Back Again!

We've been in Savoonga over 2 months now and I think this is only my second blog post! Not too good...so sorry! We are all doing well. Temperatures have dropped to around 0 degrees F and the Bering Sea is beginning to freeze over. The village killed 2 whales on Thanksgiving so there has been much excitement around here lately. Since I last wrote, I have prepared/eaten whale and cut up a chunk of reindeer for the freezer. I tried a bit on Thanksgiving and wasn't a huge fan of the gamey aftertaste, but I tried it! So we're learning to live in Savoonga. We still have a steady 20 or so for church on Sunday. We're told that at 11am most people are still in bed. We've started an evening service...there were 6 adults and 6 or more kids the first night. Hopefully word will spread and more will come next week. We started youth group...one child came for the beginning and two more came after it was over! Tuesday night children's church is happening...3 kids the first night, then zero, then 19, then 8...We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm having fun preparing for it and leading it when kids actually show! Wednesday adult Bible Study brings a steady group of 8...going well. We recently decided that if you're shooting for numbers in Savoonga, you'll generally always end up depressed! I spoke with one of the teachers and she said it is the same at school. You never know how many kids will show. She said you could probably teach the same thing everyday because you always have different kids and even the kids who happen to be there two days in a row probably wouldn't remember what was taught the previous day anyway! God bless the teachers in Savoonga!
Jacob and I are using this as an opportunity to learn to play the guitar (Jacob) and remember how to play the piano(Kami). Last week, the only woman who plays piano in the village was in a honda accident outside the church and fractured her ankle and cut her head so she's out for 6 weeks...so my big piano debut was yesterday in church. The boys sat in their car seats next to the piano and ate Cheerios while I attempted to play. It went alright until the last hymn when they were in the back of the church seemingly happily playing with toys when on the second verse of The Old Rugged Cross I hear and see a screaming and crying Logan walking down the church aisle followed by Jacob holding a crying Owen. They finished the song a cappella while I retreated with boys to feed them lunch. Good fun. I better go as the boys are getting bored with cutting paper. We enjoyed company from Jacob's mom for a week. Sooo good to see Grandma and have someone we know well experience Savoonga with us. She joined us for Jacob's installation service...He's officially a pastor now. Amen! We also enjoyed a group of 5 pastors and elders, mostly from Anchorage, who joined us for the service and brought us fresh produce...amen, amen! After they left, our house was filled again with 5 adults and a 17 month old from Youth with a Mission. They will return for a month in April to minister to the people in Savoonga. It was great to interact with so many people for a time and we look forward to their return. Okay, I really must go. Blessings.

Savoonga--The First Month

We have been in Savoonga a bit over a month now and this is my first time to access the Internet...what a liberating feel! We've found that options for us to get Internet from home are not good, so a teacher who attends our church has offered to let us use her computer at school. In the future, we hope to purchase a laptop and make posts more regularly, but knowing us that will be at least a month from now...bear with us:) For now, know that we are doing well. All of our belongings have arrived and some of them were in one piece! I thank God that the items we really desired to arrive safely, did arrive safely. We feel pretty well settled in our home. Logan and Owen are enjoying their climbing gym in our family room, our many hours of crafts and cooking in the kitchen, and playing in the snow when the weather allows. We've met many, many children as they visit us daily. Church attendence is still rather low...anywhere from 15-20 on a Sunday, but we've been told that before we arrived there were usually about 5 people! Jacob met with the elders last Sunday and discussed starting some different programs and visiting people. People in the village seem excited about God and church and that we are here, but few people actually show up for events...the question is why and how can things change? It has been 10 years since the last pastor, so I think people are largely out of the habit of going to church and they've replaced that time with other activities (like Bingo). The weather is an added challenge as even some of the most devoted members have told us that as winter gets worse, they won't be leaving their homes. There are definate challenges to ministry in Savoonga, but there are also joys enough to keep us going!:) We certainly get to spend a lot of time together as a family since Jacob's "office" is in our kitchen. I've been enjoying learning to bake everything from scratch...something I've always wanted to do but never found time for...now if we want to eat bread, I have to make it, etc. And the boys are a joy here as much as anywhere! Well, I can see that the boys' patience is wearing thin, entertaining themselves in this 1st Grade classroom, so I better get going before they start destroying!! I hope to write sooner than later and I hope you are all doing well.

