Months of planning, praying, worrying, and anticipating are finally through (well, at least concerning Alaska). Yep, two teams, four weeks, 70 campers, and about 400 mosquito bites later, and all is complete...somewhat. I thought I'd take some time to give a basic, semi-detailed report of just how everything went.
For whoever might not be up to snuff about this AK trip, just a quick intro. A group of us from our church flies up to Alaska each year, to a little village called Port Alsworth, which is only home to just over 100 residents (that's a rough guess). Lake Clark Bible Church holds weekly summer camps all summer for many different age groups, from elementary school to high school. Two teams from our church go up for one week each to act as camp counselors. The first team was up there with the 5th and 6th graders, our team was with Jr High.
So Team 2, which consisted of Scott Burns, Johnny, Vu, Marcus, Scott V, Bryce, Kevin, Molly, Megan, Katie, Hannah, Stephanie, and myself, met at the church early Thursday morning (4:15 in the AM to be exact) and drove on down to LAX. Nothing too exciting, fortunately the travel day wasn't long since we had a direct flight into Anchorage, AK. Things were a bit complicated getting from the airport to JR's house where we'd be staying for the next day and a half. It took a couple of hours to shuttle everyone there. A day and a half was spent at JR's hanging out, playing Mario Tennis, getting use to the fact that we weren't going to see any darkness for the next two weeks, praying, and preparing the week ahead of us all. I was still recovering from my broken foot, so it was kinda a bummer to be hobbling around. It was such a sweet time being there with everyone. The fellowship God granted us was invaluable, and the group came together very well. The guys spent most of Friday clearing the back yard of JR's neighbor for he and his wife. It was about 4 hours of dragging and carving up wood with a skill saw (according to Burns it was about 2-3 cords worth, which means nothing to me). The girls spent time cleaning the house, and they made us these killer grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for lunch. Oh...my...goodness...was it good. Compliments to Katie Connette.
Saturday was spent flying into Port Alsworth. Bryce, Molly, Scott and Myself took the first flight out early that morning. Excitement was super high; doing devos in JR's kitchen that morning sitting on one of the smallest chairs to one of the smallest tables ever made, I was extremely humbled that I'd been given this opportunity yet again. Burns dropped us off at Lark Clark Airport, and we flew out on a bush plane that seated only 5. The flight was probably two of the most beautiful hours I'll ever live through. We arrived in PA and tried to graft our way into the camp in session as best we could. It was great seeing the other team up there, and everything seemed to be going wonderfully for them. It took about half a day to get all of Team 2 out into PA, but we made it (and with minimal panic attacks...those planes are small). Since our team had about two days before the campers arrived, we got to steal time and continue in our awesome fellowship. A highlight was heading down to Dry Creek (to Alaskans it's a creek, to SoCal folk it's a river) for dinner off the shore of Lake Clark (50 miles long btw). On the way we got to stop and fire off a 300 Magnum Rifle something-or-other. All I know is it was powerful. (It was also hilarious to watch the girls shoot...) It was a great time of fellowship as we hung out, and spent a good deal of time preparing and praying for the camp to come.
Now how in the world can I sum up a week of camp? I can't...but I'll give it something of a shot. Monday was a busy day...a lot of rushing around followed by periods of waiting. All the campers from the previous week were flying out, including Team 1 members. At the same time, our jh campers were all flying in. Bryce and I were counselors together, and it took all day before we had our entire cabin at camp. Will, Andrew, Ethan, Ben, and Michael, along with Bryce and myself made up the Mulchatna cabin (basically the best one of the entire camp). We spent that monday hanging out with the campers, playing games out at Sig Field, and looking forward to the week we had ahead of us.
The week began to fly by starting on Tuesday. The schedule was in full swing and we were moving from one place to the next. The head counselors had to be up for staff meeting every morning at 7. After our meeting was done the Jr counselors went to theirs, during which we had to go wake up our cabins and tidy up the place. Breakfast was amazing every morning. (To get the subject of food out of the way, the camp feeds you so incredibly well up there. The food is all homemade and you feel like you're eating every hour...it's heaven.) From then it was worship and lesson time, which Burns taught in the morning, and pastor James taught in the evening. A typical day included activity stations (I spent all week "teaching" riflery...being a SoCal boy, most of the girls up there are better shots than I am; very humbling), all-camp games, hanging out on the waterfront, and a personal favorite for the counselors...Flop On Bed (FOB), otherwise known as nap time...that was heaven as well.
