August 21, 2019


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. The service was mostly in Samoan, though the pastor interpreted a few points in his sermon. I was blessed by the worship service designed for the young families and including a few children acting out the sermon based on the story of Jacob and Esau. The Samoan church service was in the Samoan language. The pastor translated his key points of the sermon into English for me. Their hymns were in harmony to tunes with an island beat. Even though I could not understand the language I could understand the faith as they prayed and worshiped God. There was no church bell, but one of the church leaders summoned the call to come to worship by blowing a conch shell.

In the past three weeks I have been blessed to help the team of 5 Nomads tear off a cabin roof and repair the damage done by carpenter ants that had eaten through three of the beams that hold up the top part of the roof. I got to work on the scaffolding and the roof as well as a landscaping and blazing a trail to lead from the back deck that was replaced and enlarged to that cabin and also the one next door. A couple weeks ago we also helped remove 15 dead spruce trees around camp that had been killed by an invasive species of beetle. Then this week the weather turned colder after the winds blew hard from the north. A tree fell across one of the roads near a cabin and the ball field, and the top of a tree snapped off and fell on the ramp leading up to the cabin we had just completed roofing the day before. 

Some repair was needed there an on the ramp at deck at the sweat lodge. Having completed all of that extra work the team finished up by constructing ten 2-person benches to be put around camp after they get sanded and stained tomorrow. Another team came in this week to work and for the last three days they have cut down an addition twenty trees that are leaning or dying. Hopefully people will be safe from falling trees for a while.

Along with all of that there has been some electrical work replacing an exhaust fan in the bath house and climbing into a trench that was dug to add a new pipe to run diesel fuel into the furnace at the main lodge. 

We had earlier dug out the old tank next to the manager’s house that had leaked all the fuel out after the earthquake last year. The plans are now to have new tanks above ground with buried pipeline.  Unfortunately, an electrical wire god snagged by the excavator, so I got to climb down in the trench to re-wrap electrical tape around the power line. I had some plumbing work in the kitchen to stop some leaks and reseal the sink used for cleaning vegetables as it had come loose from the cutting board counter-top.

All in all, this has been a great summer. As you can see – never a dull moment. This week we could see the haze and smell the smoke from the forest fires up north. And after the wind storm the temperatures has dropped with a low this morning of 42 degrees and a high of 65. (I know some of you reading this are still experiencing some hot temperatures!) I finally got to wear my red flannel shirt and suspenders. 

 The leaves on the birch trees are turning yellow and falling. Fall is in the air in Alaska! Soon I will need to pull out my winter jacket.

Thank you all again for the prayers and support, and for reading and sharing my blog.

God bless you, till I write (or we meet) again.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 22, 2019 at 2:06 PM

    Thanks for keeping us up to date on your activities in Alaska. Glad to hear you finally saw a moose!! Our thoughts and prayers are with you and are looking forward to hearing about your trip to Nome. God bless you adventures. Nick & Doris

    ReplyDelete

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