Dear Friends,
Everything is
normal, I think. “Bearbait” our small
moose-watching dog is almost whole again, even
psychologically in “dogdom” terms, after his pit
bull attack see last news letter), a few weeks ago.
Since our last
letter, I made a quick trip to North Carolina to see
my elderly parents, (faithful missionaries for many
years to some of the hardest places on earth) and to
help them pack and move right next to my sister’s
house for future care needs. All my siblings—Steve,
Sheryl, and Janeen—and myself have made a family
decision to honor and care for them from now on. I
hear of so many who put their parents in homes for
the elderly and then rarely visit them. Shame on
them! My parents went the second mile for all of us
and saw us all through difficult times. My parents
are the greatest, and we plan to take care of them
in their later years.
I also visited
several supporting churches and spoke at two
Christian sportsmen’s banquets with good results. I
had brought with me a nine-and-a-half-foot Kodiak
brown bear hide. I had killed the bear with a 44
magnum handgun and was a welcome exhibit at the
Sportsmen’s events. Several men were saved, and, on
Sunday, one of those was baptized and joined the
church.
I managed to
return to Anchorage the night before the Iditarod
Dog Race started. I had 5000 John-Romans pamphlets
to pass out at the starting point, along the route,
and at the finish line in Nome, Alaska. We camped
out on the floor of a building in Nome, as a
sleeping bag in a tent in the snow below the wing of
the plane is only a survival practice in case of
emergency. Feb 25th was -43o
here. March 5th and for the rest of this
Iditarod week, it will be -20 o!
Have you ever
thought you might try sleeping outside in a tent in
the snow at -40 o? I only do this if I
need to, but I have it figured out I think. You can
do your sleep time the civilized way anyway, i.e.
get up, put on your house coat and slippers and then
later take all this off and put on real clothes for
the day. But the “Far North flying Chaplain” must
be more practical than that.
Why should I
get out of warm sleeping bag at 40 o
below zero, put on my house coat and slippers, and
then fix breakfast on the tail of the plane, while
standing in the snow in my slippers. No siree! I
go to the -60 o sleeping bag and get in
with all my clothes on and my boots as well. I wear
a beaver fur hat, T-shirt, long sleeve pullover long
john, long sleeve shirt, fleece jacket and fleece
vest, plus long-handle bottoms, insulated pants, two
pairs of socks and my -150 o rated
boots. I go to bed warm and get up warm. The sled
dogs will be my alarm clock. See how practical I
am, right down to the last detail?
The Iditarod
winner this year, Lance Mackey, was so far ahead of
the next racer, that he held his dogs back from the
finish line to wait for his dad to arrive to see him
become “the third Mackey to win the Iditarod.” His
dad is one of the founders of the Iditarod Sled Dog
Race and a winner in 1978.
www.mackeyscomebackkennel.com Lance reminded me
that he was in a church service I preached A few
years ago along the highway to Prudhoe Bay at
Coldfoot Truck Stop, the farthest north truck stop
in the world.
At the end of
the race I had witnessed to several people, found
out that one lady was a member of a church of a
young man we had helped along the way, and I was
interviewed at length on the Nome radio station in
regards to the work of the Far North Flying
Chaplain. Working with this greatest of Alaskan
events gives us credibility across the state. Put
the Boston Marathon and the Indy 500 together, and
you still come very short of the feats of this race!
Jane has been
very busy while I was “Outside” (outside of Alaska)
taking a three week intensive course in American
Sign Language. The teacher, a deaf woman from Sword
Deaf Bible College in Ohio, stayed with Jane at our
house. They were so busy that Jane didn’t mind my
absence. Forty young people from the Christian
school and fifteen adults took the class. Jane has
been interpreting and teaching American Sign
Language for a church here in town. She continues
to help out in a jail ministry for women.
Thanks so much
for your prayers and giving. I just opened up
another letter yesterday from a church that had to
drop our $100 monthly support because of loss of
members. Pray for the churches as much as the
missionaries. Also, thank God for the ones saved at
the sportsmen’s clubs and those recently at the
ladies’ jail ministry. A big thanks goes to one
brother who gives me buddy passes on Delta to fly
back to NC to visit my folks. Pray for wisdom about
five teams that may be coming to Alaska this summer
to help on projects.
Your Far
North Flying Chaplain,
