Conference Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend. It was the ELCA's Seward Peninsula spring conference. During the day, church leaders had meetings, then in the evenings there would be church services that involved congregational singing, choirs from various villages sharing in song, a sermon, more singing, then some requests for some additional songs. It would go on like this until 1 . . . 2 . . . 2:30 a.m. The Rudstroms could generally only make it the first couple hours. After that, it was way past Harold's bedtime and we were tired of wrestling to keep him somewhat contained. (Church has become seriously less enjoyable since Harold started walking.)

There were many visitors in town, which was great. I had twittered that the visitors had brought in "a breath of fresh air." Friends and family from the villages of Shishmaref, Wales, Teller, Nome and even some folks from Anchorage were staying with people throughout the community.

We had our own special guests. Our pastor, Brian, asked if we'd be willing to host the Bishop, Mike, and his wife, Barb, for the weekend. Of course we agreed. We had met Mike briefly a few years ago at the last conference but didn't know him very well. Mike and Barb arrived with a big box of fresh, yummy food. This was a very special treat for us and a great way to start off our visit.

The last day they were here, we took Mike and Barb out for a snow machine ride. It was the first time Barb had been on one and Mike's experience was minimal. (He had gotten a crash course from Pastor Brian a couple years ago.)

We took a short ride through the country side, saw some beautiful scenery and one fox off in the distance. Sunday evening, it was time to say good-bye to our guests and to a refreshing weekend.

--AnnMarie