Painting Party

Our blog updates this time are a "little different". :-D I recently started writing articles for the facebook page of the WMF (Women's Group of our denomination) and below are a few of those; which also gives a good update from the last few months.

A few weeks ago we had a work team come up from North Dakota, and one from Fergus Falls (MN). Their goal was to get the new roofing put up on the South Naknek church, and hopefully be able to do some other projects that needed done. One of them was priming and painting a portion of the church as well as the steeple, but unfortunately the weather didn’t allow it.

So, this Monday, Jeff and Jane Swanson and our family flew over to get it done. If you Midwesterners think you have it bad with the mosquitoes you should come have fun with the “no-see-ums” when there’s no wind blowing! The first hour was horrible, but praise the Lord for bug nets to put over our heads!

As we were painting the church white, Pastor Jeff made the comment, “There’s nothing better than a brand new bucket of fresh, white paint.” Jeremy said, “It reminds me of a milkshake.” As I was painting the steeple (on the ground!), I began thinking about it some more. I thought, “Sure, it’s white initially, but right now as I’m looking in my bucket I am seeing a lot of tiny black dots.” As I was painting, there were hundreds of no-see-ums landing on the fresh coat of paint. Later on I began thinking a bit deeper about it, and I thought of sin... Isn’t sin just like that? Everything can seem well and good. We might have everything “just almost” put together. But what about those little black spots here and there? Even just the smallest thing can cause plenty of trouble! Just like those bugs! Boy, were they trouble!

Thankfully, as believers, our sin was washed as white as that pure, white paint!

‘“Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

God and the Blueberries

When are times when you feel close to God? In church? While listening to worship music? Reading the Bible? Perhaps it’s something completely different. That was my experience this past week. Here in Naknek the blueberries are ready for picking. Malachi and I have been going out when we have the chance and the bugs aren’t in full force. One day while we were out picking, I was reminded how God was right there and He loves to provide for His children even in simple things as blueberries. Let me paint just a small picture of the Naknek way of picking berries.

All of the berries that grow here, grow right in the tundra. Tundra is everywhere. Where there isn’t gravel/dirt or grass, there is most likely tundra. Malachi and I went out in our “backyard” and tromped through our tall grass in the back to get to the tundra. Stepping onto it, it’s slightly spongy, lots of small plants and bumpy terrain. But it smells so good. Almost like different kinds of “herbs”, but hard to explain. In August, if the spring and summer weather was right, there are blueberries ready to be picked. They are all low to the ground and don’t grow on bigger bushes like the “lower 48”. They are also a little harder to find, because you have to get down lower since they sometimes hide and are a little smaller than “regular” blueberries. Most of the tundra plants are green, but they all look different and have different shades of green. It’s all beautiful, but the blue of the blueberries and the red of the cranberries that are starting to come (in a month or so) is pretty spectacular. For some reason, I felt like God was right there and I was thinking, “When people years ago depended on “living off the land”, they must have been so thankful. And I’m just excited to be able to eat these! Thank you God!”

Don’t even get my started on the colors of the tundra in the fall…Come on up and find out for yourself! :)

A Different Lifestyle

*This is the most current article*

Things are done a bit differently here in “the Bush”. We’re getting ready for a busy, exciting next couple of weeks. In fact, in just a few days we’re going to be having our “District” Youth Rally here in Naknek. I say “district”, because that’s a familiar term for us AFLC-ers, but maybe I should say Bristol Bay and Beyond Youth Retreat or something! :) Things are done a bit differently here. This Friday, if you are thinking of us, please pray for this retreat! Not only will we have about 30 kids from this area, but there will be several flights, using several different aircraft; flying to at least 5 villages. (Last year we had 80 youth; more than half of which were “non-locals”!) We have been so blessed the last few year with good weather for flying and even decent weather last year to have a beach bonfire. Please pray for good weather that weekend. Also, many of the youth who attend are not church goers and even some come from villages that are pretty closed off to Christians. There are many villages in AK that have a strong Russian Orthodox pull. Pray that the things they hear will “stick.” Pray for food planning and prep to go smoothly. Also, that God would give the chaperones/leaders the words to say and ways to reach out to them.

