Alaskan Adventures, Vol. 1

I have successfully reached Alaska. I was delayed one day, but it resulted in a hefty flight voucher (which I'm extremely thankful for) from Delta.

Plane with a fun windshield cover at the bush plane parking lot near the airport (airport is in background).

When I landed in Anchorage, Dwayne King had forgotten to come pick me up (by bush plane). This gave me a chance to grab dinner at the airport and walk out of the airport to the bush plane parking area across the highway. Dwayne showed up within the next half hour or so with two pilot-trainees and we flew back to King Ranch.

First rainbow on our way over to King Ranch.

Epic views on both sides of the plane.

Here's the mountainous side of the plane :)

The flight over was incredible; mountains, valleys, rivers, glaciers, with a couple rainbows to top it off! You could say I was drooling over the many hiking opportunities as they flew by. King Ranch has a mountain range on the east side separated only by a river. I've already checked to see if I could walk across the river to get to said mountains. Sadly it's quite impossible. I may need to find a boat so I don't go crazy looking at the mountains everyday without being able to hike them. Or have Dwayne or someone fly me over.

Landed and parked at King Ranch / Kingdom Air Corps!

These first few days at Kingdom Air Corps have been a hurricane of names and histories. I've attempted to talk with as many people here as possible. I'm still working on a few names, since there have been so many to learn all at once. I've enjoyed getting to know the staff and a few students here.

Great view from the property.

On Sunday, I went with Dwayne, Scott (mechanic), and Oksana (student, volunteer for Brooks Range Bible Camp) to the Russian church service near Wasilla. It brought back a flash of memories from my time in Russia, and revealed the rusty state of my Russian language abilities. Afterwards we had dinner with a few Russian families.

Early yesterday morning, Dwayne left for a 10-day trip to Russia. I hadn't had a chance to talk through my responsibilities with him yet, so I wasn't totally sure how to start ministering. I noticed some guys starting to work on a construction project, so I jumped in. Since then I've been assisting these men build a small cabin for the cook. That project has filled most of the last couple days, and other times I've used to get to know people or play with some of the kids here. I expect this building project will continue at least until Dwayne returns, and I may help the grounds maintenance with weed whacking as well. From there, I will see what media projects I can work on.

I'm definitely looking forward to serving with these people this summer. Thank you all for your prayers; God is good!

To be continued...