Last weekend our whole family went to the village of Port Alsworth for their Spring Family Conference. Our kids were on the team for the children’s ministry. Lela and I enjoyed the conference and met many new people as well as reconnected with familiar faces.
We ended up missing the first day due to weather. The plane could not get into the village due to the weather, so we went Saturday instead of Friday. We had about a 30 minute warning to get to the airport, which isn't far but this was at 8:25 a.m. and we were still in jammies and had to take our showers and get a couple of kiddies out of bed. BUT, we did make it and all was good. Port Alsworth has 2 runways side by side. When we landed, the pilot chose the left runway. Nobody clued him in about the condition. It was VERY muddy!!!! The airplane slid all the way down the runway. The pilot did an excellent job keeping the nose off the ground until he could get in some hard land. Otherwise, the nose wheel would have dug in and the prop woul have hit the ground resulting in $500,000 in damage. Once the runway dried a little, we tugged the airplane back as far as we could in the high ground and took all the weight we could out of the airplane, this left him with about 1500 feet of runway before the lake. He did a nice soft field take off in about 750 feet!! This was Sunday morning and the chapel is located at the end of the runway in front of the lake with HUGE windows on both sides to see all of the beauty. When the plane got off the ground the whole chapel roared with excitement!!!! The preacher stopped and allowed the Praise to continue and everyone gave thanks to God for His faithfulness. I was so excited...I met another Lela!! She spells her name Lelya...she is from Russia. It was so strange introducing her to Scott..."Scott this is Lelya and Lelya this is my husband Scott..." It sounded so weird. LOL Not everyday I get to do that. :-)
Scott and Lela leave Thursday for the village of Quihagak (Sounds like quinihawk) for the Moravian Youth Singsperation. About 330 Alaskan Natives will be flown in from villages all over Alaska. We will have the opportunity to meet many of them.
Scott and Lela have been promoted to CEF ALASKA RURAL MINISTRY COORDINATORS. The boss wanted to see how we did before he gave us the title. This just means that we are responsible for ministry that happens in every village except for Soldotna. :o)
God has been opening many doors for ministry. It has been amazing to see His handy work. We are humbled to be His servants and excited at what the future looks like.
Scott will slowly be trained in the airplane as opportunities come up. In the mean time, I am hoping to be able to use MARC’s Cessna 172 when I have a couple of bucks so that I can stay current. I can use this plane for various meetings around the State.
The boys are doing good. They loved flying out to the village and playing in the mud. Yes, we all had to have mud boots...a necessary item for living here once break up starts.
We pray that all is well with you and please continue to remember us in your prayers for safety in all of our upcoming flying and also for our boys as some of the trips they are not going on and staying with friends. We love and appreciate you all. God bless!!!!!
Lela and Scott
Shaughn, Matthew, Nathaniel and Jeremiah
Posts
