Myers Park United Methodist Church

The team made it safely to Alaska around 9pm. Everyone and their luggage arrived. We got to our lodging place and had some much needed pizza. 

We had the opportunity to worship at First Covenant Church in Anchorage. The covenant denomination is a fairly tight knit community. It was very fun to share with them that we were going to support one of their pastors in a village. 

Here is Ellen and Anna Grace showing where we are and where we are going. 

We are off!! We have professionally packed the plane. Thankfully between the bush plane and commercial flight we were able to load all of our supplies. 

Villages in Alaska are "off the road system". That means there are no roads that go into the village. This makes getting simple things like groceries more difficult and more expensive. Because of this we are bringing about 6 hard sided bins of food with us. 

Here is a pic of the bush plane crew getting ready for take off!! 

The whole team before we get off to western Alaska!! Grant will be flying 10 of us in a King Air bush plane. This is a little bigger and faster than many bush planes. 

The trip will be about 2 hours long. The sky is clear so we were able to see Denali in the distance!! 

This is the before picture of Pastor Bonnie's living room. Pastor Bonnie moved into this parsonage in October of 2023. She is slowly but surely making it feel like home. Some things she is unable to do on her own and some things are much easier when you have many hands. 

We will be moving some furniture around, cleaning out closets and painting. 

Stay Tuned for the transformation! 

Abby, Anna Grace, Tucker, Maya and Finley are making some posters to hang up around town for VBS tomorrow. 

We will have crafts, games and Bible stories. We will be taking some time to walk through the village and hang up posters and meet people. We are hoping to get the word out to families and kids to come join us tomorrow! 

This is the beautiful building of White Mountain Covenant Church! We will host a day of VBS, do some cleaning and organizing and hopefully give the bell a look at. 

The Mayor Dan told us to go up to the cemetery and grab some cut logs. The team was able to use a chain saw to make rounds and an ax to split it. Bonnie has a place to store it and it will hopefully last most of the fall and winter. 

Many homes in Alaska, especially more remote villages, have wood burning stoves to warm their homes. So having wood ready to use is very important. Bonnie has relied on others in the village to bring her split wood. 

A New Coat of Paint makes a world of difference. I don't think anyone knows when this house was last painted inside. And the walls were quite dirty and in need of a fresh start. 

Tate, Caitlin, Hank and Britt were hard at work getting the first coat of new paint on. 

We had to take a trip to the one grocery store in White Mountain. White Mountain Native Store receives groceries, household items and other necessities. This is the only store in the village. Prices for items are about double to triple the cost as Anchorage, which is already more expensive than the lower 48 states.  

The team brought a Polaroid camera! We were able to take pictures with kids (and some adults) and put them in cute foam frames. They could decorate them with foam stickers and markers.