Immediately following the Retreat, our family heads down to Washington for a month. Jeremy and two Mission Aviation Training Academy (MATA) will be flying the Cherokee 6 from Anchorage to WA. Prayers for safety and smooth border crossing is appreciated. The Cherokee 6 engine will be getting an engine overhaul and other things worked on it. The engine will actually be sent to ND. Things are done a little differently here. 

Serving the Lord with gladness,

Crowells

Summer Greetings

Hello! 
We can't believe how fast these last two months have come and gone. This week all the commercial fishermen are done and cleaning up their fishing boats to store for the Winter. Hundreds of workers are flying back home. The season this year was late by a few weeks, so there was some anxiety when the fish weren't showing up. (possibly due to the 70 and 80 degree temps we had for a few weeks straight!) However, things picked up and for a few short weeks people were fishing long and hard. 
The very end of May brought our three person Vacation Bible School (VBS) team, which included Anja, and John and Hannah (Lee's son and Swanson's daughter). They were here to serve for 5 weeks in area villages as well as Naknek/King Salmon. Jeremy has had a good, busy time of flying this summer. Every Monday he was responsible for dropping the team off and picking them up on Friday. In addition to that, Mondays were busy with 4-6 hours of flying for a "local" Bible Camp in Port Alsworth. He still has a few more weeks left of that and then things seem to slow down a bit. 

                                                           VBS Team

                         
                                                    Naknek VBS during the Bible Story

Smack dab in the middle of June (the busiest time) we attended our church's Annual Conference in Washington. We went down a week ahead, so that we could have some time with family and friends. We were thankful that we were able to visit with so many and were able to jump around from Jeremy's mom and step-dads home, our best friends home and then on-site at Conference. Our time at Warm Beach for Conference was wonderful! It was so much fun to see so many friends and be able to reconnect for a couple days. Malachi was able to go to VBS in the mornings, so I got a little more visiting in. :)

                                                Jeremy with nephew Elliot

                                                     Lacey with Malachi and cousin Carter

                                           Lacey with Theresa and Anna at the Annual Conf.

                                           First ice cream truck experience with friends!

Jeremy and Malachi

                                                         Malachi with good friend Kinza

I don't have a big update on "The Net" as I didn't spend too much time there. Malachi is at a stage of a 4 year old and has a hard time listening these days....plus he's loud. :) So, we would stop by now and then for a quick visit. Bobbie, who was up here last year, headed it up again this Summer and did an amazing job. They were really busy for about a week or two straight, because all the cannery workers and fishermen arrived, but they had to wait for the fish. They definitely took advantage of the free coffee, cookies and internet. You wouldn't believe how many cookies she's baked in the 6 (?) weeks she's been here. There were also a few others who came up to help and we're thankful for them too! Jared Langness, a friend of ours from Bible School days came up to help/visit. 

Well, things are starting to slow down now. As I mentioned, fishing is done, which kind of halts the summer activity. There will still be things happening though. We have a small work team coming up the middle of August for a week to work on the South Naknek to fix the roof. Hopefully the weather will treat them nicely. It's been pretty rainy the last couple of weeks, but it is needed I guess. : ) There were a couple hundred wildfires in Alaska, even one kind of close to us. 
That's all for now! Thanks again for your prayers. Find us on facebook for more pictures. 

The four "F's" of April

Flying

The week of April 13^th, our family of three headed to Anchorage in the Cherokee 6 to do a BIG shopping trip. We left on a Monday afternoon with the last minute decision that we were leaving that day. It’s nice when the weather is beautiful and you have the flexibility to fly yourself in. Generally, we fly commercially if we need to get somewhere at a certain time, especially in the winter time when the weather is so iffy. Initially, Jeremy was planning on flying to Kenai as well, and so we were going to combine a trip; but the Kenai trip is postponed for now. When we arrived, it was basically time to eat something and get the boy to bed. We are so thankful that we have a place to stay while we are “in town”. Some friends with SEND almost always have room for us and many times they have an extra van for us to use. What a huge blessing with all the grocery shopping and shipping!!

