The Fourth of July is celebrated here in Nenana with about 3 hours of games held right in the center of “A” Street. Foot races, three-legged races, egg races, relay races, inner-tube races, bicycle races, sack races, pie eating, pop scramble and coins in sawdust. Most of the games are divided into age levels and boys and girls usually run separately. Small money prizes are awarded for first and second and “a quarter for everyone else”. Our children do participate in some of the races and have a lot of fun. There are opportunities to purchase hot dogs and ice creams to use those quarters won in the races! This year our 4-H group set up a small petting zoo with chickens, rabbits, goats, a dog, some guinea pigs, and even a cow. This is the first year for Nenana to have a 4-H club so the zoo was a great way to attract attention.

We went to town yesterday…Brian took me along to drive… I took him to carry the heavy stuff.

We don’t especially like to go to town because it takes so long (an hour each way and all the errands). Brian said that one benefit of our trip yesterday, was that we still had daylight. To this one of the children made comment that it wasn’t daylight any more, but nightlight.  Point well taken as it was a pretty late return. 11:30 PM . Summer solstice was ths week, too. We do tend to lump as many errands together as possible to save on gas. I know you do, too. I filled up the tank before heading home. It took $140.00. I am glad it wasn’t closer to empty! This makes me so glad for the generous folks who believe in the radio work here and are called of God to continue to support us financially. If you are one who prays for us: THANK YOU.

If you read our newsletter that went out two weeks ago you will recall we asked you to pray about up-coming board meetings at Voice for Christ Ministries, the radio mission under which we serve. 

Those meetings happened.  They were long. Very long.  Our five year old said she believes the meetings are called board meetings because they’re boring.

We believe God worked in some surprising ways. 

We now have two new board members who live in Alaska.  We’re confident their experience and expertese will help move us forward. 

Our general director Bob Eldridge is on a well deserved four month sabatical.  We pray he can get some rest and relaxation.  This man built VFCM (with God’s help) from the ground up.  It started with one 5000 wat AM station in Nenana in 1985.  Under his leadership it has grown to include KYKD FM in Bethel, KAGV AM in Big Lake, KIAM-FM in Nenana, plus 15 FM translators across Alaska.

We pray the Eldridges will have the opportunity to do some things they’ve wanted to do for years but were unable to do because of the rigorous demands of the ministry.  Pray also for Bob’s wife Dee who is battling a stubborn staff infection called MRSA.  She has been under treatment for 10 days, including mega doses of injected antibiotics, and cleaning of the wounds caused where the flesh ravaged by the disease was removed. 

Art Thompson who came here to do our engineering has been named interim general director of VFCM.  He’ll have plenty to do for a long time.  And it appears we have a few new people to help us at VFCM this summer and into early fall.  We may just get some summer vacation afterall!   

Welcome to our new website and blog. It is our hope that this new site will provide a vehicle for more consistent communication between our family and those of you who have prayed for and supported us in the nearly five years of ministry God has given us with Voice for Christ Ministries in Alaska.

Brian thinks this blog is a great idea. Laurie says she’s still on the fence.

Well, there’s still lots to learn for us first time bloggers and this initial setup had to be done over a dial-up connection so it has proven to be slow. So as we say in radio “stay tuned” as hopefully we all learn a little something about this and God will use this to allow us to have some fellowship despite the miles that separate us.

Our thanks goes to Ron Wright with Accentix Corporation in Dayton, Ohio for his help in getting this set up. We appreciate Ron’s generosity in hosting our website these past seven years.