Easter Egg Hunt

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 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! 

AWAKEN

What do 80 youth, 7 airplanes, two “sleepless” nights, tons of fun and Jesus all have in common? A Youth Retreat! A few weekends back we had an annual retreat called “Awaken”, hosted by two of the local churches here, Naknek Community Bible and the one we attend, Hilltop Christian Fellowship. We had about 10 willing leaders/chaperones who put in several hours beforehand prepping for the retreat. Each of the leaders had a “job” and things went really smoothly in prepping for it. (PTL!) We have learned from previous years what could have been different and it seems to get better and better each year. (Not that previous times have been bad) This year we had it for two overnights for the first time. So, we flew in the kids on Friday afternoon/early evening and then didn’t go home until Sunday afternoon. 

I’m going to break the weekend down a bit, not to bore you, but to give you a little glimpse into the fun we had and hopefully the impact God had on the teens.

First off, we are always praying that the weather will behave to fly the teens in on Friday.  We seem to worry, but year after year, God never seizes to amaze us. The weather was perfect for both the flying, and the bonfire and games on the beach that night. (It started to cloud up and rain right when we were leaving the beach) And the temperature was perfect. Like I said, we had seven planes doing the flights with a couple of them doing two trips! We had 44 youth from the village and 36 locals! I think this was the biggest group yet.

Friday night also included one of two “talks” that Josh Young, a nephew of someone here in Naknek, shared. He flew all the way in from Colorado just for the weekend! God must have had a perfect plan because it happened to be the same weekend as the 1 year Anniversary that his Aunt and Uncle lost their son and daughter-in-law in a tragic situation. Be praying for the Anderson family. There was also time of worship before each “session”, led by Mark McGee of Tanalian Bible Camp. (google it) ;)

On Saturday there were a couple of different activities. In the morning the youth played a very unique version of “softball” using a big rubber exercise ball. (I heard it called “Norwegian Softball” during my youth group days) Later in the afternoon there was the option of either paintball (an Awaken tradition) or “Cupcake Wars” (something new, different and fun) Cupcake Wars is basically a competition on who can bake and decorate a cupcake the most creative way and taste the best. Immediately following that was Swimming at the pool. (I, Lacey, went home and showered! Jeremy was on “Malachi duty” for the weekend most of the time) There was also a morning and an evening session. The kids seemed to respond well. After the evening session everyone watched “God’s Not Dead”. If you have not seen it, you are missing out on something great!

I chaperoned the whole weekend, which meant sleeping overnight for both nights. Of course, being girls, we had a hard time getting them to “BE QUIET!”. But I think by the second night people were pretty exhausted, so we didn’t have to fight them as much that night.

Sunday morning was a blast! Because we had 80 youth and because there wasn’t room at either church for all of them plus normal Sunday morning attendees, we had a Community Wide Worship Service at the school in the auditorium. We had music led by a few from the community and again by Mark McGee. That was an impactful time for me. Pastor Jeff gave the message and touched on how we need an “awakening” in each of our lives. Josh Young gave a testimony. His Aunt was also there and I think the service meant a lot to her. I couldn’t help but tear up a little bit when I saw Josh’s arm around her shoulder. Immediately following the service they started flying the kids back home and, again, the weather was just fine.

The weekend as a whole went really well. We didn’t have any emergencies, misbehaving teens, akward situations, sickness (besides colds that everyone seemed to get afterwards), we had the perfect amount of food, great help from the community, loads of fun, etc.

I’m reminded of the verse in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the end of the Earth.” I am sure Jesus was including our small villages here in Bristol Bay!  Keep praying for the youth who came that they would remember what was shared.

                            Whoops, reverse order on the days, but oh well.... you get the idea.

                                         BEARS IN NAKNEK ON AN EVENING FLIGHT

                                                               MICHIGAN VACATION

I have come to realize that either our lives aren’t exciting enough to update the blog weekly, not enough happens, or I just am not as motivated as some. Haha. I could start writing about poems or song lyrics, solving world problems with a very opinionated forum or taking pictures of our dinner. Oh wait, that’s facebook.  :-D

Anyway…

Our activity has certainly slowed down, but we still had a great rest of the summer. The last time I wrote, all the teams were gone and there were just a few “stragglers” left. We had a wonderful time with Bobbie Overgaard here helping at the radio station after the Net had closed for the summer.

The very end of July we took a much over-due trip to Michigan. I spent a few years growing up there and hadn’t been back since 5^th or 6^th grade. Almost 20 years! Jeremy has never gone. We also hadn’t seen my grandparents since Malachi was 8 months old. It was great catching up with them. We also got to drive by my old house and see a childhood friend who I hadn’t seen in years as well. Malachi had a wonderful time! We were constantly go, go, go with activity. My parents have only been in Bellaire a little over a year and have a house right on a Lake with a pontoon and everything. They are also close to Lake Michigan where we spent a few days throughout our trip on the beach. We also went fishing, went to a fair, ate our years supply of ice cream, spent a lot of time outside, etc. It was fun to watch Malachi explore and discover new things.  We were gone for a tad over three weeks, so we got used to being there and hard to leave. It was nice to come home too.

