With only 3 weeks left, I can’t believe my time in Alaska will end. But there is so much to do… especially with all the transitioning going on at the church and being gone a week. I have missed seeing some of our kids, and am anxious to continue encouraging them these last few weeks.

The Short

• I’m back from Fairbanks
• We have a Movie Night/Video Scavenger Hunt Friday
• The Soldotna Parade is Saturday
• The Red Salmon are running

Alaska Facts

• If you live right off the highway in Alaska, you do not live at 555 Highway 1, but rather Mile 130.1.
• Fairbanks has a temperature swing of at least 120 degrees each year (80 F in July and a stretch of -40 F in the dead of winter). Record temperatures are 99 F and -65 F.
• As we drove past the Turnagin Arm on the Cook Inlet, while passing through Anchorage, I noticed the mountains had changed colors from this to a lush green. Imagine what nearly 24 hours of sunlight and above average rainfall to trees that have learned to grow rapidly!

T3 Training (Training Teens Today)
Last week, I was in Fairbanks for T3 with 35 of Alaska’s youth, 8 students from East Texas Baptist, and other youth pastors and interns. What a wonderful week for our 4 students (Hannah, Mariah, Lindsey, and Tyler), who learned vital skills to running a youth a group! We now have a tentative calendar for the rest of 2006. Amazing. One other benefit of the training was meeting other youth without a youth pastor but are still growing in faith and numbers.