First day on the mountain.  Skied on the solstice.  36 degrees and raining.  Reminds me of East Tennessee!  Plese pray for some open doors on the mountain.

We’ve been in Alaska for about three weeks now.  So far the journey has been filled with challenges and blessings alike.  We are amazed at the ways God has blessed us already.   Here are just a few of the blessings we’ve already received:

1. Arriving safely.  We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when driving the ALCAN highway.  Last night we started putting together some pictures for a Christmas present for my (Scott) grandmother.  As we looked through the pictures, we realized how much God took care of us in helping us to arrive safely!
2. Friends.  One of our concerns about moving 5000 miles was somewhat selfish.  We left friends and family behind and we didn’t know if we’d be welcomed into this new town.  From the moment we drove into town, George and Kathy Stewart adopted us and introduced us around.  Their friendship has been an answer to prayer!
3. Salmon, smoker, and Cross country skis.  We’ve been grateful for the warm welcome we’ve received from Alaska Baptists.  Last week, we met with our local supervisor.  He gave us several pounds of salmon that he put away last season.  As a housewarming gift, he gave us a smoker (to smoke salmon or wild game).  Then he is also giving me (Scott) a pair of cross country skis that he no longer uses!  How cool is that!  Now we’ll not only be able to get out and enjoy our natural surroundings, we’ll be able to connect with other people doing it in the Girdwood Valley!
4. Table.  When we left Tennessee, we sold our really nice dining room table and chairs.  It may seem silly, but for us selling the table and chairs opened the door for us to sell a LOT of stuff in our house.  We sold the table and chairs because we were unsure about what kind of place we would be renting when we got into Girdwood.  We imagined that we would rent a furnished apartment.  However, the place we are currently renting opened up before we came into town.  We rented it sight unseen.  This is really nice because by the time we got here, there were really no more housing options.  When we saw the place, we loved it but we were bummed because our table and chairs would have fit perfectly.  Well, we didn’t want to spend the money for a new set.  We looked on Craigs List, but nothing really opened up.  Then, a few days ago, our friend who leased the apartment to us told us that she had an extra table that came out of one of the other units.  It was broken, but her husband had repaired it and now it was taking up space in her house.  We went and looked at it…and it is perfect for what we need!  She wouldn’t let us pay for it.  So, we got a new (to us) table for free! Now on to the chairs!
5. Winter ministry.  We have a need to be on the mountain at Alyeska so we can begin to get to know employees and guests.  However, the cost for tickets is steep ($1210).  We had hoped to get jobs at the resort so that we could ski for free.  However, when we got here we realized that we came too late for jobs at the resort.  So…what to do…?  We asked people to begin to pray for wisdom for us to know how to get on the mountain.  Within days, we were told by some friends that they were planning on helping out.  Then that same day, we were told by the Alaska Baptist Convention they they would partner with the North American Mission Board to help.  Not only are they helping us get on the mountain, they are also helping out with other winter gear that we need!  Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you for your support!
6. Winter boots for Jenn.  One of our needs has been technical clothing that is warmer than stuff we would use in Tennessee.  One day while at a local thrift store in Anchorage, Jennifer found a pair of what look like brand new really nice winter boots.  They were WAY cheap (in fact, she had looked at these same boots in a sports store but we couldnt afford them!).  What an answer to prayer!
7. Care packages.  Thank you to everyone who has sent care packages so far.  Invariably, each time we have received a package it has come at just the right time (usually when we’re having a down day).  For those of you who sent packages, some of the things may have seemed insignificant, but each item was a blessing to us!
8. Incredible weather.  Many of you may not consider cold and snow to be much of a blessing, but for us it’s incredible (good thing too!).  Since we’ve been here, we’ve had snow on the ground.  And within the past couple of days we’ve had somewhere between 12-18 inches of fresh snowfall!
9. Jenn felt her first earthquake.  I know, a strange blessing.  Jenn was really excited about feeling an earthquake while here in Alaska.  Well, it didn’t take long.  Yesterday as we sat in the living room she said she felt it and watched the ornaments on the tree rock back and forth.  This morning she looked it up on the internet and saw that at that same time there was a 4.9 earthquake in the Cook Inlet.
10. Support!  We want to say “thank you” to everyone who has supported Chugach Resort Ministries.  Several months ago we asked our friends to prayerfully consider partnering with us in this new ministry by sacrificing a coke per day ($1/day).  For those of you who have partnered with us, we are grateful for your support.  We can assure you that each dollar makes a world of difference!  

