Alaskan Mission

I am very excited to have our boy back home. Our experiences this summer have been tremendous, taking us all over the country. We have never had a year with so many opportunities and hidden blessings.

Our Bucket List Adventures have been so much fun! Here's the latest, and probably greatest of all:

Our boy went to ALASKA on a Mission trip. This was such an incredible, life changing opportunity.

What could be a greater adventure? Seeing the amazing countryside or finding God's plan for your life?

Long ago, as parents, we decided we would like each of our children to go on a mission trip before they graduate from high school. Sending your child off to a far away place, can be a bit unnerving. It is a life changing experience, and I don't mean just for the kids! It changes parents too, to see their children grow in so many unforeseen ways. The kids don't come back quite the same, they are more mature, less reliant on others, less self-serving and have a greater understanding of how much serving God can change the world and our lives. It is something you and your children have to experience to understand, reading about it will never produce quite the same result.

The team's mission was to serve the people of a small community while experiencing the wonder of God's creation. James is pictured above with a pair of Caribou antlers they found laying around inside Denali National Park. What I wouldn't give to have those mounted on my wall!

The flight to Alaska, is a whopping 7 hours from our area of the Mid-West, and 4 hours different from our central time zone.

Welcome to Alaska! These statues are in the Visitor's Center at Denali National Park.

The sign here reads: "Ground squirrels are the fast food of the tundra." I love it!

Many of the photos I am sharing here are from the Alaskan Team Mission Blog.

You can read more about their daily adventures here. Someone on the team is an amazing photographer!

Denali National Park was one of the most memorable stops on their trip. Definitely a must see! 

Breathtaking Mount McKinley is there, how could you not be in awe? If that isn't a majestic purple mountain, I don't know what is!

I find it interesting, that none of the other mountains have snow on them. Not like the snow in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Alaska is not only one of our least populated states, but it is also economically one of the poorest. It's ironic that a place with so many natural resources can be so poor. 

Back in civilization, there is much to do. Many hands sure do help make a difference. The people there were thrilled to have the team assist them with things like yard work, splitting wood, and helping to build this log cabin.

Wow! Talk about hard work!

After the day's work was done, resting by the camp fire was in order. Can you believe this picture was taken at 10:30pm? Alaska has sunshine all day long this time of year. James said it wasn't all that difficult to get used to, in fact it makes it easier to get up and use the facilities in the middle of the night because you can see where you are going! Too funny!

The moose is a regular visitor around the camp. Every once in a while, he leaves something behind. Aren't these horns amazing?

Any Northern Exposure fans out there? Hilarious!

The soil is silty and dry in most places. There are beautiful little purple flowers that bloom everywhere.

Camp is situated next to a beautiful river. You can see how silty the water is in the rapids.

 James brought home about 3 lbs. of silt in his dirty laundry.

Here they are at Glacier National Park. Wisconsin winters will not seem so bad after seeing glaciers.

Beautiful.

Part of the work is fellowship, meeting new people and learning how to work together as a team. Not all work is serving, here it is hiking up the mountain where the team takes a brake on the Summit of Mount Butte.

A trip to a near by gold mine was also in order. Doesn't this gold make historical tales come to life?Where do you hunt for gold? This reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:19-21

So many valuable lessons and life changing experiences happened on this trip! Now, if I can just find a source for Caribou sausage pizza and Moose meatballs!

Until our next Bucket List Adventure!

Linking up to Living and Learning at Home