An update from Alaska

Well I'm up here at Kako and we just finshed Camp 3, which was for Junior High. It has been great to come up again this year and continue where we left off last year. Kyle has been helping direct camp this year, and it has been great having an inside source. ;) I knew some kids from last year, but a whole lot of the kids this week were first timers.


Kyle working on the obstacle course.


Jimmy on the new repelling wall.


A group shot of the first camp.


Jimmy working on the craft with his cabin. The guy he is working with in this picture was in my cabin last year.


A group shot of camp 2.

Stephen and I arrived on Friday at the very end of Camp 2. We arrived at the village we were going to be picked up at 3pm. We didn't know when they were going to pick us up so we had to stay at the airport instead of going into the village. We didn't get picked up till a little before 8pm, so we were pretty tired of waiting by the time we got picked up.


The kids arriving for the Junior High camp on Monday.


My cabin doing archery.


Here I am hanging out with two of the guys in my cabin who were brothers.


Jimmy broke his leg on Tuesday evening while he was playing basketball. It was a clean break on his femur, so it was pretty bad. They flew him to a nearby village, and from there he was flown to Anchorage. We're all really disappointed he had to go home so soon... we're definitely missing him.


Since Jimmy left abruptly, we had to divide the guys in his cabin out to the other cabins. The "Yukon" cabin did miss him though, so they got this picture on top of the hill.


Kyle and a number of the guys hanging out on top of the hill.


On Wednesday everyone hikes to the top of a nearby hill. A new activity we do this year is launch rockets on top of the hill. I got this picture of a rocket launching with Kako in the background. I thought it turned out pretty cool.


Here is the group shot from Camp 3.


On Wednesday evening we had a bonfire with marshmallows.


And some singing.


For the kids to get seconds on marshmallows, they had to swing the marshmallows on the end of a string in to each others mouths. It was great fun to watch.


The guys in my cabin on Friday morning before they headed home. I'm really happy because a couple of my guys got really homesick during the week, but at the end of the week, they all told me they had fun and wanted to come next year. They also told me that I was "really fun", so that pretty much made my week. :) Most importantly I think they all understand the gospel now to more extent, and they realize they need to be saved. It is really confusing for them because they hear that they are already "Christians" because they got baptized, took communion, or any other number of thing they hear from their village priest.


Last night after all the kids had flown home, some of us rafted down the creek to the lake, and met up with the rest of the counselors at the lake and camped overnight. It was really pretty rafting all the way down to the lake, but it did get pretty tiring. I think it took us about 3-4 hours. It wasn't the most physically relaxing time, but it was definitely mentally refreshing.


Please pray for us as this next week is High School week. A ton of people have flown in the last few days, so there are a lot of people around that we don't know very well. Most of them are just staying for a week or two, but it is nice to know the people you are working with. I'm also coming down with a cold, and a number of the other guys are too.

Hopefully I'll be able to do another post while I'm up here, but I'm not making any promises. :)

A not-so-slightly overdue post

Since I last posted, there's been a Desert Trip, we had a SWORD Hiking trip, we went on a camping trip, I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and a bunch of other things. Speaking of getting my wisdom teeth pulled, I've now figured out why people use the chipmunk comparison for people after they've had them pulled. I always thought before that they were only referring to their cheeks swelling up, but there is really so much more to it than that.

When you get your wisdom teeth pulled, it leaves these big pockets at the back of your mouth where your teeth used to be. You would be surprised how much food you can actually store in them. It is really great... I can eat breakfast and then snack on it till lunch! Just what I always wanted (unless it is eggs... those don't last very well at all.. eww)!

My deepest apologies to anyone who has that mental image in their head. I realize it is very gross, but I thought it was about time that the truth was told about the real reason for the chipmunk comparison. ;) And just so everyone knows, I DO clean them out after every time I eat. Just had to clear that up. ;)

I will now attempt to get that mental picture out of your head. It isn't healthy to have that picture in the slightest.


We went on a desert trip in April, and we saw these deer. Kyle and I ended up chasing them for a long time to get a closer picture, but they only seemed to gain on us... ;)


It is amazing what good framing, and a little color adjusting can do for a picture. This place didn't actually look that good in real life. Next time I see any ghost town pictures and see a really cool looking one, I'll have to remember this picture.


We went to Tom and Katie's house awhile back, and Katie was taking some portrait pictures of us. Here she is taking a picture of Rachel...


...while I take pictures of a lizard. It may not be as good of a subject as Katie had, but lizards do have their merits. We saw a video recently by a guy explaining how some animals, especially reptiles, used to be way bigger before and even after the flood. Reptiles never stop growing, so if they live long enough, they can become very big. In the pre-flood conditions, they lived much longer, so this guy would most likely be closer to 10 feet long, rather than 10 inches long. That is a very intriguing thought.


We had been planning for a few months to take some of the SWORD guys on an overnight backpacking trip. Everyone was really excited for it, but then I ended up spraining my ankle (AGAIN!) a couple days before we were supposed to go. We decided to push it back a week, but there were no other days where Kyle, Stephen and I all had two straight days off, so we had to do a day hike. It actually worked out a lot better to do a day hike this time. I think trying to go overnight the first time was taking on a little bit more than we could take.


We picked out to go to the "Bridge to Nowhere", but we never made it to the end. There were a lot of water crossings which slowed us down a lot. We ended up swimming as much as we hiked, which was great fun.


Jimmy and Sammy crossing one of the many times.


Here is a picture with most of the guys that came. We had a great group of guys, and everyone had fun.


Last week we went camping with the Townsend family at Palomar Mountain. We were last there in 2006, which was way too long ago. There is a little pond there which the DFG keeps stocked, so it makes for very fun fishing.


Maddy with her biggest catch of the day... weeds (or maybe I should say, seaweeds?)! Always plenty of those around.


Timothy patiently waiting for a fish to bite one. You didn't have to be very patient a lot of the time.


Cleaning the fish is never one of the better parts of fishing, though it was quite entertaining this time since Jonathan had everybody clean a fish or two.


Dinner! Well, maybe for something.


We had this semi-dangerous game we played on the hill down from our campsite. The people at the top would kick the soccer ball down the hill, and the people down the hill had to chase it and make sure it didn't get past them.


Kicking the ball up the hill was a lot harder than kicking it down.


And it made for some great pictures.


We took a few hikes, and this one ended up at some slippery logs. I think there was another way of going by, but we decided to just turn around.


I ended up tying hooks and blowing up worms a lot of the time because they were catching the fish so fast there were always a couple poles needing to be re rigged. There is something fun about just sitting back and having your group pull in fish left and right. It is very relaxing.


A farther shot of the fishing.


Paul fishing.


Here we are roasting hot dogs around the fire.


I tried to do a panoramic of our campsite, but all I had was a 3inch tripod on top of a car, so it didn't turn out perfect. One of the tree branches is hanging in mid-air.


The day after we got back from camping, we went to El Dorado Park with Tom and Katie and the kids. They are so cute when they are watching the turtles from the bridge.


Rebecca and Julie.


Julie was being especially cute that day.


Here Katie is taking a picture of Mom holding Ruthie, while trying to get Ruthie to smile. Taking pictures of people trying to get babies to smile is always fun. ;)


We came to this spot for our family picture, but Michael and Bethany were running ahead so I got this picture of them with Paul and Timothy.

That's all for now... hope I got that mental image out of your head. Oops, I just brought it up again. Bummer!