The old hymn says, “count your many blessings…”  Since we’ve been in Alaska, God has definitely blessed us.  As you move toward Christmas, we want to invite you to look around at the blessings in your lives and offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for each of those blessings.

First light happened around 10am this morning.  This is the view off the deck of the house we’re housesitting.  Several inches of snow fell overnight and it’s still snowing.  It’s supposed to snow for the next seven days…maybe more?

By the way, here’s a random fact for you: tomorrow our sunrise will be at 10:03am and our sunset will be at 3:40pm.  Jenn and I have started taking Vitamin D supplements to combat the effects of lack of sunlight.

We have snow predicted every day for the next week.  Jenn and I just came back in from Anchorage and there are about 3 inches on the ground in Girdwood!  Please pray for us this week:

1. Wisdom.  We will be purchasing some form of tickets this week at Alyeska.  We’ve been spoiled over the past seven years at Ober Gatlinburg.  Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries had a great relationship with the ski resort and we were always given total access.  Now, we are building relationships with a new resort that we’ve never had relationships with before.  It will take time to earn the right to be heard.  So…as the saying goes…you’ve got to pay to play.  We have no problem spending money when necessary, but we also want to be good stewards of God’s resources.  Please pray for a way to purchase these tickets.
2. Vision.  As we are interacting with employees and guests of the ski resort this week, please pray that God will give us vision to ’see’ future ministry possibilities.
3. Connection.  We’ve been blessed with how many people we have met so far.  Please pray for us that this week, we will be able to connect with them on an even deeper level.

Thank you for your prayers.  They mean a lot!

God has opend a lot of doors this week.  It has been great to meet even more people in the Girdwood valley.  On Wednesday Jenn attended a women’s Bible study.  It’s sponsored by the Girdwood Chapel (the Methodist church in town) but it’s really kind of a community Bible study.  She was excited to meet more girls her age. 

We were invited to attend our first ever Rotary Club meeting.  The club is a very active community service organization.  At the club we met a girl about our age who along with her husband just bought a chalet in Girdwood.  They live full time in Homer (abou four hour drive from here).  She and her husband work for the National Science Foundation.  They build semi-permanent buildings for scientists working in the Arctic and the South Pole.  How crazy is that?  Only in Alaska!

We’re still spending a lot of time in Anchorage meeting with church folks and getting our lines of communication set up for ministry.  However, in the midst of that we’ve finally finished getting our house settled in.  All of our boxes are unpacked and for the most part all of our stuff arrived safely.  For the next four days, we’re house sitting for our friends George and Kathy.  They are the ones that have helped us tremendously in getting vetted into the community.  George and Kathy have two dogs that get along really well with Samson.  It’s good for him to get better socialized with other dogs because in Girdwood we have packs of unleashed dogs that roam around town.  For the most part the dogs are friendly, but sometimes they can get out of control.

Last night we attended a fundraiser for Alaska Medical Missions.  It’s really a great program that takes medical equipment and supplies that doctors and hospitals would normally throw away and they send them to third world countries.  They obviously make sure the equipment is clean and in excellent working condition.  These supplies and equipment are used to bring hope and healing to people who really need it! 

We had a LOT of fog this week. You may be able to see the fog line on the Turnagain Arm. It's hiding the mountains. We think this is ice fog because it deposits a layer of ice on all the trees. And it seems thicker than regular fog.

The Seward Highway runs beside train tracks. The train runs from Anchorage to Whittier and down to Seward. From what we understand, in the summer tourists from cruises will hop on the train in Anchorage and then go to Whittier (about 15 miles away from Girdwood) to get on the ship.

This is and answer to prayer! Jenn and I need insulated winter boots...but they're very pricey. One day this week we were in Anchorage and we stopped in at Value Village (a thrift store) to drop off some clothes. Jenn was looking in the shoe section and found this pair of winter boots for only $30.00 (regularly priced around $120.00) and they're practically brand new! Answer to prayer! Now, I've got to keep my eyes open for a pair for me!

In ten years of marriage, we've never had a full size Christmas tree. We've always had a series of Charlie Brown Christmas trees. This year, we went shopping on Black Friday and as we were out we found this tree for 30.00!!! Woo hoo.

We got our first care package the other day from Lisa and Jonathan Atkinson and our two godchildren Emma and Faith. Amon other things, they sent us a Christmas ornament saying "Our first Chritmas in Alaska". Thank you guys!

Yesterday the ice fog lifted and George Stewart called us to see if we wanted to take our dog along with his two down to the airport to let the dogs run. You know you live in Alaska when you live in a small town with no hardware store, grocery store, or high school...but...you have an airport!

