May 25, 2022 Today's sunrise/sunset: 3:53am/11:44pm Length of day: 19hr, 52min Today's high/low temp: 64*/44* Yesterday's length of day: 19hr, 45min
Dear Praying Friends,
Finding like-minded believers is always a blessing. We just returned home Friday from a 3-week combined trip to our daughter’s graduation in Colorado with several opportunities to meet like-minded believers. After Dani’s graduation from Colorado Christian University on May 6, we drove
to LeChee, AZ, on the Navajo reservation and gathered with a house church of Native believers. What a blessing to see generational faithfulness to Christ among the Navajo people! Highlights of the gathering included songs of worship in the Navajo language and Navajo tacos for dinner.
After a day of hiking the Grand Canyon, we enjoyed the hospitality of Indian Bible College in Flagstaff. We found that the staff and faculty are very like-minded in their core values: unity in Christian community, relational disciple making and spiritual mentoring, incarnational evangelism, team leadership, and self-sufficiency and interdependency. As an extra treat, we happened to be visiting during a chapel service in which students shared some of their musical education with piano, guitar, and voice, as well as preaching.
We wrapped up our trip at a conference of churches in Estes Park, CO. The theme of the week was Psalms of Ascent. We were blessed with some great sermons on the Psalms, had a devotional tour of Rocky Mountain National Park, enjoyed hours of fellowship with others in ministry, and shared our Alaska ministry.
Back home in Fairbanks, our week will end with the marriage of our daughter, Rachel, to Gabriel Smith. We are happy to add another member to our family, and the added bonus will be the gathering of much of our family including Shannon’s mother, brother, and sister.
To the praise of His glory,
James and Shannon and family
April 19-23: AFJ training module, Palmer. Thankful for these young people with hearts toward the Lord!
Small snapshots of the beauty we enjoyed on the drive down to Palmer: Center stage: 3 moose utilizing an ice bridge for one of the last times this season