Getting to know the campers is a blast. The differences between kids who live in Alaska and kids who live in SoCal are pretty stark. They're a savy bunch, and can out-survive you any day. Little hints and comments make it known to the counselors that we were looked upon as "Lower 48ers," meaning we're from below the 48th parallel and therefore...live like it. Occasionally you'll hear snickers... We do what's called a "Hobo Breakfast" one morning where each cabin makes a fire on the shore and cooks up their own eggs and so forth. Us SoCal counselors were supposed to be in charge of the fire-making for the Alaskan natives...you can assume how that went. There's never a dull moment with these kids though.
Burns brought the Gospel banners up with us, and they worked very well. Camp was a bit interesting this year in that there didn't seem to be as many expressed desires to submit lives to Christ as have been previous years. However, there was no doubting the campers got the Gospel...a whole lotta it...all week long which was sweet! The 6 points stuck with them, and by the end of the week just about all the campers could recite it back to you.
As camp came to a close, the mood became a bit more somber. Most of these campers were about to go back home to very tough lives in their villages, and having to leave PA wasn't easy. The night before everyone left and the departure day were difficult for everyone, particulalrly the girl campers and their counselors. It was more than neat to see the level of compassion and caring that was built up between them over the course of just 8 short days. Team 2 members flew out of PA at various times throughout the day. Molly, Megan, Katie, Bryce, Vu, and myself were the last group to fly out at 12pm (right before lunch, which was a real bummer). Mixed feelings throughout.
Back in Anchorage, we had about a day and a half of r&r to look forward to. No hard labor this time (but no free dinner at Red Robin either...tough trade-off). We went to Sportsman's Warehouse for like the 20th time. It's this place we traditionally go to that's like Bass Pro Shop, but not as Dinsneyland-ish...really not too interesting, but Burns loves the heck outta it. Afterwards, since the girls got down to the living room first, the guys were out of luck on Mario Tennis. Instead we were treated to some Jane Austin...a la Mansfield Park. I'm not gonna lie...I enjoyed it, and so did the other guys (although they'd never admit to it). Tuesday we drove down to Hope, Alaska to fish for Humpy (yes, Humpy) Salmon. It's a gorgeous 2 hour drive along the coast...but Hope is not all that interesting either. Fishing isn't my thing (no, not even for Humpys), so the girls and I went on a hike. We were only gone about an hour since we came upon this old, ripped up car out in the middle of nowhere, and figured a brown bear had done the damage. Needless to say, some of us were a bit spooked by that (not me of course). One the drive back to Anchorage, Burns pulled over and decided to fire off the Stub Nose 454 Casull... This thing was so awesome, it deserves a whole paragraph all for itself:
So the casull is basically a hand-held cannon. Supposedly there are only two other handguns in the world more powerful than this thing. It's carried around for protection against grizzlies, and it's supposed to take one down pretty quick (I wouldn't want to find out, but having seen one fired off, I believe it). I was scared just holding this thing! So Burns decides he's gonna fire it, and he looks a bit wary about it (he'll never admit to that though). Anyway, he does fire it, and the recoil is so intense(!), that it brings his hands up above his head...if you know anything about Burns, you know that it takes a very very powerful weapon to throw his hands back that far. Anyway, he looked shaken up after he fired it (again, for Burns to be shaken up...), the hammer even cut his thumb, but he decided to fire it again, this time with a bit more control. It made my day.
We got back, packed up, cleaned up, and made our way to the airport. We had a red-eye flight (suck), and I got no sleep at all. We drove back to the church from LAX, and said our goodbyes before all going home to crash for the next 12 hours. I didn't. I slept about an hour, showered, got up, met some friends that night, hung out, played poker, and didn't get to sleep until about 3am the next morning. Stupid...stupid...stupid.
And on that random note, I'll end this scattered entry. It's a whole lot, and if you reached this far, you can stop reading, there's nothing of any interest anymore. If you wanted to read it, but just didn't, thanks for trying, or caring at least.
