thetinymite.com

Howdy, howdy

Did you each have a lovely 4th of July? I still anxious to hear the stories of y’alls summers when I return. As for my 4th, it was spent climbing on a glacier and witnessing the absolute madness of Mount Marathon. Most 3 mile races aren’t anything to write home about, unless it includes a 3000 ft ascent, followed by a suicidal 3000 ft descent, aka death fall. Crazy, crazy Alaskans. No wonder they talk so much about forming their own country, even more than you Texas!

The Short

• I climbed a glacier this 4th of July.
• Alaskan are learning how to play true football, Texan style
• I’ll be in Fairbanks for a week helping with T3 Leadership Training
• Did you know that you can integrate Google Earth/Maps with a website?? Check it out ! Make sure and scroll over to Texas.

Alaska Facts - Howitzers, Baseball, and Combat fishing

• Every winter the government strategically shoots down the mountain snow at various sections along the highways in Alaska. The weapon? A Howitzer.
• In town boasts an Alaska League baseball team called the Peninsula Oiler. On Sunday we watched the Oilers beat the Anchorage Glacier Pilots 7-6, but the Glacier Pilots won the award fo 2nd best team name ever, barely losing to the Springfield/Ozark Mountain Ducks.
• The Oilers are much more than Alaksa’s version of the Sandlot. Former players include World Series MVP Dave Winfield, John Olerud, Rich Aurillea, JT Snow, JD Drew, and Jeff Cirilo. Not bad, especially considering the season runs from June - August.
• Tourism has been down significantly this year because of the rise in gas prices. Usually the town is filled RVs and it’s not even appropriate to call fishing on the Kenai river recreational. Combat fishing is more apt. Now, it makes sense why they count those fish hooks in the hospital.

Friends

Has it been a week already? Will Wednesday conclude the end of the first month in Alaska? Whoa. Time needs to calm itself down. And so does this weather! We’ve had 4 days or rain a week since I’ve been here. Thankfully, the rain didn’t cancel one of my friend’s baseball games or the youth raft trip. But the heavens opened wide for the workday in Seward, and the night moose played in our backyard.

The Short

* The youth pastor is out of the office this week. Chaos will ensue.
* VBS is over, but the songs still haven’t left my head
* I’ve nearly complete the youth website (www.chbcyouth.net). Keep in mind, it’s not my job to add the content
* Upcoming youth events
1. Guys night
2. Canoe trip (2 day canoe trip down the Swanson river)
3. Several of our kids will be in Fairbanks for T3 Leadership training

Alaska Facts - Fishermen in Basket

Thanks to VBS, I have learned some dogsledding terms:

* Mush - Go
* Whoa - Stop (very clever)
* Gee - turn right
* Haw - turn left
* Come gee (haw) - 180-degree turn right (left)
* Double Lead- Two dogs who lead the team side-by-side
* Dog in basket - A tired or injured dog

Also, Alaskans count some of the craziest things. Remember moose kills? Well, they also count how many fishhooks land a fisherman in the hospital. Silly Alaskans. Stupid tourists.

VBS
We had 170 kids registered this year, filling a church with only 250-300 members. 27 children made a decision to follow Christ this week. I’m still not sure how to interpret that number, but either way, God is good. I didn’t get to take any pictures because I usually had a kid in each hand. I’m going to miss the kids, but I’m glad that I can return to a normal diet instead of last week’s binge on gummy bears, cookies, and goldfish.

Greetings

It’s another Monday afternoon (morning for me) inbox-surprise to make Monday brighter…. well, at least I hope. If not, may these Halibut Fishing pictures will brighten your day. Make sure and read this week’s Alaska facts. I’m sure it will make you want to move up north forever.

The Short:

• The pastor is back (he’s an Aggie so devout that he painted his office maroon and can be found regularly wear his A&M cap)
• I’m even more at home because the pastor is back… it’s that Aggie bond
• VBS begins this week
• Rafting trip Sunday
• I’m changing houses
• The Mavs must beat the Heat or the youth group will continue to taunt me

The Long
Alaska Facts - How does the moose cross the road?

Two days ago a car hit a moose and died, making the local front page. But this is not uncommon. In fact, every year, around 275 moose die every year from motor vehicle accidents along Highway 1 from Soldotna to Homer (~75 miles). If you are the ‘lucky’ moose killer, then you have earned the right to have your name placed on the Moose Kill list. When you name comes to the top of the list, then the next moose killed by a car is rightfully yours to collect. Fear not, the frigid winter night temperatures, when most moose accidents occur, keeps the meat frozen. As bad as car-to-moose accidents seem, they have nothing on the train-to-moose variety. From Fairbanks to Tallkeetna, a single train can wipe out 20 moose. Since the train just keeps rolling on, the moose lay track-side frozen, waiting for the special Moose Auction. Prior to the auction, a special train rolls through picking up the carcasses before arriving to a crowd of anxious people, who entered a raffle to win moose parts. Disturbing, I know, but what is crazy is that they need a raffle because they don’t have enough moose.

The answer to last week’s question.

Alaska’s 4 seasons are: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction. For the less clever, we’re in construction season right now.