                                       The flight on the way to Anchorage

I think at one point during the trip I lost track how many times we did a Costco run, but it was at least four or five times; plus Sam’s Club once, Walmart (only!) once, and Fred Meyer at least three times. We were doing shopping not only for ourselves, but also for our VBS summer teams. If you’re curious more about what all is entailed in our shopping trips, feel free to ask. Malachi did an amazing job and loved all the shopping. His favorite part was jumping over all the cracks in the floor at the stores and riding in all the carts. He would “organize” the food for me as I put it in the cart. He didn’t want to buy food for the VBS team though, because he knew it wasn’t going to be for him. Typical preschooler.

In addition to grocery shopping, we also bought a new mattress (yay!) and even had time for….

Fun

Malachi’s absolute favorite thing to do in Anchorage is to go to the mall and ride the elevators and escalators over and over and over again. He knows the routine too. Daddy takes him on numerous rides and Mommy goes clothes shopping. So, it’s a pretty cheap source of fun while there….for the boys anyway. ;)

We also took M bowling for his first time. He loved it! We were able to have bumpers and the ramp thing you roll the ball down, so no gutter balls!

One of Jeremy’s favorite parts of trip was his chance to fly a Piper Super Cub simulator with our friend from SEND.

We stayed in Anchorage for a week, which was great to be able to have that much time to allow ourselves limited stress. Limited stress there anyway…

Fear (for Lacey)

The day we decided to head home it was snowing there and a little bit at home. It was in the afternoon and the snow was coming down in huge flakes. I guess it was trying to make up for lost time with the mild winter we had. We thought, “Well, maybe we’re going to have to stay here one more night.” Surprisingly though, around 6, it really cleared up and the weather looked great all the way home. So, we quickly just packed up the stuff from the fridge and freezer and headed out to the airport. We took off shortly after 7:30, after Malachi decided to walk under the fuel vent and got a fair amount of avgas on the hood of his winter coat. Great. So, we stuffed the stinky thing (the coat) into a few plastic bags and layered the boy with a pj shirt.

 Ok. In the air. The flight through the mountains and pass was as beautiful going as it was coming. Crystal clear. Basically half way through the trip we flew past Port Alsworth (this place has been mentioned before in past blog posts) and noticed about 15 minutes out that it looked just a tad hazy. Jeremy mentioned, “I think I’ll call the weather service to get an update since it’s been since Anchorage that we had one.” No problem. Wellllll…..He called and Naknek weather didn’t sound so great. There was a chance we could dodge it by flying “off course” a bit which normally would be no issue, but we were pushing daylight. So we (or the “pilot husband” rather) decided that we turn back to Port Alsworth, because it was so close and we had friends there. We got about 8 miles from PA and the snow was starting there and making visibility horrible. Whoops. Turn around, again? At this point, I was getting pretty nervous, but not quite to the fear point. Yet. To make a longgggg story just long: we weren’t able to go home. We weren’t able to go to PA. We weren’t able to go to Illiamna either which was the next option, so what literally seemed like our last chance we landed in the small village of Nondalton with about 100-150 people. Jeremy was super calm during the whole time and promised me we would be fine. Malachi was completely happy and oblivious and playing the Kindle about two hours after his bedtime. Thankfully, Alaska has so many runways around, even if there’s no villages connected to it. (Summer lodges, fishing/hunting locations/etc)