Samson loves the snow. Who would have ever thought that a dog with virtually no fur would love snow so much!

Beautiful day!!!

Goaler (pronounced Jailer) - George and Kathy's German Shepherd. She's a very sweet dog.

This is a view of the ski resort from the airport. Incidentally, Chugach Powder Guides operates out of the ski resort and flies out of the airport. They take tourists into the Chugach National Forest for backcountry heli skiing.

If you look between the two highest peaks you see a snow field. I think that's one of the seven glaciers surrounding the town!

My baby! Cute isn't she?

The town of Girdwood is surrounded by a spruce forest. In fact when you drive into town, it's hard to find all the neighborhoods because of all the trees. It's great!

This is some of the hoarfrost that the ice fog left behind. This is the thickest hoarfrost I've ever seen.

You can see the remainder of the ice fog in a line hovering over the Turnagain Arm. The mountains you see are on the other side of the Arm.

This is the sunset tonight.

This is a view of the sunset from the deck of our friend's house. We're house/dog sitting for George and Kathy for the next few days whle they're out of town.

We’ve spent the last week in meetings in Anchorage and setting up our condo in Girdwood.  The movers delivered our stuff.  It was like Christmas opening our boxes that we had not seen in a couple of months.  This morning, we were going to attend church at Girdwood Chapel – the United Methodist church here in Girdwood.  I got the time wrong and we missed the service (I know, what a loser).  So, we decided to chase the sunlight and get out of the Girdwood Valley.  We went to Portage and saw some incredible scenery.  We also met several people who work in Portage but live in Girdwood.  Great conversations.  We love meeting our neighbors.  Pray for us as we continue to look for opportunities to minister in Girdwood and the Turnagain Arm.  One of our big needs is to get on the mountain.  Over the past seven years we have enjoyed a lot of freedom in ministering at Ober Gatlinburg.  That freedom was built over the past thirty years by Bill Black.  Now, we are starting off fresh.  That means we’ve got to buy lift tickets (or season passes) and they are pricey.  We are also trying to get jobs at the resort which would enable us to be on the mountain for free!

This is our view from outside our living room

This is a view of the outside of the place where we live. There are three of these buildings. As you can see, there's a lot of snow on the ground. If you can see the black dot on the hill behind the building, that's the tram housing at the top of the mountain. The skiing is very steep around here!

Yesterday Jenn and I took a walk around town. This is a picture of a bridge that crosses Glacier Creek. It's about half way from the Seward Highway to Alyeska ski resort. The mountain in the distance is Mount Alyeska.

This is a picture of Glacier Creek. It runs through the middle of town.

Lovely!

A lot of you have asked us how our short haired dog is weathering this change. He's doing fine and he LOVES the snow. Every time we take him out he chases "ice cubes" in the parking lot of the condo unit. Girdwood is a dog town. We have had more people show interest in our dog here than anywhere else we've been. It seems like everybody in town has a dog. There are even packs (for lack of a better word) of dogs that wander around town. We haven't seen them bother anybody and they've been very friendly to us as well as to Samson.

Today we took a couple of hours and chased the sunlight toward the Portage Valley. The water you see to the right of the road is the Turnagain Arm. It's a body of salt water. Most notably, it has the second largest bore tide in the world.

In 1964, Alaska suffered an earthquake that pretty much leveled the state. Girdwood was destroyed but then rebuilt about 2 miles up the valley. The town of Portage was never rebuilt.

This is a building that was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake and was never removed or rebuilt. All along this road are dead trees that were killed by the saltwater flood.

If you can see the blue color in the ice, that's glacieated (sp?) ice. In other words, some form of a glacier.

Can't really call this an iceburg, but it is blue ice floating in Portage Lake. This lake is a glacier fed lake.

This was the beginning of sunset - around 3:30.

It looks like the mountains are on fire!

It may be cold...it may be dark...but it's beautiful!

The dot in the tree is a bald eagle. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Sunrises and sunsets have proven to be pretty amazing around here. I guess this offsets the lack of strong daylight. We had to drive out of the Girdwood valley to see the sun today. Apparently Alaskans have a problem with Vitamin D deficiency. I think we'll be taking suppliments.

We were driving back from Portage Valley and saw several cars stopped by the side of the road. We looked left and this is what we saw. Needless to say...we stopped too!

What happens when you have two feet of snow on the ground and the weather warms overnight then rains?  That’s right…you’re living in a slushie.  We had a rainy, messy day in Girdwood/Anchorage today.  Now we see why the state shoe of Alaska is a rubber boot! 

