Windsor Baptist Church Kodiak Team - Thursday's activities

Greetings Windsor -

We continued in our service to the Kodiak Baptist Mission today by finishing up some of the projects we had been working on over the last few days:

1. Randy & Stephen finished the final grading of the trench that had been dug and French drain that was installed to prevent water from seeping into the office building.


2. Charlie & Jim finished putting a "shelf cap" all around a plywood perimeter in the gymnasium of the Heritage Center.

We also started a few new projects today:

1. Charlie & Jim began hauling large logs (felled trees) to help clear an area that will become a playing field and picnic area. Charlie got to drive the old Ford tractor he used two years ago while Randy buzzed around in his favorite backhoe continuing on the project with Stephen when Charlie and Jim went to help the others on a barn roof.


2. Ben, Matt R., Dan, Andrew, Matt L., George, Linda, & King, began work on the barn roof that is home to several horses that the camp uses for the kids who come to the preschool, by tearing off shingles and prepping it for new shingles.


3. In addition to helping on the barn roof, Linda and King weeded, mulched, and planted flowers in a flowerbed, King worked on painting a bench, Linda also mowed more grass.


4. Bev busied herself by taking pictures, sanding & sweeping in the gym, and ran errands to the two hardware stores on the island.

We enjoyed a dinner tonight with all of the camp staff and feasted on the Halibut some of the guys caught on Wednesday. Randy, Stephen, & Dan also ventured out tonight with some of the camp staff to hike the steep incline of Barometer Mountain. And after our devotions, some of our group went to "Glass Beach" which is all multicolored pieces of glass that have been smoothed down by the water.

We still have not seen any live Kodiak Bear but are hopeful that we will be able to do so before we leave on Saturday. Today the sun shown brightly--in fact, the weather has been pleasant (hardly any rain) all week. And the temps. have been in the mid 40's at night and the upper 50's during the day. Tomorrow we will finish our projects and try to spend some time getting to know the history and culture of Kodiak Island.

It is 11:30 pm as I type this and it looks like it is 8 pm back home. It has not gotten completly dark while we've been here. I suppose one knows that one is in Alaska when people can go on a long hike after dinner and not worry about it getting dark!

Respectfully submitted by Jim

Hello Friends and Family!!

Thank you for checking in on us again. We have been blessed with wonderful weather, a warm welcome, productive work projects, and excellent team unity. Thank you for praying for all of these things. I wish each of you could come here with us to experience Kodiak, AK.

It seems strange to me that we are half way through our week here. In fact, now that we are half way, we are starting to decide how and when to finish our work projects. The french came together very well today--complete with two clean-outs--the wall in the Heritage Center is almost completely capped, mostly filled and sanded, and close to being ready for polyurathane--and the fields and landscaping is looking a lot better after the long winter and thick spring growth.

Today we had the special priveledge of going out in the afternoon/evening with Trevor (the executive director at KBM) on his boat to fish for halibut. That was a wonderful time. The setting alone was phenomenally beautiful, but God also blessed us with lots of big fish and many laughs and conversation together.

It has been a wonderful time here. We feel like our labors are really contributing to the ministry here; that our work is making the buildings more functional, useable, and beautiful--to free up the staff for fruitful ministry here on the island.

Keep praying!! We'll see you soon.

ps--Hello to our team members from last time (Linds, Schaefer, Tom, Al, Pauline, Ed, Irene, Lauren). We have been missing you and telling stories of our time here last trip. See you soon.

~Pastor Ben

Continuing With Our Time at KBM

Today is the Summer Solstice, and what better place to be than in Kodiak, Alaska where we will have about 20 hours of daylight. We have all put in a long but satisfying day, which I'd like to share with you.

Most of us were up for breakfast around 7am. We're all greatful to have a professional chef here preparing meals for the staff and counselors as well as our team. This morning we had pancakes and perfectly prepared bacon. The Chapel service, lead by Trevor Jones, the Director here at KBM, takes place in the "upper room" of the food bank building. The service starts with candle lighting and passing along a blessing to the person next to you. We sing a song before Trevor reads from the Bible, offers his own thoughts on the passage, and then encourages discussion. Of course, prayer is a big part of the service as well, and I've been so impressed with the counselor's concern for the requests that we have shared with them for members of Windsor Baptist. Your needs are being sent to the Father here in Kodiak!

