Monday Memories....Alaskan Memories

When Mr. Wonderful and I were in Grad School he was required to do a summer internship before his graduation. 

 In the summer of 76, we went to Alaska to pastor a small church in McGrath and to hold Vacation Bible Schools in the surrounding areas. We wanted a ministry in English rather than just observing "real missionaries" so we were quite thrilled at the opportunity. We were required to raise our support, sublet our house, get someone to care for our cat, and be able to have enough money for tuition in the fall. 

 We lived in Columbia, South Carolina (home of the University of South Carolina) so in God's timing we were able to sublet the house to a teacher working on his Master's for the summer who also agreed to feed the cat even though he was not a "Cat person".

 When we left for Alaska we had enough money to get to Anchorage, and back to Seattle. We were able to stay in the homes of people who were on vacation so we moved every few weeks to another place. We were poor students but took some flannel graph Bible Stories and we purchased toy Sesame Street puppets at the local toy store. The Sesame Street puppets were green, yellow, blue, purple, and orange. We would have a Bible Story then illustrate the Bible concept with a puppet show. We were able to have the Bible School in all the local villages. Looking back now we can see God's hand in all that we did even though we were not aware of it at the time. 

 We found out at the end of the summer we were allowed to have the Bible School because it was aimed at children and because it was for the children the adults felt free to come also. Our cheap Sesame Street puppets were multiracial so Athabaskan children could relate to their rainbow colors. The native culture is a storytelling culture so they were always enthralled by the stories and puppet shows.

 There was no television so we were literally the only entertainment in town. God used our most embarrassing moment to make sure we had standing room only in the 5-day club. On the first day of Bible School during a puppet show, the curtain fell revealing some very surprised puppeteers.

 The kids and adults all laughed and came every day after that incident to see if the curtain would fall again. Money trickled in all summer and never more than 25 dollars at a time. By the end of summer, we were thrilled and delighted to see that we could not only pay for tickets back to Columbia but also had enough money for fall tuition.