So there's a brief(?) review of the trip. To those of you who helped us in any way before or during the trip, whether it was financial aid, prayer, coming to our car-wash even though you didn't need one and donating way more than our services earned...I speak for the whole team in saying that...we thank you all. God bless, and to Him be the glory.
For whoever might not be up to snuff about this AK trip, just a quick intro. A group of us from our church flies up to Alaska each year, to a little village called Port Alsworth, which is only home to just over 100 residents (that's a rough guess). Lake Clark Bible Church holds weekly summer camps all summer for many different age groups, from elementary school to high school. Two teams from our church go up for one week each to act as camp counselors. The first team was up there with the 5th and 6th graders, our team was with Jr High.
So Team 2, which consisted of Scott Burns, Johnny, Vu, Marcus, Scott V, Bryce, Kevin, Molly, Megan, Katie, Hannah, Stephanie, and myself, met at the church early Thursday morning (4:15 in the AM to be exact) and drove on down to LAX. Nothing too exciting, fortunately the travel day wasn't long since we had a direct flight into Anchorage, AK. Things were a bit complicated getting from the airport to JR's house where we'd be staying for the next day and a half. It took a couple of hours to shuttle everyone there. A day and a half was spent at JR's hanging out, playing Mario Tennis, getting use to the fact that we weren't going to see any darkness for the next two weeks, praying, and preparing the week ahead of us all. I was still recovering from my broken foot, so it was kinda a bummer to be hobbling around. It was such a sweet time being there with everyone. The fellowship God granted us was invaluable, and the group came together very well. The guys spent most of Friday clearing the back yard of JR's neighbor for he and his wife. It was about 4 hours of dragging and carving up wood with a skill saw (according to Burns it was about 2-3 cords worth, which means nothing to me). The girls spent time cleaning the house, and they made us these killer grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for lunch. Oh...my...goodness...was it good. Compliments to Katie Connette.
Saturday was spent flying into Port Alsworth. Bryce, Molly, Scott and Myself took the first flight out early that morning. Excitement was super high; doing devos in JR's kitchen that morning sitting on one of the smallest chairs to one of the smallest tables ever made, I was extremely humbled that I'd been given this opportunity yet again. Burns dropped us off at Lark Clark Airport, and we flew out on a bush plane that seated only 5. The flight was probably two of the most beautiful hours I'll ever live through. We arrived in PA and tried to graft our way into the camp in session as best we could. It was great seeing the other team up there, and everything seemed to be going wonderfully for them. It took about half a day to get all of Team 2 out into PA, but we made it (and with minimal panic attacks...those planes are small). Since our team had about two days before the campers arrived, we got to steal time and continue in our awesome fellowship. A highlight was heading down to Dry Creek (to Alaskans it's a creek, to SoCal folk it's a river) for dinner off the shore of Lake Clark (50 miles long btw). On the way we got to stop and fire off a 300 Magnum Rifle something-or-other. All I know is it was powerful. (It was also hilarious to watch the girls shoot...) It was a great time of fellowship as we hung out, and spent a good deal of time preparing and praying for the camp to come.
Now how in the world can I sum up a week of camp? I can't...but I'll give it something of a shot. Monday was a busy day...a lot of rushing around followed by periods of waiting. All the campers from the previous week were flying out, including Team 1 members. At the same time, our jh campers were all flying in. Bryce and I were counselors together, and it took all day before we had our entire cabin at camp. Will, Andrew, Ethan, Ben, and Michael, along with Bryce and myself made up the Mulchatna cabin (basically the best one of the entire camp). We spent that monday hanging out with the campers, playing games out at Sig Field, and looking forward to the week we had ahead of us.
The week began to fly by starting on Tuesday. The schedule was in full swing and we were moving from one place to the next. The head counselors had to be up for staff meeting every morning at 7. After our meeting was done the Jr counselors went to theirs, during which we had to go wake up our cabins and tidy up the place. Breakfast was amazing every morning. (To get the subject of food out of the way, the camp feeds you so incredibly well up there. The food is all homemade and you feel like you're eating every hour...it's heaven.) From then it was worship and lesson time, which Burns taught in the morning, and pastor James taught in the evening. A typical day included activity stations (I spent all week "teaching" riflery...being a SoCal boy, most of the girls up there are better shots than I am; very humbling), all-camp games, hanging out on the waterfront, and a personal favorite for the counselors...Flop On Bed (FOB), otherwise known as nap time...that was heaven as well.
