New Assignment and Rememberings

Well, the time has come to start a new missions assignment. Fortunately, this assignment does not come with a change in location for us, since we really love living in Palmer. Starting in 2009, Bryan will be assisting the Alaska District Council of the Assemblies of God with building assessment and repair/construction. Currently, missionaries Odis and Debby Ganey are doing this job alone, so they are excited about us coming to help. Odis broke his leg this summer and came to realize during his recuperation time that he shouldn't be the only person taking care of such a large job. We have been good friends with Debby and Odis since we moved to Alaska, so it will be a pleasure working along side of them.

This also means that Bryan's busy time will be changing. No longer will we be itinerating all summer as we have been the last few years. Instead, Bryan and Odis will be working in the state during the "warmer" months of the year and itinerating in the "colder" months. Bryan will be traveling to the Lower 48 in February and March to do some itineration. Unfortunately, the girls and I won't be able to join him due to our school schedule.

The girls are excited that we won't be gone for the typical 2 months this next summer. Rachel is very excited to plant flowers and a garden. She has been wanting to plant flowers for two years, but we never can since we are gone. We will be gone at least one month since we always go visit both sets of parents in California and Texas. We always look forward to our time with them.

Yesterday was our 13th anniversary. I was remembering our anniversaries when we were in Fort Yukon. One year Bryan had gone to Fairbanks and was coming back on our anniversary. Whenever one of us went to Fairbanks without the rest of the family, we always had to bring back food from a restaurant. That year I had a huge craving for McDonald's french fries and chicken nuggets. So that is what Bryan brought back. When he got home with the stone cold food, I put it in the toaster oven to get hot and crispy, and we had a delicious anniversary meal.

Most of the time when we went to Fairbanks, we would order Chinese delivery from our favorite Chinese take-out place and have them deliver it to our gate at the airport. If we were all together at the airport, we would sit there and eat our food, but most of the time, whoever was in town would bring it home to the rest of us. What a treat that was when we had eaten only our own cooking for weeks without a break. It was always interesting to get on the plane and smell all the different food that people were taking home to their families: pizza, burgers, fried chicken, etc, and to see the eager family members waiting for it at home.

I am thankful to live near grocery stores and other conveniences now, but I do miss parts of living in the village.

This week in Palmer the temperatures are around -20 degrees. It feels cold, but in Fort Yukon this week it is -60 degrees, so that keeps things in perspective for us. The hard thing about living in the city when it is this cold is that you have to use your vehicles to get around. If we haven't plugged our car in, it doesn't like to start up at this temperature. I am thankful we have a block heater and battery heater, but the last few days the plugs have been completely encased in ice. Bryan finally took a welders torch outside and melted the ice. Our truck battery is dead since one of the doors wasn't shut all the way, and since it is so cold, our battery doesn't want to charge up. When we lived in Fort Yukon we didn't have to worry about cars and trucks. If our snowmachine wouldn't start, we just walked wherever we needed to go. Of course, the cold brought other issues in Fort Yukon, like the heater not working when it got really cold or having to keep a space heater on the washing machine so it would work.

Ah - the good ol' days. :)

We are glad to be in Palmer now, but we will always have good memories of living in Fort Yukon. It sure was an adventure!

Happy New Year!

We're back on!

I finally got back on here!  Blogger changed how I can log into our blog, and it finally worked tonight!  

It has been a long time since I was on this blog.  The last time I wrote, we were moving out of Fort Yukon.  Now we are in Palmer, AK where we have lived the last 2 1/2 years.  Bryan has been teaching at Far North Bible College in Anchorage.   He has really enjoyed teaching at Far North.  He also finished his Masters degree this summer.  We are all glad that he is done with that!  He graduated with nearly a 4.0.  He worked really hard.  Our assignment is about to change, though not our location.  I will put our newsletter on here in a week or so.

I spent the last two years working as a substitute teacher in our school district.  I enjoyed subbing, but I was really wanting to get a contracted position.  This year I finally did, and I have a great job.  I work at a grades 3-5 elementary school as a Title I teacher.  That means that I work with small groups of children that need extra reading and math help.  I think that I have the best job in the school!

