Alaska Mission Team Week 3 Update
Dear family and friends:
The third week of the Alaska Mission Team saw five students and Mr. Z. get into a missionary aviation aircraft and travel 500 miles northwest to bring “Camp on Wings” to Selawik, Alaska. Selawik is village of about 500 Inupiaq in the far west of Alaska just north of the Seward Peninsula and east of Kotzebue. The best summary of the week would be an older song that describes God’s power in the lives of submissive believers: “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!” God, in response to specific prayer, brought down stone after stone in the circumstances of the team and campers this week. This is a long update, but it’s been a great week of seeing God’s faithfulness so please take the time to see God in the details!
Broken Airplanes
The Mission Air Care (MAC) Navajo (an 8-seat, twin-engine aircraft) that Mr. Z had been flying and maintaining for MAC in the earlier part of the summer in support of interior church planting had yet to be repaired, and the funds for this maintenance had not come in. The BJU Alaska Mission Team had planned to use this aircraft for transportation needs through the second part of the summer. Mr. Z had experienced a moderate loss of power and a rough running left engine while departing McGrath, Alaska several weeks earlier. After three weeks of troubleshooting and consultation with Navajo experts, many possible problems had been ruled out, and one cylinder on the left engine had become the prime suspect. Mr. Z left MAC to join the Alaska Mission Team in Sterling, Alaska leaving director Mr. Malpass only a few days to continue the troubleshooting and repair process. Just two days before the Selawik trip and after much prayer Mr. Malpass called and said that the money for repairs had been provided, the parts had arrived and the aircraft was indeed running smoothly again! “…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
Death in the Village
Mr. Z had been praying that God would design a faith-building week for the team. As always, God answered. Friday night, the night before the planned departure for Selawik, the team’s host, Pastor Compton, called in the late evening and said that the village had experienced a tragic death of a native family member and that out of respect for the deceased and families, the week might need to be cancelled while the village grieved. The determining factor would be the collective recommendation of the village elders. The team supported the Comptons’ decision and prayed for the community and family of the deceased in Selawik while awaiting the elders’ decision. To the surprise and delight of all, the phone rang during the team prayer meeting and the answer was given. The elders felt the week could go on as planned and that it could even be a positive activity for the teens while the funeral arrangements were made—“…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
Bad Weather
With a working airplane now available and permission of the elders to hold meetings in Selawik Mr. Z and Mr. Malpass began looking hard at the weather. Alaska has five distinct climatological regions in the state, each producing its own weather and influencing the others. The aircraft had to come south from Fairbanks to Soldotna and then northwest on to Selawik — through three of these regions separated by the Alaska Range Mountains whose topographical altitudes generally extend from 5,000 to 10,000 feet including 20,300 foot Denali (formerly Mount McKinley). To complicate matters, once the BJU-Selawik team was delivered to Selawik, Mr. Z and Mr. Malpass would make a round trip from Selawik to Point Hope (via Kotzebue for fuel) to pick up Inupiaq teens from that village. Mr. Z would be dropped off back at Selawik after helping with the flight to Point Hope with its notoriously unpredictable, windy and foggy weather (yes, for you pilots and climatologists, windy and foggy at the same time!). Mr. Malpass then would take the Point Hope teens to Fairbanks for their camp week. This would make an 1,800 statute mile travel day through three or four of Alaska’s five climatological regions, each with its own potential to cancel the flight and/or ministry plans. Clouds, rain, light to occasionally moderate turbulence, thunderstorm development along the Western Alaska Range, and light to occasionally moderate icing were forecast on the route and at the team’s departure point of Soldotna Airport. Once again, Jericho’s walls seemed large. After prayer, more planning and a slight reroute over mountain passes instead of a direct route, the flight was deemed to have a sufficient margin of safety to begin. Multiple layers of clouds from Fairbanks to Soldotna and from Soldotna to the west side of the Alaska Range allowed an ice-free flight between cloud layers, and the weather radar and storm scope in the Navajo allowed deviations around the few thunderstorms that actually did develop. The moisture and winds gave way to a clear blue sky west of the Alaska Range and all the way to Selawik—“…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
More Bad Weather
