Where Are The Pictures

I know many of you have been probably wondering - Where are all the pictures? We want to see what's been going on up there? Well rest assured, there are pictures and plenty of them. The bandwidth on the connection is limited and the camp also has to pay extra when they exceed their data limit. Since pictures are larger files, I chose not to post any photos while up here.
I will go back and update the post with photos. Lots and lots of photos. Please check next week for more updates.

Affirmation Night - Now we head home

WOW!!! Last night we had one of the most powerful affirmation nights I've ever experienced here!

Miracles happened last night - Lives were changed. All of the missionaries here were built up by one another to continue fighting the good fight for Christ.

We are getting ready to head back home now. Please continue to pray for all of the missionary teams traveling back home today - Northstar Church - VA (Bob Bowen's team), Howard Creek Church - NC (Scott Woodring's team), The Crossings at Birchwood - AK (Howard Gober's team), Abundant Life Church - OR (Greg Wallace's team) and your very own Christ Community Church team.

We Love You all, thank for you for heartfelt prayers - we could not have made it without them!

Bath House Project update

Hi Everyone,
Quick update -- yesterday (Friday) was a busy day. Despite being very tired, the Lord gave us a second and even a third wind to make a significant accomplishment. The bath house is completely Under Roof - Praise Jesus!! Now the building is covered and dry. Another team will be here in August to finish the interior of the building. And prayerfully, the new bath house will be ready for use next camp season. This building will allow for the camp to operational year round. The completion of the bath house is a major milestone for Kokrine Hills Bible Camp and because the camp will be available year round to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, more children and families will come here and experience the love of Christ.
Please continue to pray for the ministry efforts happening at Kokrine Hills even after this team returns home.

Down time at camp

Last night Ashley and I got smoked in cornhole against a couple of guys from Bob Bowen's team Joe and Dave. Dave was able to do amazing things with that corn bag. At times we thought he had a laser homing beacon in the hole. It was a lot of fun being able to fellowship and have some down time.

Most of the nights, we've been playing cards and spending time talking.

Devotion Time & The Hike Up The Hill

Wednesday night was incredible -- For starters, Laurie and Ashley gave their testimonies. WOW God's Holy Spirit was really moving and touching the hearts of Laurie and Ashley as well as everyone in the camp. I was so proud to see how they allowed themselves to be transparent to everyone with the hope that their story would touch someone here.

Then later that night, we hiked to the second ridge behind the camp. We sang corny songs along the trail like "Going on a bear hunt" and "Bear Necessities". It was a lot of fun! When we reached the top, we prayed. We ALL felt so much closer to God - It was simply incredible! We got back to camp around 1:30 am -- it was bright as the noontime sun! I wish you all back home could experience the transformations happening here! God is truly at work at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp.

Updates from Kokrine Hills

I know its been a few days since my last update. But as you may imagine, we've been very busy around here. Well, let's see -- where should I begin..... At Camp, Roger says there are two missions here. One is fellowship and the other are the projects.
Mission #1 - It is truly a wonderful thing to see bonds of unity forming amongst our team. I have witnessed how we have willingly served one another, how we have humbled ourselves for the cause of Christ, how we have intentionally reached out to one another to carry our brother's or sister's burdens. I believe God is truly working many miracles in lives of this team. Miracles that will allow them to grow in Christ and be better equipped to serve Him in the mission field to reach those who don't know Jesus.
Mission #2 - The bath house is coming along well. On Wednesday, the concrete slab for the boiler room was complete. Yesterday Laurie, David and I insulated (yes insulation -- just call me itchy) the basement and main bath house level. Boy, did that bring back memories from last year's project. Ashley, Meredith and I applied sealant to the basketball court -- It looks wonderful. Frank and Laurie built a railing for porch of cabin #11. Ashley has been keeping us well fed with ginger snap cookies; she actually came up with a new recipe for them. She used molasses and honey because she didn't know there was a difference between them -- But that didn't matter to us they were simply yummy yummy yummy. And Chuck has been in his element -- driving the loader and chopping trees -- So that leave the question of how much wood would a Big Chuck chuck if a Big Chuck could chuck wood? Well -- Big Chuck can chuck a lot of wood!