The girls are in second grade and kindergarten this year.  They both love their school and their teachers.  They are looking forward to Christmas (of course).  

Today we put up our tree because Rachel was driving me nuts with "I don't have anything to do!"  I did take them to our new Target store today.  We Alaskans are so excited to have Target now.  They opened stores in Anchorage and Wasilla (about 10 minutes from us) in October.  I waited until November to go in though.  When new chain stores and restaurants open up in Alaska, people go nuts.  We all miss our Lower 48 favorites.  Bryan just announced tonight that Olive Garden is coming to Anchorage.  We joked that it will probably be $25.99 for our favorite salad and breadsticks.  That's how it is in Alaska.  Even Chili's is a special occasion restaurant for us.  When we go South in the summer we want to eat out at all of our favorite places, and everything seems so reasonable!  

Tomorrow Wendi and I are selling crafts at a craft show.  Craft shows are huge here around the holidays.  The one we are in tomorrow had about 2500 people come through it last year.  People drive the 45 minutes from Anchorage to attend.  It really is too big, but we put our money in for a table last year, so we are going!  Wendi is the crafter.  I just go to help.  I don't have time to be crafty.  At least, by the time I have time, I am too ready to do nothing but lay in bed and watch people be crafty on HGTV.

Well, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I will get on here and update our blog sooner than another 2 years!

The moving process continued

I (Traci) am in California and finally have access to the internet so I can write more. We are on our yearly trip to visit family in Texas and California. The girls and I are at my parent's house in Sacramento after spending three weeks with Bryan's family in Texas. Bryan is back to Alaska now. He and his dad drove from Texas to Anchorage last week. It took them 6 1/2 days to drive over 4,000 miles with a large trailer filled with furniture and other posessions that we have been storing in Texas. The trip was uneventful except for a close call with a semi that crossed into their lane on a 2-lane road. Bryan and his dad were both shaken up from that experience, and Bryan said that he felt as if his hands were guided by Someone else since he was able to swerve off and back on without loosing the trailer and going into the ditch. Thank God for His protection! Bryan hasn't checked the full extent of the damage to the contents of the trailer, but he did notice that one of our large paintings was popped out of the frame.

In continuation of the river/Fairbanks trip...
The man who owns the barge in Fort Yukon didn't get the barge into the river until about 9 o'clock Sunday night, though he had promised Bryan it would be 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Bryan and three friends loaded the barge until 2 in the morning.
They had agreed with the barge driver that they would meet at 7:30 and leave at 8. He finally showed up and they got on the river at 10:30 am. Bryan started out driving behind the barge, and followed him for about two hours. In those two hours they drove about 24 miles upriver. They were going so slow that Bryan had used up half of his gas and was concerned that his motor would burn up. He finally passed the barge and continued on his own.
They (Bryan and the two friends riding with him) made it to Circle at 6 pm. Our helpers from First Assembly in Fairbanks had arrived in Circle at 12:30 that afternoon and were wondering what was happening. They called me from Circle just before 6 and asked me if I had heard from Bryan. I thought they would be half way back to Fairbanks by that time, so that got me concerned. Fortunately, Bryan showed up while I was on the phone. They didn't know how far the barge was behind them.
The barge finally pulled into Circle at 10:00 that night. The owner's son and a friend were driving his boat behind the barge so that they wouldn't have to take the barge back to Fort Yukon that night. The smaller boat had run out of gas and messed up their engine because they followed the barge all the way.
With all of the help, it didn't take long to unload the barge onto the trailers. When Bryan went to pay the barge owner, the guy told him that it would be $200 more than they had agreed upon since it took him all day! Bryan was really upset about that, but tired enough that he just paid him and walked away.
On the road trip into Fairbanks, the truck Bryan was riding in and pulling the trailer with lost it's brakes. They were driving in the mountains on a dirt road with no guard rails and steep drops in areas. He said he was praying pretty hard, and they made it down and into town. Bryan finally arrived at the house we were staying at in Fairbanks at 2:30 am. Needless to say, he was pretty exhausted.


