Lake Nabagamon, WI

We met our friends, Don and Jeanette Rantala about four years ago. They do work for Mission Builders, an organization that works at a minimum cost to help build or add on to churches. After the church in Brevig burned down, they played a big part in helping to rebuild it. During their time in Brevig, the Rantalas lived with us for about a month. Needless to say, we got to know them pretty well. We do our best to see them when we're back in Minnesota. This year we drove to Lake Nabagamon to stay a night with them.

Harold had fun at the local playground/beach.



He also got to feed their horses.



And take a nice long boat ride around the lake.

--AnnMarie

Paul's Visit

This weekend our friend Paul Hamilton paid a visit to Brevig Mission and was able to stay with us for a few days. Paul and I taught together for 3 years and he has since moved on to Portland to attend grad school. We learned that he is enjoying his new title as a "Spencorian" =), yes it's obscure and is not exactly a self proclaimed title. He recently had the opportunity to travel to London to meet with a Cambridge professor about his essay on Spencor's epic poem, "The Faerie Queene". Sounds impressive huh?

Paul was invited to be the graduation speaker for the senior class and did a great job. You can read more about it here.

It was nice to catch up with him and get a dose of the Paul we came to know and love. =) Here's some photos I snapped when Paul was deep in thought while talking with C.O. and I. I think they capture him well.

Hope our paths cross again soon.

--AnnMarie

Nome Visitors

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to have our friends, James and Amy, visiting from Nome. Some of their friends from Nome look at them strange when they say they're going out to Brevig for the weekend. Not a lot of people go to the villages, just for fun. I first met Amy many years ago when she first started working for BSSD. Since then, she met James, got married and now works for Nome public schools. We first met James while he was in Brevig painting a couple murals at our new school. You can see a picture of part of the mural he did in the library here. Anyway, they're good friends, interesting people, and great fun to be around.

On Sunday we took a little snow machine ride to the old reindeer processing plant. We played in the old barn for a while and felt the urge to jump out the window. There was lots of soft fluffy snow everywhere which is very unusual around here.

Later we snow machined to the top of a hill to check out the view. Then, followed a valley back toward Brevig. On the way, we came across a herd of musk ox and were able to get a pretty close view.

That evening we watched the movie, "Into the Wild". I highly recommend it. It's a very moving story.

James and Amy are they kind of friends who are very inspiring to be around. We are blessed to have them in our lives. --AnnMarie

Contagious

When you're around a person who has a real love of something, it can be contagious. That's what it's like being around Bill. Bill is a tech fanatic and here's what always happens when he's around.

Bill ended up being weathered in here in Brevig for an extra day. We had a great time visiting with him. We stayed up way too late each night, had a great crab dinner and had some good laughs. --AnnMarie