After traveling nearly 5,000 miles safely, we arrived in Alaska on the 19th of November only to be greeted by reindeer flying a little too close to the ground--in practice, no doubt, for their December global antics. Unfortunately for the reindeer and our car, two of the caribou took a decidedly eastern turn directly into our oncoming path when they should have kept flying north. We broadsided one of the caribou with our front end and took another one into the driver's side of our Honda Pilot. The caribou won the brief encounter, careening us down a rather steep embankment and into a line of trees.
Fortunately David was able to slow the vehicle enough where the collision wasn't catastrophic, but unfortunately the collective impact of the reindeer and the trees effectively totalled the vehicle. Virtually every part of the car except the roof and the back door was worse for wear after our short but scary off-road adventure; however we later realized to be thankful for the trees as they kept our car from entering a frozen slough that would have probably swallowed our vehicle according to our our tow truck driver.
Praise God we both escaped the encounter without a single scratch, other than David's wounded driving pride. After driving six days through some of the prettiest but yet roughest terrain around where guardrails and shallow inclines are in short supply, we were very thankful to have had the accident in a place where we could walk away physically unscathed.
Despite the financial negatives of the event, we've chosen to rejoice that we're alive to continue on our service journey with the Missionary Aviation Repair Center!
Please keep us in your continued prayers throughout the holidays.
Specific requests are:
- Pray for a safe journey tomorrow (Sunday) on the remaining 8-hour drive from Tok, Alaska to our new home in Kenai, which finally successfully closed during our trip. We're thankful that Greg, Melanie, and Hannah Hess (part of our new MARC family) were willing to drive up to Tok to recover us and our camper (which amazingly was virtually undamaged during the collision!).
- Pray that we would be able to replace our crashed vehicle quickly and economically.
- Pray that a God will provide a buyer for our remaining vehicle (at Karin's dad's house in Indianapolis). Anyone looking for a 2007 MINI Cooper S, please contact us!
- Pray that God would provide the remaining 35% of our needed financial support. We're still in need of individuals who would be willing to share in our ministry here in Alaska and contribute approximately $20,000 to help MARC absorb us financially into the organization.
Learn more here. - Pray that we quickly become effective in our efforts with the MARC family! The spiritual and physical needs in the villages of western Alaska are very pronounced, and we need God's intervening hand to reverse the negative decline. Our desire is to help MARC become more organizationally effective so that we can meet the growing needs and constraints. Pray the unconditional love of Jesus becomes known throughout the villages!
- Pray for the pastors, missionaries, and workers laboring throughout the villages of Alaska. Recently there has been a significant spike in village teen suicides, and the workers in those villages are feeling the mounting spiritual weight of ministering effectively to the families and friends of those teens.
We wish you and your families a joyous Thanksgiving!