As of right now, I have not been contacted by any principals about teaching jobs. The school district I am applying to is closed for the month of July, so it looks like I won't hear anything until August. School starts August 22nd. Until I get a job, we will be living in an apartment that the college owns. We won't try to buy a house until I have a job.

Moving days

Today is day four of our sure-to-be moving "saga." We flew into Fairbanks Thursday night so that we could get the girls to their dentist appointments Friday morning. Bryan flew on Frontier (our "bigger" plane service - seats 11-13) since we had a round-trip ticket that we hadn't used yet. The girls and I flew on Warbelow's (our smaller 6-7 seater plane service) since their rates for the girls are better.
We had a full flight, so Audrey sat in the back across from a friend, Rachel sat in the first row, and I sat in front of her: in the co-pilot's chair. When I sat down, Rachel asked me, "You drive, Mama?".
The flight was going fine until about 20 minutes from Fairbanks. We started over the White Mountains and the plane was somewhat wobbly. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Rachel throwing up all over herself. Out of four women on the plane, all we could find was one tissue and a small handi-wipe. One woman friend offered a maxi-pad, but I felt I had the situation in control enough. I got her somewhat cleaned up only to have her start up again a few minutes later. Since I had used our one tissue and one wipe, and I had no spare articles of clothing to remove and use for a wipe, I ripped off Rachel's shoe and sock and used it to wipe her off. Then I noticed that Audrey was holding a bag up to her mouth in the back of the plane, and the other little girl looked "green" as well. I was turned in my seat, holding a bag in ready position for Rachel when I felt the pilot pushing my foot down. I hadn't noticed that my foot was in the way of the co-pilot's handle that the pilot was trying to pull back so he could land the plane. When we finally landed in Fairbanks, and Rachel was still dripping, Rachel said, "Now me go Taco Bell, Mommy?"
Today after early service at church and lunch, Bryan got back on the plane to Fort Yukon. The plans were for him to get home and begin loading the local barge and our boat with all of our stuff. However, when he arrived in the village, the barge was not in the water and the barge owner was not home. When Bryan finally got the barge owner on the phone, he was told, "Well, I hope to have it in the water by tonight." Bryan reminded him of the plans they had already discussed, and he told him about all of the people driving to Circle in the morning to meet them to get our stuff to Fairbanks. The barge HAS to be loaded today and on the river by tomorrow morning. The barge owner said something about going to church in the evening and then getting it in the river. The Baptist church lets out at 8 and then often shares a meal together afterwards.
At about 8:45, Bryan and our friends that are helping with the moving were finally able to get started. He just called me (10:45) to say that the boat trailer and four-wheelers are on the barge and now they can start with the boxes. He sounded relieved, though rushed, and I am sure that by the time I see him in Fairbanks tomorrow, he will be exhausted.
A trip to Circle on the river rarely goes without trouble, or rain, but we know that God will take care of Bryan, our helpers, and all of our earthly posessions. Whenever we start thinking about it too much, Bryan just says, "It'll give us something to write home about." I guess it will. Goodness knows, it already has!

Moving To A New Assignment

This summer we will be moving to the Anchorage area. Bryan has been asked to teach at Far North Bible College in Anchorage. FNBC is an Assemblies of God college that is run by missionaries and volunteers. The college is going through the accredidation process and needs full-time staff.
Before we ever came to Alaska, we hoped that we would be able to train Native Alaskans to minister in their own villages. Teaching at FNBC will give Bryan the chance to do this.
We will miss village life. Moving to the city will be a big adjustment for our family. We will have to buy vehicles and a home. Because of this, it is necessary for Traci to find a teaching job. She will be attending an educator's job fair next week. It is typically difficult to find a teaching job in the Anchorage area, but we are trusting that God will provide what we need.
This change in location does not change anything else. We are still Assemblies of God Home Missionaries supported by many wonderful churches and individuals. Thank you for your continuous support. Without our supporters, we would not be able to do anything that we have done in Alaska so far.

Sunset over the Yukon River

Newsletter Update

In our newsletter, I told everyone that we were out of propane for our stove and didn't have any in town. Well, on Christmas Eve, 85 bottles of propane came to town! We were able to bake a ham on Christmas! What a gift!