Vacation Bible School
VBS begins today, and hopefully over 170 kids will listen to Bible stories, do arts and crafts, sing songs, and a lot of other things I that gave me nightmares as a child. My job is to help wherever help is needed. A little vague, but I’m ok with that. The last job, the milk cartoon igloo, failed miserably. I tried 3 different ‘glues’, and none of them worked. Now I think most people know NOT to give the the craft projects because I’m an engineer, instead of the opposite.

Halibut Fishing
Let me warm you, Halibut fishing is a full body work out. The upper-body work out is phenomenal. Just imagine, you throw a 3 lb weight down 130 feet to the ocean floor and within seconds you have anywhere from 20-60 lbs of angry fish to reel back to the surface. The legs and quads begin to burn as your press a foot against the side of the boat to keep balanced, preventing a man overboard situation. The back… ok, that fish isn’t coming up unless you put your back into. Finally, your eyes work on staying in socket when the fish does appear for several reasons, but hopefully because the fish is so ridiculously large that you mind can’t fathom eating it all.

Finally, my apologies for writing such a morbid e-mail with the moose carcasses and bloodied halibut. But c’mon I’m in Alaska, and I’m just painting the picture I see.

Reese

King Salmon fishing. People will pay over $200 a person to have a guide navigate them down the Kenai and Kasilof rivers in hopes of catching a 50+ lb salmon. The reality is that it takes on average about 28 hours of fishing to catch one. I feel sorry for the 4 people who will have to fish 60 hours to even out the success of our trip.

We were talking, minding our own business, and BAM! My pole jerked down, and I had a fish on the line. Being the first of the day, I didn’t have the advantadge of watching anyone else reel in a King. Instead, I tried to calm the adrennaline while listening to Don’s instructions. Around a minute later, Don netted the 20 lb whopper, and I exhaled. Woah. The excitement didn’t hit me until minutes later. What a rush!

Now, you are only allowed one King a day and 5 per year. So, I was finished for the day, but within 30 minutes, my pole started dancing again. So Kemmer set the hook, and brought in a 18 pounder. We celebrated, but only for a moment. Literally within 90 seconds after hitting the water, my pole literally slammed against the boat, and Joel’s fight begun. Down the river the King fled, hiding under a rock, darting as she pleased, but soon the 30 lb queen raised a white flag. What a beautiful fish she was, too… fresh out of the ocean (great taste) and full of eggs (great bait).Now the pressure was on Don to catch something. Only 10 minutes later, fish struck the line only to get away. 5 minutes later another got off. The trouble was Don had to leap from the oars to the animated pole before setting the hook, as the other person jumped out of the way. No surprise that 3-4 more fish got off, but finally Don landed a 30 pounder, but the fish looked like the 4 of us. Male with poor color. Since the fishing was good, we waited on another female to strike. Maybe 10 mintues passed and a nice 22 lb ‘female’ struck the line, giving Don something keep. When cleaning the fish, we realized this was no female, but a male in disguise. Distrubing, indeed!! Limited out, we all floated down to take out point where our car had been transported and called it a day. What a day it was!!

The spoils of victory

The final tally:

• 6 kings to the boat
• Kept 4 fish with a total weight of 92 lbs
• 1 dolly
• 1 steelhead
• 8-10 more on the line
• 1 trip for the memories

Friends!

Not too much to say, but a lot to show. I went fishing for King Salmon, and I caught a beauty. A story will follow. The youth group went on a hike in the rain, and I’ve been loving every Mavericks victory, especially since two of the youth obsess over the Miami Heat. Later in the week, a father and his two kids are taking me out to the ocean for halibut fishing. It’s not unreasonable to think that we won’t bring back a few 60 pounders.

Alaska Facts - Bears and Construction dominate the news
Recent front page headlines:

• Two hunters shot a charging 12 foot, 700 pound, brown bear. The autopsy showed the bear had consumed a milk cartoon, a trash sack, and a baby moose.
• In the middle of the night, a man woke
  to the sounds of a black bear rummaging through his downstairs. The man killed the bear on sight.
• A concrete truck overturned just before the bridge in Soldotna, blocking off access to the bridge. Traffic had to be diverted to Bridge Access road causing significant delays.
• The bridge will be closed for the next two nights due to construction (this is major news because we had to take an extra 15 minutes to drive back to the house)

By the way, does anyone know the 4 seasons in Alaska? Answer will come in next week’s Alaska Facts. Feel free to post guesses.

The Youth

Lately, I’ve been spending as much time with the youth group. There are about 10-12 regulars with maybe 30 on a roster sheet. I really can’t wait to move past the ‘getting to know you’ phase and to deeper conversation. Beginning next Sunday I’ll be responsible for 90% of the teaching because Jim, the youth pastor, will be gone nearly all of my time in Soldotna with camps/training/vacation. As of now, I plan on teaching different lessons on trusting God’s promises, beginning with 2 Peter 1:3-8. In the meantime, we’ll be BBQ-ing this Wednesday and rafting in two weeks along the Kenai. Later in July, we might ‘Bike the Loop’. Not sure where the loop is, but I imagine it will be fun.