It's been awhile since I blogged. So I'll fill you in on what's going on. YES! I'm still alive up here in the far reaches of the world within the winter landscape of Nome, Alaska. Things have been gradually warming up in recent weeks AND the sun is now up by 8 and sets at about 9. So it sort of feels like it was back in Virginia, though walking home from places at 8:30 and it looking like 6:30 is still kind of odd. Oh well, so may it be.
Iditarod just ended! I saw about 3 mushers including 1st place, 2nd place, and I think 14th. The fun thing is that there are about 60 mush teams competing in the race, 11 have scratched so that's somewhere in the range of about 49 or so mushers that will be coming into Nome, THAT'S A LOT OF DOGS! And the dogs are all neatly gathered about a minute walk from my front door. They were pretty quite during the night which I am happy about, but then again I think my apartment is pretty darn soundproof to the outside. The other thing about the Iditarod is that every time a mush team is on it's way into Nome, they sound the city siren. I can barely hear that from my bedroom, so I haven't really been losing sleep over it. BUT, I now have another cool thing to scratch off my bucket list. I won't find too many people outside of Alaska who can say they've seen and lived by where the Iditarod ends!
Within my ministry life, I rejoice to say that there are a good number of elementary youths who have really been latching onto Community United Methodist Church's Wednesday Night Bible School called "Faith Followers". These kids have been remembering scriptures and stories from weeks before and it has honestly very much impressed me! I'm very proud of them and thrilled to see that they are indeed growing spiritually somewhat. I've also been very active in prayer, study and attending services for Lent and it has been supporting my spiritual growth. AND I've volunteered for several city and church activities like the NEST Program (which houses and feeds homeless during the winter) and Safety Patrol (Which is where people patrol the city between midnight and 5:30am to make sure no one is about to drive drunk or freezing to death).
The interesting thing about these things I've been volunteering for, is that sometimes I say just say "yes" without thinking twice about it, which in a way is really filling up my schedule. It is a good thing to keep myself active though, as I need to be to take my mind off other stuff. Being a missionary can be challenging in a new environment because sometimes, it can be really difficult to find a social group of people the missionaries age (or at least that would be a good idea to socialize with on a personal level). The bar life is very popular around here, so it's made things a bit difficult to find people my age to hang out with that doesn't include drinking.
On another note I will now be taking the position of Coordinator for the Nome Youth Court. This is going to be a little stressful at first since I have very little knowledge of how the court room process actually works (I didn't watch enough Court Room Drama I suppose :P). The Nome Youth Court, if I haven't mentioned it before, is a trail for a youth led by youth, and these are not pretend trials, these are legitimate. They are all carried out before a real judge however, but this court allows the youth to participate in community service to completely clear their record as opposed to making it look bigger then it really is. The Nome Youth Court handles cases like drinking, tobacco violations and minor violence. It's going to be stressful and exciting.
Anyway, I'm going to try and blog at least once every month just to keep everyone posted.
+PeAcE+
Chris