After the three- hour ride from Soldotna to Selawik, the team unloaded the Navajo into the small trailer pulled by the Compton’s four-wheeler. During the settling in process, Mr. Malpass and Mr. Z checked the Kotzebue and Point Hope weather with the expectation of being able to make this three-hour round trip and get both missions accomplished in the same day. However, Point Hope was fogged in (twice as low as legal minimums to land using GPS, for you pilot types) and was forecast to stay that way for an extended period. The Point Hope teens might miss their camp because of it. Prayer was made over the situation asking for flyable weather the next day. Mr. Malpass declined the Comptons’ invitation to stay in the house with them in favor of sleeping in the plane that night. This was to assure no one would steal fuel during the night—a potentially fatal circumstance. Mr. Malpass had experienced this very problem in other villages on occasion and even at Fairbanks International Airport this summer! No one attempted anything on this trip, though. Jericho seemed fortified again, yet, the Sunday morning current conditions at point Hope were CAVU (pilot stuff for CleAr and Visability Unlimited)! The forecast of serious long-term fog was found to be totally inaccurate just long enough for Mr. Malpass and Mr. Z to get the Point Hope teens out of the village! “But God….” Robbie May preached a well communicated Bible message for Pastor Compton’s morning Service and Mr. Z returned to Selawik about 3 p.m.—in sufficient time to preach the evening service for Pastor Compton. Meanwhile, Mr. Malpass made it back to Fairbanks with a load of teens headed to Bible Camp—“…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
Fatigue, Illness and Culture Shock
After the evening service in Selawik and some more familiarization with village life with Pastor Compton, the team had a normal team meeting back at the church for prayer and planning. Mr. Z and some of the team members felt a strange heaviness on their shoulders to one degree or another. All agreed that it had been real challenge just to get to Selawik and that God had been faithful. However, all were very tired, three team members were experiencing what seemed like a very bad cold, sore throat, cough, and additionally, culture shock! Culture shock does not mean that the new culture is necessarily bad or inferior, just different from what the team was used to back home. It takes some time to adjust to a new place, new customs, new world views, new means of transportation, a new sense of being land-locked and isolated, a new language in some cases, a new approach to time management, a new sense of being the racial minority, a new sense of required flexibility and the generally more challenging way of life in the village which simply does not have all the conveniences the team is used to at home. Life in the village takes more time and effort to successfully manage (for those of you living in the village who may be reading this, I admire your endurance and ability to survive in your environment)! Again, this is not bad, just different than what one might normally experience, thus culture shock: the overloading of the human senses with circumstances that are unknown and unusual for a particular person and thus very much out of a person’s comfort zone! Team members who cannot adjust to the host culture become incapacitated and thus unable to effectively minister to others. But the team committed their discomfort to the Lord knowing it came by their own ethnocentricity, the tendency to think that everyone in the world is or should be like one’s own culture. They also committed their illness and fatigue to the Lord as well. Just the fact that this was entrusted to an all-wise and good Creator aided in team members’ adjustment to life in the village. God is an ever-present help in the time of need. During the following days these obstacles gave way as well—“…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
Faithfulness more than Fruitfulness
“Camp on Wings” is essentially a program designed to be as close in activity to a traditional Christian camp as the host facilities can accommodate, usually an Alaskan village in this context. For the BJU Alaska Mission Team (Selawik group) this meant planning out a six- to seven-hour daily schedule of fun group games, supper, prizes for winning teams and individuals, music, personal testimonies, Bible messages and snacks — all in various combinations culminating in some special activity on the last day. The goal is to make new acquaintances, have good clean fun, learn cooperation and teamwork, and share the love of Christ. Someone once said: “Most teens are bad, sad or mad, and it is the youth workers’ job to make them glad.” This is an oversimplified but wonderfully succinct truth. God offers Himself in Christ as the hope and solution to all of man’s fears, vanity, rebellion, depression and anger. God’s love, forgiveness and guidance make the Christian glad. Hundreds of man hours go into the planning of a week like this in hope that God will work in the lives of many campers and camp leaders alike. So what do you do when only one camper shows up on day one? You trust the Lord and continue to be faithful to Christ and the camper! In God’s eyes faithfulness is more important than fruitfulness (results or success in this context). The team responded faithfully to the potential disappointment and had a great time with one camper! If you (that one camper) are reading this, thank you for coming out and reminding us of a simple fact: if there were only one person in the world for Jesus to die for, he would have still died for that one! God sees the whole world as individuals, not as an ant hill or mass of humanity. His eyes are on each individual for salvation from sin. The team learned faithfulness from this circumstance — and 12 to 15 teens came out the next four days! God was working in the lives of the team members—“…and the walls came a-umblin’ down!”
