"If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." ~Lev. 23:3-4
August 30, 2021 Today's sunrise/sunset: 6:26a.m./9:14p.m. Length of day: 14hr, 48min Today's high/low temp: 56*/47* Yesterday's length of day: 14hr, 55min
Dear <<Greeting name>>,
While much of the world is in the middle of drought, Alaska has had an unusually wet August. We are thankful for cool, clean air with no smoke from fires. But rain has also delayed one of our final house projects for the summer—putting exterior siding on the house. After ten years, the house wrap is a little worn and ready to be covered by 1 inch foam board and a cement fiber siding. We doubt that paint will happen until next summer.
Praise the Lord for providing fish for the freezer! After several attempts to coordinate with friends, James was able to make it to Chitina with a friend. Together, they netted 83 Copper River reds (sockeye)! Even though they could have taken a limit of 170 together, bodies and time ran out.
With the change of weather, the Miller household had to fight off a seasonal flu. Nope, not the C-word! Can you believe people can still get regular sick?
Last week, James received a call from a Native friend from Ruby: “Do you want to go for a boat ride?” A few days later, James went on a ride from the Yukon River Bridge to the village of Ruby. A 400-mile trip that took about 9 hours (not including the 3-hour drive to the bridge where we launched the boat). James got some boat driving time and lessons on how to read the river. It was a good time of fellowship and conversations from the Word about the church and the character of church leaders.
This summer, James has also been able to help Harry in his job. This week is a trip to Prudhoe Bay—15 hours in the truck each way! It has been a good time of fellowship, conversations about ministry, and a way to help Harry in his employment. Pray for Harry as he is struggling with some health issues.
We are trying to make a way to get to Grayling in September. We still are required a two-week quarantine. Part of that will be in a friend’s cabin, helping him fix it up. If God provides a moose while we are out there, we are not sure what we will do to preserve it.
Update since this was drafted: We’re praising God for what looks like an answer to that conundrum: an unexpected invitation to hunt with the friend out of Ruby, so we could easily get the moose home to process and freeze it here before going out to Grayling, Lord willing, for 3-4 weeks. Please pray for good timing and a successful harvest!
Praise the Lord for a good Bible Bee season this year with one national qualifier in our group. We are thankful for several families who have many young ones being raised memorizing and studying Scripture. Christa also took the opportunity to compete in the speech competition at the fair, reciting Psalm 84 - this, along with reading a speech by Susan B. Anthony, brought her the Grand Champion award for the division. Glory to God for the proclamation of His Word!
HOUSEKEEPING REQUEST: For our regular periodic financial supporters: Entrusted Word Ministries, who handles the administration of our donations and salary, recently updated all of their processing systems. For those giving electronically, they have contacted you to request you update your giving with the new system. We just wanted you to know that this request is legitimate, and they are unable to access your personal data in order to do the switch for you. The old system will be shut down September 15, so to migrate your gifts without gaps or duplicates, please follow the instructions that EWM has recently sent you (if this has escaped your notice, you should be able to search your emails for "entrusted word" to find their email - they have a specific protocol to ensure that the accounting is proper). They will also be sending out a reminder in the next couple days.
Praise the Lord with us for a significant event in August: we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary! We are thankful for His faithfulness and the gift of each other.
