Northern High-Lights

Northern High-Lights 10.0 September 30, 2019 https://northernhigh-lights.blogspot.com/ Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer Over the last couple weeks, I have been blessed to host a few more groups at camp. We are busy most weekends, although things were quiet this weekend, but we had a large middle school group here for three days during the week. They were here for the worst weather I have experienced up here so far! We had rain and sleet as well as dense fog in the morning which made their outdoor activities miserable on their first day here. They went canoeing and I offered to help the camp director dump 4 or 5 inches of accumulated water from each of the canoes before they could be used. Then I helped the students get the right size paddles and life jackets. The jackets had been stored in huge totes but after the first groups wore them, they were wet and strewn all over the floor of the boat house.   The director had talked about having a rack to store them on, so after...

Northern High-Lights 9.0 September 20, 2019 https://northernhigh-lights.blogspot.com/ Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer Over the last couple weeks, I have been blessed to host a few groups at camp. We are busy most weekends but there are some that come for a day or an overnight during the week as well and we had a volunteer group who came for half a day to volunteer and do some work around the camp which was awesome.   I did get to host a large men’s AA group last weekend. They don’t drink alcohol any longer, but they could drink me under the table when it came to coffee consumption. I was constantly putting pots of coffee through the Bunn throughout the weekend. I have joined the local Chugiak UMC choir and increased the men’s section by 50%. Depending on where I’m needed some weeks, I’ll either sing tenor or bass. At the end of my first rehearsal I was asked by the director to sing a solo on October 13, which will be my last weekend here in Alaska. Needless to say. ...

Northern High-Lights 8.0 September 8, 2019 https://northernhigh-lights.blogspot.com/ Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer After returning from my trip up to Nome, I had a couple days to work around camp before my younger daughter Ellen and here fiancé Paul came for a visit Labor Day weekend. With some weather delays for them leaving Boston they arrived a day later than planned but we still had 3 fantastic days to enjoy one another’s company and to see most of the things we wanted to see. Near here we went to a musk ox farm and walked among the pens and fields housing about 30 animals. We took a whole day to drive up to Denali National Park, but with the clouds we did not see the tallest mountain in North America, but we did see several wild animals along the 6-hour bus route into and back out of the park. There were moose, Grizzly bears, caribou and mountain sheep. And on the way back down here we drove by a mama black bear and two cubs along side of the road. We also passed thr...

Northern High-Lights 7.0 August 28, 2019 https://northernhigh-lights.blogspot.com/ Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer at Birchwood Camp  This week had lows and highs. After seeing my first moose last week, I saw my first dead moose. It had come through camp and drowned in the lake after it had apparently been attacked by a brown bear. I got the job of rowing out to it with one of the other volunteers who attached a rope and then it was a challenge dragging the moose to shore to be taken away by an animal removal truck. It made for a sad day for us all. The NOMAD team finished up the cabin roof and deck project including repairing the damaged ramp from the fallen tree. They also built ten sturdy wooden benches for around the camp and enlarged the deck and brought the wood storage shed up on the deck at the sweat lodge. To celebrate the end of their work, we had a sweat ceremony. We were instructed to drink plenty of water beforehand and to wear a bathing suit and brin...

Northern High-Lights 6.0 August 21, 2019 https://northernhigh-lights.blogspot.com/ Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer After being in Alaska for 7 weeks I finally got to see my first moose! She came out to munch on the grass right behind the RVs that the Nomads have parked by the manager’s house. I am still waiting to see my first bear, but hopefully not that close. And now I am hearing that I might see a musk ox this weekend when I fly up to Nome to meet the people of the Nome Community UMC which the Penn Yan UMC has supported for years. I have prepared a sermon as the pastor has asked me to preach on Sunday and tell of my missionary service here. This will be my first sermon since I retired. I have been a little busy here at the camp for the past three weeks since I last blogged. I have helped to host a few camps and participated in camp worship both with a conference family camp and last weekend a camp retreat by the congregation of First Samoan UMC in Anchorage....

Northern High-Lights 1.0 July 31, 2019 https://northernhigh-lights.blogspot.com/ Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer Since my last post, I have made contact with the pastor and former pastor at the Nome Community UMC. Pastor Charlie Brower retired July 1 st the same day I (and hundreds of other UM pastors around the country) did. He and his wife Janet drove over to the camp to welcome me to Alaska. I then got the name of the new pastor Bertha Koweluk and contacted her. She invited me to come up while I am here, and I scheduled a flight for the weekend of August 23-25. She asked me to preach that Sunday morning and share my missionary experience here at Birchwood Camp this summer. I told her I wanted to talk to people and see the ministries of her church to report back to the Penn Yan UMC for their Nome Sunday coming up at the end of September. This week I have been hosting Boy Scout Troop 119 which is a special needs troop with a few teenage boys but also younger and middl...