Day 2 Update

Yesterday, God held the rain back enough for us to get the site prepared and compacted. Praise Jesus! We next had to lay the forms and place the rebar. David told me to put all of my P90X training to use start bending the rebar for the slab. Now, not wanting to show off I decided to use the bucket on the front loader than to bend it with hands ;-). Frank and I cut and formed some 50 rods of rebar.
Also, God gave Tarek the idea to build a tent with saw horses, roof truss, and some siding over the slab site to allow it to stay dry -- And as of this morning -- the site stayed dry over night; which was good because ..... Well, it rained. Anyway, the rest of the site was prepared and today we are ready to mix and pour concrete.

Other updates, Ashley and Ms Viki (AK) has been keeping us well fed. Ashley has been baking us cookies with lots and lots of butter, butter and well more butter. They are sooooooo good.

Chuck and Meredith, did one of the most important jobs for when the kids are here. They cleared and downed trees to make the area safe! Thank you two - that is hard and very necessary work.

Well, it is breakfast time. I will try to update and add some pictures later.

Please keep praying for our team!

Bath house project update - day 1

When we arrived on Saturday, the bath house project was going along very well. The work crews that arrived the week before we did, had completed the exterior and roofing. So Sunday after our trip to Ruby, we began on our contribution to the project. In order for the bath house to be useful during the winter months, it will need a very large hot water boiler. Our team and the Crossings at Birchwood team (AK) started preparing the area where a concrete slab will be poured to support the boiler. David and Tarek surveyed the site, Laurie, Gary (AK), Jessica (OR), and I dug footers for the slab. And then the rains came. Then the sunshine came, and the rains and the sun ... and the rain again. But through it ALL our spirits remained high because we know that God is control and that we are here to do His perfect will.

Sunday service in Ruby Alaska

Yesterday we were completely blessed. Roger took our team, along with the team from the Crossings at Birchwood (AK), the team from Howard Creek (NC), and Jessica from Abundant Life (OR) further down river to the village of Ruby. The teams headed out at 8:30 and docked at 10:30 - just in time for service. We walked to church (old school style). The church was established by the Arnold's back in the late 1950's. The Arnold's are also the same family of missionaries who established the camp back in 1964. God's Holy Spirit is most definitely in the Ruby Bible Church. We had a awesome service with about 12 Native Alaskan believers in Jesus. We sang songs, listened to a message from Psalm 19:7 - 9 and had a wonderful time fellowshiping and getting to the Church body. It was such a blessing to be able to begin a new relationship with a body of believers in the village of Ruby. I encourage each of you following to pray for this small church. Specifically they asked us to pray for a pastor to shepherd them and small out building for passing through missionaries and travlers to stay and use.
Our mission trip is off to a good start. God has so much in store for us this week.

We are here at camp - praise Jesus! Having troubles with Internet connections.

Hi Everyone,
Praise God! We arrived at camp yesterday. I am sorry I wasn't able to post to let everyone know. But, we were experiencing connection issues.

God has delivered us safely and filled with His Holy Spirit!

I don't have a lot of time to fill you all in on the travel days events -- I will attempt to log on later today to update. There were many highlights, you'll just have to wait a bit longer.

Serving Christ, Mark

T minus Zero -- Today we GO to SERVE Christ

I just wanted to make a quick post. Tonight, I am taking everything in. God has called and assemble a outstanding team and He has given me the sincere honor to lead them to Alaska. Wow -- that is a lot to take in. I pray that His will accomplished though this team.

I have just put the finishing touches on our departure day devotion. We will talk about being on mission with God and how to be successful in that mission effort.

I am also taking in the fact that this beautiful night time sky will be the last dark night time sky I will see until June 19th. Where we are going is so far north that at this time of the year, it is virtually 24 hrs of daylight.

Please keep all of us (Frank, Chuck, Ashley, Meredith, Laurie, David, and me) in your prayers. Pray that we remain filled with God's Holy Spirit and that we Go to serve no other but Him and Him alone.

I will make another post when we arrive at the camp on Saturday.

In Christ, Mark

Blog Set- up and Test

This site has been set up to keep our family and friends informed of events and pictures on our mission trip to Kokrine Hills Bible Camp in the interior of Alaska. Where we are going is very remote; I will try make updates when ever possible.