RV'n 4 Jesus: Time is going way too fast....Weeks 6 & 7

So we left off at July 4th in our last post. Now this is something that us folks who reside in the lower 48 take for granted.....FIREWORKS! I never even thought about that...hmmm...No fireworks here! The fact that it doesn't get dark enough to have them never occurred to me, but they sure do have a great time. From the parade to the Mayor's picnic, there was fun to be had for the residents from all over Wasilla and surrounding communities.

Now for our part in the 4th of July festivities. Remember that Mayor's Picnic I just mentioned? Well, several of the churches and the association set up booths and gave away popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy, and set up the two bounce houses, one for the preschool and one for the older kids. We arrived at 8:30am along with the John & Linda Ross, the other COM missionaries, summer missionaries and the other churches, to begin setting everything up, what a huge task. Gary and Shirley sure have their hands full pulling this one off but by 11:30 we were up and running, people everywhere. After the parade finished is when things really got busy. Well, Momma, Ms Linda and I were assigned to the preschool bounce house and Daddy was with some of the games that were set up. What a great event connecting with the community. It was a great day, beautiful weather (a high of 68), and lots and lots and lots of people! The picnic ended at 3:00, had to tear it all down and pack it all back up and we finally made it back home by 6::30pm, What a long day, and yes, it took a few days to recover from that one. But it sure was a great event.

Momma and Daddy took a morning off for a little Date Day excursion. They heard that it

was super clear and "She" was out, what that meant was that Mt McKinley was showing all of her glory. So they got ready and took off. The moring was a crystal clear morning and yep, there she was in all her glory, Mt McKinley...AKA...Denali. She is the talest mountain in North America, no that is not clouds you see, the white is the mountain. They say only 30% of those that come to see her actually do. SO, they, no we are officially in the 30% club, though I did not go with them, I went to the end of the street and was able to see her from there, so I did get to see her too. :) Though, they were the ones that went and got all the pictures. So thankful they did. The pictures are amazing!

We were also blessed this week to have Shelby and Deanna, (the two summer missionaries that Zackary is working with) join us. They ended up not being needed at the VBS where they were scheduled for so they helped Momma and I at a thrift shop. Journey Church, which is a new church plant has Saving Grace thrift store as a way to raise funds for their church. The four of us set off to the thrift store to work for two days for Pastor Bill Little. We were told to do what we wanted in the way of rearranging and organizing, so Momma and I had a great time, ok, I think we all had a great time. The four of us went from top to bottom just giving it a little make over, not that it needed a lot, but just a little rearranging goes a long way and yes, we cut up a little bit too, imagine that :)

We finally had a day off, which didn't actually stay a day off, but at least we were able to go

to Anchorage for the first part of the day and enjoy the market, check out the Fam Camp (base camping area) and meet up with Zackary, Shelby and Deanna for lunch and the Bear Paw festival. It was truly a great day, oh and we got to eat at a super yummy Mexican restaurant called Garcia's, so if you are ever in Eagle River, stop at Garcia's! Now, the good part of it not getting dark here in Alaska is that at 9:00 at night you can jump in the car and go for a little excursion. So we did just that, after dinner we jumped in the car and were able to ride out to Cook's inlet and get a few pictures, I just wish the tide wasn't out, but that just means I need to go back and get some more pics.

Now for one of our best weeks, Schrock VBS. Schrock as you know has been our host church since we arrived in Alaska. So for us, it was like doing VBS with our home church, knowing the children and getting to meet the friends and parents of the ones we already knew. Oh and did i mention, Zackary, Deanna and Shelby were working with us this week too? So, as you can imagine, it was a great week. Momma had the 5th and lets just say 5th and above in her class(we didn't turn away anyone), Zackary was in rec, Deanna led the music, Shelby was in preschool, I was in the kitchen and Daddy floated when he was there. Oh and since the summer missionaries were staying with Pastor Rodney and Ms Anita, that also meant they were there to help with all the behind the scenes stuff, and they did a great job too. This VBS was at night, with dinner for the family, kids and workers was at 5:30 then VBS ran from 6 to 9. It made for long days, but the time spent with the kids was great! Watching Pastor Rodney and Ms Anita with the children and seeing how much they pour into these kids is truly beautiful. I loved working along side of them during this week, what a privilege to serve them.

During this week, Daddy was able to hook up with Scott, who does a prison ministry. He went two different days to help with the Bible study and had a great time. What a great opportunity it was for Daddy to get to do something he loved doing so much back home. Make sure you ask him about his time there, it was a great experience for him.

As you can see from the last few blogs, our time here is going so fast and we have an extremely full calendar, but we are serving and doing it all for the glory of God. I better wrap up these two weeks and say....Tune in again...for the next post! Lots of great pictures of us doing what we came to do...serving and ministry!

Keep us in your prayers and know that we love you all

Loving God and Loving others
Kristi
Bob and Carol
Galatians 6:9-10

Mayor's Picnic