As soon as we landed in Nondalton, Jeremy immediately threw on the wing and engine covers on the airplane and we thought, “Now what?” We didn’t have a cell phone that worked in those area villages, so we couldn’t call anyone. (We’ll be changing that soon) Since Jeremy is into ham radio, he had a hand held radio with him that he always carries with him when he flies, because villages typically have marine band radios that they monitor. While J was throwing on the covers, I did a few calls on it to see if anyone heard us. No answer. After he was done, we decided we would have to walk into the village and knock on someone’s door to see if they would take us in. As we started walking, J decided to call out on the radio again and there was an answer! The person on the other end sent her 20 something year old grandson out to get us. He happened to be someone who had worked at the Bible Camp in Port Alsworth for a couple summers! Alaska is huge, yet so small. AND they had a place for us to stay. We saw so many answers to prayer, including the next morning when we went to leave and all our fresh and frozen food was as we had left it, fresh and frozen!

                                          The view from our "Nondalton housing" window

                                          "Nondalton housing" (ignore the mess)

                                          Through the mountains and pass on the way home. See how clear it was?

We got home Tuesday late morning with a couple days to unpack our food that was with us and stuff that came that was shipped with the cargo planes. Oh, and to prepare for a Birthday boy….

Four (years old)

Malachi turned 4! His birthday this year was at our church, so that we could invite more people than would fit in our house. It was a puppy/ paw patrol themed party and a lot of fun! (See pictures)

                                          Puppy- themed food

Easter Egg Hunt

Back in December...

                                                                             
 Last week

Can someone slow down time please?

It is hard to believe that it is officially Spring (hooray!), Malachi will be FOUR next month (eek!), and a blog update is overdue -again. (surprise, surprise)

Life has been the “normal routine” I guess, so that’s my usual excuse. Ha-ha. Winter was very tolerable this year with mild temperatures and LITTLE snow. The last time we had snow worth mentioning was Christmas Eve!

We enjoyed a good Christmas with my parents here and were glad they could stay until the beginning of January.

Mid-January we started attending a parenting class with about 4 other couples, give or take. We went over a book called “Boundaries with Kids”. There were some good insights for both, now, as well as when Malachi gets older. We always enjoy fellowship and being able to “hang out” with those we don’t see as often as we would like. Added bonus- two babysitters watching the kids during the class!  

Something we have learned the last few years, but have had a hard time actually putting into practice, is having someone else watch Malachi so that we (or just one of us) can have a break. We are working on it, because I know it is needed. I’ve told many friends that sometimes it’s just “easier” to stay home like Malachi and I normally do, rather than make an effort and reason to separate ourselves from each other- the testing preschooler and impatient mom. :) Actually, one of our pastor’s daughters is staying in the one bedroom apartment here for a few weeks and it’s been nice when Malachi’s wanted to go over to “bug her” even if it’s just 10 minutes at a time.

Now if you’re starting to think that our child is a typical preschooler who tests our patience----you’re right! But he is such fun! He has been using his imagination a lot and is learning more and more. His favorite things right now are probably “puppies” (dogs of any size, age), playing the Wii (watching us play), numbers (and wondering why he can’t add and subtract yet), going outside and noodles. ;)

Jeremy has been working on the Annuals on the planes. He just finished the mission’s Cessna 175, started working on a Cessna 150 owned by a couple in our church, is at someone’s house now working on their plane and he will also be doing the mission’s Cherokee 6 in the very near future. There is a lot more flying in the summertime, so it’s good to have the planes ready. Week by week he’s not really sure what he’s going to be doing as set plans aren’t really set plans. So, I think he’s been enjoying working on the planes, even if it keeps him busy.

Last month, I was able to go to a Women’s Retreat hosted by Arctic Barnabas Ministries located in Soldotna (AK). It was a wonderful time of fellowship and so much fun to be around ladies! J It was a full (extended) weekend with great sessions, encouragement, delicious food, free time, visiting, small groups, little sleep, laughter, and much more.

As we look to the next few months, we are gearing up for the summer that is rapidly approaching. Plans are starting to come together, but we always appreciate your prayers!

In June, we’ll be heading to the AFLC’S Annual Conference in WA and we’re really looking forward to that time to visit with many friends and family!