www.arcticoutreach.org --- e-mail rinker@arcticoutreach.org --- phone 403-989-3715
This is the team from West Virginia that came to build our playground. We have been trying for years to get this done, and have had 5 different churches or organizations promise to get this done, but this is the first team that actually came through and showed up and did it, even though they came all the way from West Virginia! Scott works building airplanes, and stopped here on a trip to Alaska. He was so impressed with the need for a playground that he went home and organized a team to come back and build it. We want to express our deep appreciation for this wonderful team and their hard work and sacrifice to do this, and everyone that contributed to the project. We hope to be able to add some to this in the future. Scott has been here three times in the last year and a half, all the way from West Virginia!
This is the playground in use.
Another picture of the kids using the new playground.
Scott and his wife stopped by later in the summer on their honeymoon trip.
Here I'm building a couple new picnic tables to use in our VBS. They are 12 feet long.
For many years our only playground was a rope swing tied to the top of a tree. The kids used it some much they killed the tree, so we put it on another tree. Even with the new playground built, the swing still get lots of use, and now this tree is dead also! The rope is tied to the top and the kids just go in a circle around the tree, until the rope wraps around & around and it's a bit of a trick to keep from getting scraped on the bark when it winds up. Invaribly, the smaller kids get scraped up and often cry, but they get right back on and keep going.
This is our new team of college students from the Bible College at Three Hills, here to do our Sunday Service. It is amazing how these kids spend 6 hours travel time, 3 hours one way, each time they come. They carry a deep burden and love for our young people, and do a wonderful job. We are so thankful for these students. The neighbors dog had pups under the church, and these pups are still living here.
This picture was taken just this past Sunday, as the team was here to hold Sunday School. They carry a deep burden to pray for our kids as well. They are getting wonderful experience and practical training that they could never get in a classroom.
In past newsletters we talked about the story of our son catching a little day old wild goose goseling, and how we raised it with our chickens and turkeys and goats here at the mission. The goose grew up and eventually migrated and joined up with other geese. But every year he came back, with his mate, and spent part of each day here, and eventually his family, which eventually included an entire family clan of descendants. Even though we moved away and had been gone for several years, and the little farm is now gone, he came back this year for several days and must have told his descendants all his stories of growing up here. It was hard to believe when they showed up this summer, and spent the whole time just staring where the old barn use to be. We had to take the barn down last year, because it was falling in. The goose is around 27 years old. I've read where they have been known to live much longer than that. This picture only shows a little more than half of the group.
Our special prayer request is for workers, both long term and short term, to come and stay here at Sunchild. The Christmas season is always a very trumatic time here on the Reserve. Hopefully someone will come to work with the people this season. God Bless and do pray for the work here at Sunchild....In Jesus Love, Rodger