Seward Peninsula Lutheran Church Fall Conference

This weekend the Lutheran Churches from the Seward Peninsula met together for their annual Fall Conference.  Congregations from Wales, Shishmaref, Brevig Mission, Teller, Nome and Anchorage gathered together for meetings and church business during the day and for worship services in the evening.

Conference has been in Brevig a few times since we moved here which is always fun.  The host village is on a rotating schedule, this year it is Teller's turn to welcome in visitors.

Those of us traveling from Brevig started by driving our 4-wheelers 8 miles down the beach to what we call "point", a narrow spit of land that nearly reaches across to Teller's point.  It is only one quarter mile between the two sand spits, so from there Pastor Brian boats people across the water.  Once at Teller point, a truck was waiting to drive us about a  mile into town to the school gym where services were being held.

 

Friday's service lasted from 7:30 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. That's right, 4.5 hours of singing, preaching and sharing testimonies, this is not for the faint of heart folks.

Though we have quite a bit of day light still this time of year, it was pitch black out by the time we were climbing in the boat to return to Brevig.  It was pretty spooky motoring along in wavy, dark waters.  I have a feeling many safety prayers we being whispered for the next couple hours as group after group was shuttled across.   By the time we made the journey back to our house it was after 2:00 a.m.  Needless to say we were exhausted.

My parents are back in town for the week so I was pretty excited that they got to be a part of the conference experience.   It was a chance for them to see that even attending church is extreme around here. 

--AnnMarie

Young Adult Choir

My friend Darla (sitting to the right of me) and I are starting a young adult choir for church. We are meeting at our house every Tuesday evening. So far we've had a great turn out, about 15 - 20 people each time. Let me tell you, our tiny house is crowded with that many people all at once.

I'm playing the music and leading the singing. Darla is helping choose songs, bake goodies and teach us some choruses translated into Inupiaq. It's been a lot of fun and a blessing to have young people singing with us at our home.

--AnnMarie

Qamaqquchuin - Praise Ye the Lord