I wanted to make you aware of a special prayer request. One of the villages that is represented in our student body is that of Galena, Alaska. This month as the Yukon river broke up and began to flow through the village, an ice dam was formed and the village flooded. One of our students, Kaylin Kopp put together this video sharing her experience.

Galena Video

Please keep the people of Galena in your prayers. After the flood there were only 3 homes left standing. All of the missionary organizations here in Alaska are working together to try to help these people clean up and rebuild their village before the cold and potentially deadly winter hits again.  If you would like more information you can visit http://www.akmissionconnection.org/galena-relief/ or https://www.facebook.com/GalenaRebuilders. 

Thank you all for your prayers during this time of transition for our family! 

I'm leaving on a jet plane

...and Steve is driving 3800 miles! :)  We are so excited that we found very inexpensive (aka $100!) plane tickets for the kids and I on Alaska Airlines so the three of us will not have to do the long drive. Steve will be doing the drive starting May 24th with his good friend (and one of our supporters) Bryan Powers. The boys are planning on doing the drive as quickly (and safely!) as possible. I have heard talk about them sleeping in the back of my truck, etc. I guess I should be happy they are saving money on hotels, but I don't know if I will ever get my truck smelling normal again!

We just got back from a weekend at the Grand Canyon with Steve's parents. Steve and I have been quite a few times since meeting, but we realized that we have never taken the kids. So last weekend the 6 of us drove up to Williams and then took the Grand Canyon Railway up to the canyon for a night. Poor Noah developed the stomach flu on the trip up and spent much of the trip resting in the hotel room, but he was such a trooper and even smiled for a few pictures. Grace had an amazing time- she is just at the perfect age for this kind of a trip! Both kids earned their junior ranger badges by attending a ranger talk and filling out a work book. They are both so excited to visit the national parks in Alaska and earn their badges there.

In front of our Train- check out the socks!

Getting their Jr Ranger Badges

It got a little chilly the second day- but nothing close to Alaska cold :) That's Noah's Jr. Ranger badge on his hat.

With about 2 weeks left before Steve gets on the road we are working hard to finish up all of our loose ends here in Arizona. I graduate Friday morning with my Masters in Information Resources and Library Science. The kids finish school the 23rd of May. We found a good deal on a used 20' trailer that my Expedition will be able to tow up to Alaska. Other then some last minute packing, we have been working on finishing up our support raising. God has been so faithful to provide so many people with a heart for Alaska. We need to be at 80% of our total monthly goal in order to be able to head up North in a couple of weeks. As of today we are at 75%, so if you have been considering giving but haven't made a commitment yet, now is the time! An extra $200/month would get us to that 80%!

We have been sending out monthly newsletters by email and snail mail for those that prefer that method. If you are not currently receiving our newsletters and would like to, please email me at lindsayhallam@gmail.com and I would be happy to add you to our list.

Our "new" trailer

The next newsletter I send out will be from Alaska! We are so very excited to see what God has planned for our family, thanks for being part of the adventure!

Random Alaska Fact O' the Month: If New York City had the same population density as Alaska, only 16 people would be living in Manhattan