So let me tell you a little bit about some of the projects we're working on. Bev, Dan, Matt Lines, Steven have been spackling and sanding screw holes and seams on 8' plywood panels inside the Heritage Center. Charlie, Jimmy, and George have been putting plywood capping on the tops of the panels, which requires rather intricate measuring to get a good fit around windows, beams, and other obstacles. King and I, along with the help of another volunteer from California, have been doing the cutting in the wood shop. I've also been able to do quite a bit of grass cutting today as we had a dry day with the sun breaking out after lunch. (For those of you who went on the trip 2 years ago--there is still no working riding mower and the push mowers are not self-propelled.)

Randy, Matt Reeser, Pastor Ben, and Andrew have been working on resolving a draining problem behind the administrative building. You guessed it--there's a backhoe involved so Randy's skill is again being used up here just as it was 2 years ago with taking down trees. Speaking of the area that we helped clear of trees on our last trip, there is a very large pile of stumps and branches that King is just chomping at the bit to put a match to!

After dinner (pasta with tomato sauce and big chunks of ground beef, salad, rolls), we had our devotional time led by Matt Reeser and joined by a couple from California who are here to learn about KBM. We've been focusing on remembering our first love, that time when we first came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and what that meant to us and how it made us feel. Do you remember that time in your life?

Follow devotions, we all packed into 2 vans and took to the back roads (are there any other kinds here in Kodiak?) in search of bear. Al Menger, we said "hi"to Stumpy for you (inside joke). Unfortunately, the areas where there have been sitings recently were too active this evening with fishermen, hikers, etc. We put on a lot of miles (at $4.55 a gallon!) but the bears didn't show themselves.

Trevor has offered to take our group out fishing tomorrow...sure do wish you could be here for that Ed. Seems like just about everyone is going to do that. I'm not fond of boats, so I've got some special projects lined up for myself--like house cleaning and some landscaping projects. The week is going by so quickly. We've all been well, stayed strong and healthy, and thank you so very much for your prayers during our time here.

It's almost midnight, and the sky looks like either dusk or dawn...and time to say "goodnight."

Linda Perry
Team Kodiak 2011

Arrival & First Day of Work

Hello,all!

I greet you here at about 11:00 Alaska time, about to head to bed. It's been a busy couple of days, from flying up on Saturday to Anchorage and then sleeping over, and then flying into Kodiak the next day.

Yesterday I participated in a boat trip which involved taking supplies over to a nearby island. While about half of the team was away there the other half of our group climbed one the highest mountain on Kodiak, named Barometer.

Today we got down to work, starting off the day with a chapel service and then working straight through to 5 PM with a lunch break in between. We've just arrived back about an hour ago from an interesting trail that we hiked over the course of our evening.

I know I speak for the whole team when I say that I am extremely tired but extremely excited.

Thanks,
- Matt Lines
Blog Master

Welcome / Prayer Requests

Hello and welcome to the official 2011 Windsor Baptist Kodiak Missions Trip blog. This page has been designed specifically for family and church members to stay in touch and updated about the status of the missions team throughout the week. Updates and stories from the trip will be posted throughout the duration of the trip by various members of the team.

To start the blog this post is mainly about prayer requests; what we need you at home to pray about while we are away. This is just a general list; all prayers are appreciated and we are thankful to have your support.

• That God would give us safe travel and good weather
• That each team member would know God more clearly and deeply through this trip
• That we would be a unique blessing to the people of Kodiak
• That God would glorified in and through us this week

The entire Kodiak missions team thanks you for your time and prayer in following and keeping in touch with us during our trip. Interested in leaving us a comment? Sign in with your Google account and simply comment below to reach us.

Thanks,

- Matt Lines

Blog Master

Kodiak Missions Team