Social Barriers
All one needs to do to appreciate what it feels like to be a minority is to live in a place for a week where you are one. While the team was treated well in the village, one cannot help feeling out of place. The fact is, the team was “out of place.” In the history of most Alaskan villages Caucasian visitors, Caucasian missionaries and other whites have not always been especially helpful. In fact, some have been especially hurtful. Understandably, that has created social barriers. No one in the village could know of the team’s intention until they saw it worked out in real life. As is true everywhere, respect and trust is earned. Given Alaska’s history this is especially true in the villages (naturally). As well, teens all over the world of all races typically will not drop the shell of self-sufficiency at the drop of a hat. As the week progressed, the teens grew in number and the mission team grew in their ability to develop open lines of communication with the teens. By the last day of camp, everyone had grown accustomed to each other and was respectfully learning of the other’s culture and life. An atmosphere of mutual respect developed. This opened the way to discussions regarding other important subjects—like the gospel. The team preached Bible messages twice a day and had team members give personal testimonies to their faith and how Christ made a difference in their lives. Several teens came forward for salvation and reassurance of salvation. Many others listened attentively and considered the gospel message. Mission team members were stretched by the service opportunity in that self had to be forgotten and Christ and others placed first—“…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
Missionary Aviation: Work and Finances
On the Saturday after the “Camp on Wings” ministry Mr. Malpass of Mission Air Care (MAC) brought six Inupiaq teens back with him from their camp week near Fairbanks enroute to Point Hope, Alaska, 90 minutes northwest of Selawik on the Arctic Ocean. Alaska can be as unforgiving as it is beautiful and two pilots can create a greater margin of safety in bad weather. The plan was to pick up Mr. Z at Selawik while the BJU team finished packing. Mr. Z would help Mr. Malpass get the Point Hope teens back to their home in deteriorating weather conditions.
After Mr. Z. hopped aboard the Navajo in Selawik the pilots flew the teens to Kotzebue for fuel. Fuel planning in Alaska is a degree more critical than in the lower 48 as aviation fuel is available only in a few select villages. Becoming stranded on a remote airstrip after a precautionary landing, waiting to be found and/or having fuel delivered by another aircraft is a very real possibility in Alaska. After Kotzebue, the flight was completed to Point Hope. GPS (Global Positioning System) instrument approaches were flown at each location as the rain and fog continued to worsen to a ragged 600-foot ceiling and two miles’ visibility. Once again the Lord made the weather manageable. Point Hope is notorious for a nasty combination of wind, fog and ice that makes many flights — or transportation of any kind — impossible. In fact, in Point Hope the runway ends at the beach on either end as the airport is on a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Arctic Ocean, and during the colder portions of the year, the wind will push ice flows up onto the beach at the runway ends, creating seasonal obstacles for pilots!
After dropping the Point Hope teens off with their pastor and making a quick exit away from the Arctic Ocean airport, Mr. Malpass and Mr. Z made the return IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight via Kotzebue for fuel and picked up the BJU team at Selawik. Headwinds enroute back to Fairbanks created the need for a precautionary diversion to Galena for fuel and then finally on to Fairbanks. Local forest fires created very poor visibility aloft on this leg of the flight. From Fairbanks Mr. Malpass drove home to attend to MAC priorities in North Pole, Alaska, and Mr. Z flew the Navajo and team past Denali and Anchorage to a landing at Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula near Higher Ground Baptist Bible Camp (HGBBC). The “Camp on Wings” team now had rejoined the rest of the team at HGBBC where they would all again serve as camp staff the following week. This flight crew arrangement also allowed Mr. Z to stage the aircraft near camp and gain significant advantages for both MAC and the BJU Mission Team. The next interior ministry week (Fort Yukon) would be the week after next, and maintenance could be performed by Mr. Z for a week while the team staffed and counseled at HGBBC. Then, a ready aircraft would be available to take the team to Fort Yukon for a VBS without the extra round trip (and fuel expenses) of Mr. Malpass coming from Fairbanks to pick up the team. The beauty of the arrangement is that more work was done for less money, the team was able to come in on budget in the face of rising fuel costs, and MAC director and founder Mr. Malpass could attend to some urgent management duties at MAC instead of flying and performing aircraft maintenance. So, in a very real sense, the combination of the MAC and BJU Alaska Mission Team ministries allowed a highly efficient use of time and finances. As well, Nick Risk, a BJU Aviation student and BJU Alaska Mission Team member, did not mind getting some flight time from the right seat of the Navajo on the way home with one of his aviation teachers, Mr. Z, either! “…and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”
As you can see, missionary aviation, when used responsibly, is making ministry possible and more economical in Alaska as well as around the world.
Thanks, Earl, and MAC, for making these ministries possible in Alaska all year around.
As well, thanks go to Missionary Aviation Repair Center (MARC) in Soldotna, Alaska, who provided a spot in their hangar, tools, equipment, parts and technical advice for a week so the MAC Navajo could be ready for use in the later part of the summer!
For the BJU Alaska Mission Team (and Mission Air Care),
Mr. Zukowski