August 2 2011

Posted by admin on August 2, 2011

Summer is the time for work teams in Alaska.  Cool temperatures and long hours of daylight make ideal conditions to come and serve others (let's not talk about bugs).  Here at ABM, we are well into our normal season of work teams.  In addition to some long term volunteers, we enjoyed the work and company of a team from Colorado who helped tremendously with renovations to our conference room and other facilities.

In early July, a group from the midwest Covenant district came to serve in a village on the Lower Yukon river in Western Alaska, and two teams are currently in villages on the Norton Sound helping with construction projects.  And more are coming this week!

Two things that we have in abundance in July are fish and motorhomes, and their migratory patterns seem strangely coincidental.  For the first time this year we hosted a Fish Camp for rural pastors who don't live near good salmon runs.  We offered them an opportunity to come and spend time with us fellowshiping as we harvest the abundance of fish we enjoy.  Only two families took us up on our offer this year, but hopefully word will spread and next year others will be enjoying a freezer full of salmon well into the winter too.

We are thrilled to hail the arrival of Jim and Terri Hibbard, parents of our current staff member Dustin Hibbard!  They are in the final stretch of support-raising for part-time staff positions but took advantage of summer weather to drive up and begin looking for housing.  Click on "Meet the Team" to learn more about Jim and Terri's roles here at ABM.

The excitement is building around the hangar as the arrival of two additional planes gets closer.  A Cessna 206 and a Piper Lance were generously donated to us this summer.  Paul Hadfield and Terry Dilley head out this weekend to retrive the 206 from central Washington state, and Dustin will join up with Matt later in August to fly the Lance back from Nebraska.  Check back next week for an update on Paul and Terry's progress!