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
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.
