The Team

Back Row: Wes (from Pennsylvania), Matt & Linz, Chad (Nebraska), Ian (Edmonton Canada)

Front Row: Esther (Kodiak, AK), Breanna (California)

Front Row:

Ouzinkie

Tomorrow we leave on our first little ten day outreach adventure. We will be traveling by ferry to Ouzinkie which is on a small island north east of Kodiak. The ferry ride should take us about twelve hours, but most of it will be at night so we will miss some of the scenery heading out of Homer. Please pray for calm seas. While we will be traveling on a rather large boat, the seas can get a bit rough this time of year. They say it is not uncommon to have twenty foot waves. (Mostly we don't want to get sick)
Our outreach in Ouzinke will be mostly construction based. My understanding is that we will be continuing to work on a church there that has been an ongoing project for the YWAM base here. In the past they have cleaned, done repairs, put in new insulation and sheet rock, and various other jobs to get the church back into shape. We will also be the first team from here to get to do some relationship ministries during this time. So, we are praying for divine appointments, and trusting God will use us. Thank you for all your prayers.

Stretched INTO shape.

We have comfortably settled into our new environment, and I (Lindsay) can definately say we are adapting. We've seen plenty of moose and eagles. The mountains are common sights now. We've visited the spit and the overlooks and the towns hotspots. Eating salmon, halibut, and especially moose are everyday occurances. It's not that we don't appreciate and enjoy all these good things, we just don't freak out over it anymore. We don't act like the new kids in town . . . usually.

Although we've surpassed vacationer status and the newness of everything is fading away, there is certainly no lack of excitement! God is stretching us in every way, shape, and form. We are truly challenged daily by the speakers and our experiences. This week, our lecturer was a woman who focused on the topic of deliverance. She really challenged me to examine what my beliefs have been shaped by. Do I define God and who He is by my experiences or by His word? Do I make God fit into my life, or do I fit my life into God?

One of the things that we dealt with this week were 'inner vows.' These are vows we make to ourselves to protect pains or overcome difficult situations. Common vows might include, "No one will hurt me again" or "I will never trust anyone else in my life!" One of my exposed inner vows was a result from the difficulties in leading a mission team in Sri Lanka. I made a inner vow to never accept a leadership position again. This was in protection of myself and others from what I saw as failures. When I made that vow, I focused on my own abilities and took control out of God's hands. In Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus says that we should not swear or vow at all, but let our 'yes' be 'yes' and our 'no' be 'no' for anything else is of the evil one. When we make an inner vow, we are not fully submitted to Christ and not fully trusting His promises. We have tried to take care of our hurts ourselves. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. (John 15:5) I found so much freedom this week in letting God deal with my hurts!

This was just the beginning. Her teaching on healing was exciting, too. I have a new heart to pray and see people healed. One of the teachings that really stretched me was about witchcraft and identifying symptoms. Previously, this topic might not have interested me at all, but Alaska is an active place. It's most likely we'll see the bondage of this on outreach, and even here in Homer! It's all stuff we are still processing and asking God to lead us in. Please pray with us in this 'processing' too!!

Quick stories from the Spit

Last Sunday after church I had the opportunity to go down to the Spit with one of the staff members here. (Josh) It was one of the first really nice, clear, and sunny days that we were here. The Spit is a peninsula that sticks out from Homer into the bay. The first stop was at the "Eagle Lady's" house. She is the only person around here that it is legal for to feed the eagles. It was crazy. They were within feet of the truck, but they are used to people. Apparently they will compete with the seagulls for scraps in the summer down by the docks. Next we stopped at the harbor which was very beautiful that afternoon. Than we got some good shots of the mountains that we get to look at across the bay out our dinning room windows from the hills of Homer everyday. They are pretty incredible when the clouds have cleared and you can see all the way up to the peaks.

Scenes from the Homer Spit... stories from Matt to come.

a Chilly day at the Beach...

....the white is not sand... it is snow and frost.

as the waves retreat back into the ocean,

the water left behind freezes before our very eyes!!

A view from the end of the driveway!

week one

We are now over one week into our experience here in Homer, Alaska. It has been great so far. Often, Matt and I will just look at each other and say, "We're in Alaska." Although the scenery makes that statement quite obvious, hearing it makes it more real. We just can't believe that all our plans have come together and we are here, LIVING IN ALASKA. Part of our unbelief might stem from our daily schedule. We stay quite busy from 7am - 6pm, which means most of our free time leaves us to explore in the darkness. Before this past weekend, we had only gotten glimpses of the beauty of Homer through windows or in quick passing from one building to the next. Most of what we saw this week was SNOW. 5 of 7 days it came down in substantial amounts!! Lucky for us, the locals tell us having this much snow isn't common.

Many of you have been asking what we do everyday. Monday through Friday, we have very structured schedules. We start every day with an hour of quiet time. This is a time for each individual to meet with God one-on-one. We also have lectures everyday. Each week, we will be hearing from a new speaker. Last week we looked at why we believe what we believe. We were challenged by the realization of different ideas we accept as truth without questioning the origins. Our goal is to gain a Biblical world view. Apart from meals, quiet time, and lecture our days are filled in with Intercession, worship, work duties, and community outreach.

Although everything is so new to us (including being married), we feel SO BLESSED to be able to do this together. Although the transition was quite fast, we wouldn't change a thing. We are right were God wants us to be... and we are together!!

yeah, we're in alaska... AND MARRIED!

I know Matt already updated everyone on our arrival to Homer . . . . but i just wanted to add something (like I always do). We got married Friday night. Yup, that's right. It was only 5 days ago that we were experiencing that magically wonderful day. It's crazy to think about how much we've gone through in the past five days that the biggest news is no longer our wedding, but our arrival in Homer and a couple of moose. lol.

So, I just wanted to RE-LIVE the wedding day before we get too caught up in this next exciting adventure in Alaska. What an INCREDIBLE day. It was perfect in nearly every way. It was so much fun to wear my mom's dress!! The chapel and candle ceremony was even more beautiful than I dreamed about. And I just want to point out that I have married the most amazing man ever! We love being married!! We had so much fun at the reception. It was overwhelming to see a roomful of people excited about us. What a blessed day!!

In attempt to process everything, I would like to invite you who were there to share a fun memory or favorite detail of the day. (post a comment!) If any of you were wondering what all the laughs were about during the exchange of rings.... we'll, the ring somehow ended up on my right hand. Even though it didn't fit, I didn't catch on. I just thought nerves had somehow made my fingers puff up. I wrestled it on, and then as Matt stuck out his Left hand, we realized the mistake. I was determined to fix it for the unity candle lighting!! It took even more wrestling and tugging to fix the error, but I got it!!

Another quick comment: props to Grandma and Grandpa for owning the dance floor until the lights turned on. They really know how to get down!!

We love you all so much, and can't wait to hear from you!!!