Alaska...

I’m back home… sorta.

You’d think I could start off this blog by using the words, “I’m back home” with confidence. Though, after visiting Alaska, I’m not sure I can say those words with as much gusto as before.

If you have ever listened to me ramble about the outdoors, you’ll have picked up boastings of Northern California, Colorado, and the sites I’ve been privileged to… Mammoth, American River Valley, and Pikes Peak with all of the Rockies’ splendor.
Yet, with the soil of Alaska having touched my toes, I now have another land to place above all on my list. As a close friend described, “Alaska is like Colorado on steroids.”

A land known for it’s midnight sun summers and darkly cold winters is a land that makes any other nature setting seem tainted and less genuine. I can’t describe to you the feeling being there has in me – other than it’s hard not to buy a log cabin, kindle the wood fire stove, hunker down for a season or two, and find some rejuvination as I live off what the land provides. Okay, maybe I’d take a trip or two to Fred Meyer (the best grocery store/department store ever) would be in my future… but you’re getting the idea.

Besides some of the most incredible nature to experience, I was also blessed to have spent time with some amazing kids and their incredible families. Our group of 23 from Bethany split into two sites to teach Vacation Bible School to areas that do not have much/anything at all when it comes to reaching out to youth.

I was stationed in the city of Big Lake where I worked mostly with the high school youth, and for 3/5 of the week became song leader for our site. Sure I can’t sing, but the kids, preschool through high school, didn’t care and I had a blast acting like a fool for them. By the end of the week, you couldn’t bear to say goodbye to the kiddos, and didn’t like the thought of leaving the new family members you made with their parents.

Truly, it was an experience to make you feel more blessed than you’ve ever been… not only by the outdoors, yet also by the people that welcomed you with arms of love and smiles of appreciation.

Ultimately, Alaska is a place to experience creation… a place I will surely touch again.