On the positive side…

The movers come tomorrow with all of our stuff!  We’re very excited.  Hopefully nothing is broken.  Also, we’re now on dialup internet access.  It’s really great to stay in touch, no matter how slow it is!

Also, I’ve added a new widget to our blog.  If you’ve enjoyed reading about our journey and would like to follow it, just hit the “subscribe” button to the right.  You’ll get an email when we post new blog entries!

It’s good to be home in Girdwood!  The past few days have been a whirlwind.  We got into town on the day before Thanksgiving and had Thanksgiving dinner with some great friends who live in town.  They invited several people from the community, so we were able to meet a lot of great folks!  On Friday we spent the day in Anchorage getting stuff for our apartment.  That’s right…we spent Black Friday shopping…I know right?  What were we thinking?  Oh…and it was snowing!  Speaking of snow, I don’t think it’s stopped snowing since we got here.  On Saturday, we had the honor and joy of helping a political refugee family from the country of Togo (Africa) move in to a new Habitat for Humanity house in Anchorage.  Lots of people from the community came out and helped – another great way to meet people.  That night, Jenn went to a girls get together with a bunch of ladies from our sponsoring church.  It was a great way for her to meet girls her own age as well as those younger and older.  On Sunday we attended services at our sponsoring church – Rabbit Creek Community Church – in Anchorage.  They are such a warm and welcoming church.  We felt right at home!  Today we’ve been doing the logistics of getting services set up.  Fortunately the apartment we’re renting has all the utilities included.  This is a blessing because it’s one less thing to have to think about.  We were going to go in to Anchorage today but put it off until tomorrow since they were calling for blizzard like conditions (blowing snow and 80 mph winds)…right.  On Wednesday, our stuff is scheduled to arrive.  It will be great to really set up “shop”.

There’s so much snow everywhere!  Our winter tires are doing great.  The Alyeska website says that it’s snowed another 6 inches since this morning in town and about 12 inches on top of the mountain!  Funny story, Jenn got rubber boots yesterday for walking around in the snow.  She walked to the post office to open our new P.O. Box (by the way, our new address is: P.O. Box 1054 Girdwood, AK 99587-1054 – we like care packages!) and was walking through the snow.  It was so deep that the snow fell into her boots and she still had wet feet.  Where was I during all of this?  Inside.  Yep. 

We’ve been keeping up with our families on Skype.  If you’re a user, let us know.  We’d love to video/talk to you.  For those of you who don’t know, with Skype (it’s a free download online) you can talk to anyone else who has Skype for free.  You just need a webcam and a reliable internet connection.

Thank you for everyone who has been praying for and supporting this new ministry.  God has blessed us this far.  We can see Him working in the lives of those around us and we can’t wait to see what He does next!

These are some pictures of what we saw as we came in.  On the day we drove into Alaska, we drove the full width of the state.  We were motivated to get to Girdwood.  Tomorrow we’ll post some pictures from Girdwood and Anchorage.

Jenn standing by the "Welcome to Alaska" sign. We were so excited to get here!!!

We didn't get a picture of us coming into the Yukon Territory, so here's the sign from the Alaska-side

This is a marker denoting the international boundary line. Canadians were great to us, but it's good to be back on U.S. soil. Funny story, the border patrol didn't hassle us, but the guy wanted me to roll down the window to see in. Our car was so packed he couldn't see anything but our backpacks.

The roads in Alaska were great!

Beauty!

There were a lot of times on this trip when we wished we had a better camera. This is one of them. Our camera just doesn't pick up the subleties of light and shadow that our eyes see. Sorry, this is the best we can get!

Those are snow machine (snow mobile for all of you Outsiders) tracks on a frozen lake. Take a look at the mountains and shadows in the background!

This is a picture in early afternoon. The sun was starting to go down in the mountains around 2:30 or so. There's not a whole lot of light around here this time of year, but it hasn't gotten to us yet. Even though you don't see a lot of bright light, you get a lot of ambient light reflected from the snow. Also, in Girdwood there are a lot of walking/bike paths that are well lit.

Hey guys, we’ll be posting pictures soon.  But this is just a quick note to let everyone know that we made it in last night.  We had dinner last night with some beautiful friends who live here in Girdwood.  We then got settled into our apartment that is better than anything we could have hoped.  Even as I type, we are at these same friend’s house.  They invited us over for a huge Thanksgiving meal.  They also invited about 20 people from the community and provided a great introduction for us!  God has been great to us.  We will be posting pictures tomorrow when we can get an internet connection.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for and supporting this new ministry.  We love and appreciate each of you!