How quickly these last weeks have gone by… The last VBS for the team this summer was held at Freedom Baptist Church in Eagle River, Pastor Rod Julian. The hospitality of the Julian family was such a blessings to us. They provided an amazing meal EVERY NIGHT! Marshall couldn’t even button his collar today as a result of their generosity (and his lack of self control when it comes to delicious food). On Monday, we had a whole turkey dinner complete with dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, earthquake cake, and strawberry cheesecake. I almost forgot corn and peas. On Tuesday, we had a spiral glazed ham with mashed potatoes, rolls (also present on Monday), I don’t remember what all. There was so much so I’ll skip to the end here and just cover a few more highlights. Ok, here goes: BBQ ribs, egg rolls, halibut, salmon, chicken, several desserts, fruit and cheese appetizers, and on and on and on. Amazingly, the whole family is skinny as beanpoles! I think they must not eat unless they have company or something. They remind me of my family that way (yes we do eat when there’s no company too).

The Julians are quite a family. They have seven kids that were quite helpful and sweet. Daniel was an especially good help for me. I had a much smaller group than the first few weeks but they made up for it by being more rowdy than average (I teach the pre-primaries). VBS was only 2 hours long instead of the usual three this week. If any of you are ever in Eagle River, be sure and visit the Julian’s church--Freedom Baptist. A few of my kids went forward for salvation. Marshall and Josh talked to them but neither of them seemed to understand. Please pray for Jace and Austin. I had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with these precious kids and they also heard it from Marshall and Josh. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. That truth is one Mr. B has been mentioning quite often this summer. The Gospel has been planted in these three boys!

This week was the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Meetings. There were two services Monday and Tuesday evenings. We were blessed to have many wonderful men and woman of God attend the conference. As a matter of fact, between all the speakers, there was a minimum of 275 years of full time ministry experience represented by the speakers. The team provided most of the special music. Marshall played piano for much of the conference. Elizabeth played violin, I (Valerie) played piano for a couple of the specials, and sang. Josh played the guitar. Actually, we all sang! Mrs. Ellis is an incredible pianist she blessed us with some great playing. While it was great to do the music, the highlight of the conference was the preaching. One of the team members asked me if I had a favorite and I honestly could not pick one. Dr. Ed Nelson was pretty incredible with his testimony and how he has been faithfully serving the Lord since he was 17. He is now 85 but he is still preaching the Word! May God grant me the grace to be so faithful to Him!
Tomorrow we head out to the Kenai Peninsula to do some sight seeing of Alaska! I hope to get some more pictures! On Saturday we are going on a three-hour tour… Wait, I mean a 5-hour cruise. Sorry mom, I didn’t mean to scare you there. It’ll the first time I’ve ever been on a boat (besides that time I was in a canoe when I was 13 and also a paddle boat once). I really want to see a beluga whale! A picture would be nice too. I’ll be sure and post it on Facebook when I get back. If you want to see more pics, I’ll be sure to add them when I have more time!
It’s been an amazing summer! I have been encouraged to meet people in the churches that we have visited here in AK and see people that are serving the Lord. The Barnetts are such a faithful example of servants of God. I have been so blessed to be on the team this year and I’m praying that, Lord willing, I will be able to come back next year.

By His amazing grace,

Valerie Stauss

Camp Challenge Blog

We were at Camp Challenge Monday, July 13 thru Friday, July 17, 2009. We had four challenging but fruitful ministry there at camp. We had around 30 junior kids.

Evangelist Ron DeGard was the speaker this week. He did a wonderful job of preaching and teaching. He kept things interesting for those easily distracted kids. Mr. DeGard taught about different characteristics we can learn from various animals. He made balloon animals and then taught the lesson.

One kid, named Johnny that was in Marshall’s cabin had some very interesting quotes. When Marshall asked him how much of your sin did Jesus pay for? He thought about it and then replied “apparently quite a bit.” One of the days we had spaghetti for a meal when Johnny looked up with his huge blue eyes and said with all the ernesty he could muster:”Did you know that it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between spaghetti and baby rattlesnakes? The only difference is that rattlesnakes have little brown spots on their back and a tiny snake head. So if your ever eating spaghetti by a snake hole in the south, be careful” This camper and several more trusted Christ as their personal savior. Those who made professions of faith are as follows: Johnny, Tristan, Isaiah, December, Helen, Suzanne, and Olivia. There were also some that dedicated their life to Christian service, and they are as follows: Sarah and Isabella. Please pray for these new believers to grow in faith and knowledge of God and that they might be discipled from God’s Word. Also pray for those that dedicated their lives to Christian service that they might follow through to the end.

The camp like I said was very challenging but that’s the way of things. We need to see these kids as God sees all of us. God loves each any every one of us and does what is best. May we see others in that light, not accepting their sin but showing them the way to God through Christ in a loving and gracious fashion.

