At some point in the next days we'll take time to put the pictures with the posts. We've been so lazy about posting since the two year disruption covid-19 has brought about. We've been lazy about posting, not about following God's plan for us.
Also, this forgetful writer is guilty about putting the posts in the correct order, so b
Our summer was filled with work at Stone Soup Cafe, five shifts each weekday, working in the large garden in downtown Fairbanks, as well as four shifts a week at the food bank. Yet, something was pulling at our hearts and we didn't know what. Then we were led to call home to our dear brother in Christ, Jeff. We said we feel strongly that he needs to pass a hat in his study hour class at our church and we didn't know why. We asked to please send the money to Stone Soup Cafe.
When the money arrived Hannah asked "what is this for? We used the money you gave for garden and kitchen upgrades. Where do you want this money spent"? We said "we don't know, that's for you to decide". Three days later we arrived for work to find out the boiler had went down. Abby said " we're on a shoestring budget and don't have the funds to repair now. We're able to cut corners in the kitchen but the homeless won't be able to shower. May we use the money for the repairs"? We said "we told you, that's for you to decide". A repair company was called and the boiler was repaired late that evening. And wouldn't you know the repair invoice came to nearly 1872.00, which was what our Discovery Class had sent from our church in Indiana. PRAISE THE LORD for laying this on our hearts.
Staying in Fairbanks is polar opposite from traveling on to one of the villages at or above the Arctic Circle. We feel this is where God wants us for the time being and that was never more evident when the village of Circle was basically flattened from the ice breakup. Had we been in the village of Circle our gardens would have been destroyed and we would have been homeless like a good portion of the village. The natives who were displaced traveled to Fairbanks and other locations to live with family or friends. Penny and I would have had no choice but return home to Indiana with a failed effort. God has a plan for us and it wasn't to return to Indiana.
Through a volunteer at Stone Soup Cafe we were made aware that volunteers were needed at the local food bank. Because PleasantDale has a food distribution program partnered with Community Harvest Food Bank in Ft. Wayne, going to sign up to volunteer seems so logical. We found a amazingly Godly staff and volunteers so we signed up for three weekdays , along with Saturday as well. It wasn't long before we had a group of new friends that were completely separate from any of the people we've been involved with over the past 16 years. This has completely opened up so much more social activities for us in Fairbanks. We're now part of the Fairbanks Food Bank family and we couldn't be happier.
As a volunteer at the food bank, at the end of each weekday shift a chef has a meal prepared for us to enjoy. Since we only eat one full meal a day, this saves us three days of purchasing meals each week for quite the savings. Also, as a volunteer you are given ten pounds of either produce or baked goods to take with you. It's a Alaska state program. What Penny and I do is take our baked goods in loaves of bread, return to Stone Soup Cafe to donate for the next days meal. We receive 9 loaves apiece so three time a week we donate 18 loaves, 54 each week for an amazing savings to the soup kitchen.
Volunteering on Saturday's is at the other end of the building, the Federal program offers no meal, or free baked goods or produce, but we love the volunteering.
Our dear friend Alexa (sister of the village chief, Jessica) shared with us " what you do for our elders is amazing! We just love having you two in Circle each summer, but if you really want to help my people, stay in Fairbanks next summer and base your summer around volunteering at the Stone Soup Cafe, it's the soup kitchen, to love up on our hurting people the way you love up on us. Before we returned to Indiana, we spent time going to the soup kitchen. It was like God led us around to make it clear, this is where we need to be in the summer of 2023.
So, the last week of April brings Bill to the newly rented cottage on the west side of Fairbanks, where we will live for the next four months. Volunteering at the Stone Soup Cafe is a win win for so many people. Crossing paths with so many natives we've not seen in years is wonderful and natives see that we know their relatives gives them a sense of ease so they begin a friendship with us. Volunteers see that we have a relationship with so many people from the villages, that prompts them to begin discussions with the same people they've avoided. The staff sees so many of the homeless and hurting are friends of ours, so they're more relaxed at us being there.
Stone Soup Cafe has a very large garden a couple blocks from the soup kitchen. It not only offers us an opportunity to continue gardening as we have for 16 years. It also allows us to apply for yet another grant from Church of the Brethren " Global Food Initiative". So, a few days after we arrive Stone Soup Cafe receives a 9000.00 check in the mail. 7,000.00 is for garden upgrades and 2,000.00 for kitchen upgrades. In the first weeks the staff at Stone Soup Cafe is overjoyed that Penny and I were led to spend our summer in Fairbanks.
After two long Covid filled years without traveling to Alaska we're finally heading back to Alaska!! We knew it was going to be a changed place as covid has effected all of us, and that was in fact the case. All of our belongings were in the van we sold, so to begin the season in Fairbanks we must purchase a new van. Along with a different van every item we needed was to be purchased. Household items, radio/cd player, television, clothes, dishes, everything a household would need. My was it expensive, along with equipment, greenhouse, tools and such. We spent some 18,000 dollars just to pull into the village of Circle.
By leaving a couple weeks early, just in case the van purchase didn't work out put Bill in Circle with two feet of snow on the ground. Not quite ready for planting. One of the blessings was so many new jobs created so that there was no housing for Bill to live in. Thankfully Tortney offered up a small structure he called his quest bedroom for Bill and Penny to use for the summer. This simple 7ft. by 12 ft. structure was so small Bill thought he must be dreaming and hope to wake up from. Fortunately, he didn't turn it down and in fact felt like God put him there for a reason, so he called it home and moved in knowing there was no way Penny could live there with him. They had no way of knowing just how important it was for him to be there. Oh my what a story!!
Each person was so necessary in their own way that made this mission such a joy for not only the village but for Bill. Special thanks to Penny, Tonya Jackson, Christy and daughter Audrey Beer, Jay Carter, and Elliot Ripley for stepping way out of their comfort zone in traveling above the Arctic Circle in Alaska to the tiny village of Circle on the mighty Yukon River. The group was such a blessing to the people of Circle and specifically the children of Circle, but also to Bill who was challenged on many levels like in no other year. Many pictures will follow but please understand that Bill needed the team even more than the village did because of the difficulties presented by the ripple effect that covid brought not only Circle but all the remote villages throughout Alaska .
The end result was another amazing Summer in Circle with beautiful gardens, Godly fellowship and planning for the summer of 2023. More will be wrote about this summer after more thought and reflection. It was by far the most difficult summer out of the 15 so far.
