posted 10:39am CDT June 19, 2009

Today, in VBS, we had a new visitor.  She joined our group and the children were great at helping her learn games, songs and names.  We sang some of the songs they liked from previous days, and taught them some new ones like “Father Abraham” and “In right / out right”.  Today's Bible lesson was titled “Jesus and his Children” which taught us that children know more about Jesus' Shalom because they are more trusting.  We also finished the gourds we started on Tuesday, and painted a mural which was about their home town of Anchorage, showing scenes of houses, mountains, and a dog.  After our kids went home, we took a tour of a shelter for homeless and battered women with children called Clare House.  This home, while designed to hold up to 45 women and children, has housed as many as 70 individuals in a crisis.  The program is designed to provide safe housing and food while the mother searches for a job and permanent housing.  The staff there provide support and resources to make each family successful.  When we were there, they were preparing to take in a family of 11, and had one room set aside for that purpose!

Work Crew continued with tearing out the sidewalk and curb.  This was hard work, but a lot of fun – and it's DONE!  The rebuilding of the sidewalk with a handicap ramp will be completed as an Eagle Scout project in the coming weeks.  We also worked on some irrigation, moving some dirt to allow better runoff.  The congregation of Eagle River Presbyterian once again fed us an awesome lunch of sloppy joes and Scotcheroos!  We also found out that we will be cleaning up a playground for the children of the church.

In the evening, we went to a thrift store where we made some very frugal and shrewd purchases.  Some of the prizes we found included some awesome shirts printed with money and souvenirs of Alaskan corporate gifts.  For devotions today, we learned about patience by playing a very challenging balloon game where we had to handle many balloons coming from all different directions – just like we handle challenges in life.  We also wrote a letter to ourselves about what we want to take with us from this trip, about future goals and how we want to live the lessons we learned this week.

posted 10:14am CDT June 18, 2009

Today at the church in Eagle River everyone got a chance to use the jackhammer! After some tutorials and some prep-time, we began pounding away at the parking lot and sidewalk. Some of us were more enthusiastic about it than others, but we got a lot done! When not jackhammering, we were led to the back of the church where we scraped off old paint. There were either flying rocks or flying paint chips all around the work site and we are told that these are the two projects that we will be working on for the rest of the week. We are all eager to see the end results of these projects!

Today at VBS Lucy Z and Leslie A lead the kids in VBS. We started off with playing with chalk outside. Some of the kids had a blast playing hopscotch. When we came inside we did our songs and learned a new one as well. During story time today we learned that it is very important to be nice to your friends and your enemies. In our craft today we learned about the faith in Mexico by making God's Eyes. All the kids made really beautiful work and had a good time too. We played some of the kids favorite games and learned some exciting new ones. After we closed with prayer we could all very well tell that the kids were eager to come back tomorrow for more.

After work we hopped in our vans and drove to Chugach National Park. The ride was long but very worth it because we all saw incredible mountains and glaciers that are no where near Illinois. The mountains rose high above any skyscraper in Chicago and the clouds surrounded the mountain tops. The most breathtaking site was when the clouds parted to reveal the peaks accompanied by the sun's rays. The glaciers are an ice blue and come in all sorts of different shapes that float along the 33 degree water. Other than the landscape, the rarely-seen animals are a spectacle in themselves. Luckily, there was a conservation center where we got up-close and personal with the natives of the mountains. We excitedly took pictures of two grizzly bears playing, moose calves being fed, and also hunted for souvenirs at the quaint gift shop. Today alone we all averaged around 150 pictures, and can all agree that no amount of pictures can capture what we got to see today.