While we were gone the radio station went “hay-wire” for lack of a better terms (and that I don’t want to go into a huge, technical description). It was actually off the air for about two weeks. Problem solved now though.

Now that we are home, we are back to the usual activities. Jeremy has been busy working on stuff here at the radio station being Mr. Fix It on some things related to being off the air. He has helped a guy here with his Annual on his airplane as well. The weather hasn’t been very cooperative on Sundays for flying, but he still has plenty of things to do.

I have started leading the local Women’s Bible Study again and we had our first week on Thursday with 9 ladies! (average is 5 or 6)

The biggest thing coming up in just two weeks is called AWAKEN. I have mentioned it before, but it is a Youth Retreat that we help out with here once a year. It was started by our good friends and it has been a lot of fun helping out with since living here. It also takes a lot of preparation, helpers, money and good weather too! Half of our attendees and some leaders are from different villages, so there are lots of flights that take place this week. It is Sept. 19^th-21^st if you think of it! ;) I will try to update shortly after that, so stay posted!

Blessings!

Jumpin' June!

                                                       GARAGE APARTMENTS- DONE!

                                          GROUP FROM WILSON, WISCONSIN

                                           SOME OF THE VBS HELPERS (WITH MALACHI)

                                                  THIS KID LOVES RIDING ON A 4-WHEELER

Whoa. HOW in the world has it been two months already???

Seriously, this whole “keeping the blog updated” is hard work! ;)

So, as you can see from the title, June (and July) has been busy! We have had a bunch of visitors, a bunch of activity and a bunch of fun!

Late May brought a team of four up to do Vacation Bible School (VBS) in a couple of the villages in the area. Josiah and Courtney Rolf, Stephanie (Steph) Kantonen and Michelle Alverson. It was/is such a blessing to have them here and we’ve had a good time! They went to Ekwok, Kohkonok, Igiugig, Egegik and South Naknek. Josiah and Courtney went home about two weeks ago, but Steph and Michelle are still here until Monday. Malachi loved having them around! The two girls still here have become two of his most favorite people e.v.e.r.

June brought the salmon coming full force which meant our helpers at the Net came. Bobby (Roberta) Ovegard from Camarillo, CA has committed most of her summer to be here. She has worked SO hard. They have made OVER 300 dozen cookies down at the NET!! She has put in super long hours, but has had some great visits with the hundreds who have walked through the door. Les and Kathy Carlson from Amery, WI came up here for two weeks and worked non-stop all day long baking cookies, visiting with people coming in and much more! They had a wonderful time and didn’t want to leave. (And we didn’t want them to leave, but the radio station was about to burst at the seams…..)  Before I mentioned why the radio stations was going to be full, back up just a hair…

The Net- a place rented out by our church here to use for ministry year long, but particularly in the summer for a place of rest, coffee, cookies, tracts, bibles, fellowship and internet. It is right on the “main strip” of town. There are six (?) Canneries in our small town that hire people from all over the world (literally) to work.  Plus, there are many, many fishing boats who hire people as well from out of town. So, during the “off” time, either waiting for fishing to start or waiting for the canneries to be in full swing, people are constantly walking back and forth. (because most likely they don’t have a car if they’re from out of town) They have had a few days down there where they went through 400 coffee cups in one day!

Another side note- salmon, salmon and more salmon! “Commercial fishermen continue to harvest huge amounts of sockeye as the total run to Bristol Bay has exceeded 30-million. Monday’s sockeye harvest was just over 1-million sockeye. That pushes the season total to over 21.1-million.”

Ok, back to the packed radio station. A few days after the Carlsons left a team of 6 from Amery, WI; plus 2 from Fergus Falls, MN came up to finish up the apartments in the garage! WOW, Were they hard workers! The ladies were cooking meals and painting and the men literally worked  from 6 am-10 pm several of the days! They got so much done! What a blessing to have them! While they were here we were able to have a bonfire on the beach with the nicest weather we could ask for! We also celebrated the 4^th with a big crowd and that day was almost just as warm! And no bugs! The 4^th we also had a garage dedication.

This week has been busy. We are having our Naknek VBS and have some great volunteers. Everyone has stepped up and taken responsibility, so it hasn’t been overwhelming. Malachi has loved this week too, especially the puppets, fun songs, and being a “big kid”. Steph and Michelle are still here and we’ve really enjoying getting to know them and hanging out. This week Jeremy and I also nailed down dates and purchased tickets for a trip to MI to see my parents! I spend a few years of my elementary age years there and haven’t been back for a LONG time, so we’re looking forward to the trip.  Jeremy is flying an airplane back with a guy from here who bought the plane in Pennsylvania, so Mally and I will spend about a week and half more in MI.

I THINK this caught you up on our activity. Whew, that was long! J So, I stuck a few pictures on here, but if you want to see more, check out facebook! Thanks for your prayers!