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We hope you are doing well! Hopefully your winter weather is starting to change over to spring, but here in Alaska the winter just keeps on going :-) We've had lots of lovely sunshine though, and the daylight is stretching longer each day now.
We've actually really enjoyed our first winter here in Alaska. The "Sourdoughs" (locals) all like to say "wait until next winter," but we've had our fair share of cold & snowy winters along the way over our past 21 years of marriage, so we just smile & agree :-) As long as you're dressed for it, it really isn't that bad here on the Kenai Peninsula.
It's certainly not that bad compared to what several of our MARC team members had to endure while changing a flat tire while ministering in western Alaska at the village of Marshall. It took the brute force of 15 men to roll the aircraft off the runway, a recovery maintenance crew from MARC, and then some brutally cold fingers in the minus 50F wind chill to get the plane flying again. But, it could have been worse. Fortunately the tire rolled over in half on itself when it went flat, so that kept the tire rim from rolling directly on the gravel runway--that would have been much worse. However, none of that really matters at all compared to the 70+ life-changing decisions that were professed to have been made for Christ during the series of village church events we were supporting. In fact, the flat tire gave the music team we were transporting that cold day one more night to get "back to work" and continue cranking up the spiritual heat in Marshall. We're sure God had a plan of His own that night!
Another highlight of this past month was Karin being able to minister at a women's retreat near Wasilla where she helped facilitate one of the small groups for the retreat hosts, Arctic Barnabas Ministries. Karin was able to spend quality time with sixteen different missionary wives who minister in the remote villages of Alaska. Our life issues are certainly put into better perspective when you listen to their difficult ministry issues in the village context of rampant abuse, assault, addiction, teen suicide, joblessness, and spiritual darkness. Because these ladies work in villages without much Christian contact, Karin really enjoyed getting to see them thrive and blossom in the Christian fellowship over the weekend. She was blessed to be able to serve them and to pray with them, and God was able to use Karin's heart to encourage them in their own ministry.
Together, we'll be flying up to Fairbanks next weekend to attend Mission ConneXion 2011. Pray for us and our partners from Arctic Barnabas, and SOAR International who will be flying up with us in one of MARC's planes. It's pretty neat to see the Christian partnership that's possible here. Along with ABM and SOAR, one of the pilots will be from Samaritan's Purse, so we'll have four ministries represented onboard that trip. Please pray that we'll make all the right connections with the stewards God has prepared for us to meet at the missions conference!
Otherwise, we continue to make good progress in making communication improvements for our MARC team. We just launched a new Facebook page for MARC, so please "friend" MARC's new page if you haven't already. It's a super easy way to stay "in touch" with the daily ministry happenings here and will help you know how you can pray for our needs. You can find the new page at www.facebook.com/marcalaska.
Behind the scenes David has also been revamping the entire MARC website ( www.marcalaska.org), so you should see some dramatic improvements visible there shortly. Stay tuned! All the strategic planning "fun" and tedious adjustments to MARC's external messaging will undoubtedly seem easy if God blesses these efforts in exciting new Christian stewards to engage with MARC and to increase our impact in remote Alaska with the hope of Jesus Christ through missionary aviation. Sometimes, it's all about perspective!
We so appreciate your faithful prayers, support, and encouragement. Your intercessory involvement makes our service possible here in Alaska, and we're very thankful.
Blessings in Christ,
David & Karin
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