Loving Alaska

With Valentines day just behind us, I have been thinking about love quite a bit. There are many things that I would say that I love: God, my family, reading, and getting to do things outside. I am so fortunate to add to this list...Alaska! We truly love where we live, and the people that we get to "do life with." Our students, fellow staff members, and friends have all become extended family to us. Living in a remote location will do that! :)

We have been very busy these past couple months- I got a bit behind on my blogging! The kids started taking ice skating lessons because Noah really wants to join the hockey team next year. There is an indoor rink in Soldotna where they can take lessons. The rink also happens to be where our local team, the Kenai Brown Bears, play their games. The kids think it is pretty cool that they get to skate on the same ice as the "professionals."

Ready to skate

Noah really gets into the local hockey games. 

Although it has been unseasonably warm here, we still have had a few good snow days. Even with the lack of snow it has been cold enough that we still have been able to keep our outdoor ice skating rink on campus frozen. That has been a great source of (free!) fun for both our students and our family.

Noah's getting much better at both skating and using his hockey stick

Fun on the campus rink

Practicing with Dad

 

Students and staff went head to head for the annual broom ball championship game.

Grace has been doing great with her swimming. She practices twice a week at the high school pool. It is fun to participate in local sports in a smaller town- everyone gets involved! At Grace's first meet her pastor, her school librarian, her gym teacher, and several ACC staff were all working as timers, concession workers, and coaches. This close community has really helped Grace come out of her shell.

Grace and her buddy Eden after their first meet

Proud of my swimmer!

The kids continue to enjoy the Alaskan winter. Even though we have less snow then normal here, it is still more than my kids have ever seen! They have been busy iceskating, sledding, snow-shoeing and of course, building snowmen.

His head is a work in progress...

Over Valentines day Steve had the opportunity to travel to Barrow, AK to do some recruiting. While he was gone the kids and I lived it up back here at home. They had two days off of school due to conferences, so we spent some time at the Moose is Loose (yum, doughnuts!) while Steve froze up North.

Moose is Loose!

Ready to walk across the street in Barrow, AK

The oldest building in Barrow- the whaling station

 

The frame for a whaling boat they were building. Can you imagine trying to kill a whale on the Arctic Ocean with nothing but this boat and a spear?

The seal skin that they stretch over the frame to waterproof the boat

Steve and James (one of our students) at Point Barrow, the furthest North point in the USA. That is the Arctic Ocean (frozen) behind them.

In other news, Noah finally lost his first (two) teeth. It came down to pure determination to get that second tooth out, and the tooth fairy had to do a late night Walmart run because her wallet was bare. :)

The kids continue to enjoy our church which meets at their school. We enjoy spending Sundays with lots of friends, and with many of our students.

Grace and Noah help present the artwork they made in Sunday School

Valentines day was fun even though we were missing Steve. I helped with the Valentines day party in both kids' classrooms (fortunately they were staggered). One of Grace's friends brought a meat tray to share with the class, and informed me that it was different types of Moose jerky and sausage. She told me that her dad shot and killed the moose himself before making the jerky in their garage. In true Alaskan style Grace's classmates devoured the sausage and jerky without giving it a second thought. :) After school we went across the street to ACC where I helped the staff beat the students in our annual broom ball showdown. The kids enjoyed watching with their new stuffed Valentines day friends.

Grace had quite the V-day haul

Noah didn't do too bad for himself either

Watching broom ball

Cheering on Mom

ACC staff and students after the big game

Sorry for the long post! I will do a better job at staying up to date in the coming months. We would love to hear from all of you, feel free to shoot us an email or give us a call to catch up!

A Christmas thank you/update

It's beginning to look a lot like Alaska...

The woods that back up to our yard after the first snow

After a long wait (we almost broke a record!) it has finally snowed here in Kenai Alaska.  Snow always reminds me of redemption and second chances. All of the dead brown vegetation around here has been covered in crisp white snow.  Alaska daily astounds me with it's breathtaking beauty.

The kids were so excited to see the snow. Other then a couple of trips to Northern AZ where the snow was already on the ground, they haven't really experienced a true snowfall. They were outside with snow pants on before it was even sticking to the ground.

Helping me shovel the driveway- shoveling is hard work!

Making snow angels

So excited for the first day of snow!

Sledding down our driveway

They have spent the past week sledding and playing outside every day after school. We don't have more snow in the immediate forecast, but hopefully we will see some soon. In the meantime, the snow we got is still around because the temps are staying low.

Steve has been really enjoying the classes he teaches at ACC. He also got the opportunity to preach last week at chapel. It was a great sermon about endurance in our Christian walk, and in life in general.