Last Minute Details

Our family flies out to Anchorage next Wednesday. We will spend 5 days there, interacting with Savoonga's sister church (a church who hopes to do vacation bible schools and more with us in Savoonga). The following Monday, we will fly on to Savoonga and settle into our new home and community. Our belongings have been shipped via barge and USPS. We just saw our ND and she loaded us up with vitamins and supplements. Jacob picked up our shipment of dried foods to be shipped to Savoonga soon. So, tomorrow we're going to the fair! I think we are pretty well set to go. We don't know when our computer will arrive in Savoonga, nor do we know when we can get Internet so I may not post to this blog for an even longer time than usual!...But, I will send out a mass e-mail when we have Internet and all and I can actually post regularly. Until then...we hope you all stay well and may God bless you.

Answered Prayer

One of my recent posts was entitled "Roller Coaster" and I described the many ups and downs related to our going (or not going) to Savoonga. As other opportunities arose, I would sometimes find myself longing to go elsewhere, but deep down, nothing felt right except for Savoonga. Our most frequent prayer was that God would make it completely and totally clear to us as to where Jacob should accept a call. It seemed that we had been waiting forever to hear from anyone and especially to hear from Savoonga...and then one day at my Grandma's, the phone rang. It was regarding the church-plant position in Bellingham. They offered the position to the other guy. Not even 5 minutes later, the phone rang again. It was Savoonga. They voted and everyone wanted Jacob to come and be their next pastor. Finally...clarity! Thank the Lord!
So we are definately Savoonga-bound (God-willing). We will fly out on September 17th, spend a few days in Anchorage where we will meet a church who wants to continue being involved with the church in Savoonga, and then continue on to Nome and finally Savoonga on September 22nd. Until then, we will be packing our remaining belongings to be either mailed or barged and then flown to Savoonga. I've learned that there is nothing easy about moving to an island in the middle of the Bering Sea! Please continue to pray for us as we wrap up final details before moving and as our excitement to begin life in Savoonga increases and please also pray for us and our family as we begin to say some goodbyes in the coming days/weeks.

2 Years Old

I realize this post may be a good 3 weeks late, but it's here!:) Logan and Owen turned 2 on August 8th and the week following the only 3 words they said were "no", "me", and "mine". Wow...it was pretty textbook! We began the birthday celebration at my parent's house in Sequim with Michelle, Todd, Caleb, and Ginny. Then, we finished off the weekend camping near Leavenworth, WA with old friends from Seattle. The first day we all kayaked (floated!) down the river and the second day Logan tried rock climbing. After listening to Logan's screams, Owen opted out of the rock climbing experience:) It was a great weekend, catching up with old friends and meeting new little friends. Since then, Jacob completed a Presbyterian Polity course in Seattle while the boys and I visited with my grandparents and cousins. We are now back in Sequim preparing for a move!