Fall 2005 Newsletter

I am attaching our Fall Newsletter that is getting ready to go out. I haven't published anything since September, and I just spent several hours writing the newsletter, so I thought that I would "kill two birds with one stone." Of course, many of you may get our newsletter already,so this may be old news, or our newsletter will be old news by the time you get it. Sorry!

Happy holidays to you from Fort Yukon! The end of the year is fast approaching, and the official beginning of winter is now here. We have had a mild fall this year, with the first good snows not falling until right before Thanksgiving. We were beginning to wonder if it would get too cold to snow before we got snow! No snow here is a bad thing, since many people, including our family, use a snowmobile for transportation during the winter. Shortly after we got snow, the temperatures dropped to 47 below zero for several days. By the end of that same week, we were at 20 above zero. Most places probably don’t ever see a difference of almost 70 degrees in one week!
We have had several exciting events this fall. We started out in September with a children’s after-school Bible school. We were contacted this summer by Christ Chapel in Mount Vernon, MO about them coming to do VBS at our church. They came last summer to do VBS and had such a great time that they wanted to do it again. We couldn’t arrange everything in order to do VBS during summer vacation, so we decided to have the Bible school after school started. Last year the average attendance was about 14 children. This year we had 29 by the second day. It was amazing! The kids loved the songs, skits, videos, games, and dramatized Bible stories. They also loved the workers so much that we had trouble sending the kids home at the end of the day. We had parents tell us that the VBS was the best thing their children had done in a long time. The kids were excited to go tell their parents about what they were doing at Bible school! If you would like to read more about the VBS and see pictures, go to our blog page at http://northernlightministries.blogspot.com.
In October, we had a group of people out from First Assembly of God in Fairbanks. Two of the six people in the group were the church’s missions and music pastors, Kelly and Phillip Anderson. Phillip preached on Sunday morning, and Kelly did the music. Also in the group was the church secretary, June Roland who is Eskimo and has an amazing testimony. She spoke Sunday evening and had many people talk to her afterwards about what they have gone or are going through in their lives. We had a full church on Sunday night. After the service we served a ham dinner that the Fairbanks group helped provide. Everyone had a wonderful time. We enjoyed the fellowship and the “day-off” from music and preaching. That same day, we had 4 or 5 children accept Christ as their Savior in Traci’s Sunday School class.
Bryan’s parents were able to join us in November for Thanksgiving. It is always nice to have our family here with us. They were here to join us for Audrey’s preschool family Thanksgiving meal. Audrey was thrilled to have her grandparents here for the family event. Traci was excited to get through the holiday with propane for our oven. Trader Dan’s, our local gas station and the only place to buy propane, has been out of propane since June. We have been at the end of our tank for a while, and we were concerned about cooking a turkey without an oven. Microwaves and electric skillets are wonderful, but microwaved turkey and pumpkin pie didn’t sound too appealing! We actually made it until December 14thbefore running out of propane. Now we are using all of our small electric appliances to do our cooking. There is only one company that fills tanks and flies them to Fort Yukon, and so far our propane has not been a priority for them. Bryan may have to take the snowmobile and haul sled to Circle to pick up a propane tank. That 150-mile roundtrip would take a day of travel on the frozen Yukon River.
Last Sunday we had our annual Christmas potlatch and gift exchange after church. It is fun to see what people come up with for gifts. Some of the gifts on Sunday were a hand-beaded rabbit fur keychain, “home-grown” honey and strawberry rhubarb jelly, “Moose Juice Soap” (store bought!), hand made potholders and jewelry, and many other neat gifts. We also gave all of the children stockings full of gifts that the Women’s Ministries of Matanuska Valley Assembly of God church made and filled. The kids loved the gifts, and all of the women admired the beautiful stockings. One of the ladies brought a casserole with Dall sheep meat in it. The meat came from a guided hunt that cost someone $10,000, and they left some of the meat here with our church lady.
Traci is teaching preschool full-time this year. She has Audrey in her class again since Audrey missed the cut-off day to enter kindergarten. Rachel still stays home with Bryan, who is working on his master’s degree.
Thank you to all of you who support us financially and who remember to pray for our family. We wouldn’t be able to stay here without all of you.