RV'n 4 Jesus: Our first two weeks!

May 29th through June 12th

How quickly the time has gone. I can't believe we have already been here going on 3 weeks. We decided since the access to the internet is not as easily accessible as we thought it would be, we will "prayerfully" do our posts every other week.

So, for this one we are doing our first two weeks. Our first week was a blur. We rushed to get here, and then we went from meeting to meeting. We met with many of the church plants that might need our help over the summer. We also ended up meeting the other college summer missionaries that Zackary is working with and Campers on Mission summer missionaries as well.

Some of those meetings were with Pastor Bill Little, with Journey Church. Their church has a thrift store, Saving Grace, that we hope to get down to volunteer to work some for him while we are here as well as helping to hang new clothes rods. We also met with Scott who has a prison ministry that Daddy is planning to work with. We have all the papers done and just waiting on clearance to start.

We were anxious to jump right into our work that the Lord brought us up here to do, so we got busy right away.

We were able to jump right into a painting job over with Pioneer Baptist to help get a room ready for a mission team that was coming to help add a foyer to their church.

We have been placed at a little church in the outskirts of Wasilla, Schrock Road Community Church, with Pastor Rodney and his precious wife Anita. Please pray with Pastor Rodney and Anita as well as with us, for their church. That God would lead faithful Christ followers their way to come along side of them to work and serve the Lord at Schrock Road Community Church as well as for the Kingdom of God. We have been so blessed to be here and to get to love on them for the summer.

Our first work project assignment for the church was to re-paint the once youth room back to a usable room for Bible study. I laughed as we were painting, thinking how many youth rooms across the US are painted lime green and bright orange...I'm sure quite a few have that wonderful lime green color in the mix somewhere. So here is a little side note for the ones that will have to re-paint it...2 heavy coats of Kilz still doesn't cover it up!!! We could still see it through the Kilz. Once we let that dry we painted it with the good stuff with extra cover up in it....and it turned out beautifully. So, if you haven't painted your youth room lime green yet...DON'T DO IT! LOL So, you can only imagine our delight when we painted the next room and it was just in need of a fresh coat of paint, that went much easier. As I said earlier about the children on Wednesday night, we are helping with that by giving Anita a break and supplying the snacks for the kids. Our first yummy snack was ice cream cookie sandwiches, the hardest part about making those was NOT being able to eat them!!!! I'll just say, I'm thankful there were a couple extra and I'll leave it at that! To say the least Momma is loving all the children, she just jumps right in there with them, I love watching her with them.

We are working as Gary, the DOM put's it, 50/50, 50% working along side of the church and 50% working along side of the Hatcher Pass Association. Our first project was for the association. We went out to Pioneer Baptist Church to help paint a room to get it ready for a mission team that was coming in to serve there for a week. Pioneer is also the church where the other COM summer missionaries, John and Linda Ross are staying.

Our next association project was to do a block party, which is all loaded up in a trailer. It's a party in a "trailer" instead of a box! LOL What fun and what HARD work that was. We were excited to get to work with missionaries John and Linda Ross for this one. We quickly found out, it takes more than 5 people for set up. Thank God for others that pitched in and helped. The block party trailer is exactly what you are thinking, 2 bounce houses, snow cones, popcorn, carnival pitch/toss games, face painting, cotton candy, hot dogs, hamburgers and lots of love! We sure did have a great time and slept really really well that night! lol

Can't forget setting up some cots for a mission team coming up for the week, thanks to John and his jeep, they saved us from walking them back and forth.

We again, joined John and Linda for a work day at First Baptist Church, Eagle River, up towards Anchorage, but when we got there, we found out it was a men's prayer breakfast . After they eat, they do a little work around the church. Soooooo, us girls left the men, Daddy and John, there and went on to Anchorage to hit the Ulu knife factory and found the market. It was a great morning just having a little downtime together. We only had a couple of hours, but I can assure you we will most definitely head back there again. We only got down the first two isles before the guys called and said they were done and ready to meet for lunch at the Lucky Wishbone. Apparently if you go to Anchorage, you have to eat there at least once for their pan friend chicken, and mmmmm it was just like Grammie use to make!

So as you can see, our time here is flying by so quickly. We are busy plugging in and loving every minute of it. God is working and moving and we are ready to plug in where He is at work. So much of this may just seem like maintenance work, or stuff someone else should have to do, but I look at all of this as an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to come along side of these very remote small churches that have very few members. Also it's an opportunity to give them a helping hand, to love on them and to bless them in any way possible. Life is hard up here. It is very different from back home where it is the southern culture to go to church and help others. If we do nothing more than help these ministries accomplish their to-do list , then I know we have done what the Lord sent us here for.

Again, please pray for the two churches that the Ross's are serving along with us, Pioneer and Schrock. Pray that God would bless these pastors in their homes and in the churches He has called them to. Pray that the churches will grow, that God will open the eyes and open the hearts of people around these churches and obediently follow Christ with every fiber of their being for God's glory.

We love you all and ask you to please continue to pray for us. God has so overly blessed us and we just want others to see the light of Jesus in us and that God will receive all the glory in all that we say and do here.

Galatians 6:9-10
Kristi
Carol and Bob