Working hard in his office at ACC

 We have stayed pretty busy, but have had the chance to spend some time with our coworkers. We had several families over for Halloween (many people here do not live in neighborhoods so they used our house as a trick or treat "launch point.") We also got to drive down to Homer for the day a couple weeks ago for one of our friend's birthdays. I feel so fortunate that we have such a great community of people up here already. When I think back throughout our life, I feel so fortunate that we have had such great friends during each phase. The same is true of our life here in Alaska. People here serve as each other's extended family due to the fact that most of us live thousands of miles away from our relatives.

Our family at the beach in Homer

Enjoying the beach in Homer

Steve with the kids in Homer

 Living where it is so dark during the winter comes with some challenges (cue the vitamin D supplements, "happy lights", and extra exercise.) However one of the fun things about the lack of sunlight is the fact that most Alaskans put up their Christmas lights early! When we first saw them popping up around Halloween I couldn't believe my luck! For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a weak spot for a good Christmas light display. Much to my dismay we found that our Christmas lights did not make the moving "cut" (or were forgotten back in AZ) so we had to keep our light display scaled down this year. (I can hear our neighbors chuckling..."scaled down" by my standards is still pretty bright!) We put our lights up the night before the snowfall, so it was just in time!

Noah ready to help us put up Christmas lights

We are continuing to see lives changed here at ACC. One of our students celebrates one year of sobriety tomorrow! Others are learning to persevere through varying challenges including those faced by most college students: schoolwork, time management, figuring out how to make their faith their own. Some deal with even harder challenges such as those that one of our past students, Rae, dealt with. In this video she talks about how God used ACC to overcome some of the difficult obstacles in her life.


Rae Fancher from Alaska Christian College on Vimeo.

Thank you for your continued support as we strive to make a difference in our students lives!

We are looking forward to Steve's parents coming for Thanksgiving- it will be great to have family nearby. We are also planning our trip back to AZ for Christmas. We will be there from Dec 15- Jan 1. We are planning on spending the week of Christmas in Prescott, and the rest of the time in Tempe if you would like to connect with us while we are back and here more about our ministry here at Alaska Christian College.

Hope to see you all soon!

Countdown to Snow!

Now that the last of the summer tourists are gone, and the leaves are mostly off of the trees we have had more and more visits from our long-nosed neighbors. This mama has made sure that my rose bushes are nice and pruned for next year.

The past month has absolutely flown by! I cannot believe that tomorrow it will be November. Most of my month was spent planning the annual Alaska Christian College Vision dinner, which was last weekend. I am so proud of our students, we took 26 of them to Anchorage to help with the dinner and they all did so well!  The weekend before the ACC vision dinner, New Hope Counseling Center (the counseling center on our campus that serves more 90% of our students) had their fundraising dinner. This is Marlene (my mentee) and Grace at the New Hope dinner. One of my favorite things about ACC is the way that the staff get to really know the students, especially those that we mentor. Marlene and I spent lots of time sewing kuspuks (Native Alaskan tunics) for Noah, Grace and me.

Noah has become fast friends with one of the other staff member's daughter. They insisted on sitting on the same chair during the New Hope dinner.

We have made two trips to Anchorage this month, once to meet with and report to one of our sponsoring churches, and once for the Vision dinner. The drive takes my breath away every time. Around every turn is another majestic view. We were very fortunate that it hasn't started snowing yet, so the drive was fairly safe. There was some ice, one of our board members flipped his car on the way to the ACC dinner- he is fine but it made me very thankful for our studded snow tires!

We have had so many wonderful guests come and invest in our students this month. We had a man who used to work for one of the largest tobacco companies in the world come and speak about what tobacco does to your brain from a scientific standpoint. He brought several real brains, which the students loved.

Last week we had the honor of hosting Governor Parnell who came and spoke with our students about his own spiritual journey and how it has impacted his life. My kids liked meeting him, but I am not sure they grasped the real significance of his visit. Noah calls him "Government Parnell."

Tomorrow we have a state representative and a member of the House coming to speak to our students. It seems like our little school is starting to receive some notice on the state and national level, which is very exciting. What is even more exciting is to see the willingness of these busy, important people to come and invest in our students lives.

 The kids with the Governor

In the coming month we will continue to be busy as finals approach, and students persevere through the mid-semester slump that usually happens. Please continue to pray for us- with the snow holding off and rain every day it is incredibly dark here which can lead to depression amongst our students and staff. As soon as we see some snow the light we have will reflect and it will be a bit less gloomy.

Steve is excited that he has started to study the Yu'pik language with some of his students and the help of the one Yu'pik grammar in existence.  He hopes to be able to learn the language as another way of connecting with our students, and showing them that we highly value their culture.

Marlene helped Grace carve her pumpkin

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We are loving it here in Alaska. Every day it we are reassured that we made the right decision moving here to work with these amazing students. Please consider visiting if you can! If not we will be back in AZ for Christmas Dec 15-Jan 1 and would love to see as many of you as we can.

Quyana! (Thank you!)

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