Summer Summary

By God’s grace, in 2023, Soaring For Christ has flown one hundred and thirty-four flights, over three hundred thirty hours in the air, covering thirty-five thousand miles over the wilderness of Alaska. Ultimately, we transported five hundred eighty-nine passengers for the sake of the Gospel. Our God is worthy of praise!

By God’s strength, we flew for Family Camp and the Ladies Retreat at Kako Retreat Center. Plus, we flew for four camps at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp and for a retreat in McGrath. It was a very productive year.

The Lord called us to Alaska seven years ago. In service, we have faced brutal difficulties, being driven to prayer by the wind and the waves! God answers us in Matthew 14:31-33: “Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. ‘You have so little faith,’ Jesus said. ‘Why did you doubt me?’ When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped.”

Jesus opens our eyes to his sovereign power over the weather and calms the storms in our hearts.

The Lord has healed Ellesha from her fall last year. She was in a wheelchair this time last year, and now she is doing much better. She gets fatigued easily, and I have to be gentle with hugs. But praise God, my beautiful bride is still by my side.

Thank you for your prayers, because our enemy is not flesh and blood. And thank you to those who partner with us financially, because Christ’s church is advanced not by solo missionaries, but by the body of Christ.

Camp Video

This fun video above gives you a glimpse into what it was like at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp this year. It features interviews with the staff and kids, and you get to find out what makes camp such a special place.

Berry Camp

Ladies from Bethel being brought in.

Berry Camp this year at Kako was quite a joy. Forty-five ladies from eleven different villages attended, and they enjoyed every minute of it. The sound of ceaseless giggles filled the air (quite literally — watch this video to listen to a small sample), and smiles were on everyone's faces. In other words, the ladies had a ton of fun.

Jeff flew twenty-three flights, transporting thirty-six ladies and staff amidst windy and cloudy weather. He also brought back a lot of fuel from Bethel. Kako was short on fuel because the Yukon River flooded this year and wrecked their fuel farm.

The women leading worship were kind and welcoming, so Lael was able to use her ukulele (and her voice) to make music to the Lord for the women.

However, since it was a ladies' retreat, the policy was that no man could be within sight, so Johnathan and all the other guys bunkered down in discreet locations while the ladies had all the fun. Despite this, Johnathan was able to pick blueberries and he watched Elliana and Molly most of the time so Ellesha could help out without having to worry about them.

Because Summer had been late and cold, there was a big worry that none of the blueberries had ripened, but God provided and there were plenty of blueberries for everyone.
 

"The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing."
Psalm 145:15-16

Buckland Visit

Our Team

Flying to Buckland

From August 10-12, my dad and I flew Pastor Dan, his wife Lori, and John Sherman, an elder, of Wildwood Bible Church to Buckland so they could see how they could help support the building and shepherding of a church in Buckland. 

While we were in the interior, we stayed at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp. It was strange being there with no one else except our little team. (Roger and Carol were spending the night in Buckland.) Usually, it feels like you're in a small village!

The day after we arrived at Camp, we flew to Buckland. Sadly, we got there much later than we wanted to. The smoke was heavy in the morning, so we couldn't see well enough to get the airplane off the ground. And there was an unusual amount of thunderstorms in the area.
 

Seeing the Village

Once we arrived, we had a great time. Roger picked us up in a truck and gave us a tour of the whole village. After that, he dropped us off at the Buckland school where there was a VBS taking place.

Many of the kids who come to Camp are from Buckland, and I really enjoyed getting to see all of them again. They introduced me to their parents, and I got to meet some of their friends.

After about an hour, VBS took a break, and Joey came up front to give the older kids a message. Joey Katches is the director for many of the kid's camps at Kokrine Hills. Actually, the reason why many Bucklanders come to Camp is because he used to live in Buckland as a missionary.
 

Joey Katches

In a podcast Billy Tjernlund made with Joey, Joey said, "[We went to] Buckland on a winter trip and we fell in love with the community. We said, 'Man, we love the people here. This feels like home. We want to move here and preach the Word of God.'" So, they moved to Buckland. And they were there for three and a half years until Joey started having problems.

One night, Joey had a severe asthma attack and was taken to a hospital. After investigating the issue, the doctors decided that it was caused by black mold in Joey's house, and told him that if he moved back there he would die. Because of this, Joey and his family moved to his home state of California, where Joey started a video production company called Story Lit Films. And while he still directs camp in the summer, Joey wants to move back to Buckland.

"Recently, as of last year and this year," Joey said, "we've been talking about potentially moving back to Alaska…. I've always said, that if the door to Buckland opens back up, I would drop my camera like Peter dropped his nets... and he jumped in the water and went right back to Christ.... I always tell Amanda [Joey's wife] if the Lord opens that door, we're dropping our nets and we're going."
 

The End

There's so much more I could tell you about our trip, but I think I've given you a pretty good picture of what it was like.

Please pray that Joey can find a place to live in the lacking Buckland housing market, so they can begin to do ministry work there again. And also pray that God would move in the hearts of the people of Buckland and that he would provide a place for the church to meet.

Above are the kids from Bible Camp that I got to see in Buckland (including Jaelyn on the right, who was featured in the last newsletter). Almost all these kids appear in my Kokrine Hills video.
Amanda, Joey's wife, is in the center.

Summer Events: