I'm in an Alaskan bush village. Surfing wirelessly.

I have a few minutes here, so I thought I'd shoot you some sound bytes…

The school here in Koyuk has an incredible building, and they, like two out of the last three schools we have been at have wireless internet access. Not fast enough to video chat back home. But it is still respectable broadband quality.

It is very, very difficult to write intelligently about everything I see and hear. There is so much and I feel like I’m right in the middle of it, without any perspective. I've been sitting here now for about ten minutes just staring at the screen really trying to figure out how to put it all into words.

I am completely overwhelmed with the beauty of the land and the people.

The mountains are amazing. The hills. The plains. The rivers. The Norton sound. The trees. I’ll upload pics at some point. It is so amazing to fly everywhere too. What a perspective.

As we were flying out the first day, Megan said something like, "One of the reasons I love the bush is that each village is just like a big family." I definitely get that feeling, just from the short while we are at each village. People are incredibly welcoming to us. Every place that we go to I feel that we have been blessed more than we could have possibly blessed them: the welcome, the food, the laughter, the wisdom, the encouragement, the fellowship.

But here, like everywhere else in the world, there is a lot of pain. We have talked to a lot of people that have dealt with suicide, and many other painful things, very first hand. I pray that we can be a source of joy and of encouragement while we are here, and I especially pray for the friends and families that are here, and the ministries that support these people on a more permanent basis (or more often, I mean, because Bob’s ministry here has been ongoing, but still only annually).

Bob is really a great speaker and has a lot of good things to say. Everyone deserves respect. No matter what people do to you, you haven't lost your value. Have courage for the little ones that are watching you. We are created for love, and God is love.


I think that when Bob speaks, it hits home with people because Bob has been there. He is no stranger to real pain, but he has a real joy that he lives out. And he really, really loves people.

The verse I've been thinking about lately is, "Love sincerely. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good." - Romans 12:Something.

I keep getting distracted by things here... I should go and post this before we leave. Our two pilots are deciding right now if we can fly out of here. It is a daily question. The weather dictates a lot out here.

One more note. I had a latte this morning from Coal Creek Coffee. Myra, who started this little coffee "shed," has to bring the water in from a near by source in a big fifty gallon bucket or something, because the water on tap in this village is so hard here, it would just ruin her espresso machine.

During the school year she is only open from 7:30-8:30 am because she is a teacher and she home schools two kids. She says most of her customers are teachers and she pretty much knows what they want. They have a tab. Her ten-year old sister delivers the latte’s to the classroom. I guess the kitchen staff will usually get two per morning. Myra says, “I guess I need to get bigger glasses.”

I hear that the shed is on “skis” so that when the Iditarod comes through here she can move it to closer to the course and sell coffees during the race.

We trekked up the hill from the school where we stayed the night to the little shed that just has one chair by the stove, and picked up some lattes this morning. What a blessing for my city-girl heart. It was really good.

Sure, the church we did our rally at had a honey bucket, but the potluck food was amazing (duck, caribou, frozen wild berries, homemade bread) and now lattes and wireless internet this morning.

What a world.
Nica.