Roller Coaster

As I write this post, I'm feeling a bit guilty. Logan and Owen stayed home tonight with their Grandpa and Dad while their Grandma and I attended a conference at church. We returned home a bit early to find Jacob bathing both boys. The noises behind the door are so joyful that I didn't want to interrupt them to even let them know I'm home! So I'll write and let the "Washy washy wash your face. Washy washy wash your belly...leggy, etc." continue:)
Jacob has returned from a wonderful trek in New Mexico and we are so excited to all be together again. We had a great visit with friends from CA...so good to see them and visit area sites with them. They made me miss our CA friends all the more. Well, it is August 1st and I really thought that I would be able to write with great certainty where we will be moving next. Rather, I am all the more uncertain! Through recent talks with Savoonga, we have learned that the situation is much more complex than we ever dreamed it could be. I think the soonest we will receive a yes/no answer is another month. I will be the first to admit that my emotional stability grows less and less with each passing day! I cling to a recent word written to me by a friend. She knows that within God's timing, He will make it very clear which path we are to take. Tonight, as I sang and listened to the woman speak at church, I meditated on phrases like, "Will I be willing to leave everything I treasure behind" and I thought of Savoonga. That's a bit exaggerative. I wouldn't be leaving everything I treasure behind if we went to Savoonga, but I would be leaving many things, such as, family, friends, the luxury of enjoying much time outdoors, etc. And granted, we would be finding new joys in Savoonga...new community, etc. However, I'd be leaving enough behind that it has been a big step for me to embrace moving to Savoonga...each and every time that I've made the decision to go! I'm someone who needs to fully do something or fully not. I have a very hard time going back and forth and for several months that is exactly what has been happening. I can no longer say that I'm sure that we will be moving to Savoonga. As time has progressed, I saw clearly how things were weaving together, making it seem that we were being led on the path to Savoonga. Now, as I wait and ponder our next calling in life, I see how I could just as easily point out how God has been closing the doors and leading us elsewhere. Ihhh! Why does it have to be so hard?!! So I sit on this roller coaster with my boxes packed and labeled Savoonga and I'm so very excited to get off and know where I'm really going. In the meantime, I'm grateful for family who is gracious enough to let us store our remaining possessions at their homes(mostly my sister's) and let us sort through our life. Lord willing, by September 1st, I'll let you all know our new address!

Don't Give Up!

Don't give up on us posting to this blog!:) I'm realizing that it's been nearly a month since I've written and at this rate those promised photos of Savoonga may not be posted until we're living there! Since I last wrote, we had a tearful goodbye with Grandma Meadows before flying back to CA. It was good to reunite with family during my cousin's wedding and then spend a few days with friends in familiar places. Our few days in CA seem to be a bit of a blur as we hurried to pack up the rest of our belongings and move north. We already sorely miss our CA community. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly close relationships can develop within the body of Christ.
I can honestly say that we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Washington. Jacob enjoyed listening to NPR in the moving truck while Logan, Owen, and I followed in the car. I had my box of toys and snacks in the passenger seat and just kept passing them back. We generally drove 2-3 hours and then stopped for 1-2 hours to play. We all thought it was a good pace:) We spent the first night and day in Grass Valley, CA with Addi (friend from college) and Yamil. It was worth battling the smoke from the fires to meet Yamil and hang out with Addi and fam, seeing her life in her hometown. We drove another entire day and then spent the next night and day in Portland, OR with Dan and Robin (friends from college) and were able to see Catherine (roomate) at least briefly! We enjoyed watching the goats and chickens in Dan's backyard. (We had to make believe this time, but trust that there will be real ones living there during our next visit!) Our last day, took us to my sister's house in Oak Harbor, WA where we off-loaded our belongings, returned the truck, and went to bed.
We spent a couple of days here and there around the NW and have now spent an entire week in the same bed! Wow! It feels good:) Jacob has been to South Dakota and back and is currently in New Mexico accompanying his cousin's Boy Scout troop on a trek at Philmont. Meanwhile, the boys and I have been enjoying time at my parent's house in Sequim, WA, visiting with them and with my Grandma from MN.
I think that catches you up on our whereabouts over the past month. We are obviously still homeless and still waiting to hear from Savoonga! Last Sunday they voted on whether or not they want Jacob as their pastor, so we are basically just waiting to figure out logistics...like, when can we move there and how. Until then, we have many hours of preparations to complete so I'm not really in any rush...except, I'd like to arrive before the sea ice moves in preventing our belongings from moving in with us!:) Well, I'm off to bed, but I will try to be better about posting to this blog now that I'm feeling a bit more settled. And I still hope to post some photos:)