In Christ’s Grace
Joshua Hendricks

We were in Talkeetna July 5-10

Well, It’s been a few weeks since our VBS at Talkeetna Baptist Church, but I’ll do my best to relay our experiences there. Talkeetna Alaska, yet another beautiful little town in this beautiful state. VBS there was quite a different experience than Ft. Yukon. As you may have read in Elizabeth’s post, those kids were pretty rough. I told one of them, “hey man, it has been great to get to know you a little bit, I’m going to miss you!” He replied, “Yeah, whatever”. Anyway, please continue to pray for that ministry.

In Talkeetna Josh and I had a high water mark of just four kids in attendance. They were all bright, well-behaved kids. There were a few that were trouble makers, they were sweet looking kids, but it’s amazing how mercenary little kids can be! I guess it is just more proof that we are all born sinners (as if we need any more proof of that). VBS went off with out a hitch! I love how in every week of VBS, we do a skit each day in which Josh is the Character, “Ben Friesen” (our theme for VBS this year is Polar Extremes) anyway, the kids spend all week trying to prove that Josh is actually Ben Freisen. You have to get up pretty early to put one over on these kids. One girl said, “I can tell that it’s actually Josh by his ears.” Aside from the general silliness of that comment, it’s even funnier because Josh had his ears covered by a hat while he was being Mr. Freisen.

I had the privilege of leading one to the Lord. His name is James. Please pray for James. His parents are professing believers but they show very little evidence of that actually being the case. He is a sweet little guy and he seemed to get it. I guess we’ll just have to see what fruit comes. Pray that his family would start going to church there at Talkeetna Baptist. We had the privilege of being in church listening to Mr. Barnett preach on the 50th Anniversary of his surrender to the ministry. May God grant us all the grace to be faithful to Him for so long.

It was a tremendous blessing to stay there at the church. Pastor Hudson and his family were very hospitable and the church family also treated us like royalty. I had planned on losing weight on this trip but that certainly hasn’t happened. Aside from the ladies being such good cooks, everywhere we go people keep stuffing us to the gills. An older couple in the church (they won’t object to being called older as they are both in the middle eighties), the Tedricks took us out for dinner at a place called “The Lodge” The food was amazing. I had salmon, and Josh had Elk. Unfortunately, it was a smoky day. If it had been clear, we could’ve seen Mt. McKinley from the restaurant. As it was, we could only see the outline of it. There is much more to be said, but I’ll save it for some other day. Until then, please pray for us as we start another week of VBS outside of Anchorage in Eagle River!

In Christ,

Marshall Felderman

On the evening of June 27th we flew into Fort Yukon for our first week of Vacation Bible School held at Arctic Circle Baptist Church. Pastor David Craig and his wife Heidi graciously hosted our team, and Dr. and Mrs. Don Sastic also helped us in countless ways throughout the week. We are still marveling at how the Lord has not only allowed the Craigs and the Sastics to be accepted and loved in their community, but has also given them many open doors of opportunity to minister in this spiritually dark village. Throughout the course of the week, around seventy-five different children showed up for an afternoon of singing Bible songs, listening to a Bible lesson, learning a verse, and playing games. The Lord was incredibly gracious to our team as we tried to adapt to the different dynamics of each day, and take advantage of the opportunities that the Lord presented to talk to and befriend the kids. On Tuesday a nine-year-old boy named Eli showed up for the afternoon. Once again he was back on Wednesday. He even showed up at church that night, and it became apparent that the Lord was working in his heart. Eli was recognizing his need for a Savior from his sins! On Friday, the Lord answered our prayers and Eli came to know the Lord. Please pray for Eli that he will grow in the Lord and that he will share his faith with the other children in the village. We also are thanking the Lord for the opportunity to get to know the older kids through a well-attended teen activity on Friday night.

During the summer the sun hardly sets in Fort Yukon, yet the people of this village desperately need the Light of the Gospel. Please pray that the Lord will continue to use and bless the Craig’s ministry, and that the Lord will bring more souls to Himself in His perfect timing for His glory.

Elizabeth

The team arrived on June 23 and we had our pre-ministry meetings at Pilgrims Baptist Church in Wasilla. This was a very busy time for all with preparing lessons, music and games for our first VBS at Fort Yukon. Wednesday night the team provided special music and Mr. B. preached. We order our food for our Fort Yukon ministry from Safeway in Fairbanks and it was flown to Fort Yukon on Friday. Our food could not go on the small plane that we would fly on because of weight. We were glad we had our food flown in, as a gallon of milk in Fort Yukon was $15.00. On Saturday the 27th we drove the 6+ hours to Fairbanks and even got to see Mount McKinley the 20,300 feet tallest mountain in North America. By 6:00 we had the plane all loaded and were on our way for the one hour flight to the Fort Yukon, 8 miles north of the arctic circle.

Mr. B