Getting to know the campers is a blast. The differences between kids who live in Alaska and kids who live in SoCal are pretty stark. They're a savy bunch, and can out-survive you any day. Little hints and comments make it known to the counselors that we were looked upon as "Lower 48ers," meaning we're from below the 48th parallel and therefore...live like it. Occasionally you'll hear snickers... We do what's called a "Hobo Breakfast" one morning where each cabin makes a fire on the shore and cooks up their own eggs and so forth. Us SoCal counselors were supposed to be in charge of the fire-making for the Alaskan natives...you can assume how that went. There's never a dull moment with these kids though.
Burns brought the Gospel banners up with us, and they worked very well. Camp was a bit interesting this year in that there didn't seem to be as many expressed desires to submit lives to Christ as have been previous years. However, there was no doubting the campers got the Gospel...a whole lotta it...all week long which was sweet! The 6 points stuck with them, and by the end of the week just about all the campers could recite it back to you.
As camp came to a close, the mood became a bit more somber. Most of these campers were about to go back home to very tough lives in their villages, and having to leave PA wasn't easy. The night before everyone left and the departure day were difficult for everyone, particulalrly the girl campers and their counselors. It was more than neat to see the level of compassion and caring that was built up between them over the course of just 8 short days. Team 2 members flew out of PA at various times throughout the day. Molly, Megan, Katie, Bryce, Vu, and myself were the last group to fly out at 12pm (right before lunch, which was a real bummer). Mixed feelings throughout.
Back in Anchorage, we had about a day and a half of r&r to look forward to. No hard labor this time (but no free dinner at Red Robin either...tough trade-off). We went to Sportsman's Warehouse for like the 20th time. It's this place we traditionally go to that's like Bass Pro Shop, but not as Dinsneyland-ish...really not too interesting, but Burns loves the heck outta it. Afterwards, since the girls got down to the living room first, the guys were out of luck on Mario Tennis. Instead we were treated to some Jane Austin...a la Mansfield Park. I'm not gonna lie...I enjoyed it, and so did the other guys (although they'd never admit to it). Tuesday we drove down to Hope, Alaska to fish for Humpy (yes, Humpy) Salmon. It's a gorgeous 2 hour drive along the coast...but Hope is not all that interesting either. Fishing isn't my thing (no, not even for Humpys), so the girls and I went on a hike. We were only gone about an hour since we came upon this old, ripped up car out in the middle of nowhere, and figured a brown bear had done the damage. Needless to say, some of us were a bit spooked by that (not me of course). One the drive back to Anchorage, Burns pulled over and decided to fire off the Stub Nose 454 Casull... This thing was so awesome, it deserves a whole paragraph all for itself:
So the casull is basically a hand-held cannon. Supposedly there are only two other handguns in the world more powerful than this thing. It's carried around for protection against grizzlies, and it's supposed to take one down pretty quick (I wouldn't want to find out, but having seen one fired off, I believe it). I was scared just holding this thing! So Burns decides he's gonna fire it, and he looks a bit wary about it (he'll never admit to that though). Anyway, he does fire it, and the recoil is so intense(!), that it brings his hands up above his head...if you know anything about Burns, you know that it takes a very very powerful weapon to throw his hands back that far. Anyway, he looked shaken up after he fired it (again, for Burns to be shaken up...), the hammer even cut his thumb, but he decided to fire it again, this time with a bit more control. It made my day.
We got back, packed up, cleaned up, and made our way to the airport. We had a red-eye flight (suck), and I got no sleep at all. We drove back to the church from LAX, and said our goodbyes before all going home to crash for the next 12 hours. I didn't. I slept about an hour, showered, got up, met some friends that night, hung out, played poker, and didn't get to sleep until about 3am the next morning. Stupid...stupid...stupid.
And on that random note, I'll end this scattered entry. It's a whole lot, and if you reached this far, you can stop reading, there's nothing of any interest anymore. If you wanted to read it, but just didn't, thanks for trying, or caring at least.
So there's a brief(?) review of the trip. To those of you who helped us in any way before or during the trip, whether it was financial aid, prayer, coming to our car-wash even though you didn't need one and donating way more than our services earned...I speak for the whole team in saying that...we thank you all. God bless, and to Him be the glory.
