3 Weeks Left

I can't believe that my summer in Juneau is almost over. 3 weeks is still a long time, but in comparison to how long I've been here and how quickly the time has gone by, 3 weeks is nothing. A lot has changed the past couple weeks. We have had staff here with us the entire first half of the summer, who acted as our leaders and mentors and were leading the project entirely. But the way in which the Juneau summer project is structured, staff leave half way through the summer, which enables the students to step up in leadership roles and really direct the rest of the summer themselves. It's an exciting time; it's just us 24 guys from around the country living in Juneau, Alaska. The staff selected a new "Project Director" who assumed the responsibility of our previous staff director to see to it that the project stays on task and is  consistently pursuing the mission of putting the Gospel within arms reach of everyone in Southeast Alaska. I have the honor of being the new director, so the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy for me. The previous staff had all day everyday to plan for the week ahead, considering they did not have jobs in Juneau, but I don't have that luxury.  Trying to balance things between my job, all of our activities, and the responsibilities of director has been a challenge, but I've definitely learned a lot about myself and am really just having to rely on God for all of it.  One of my responsibilities was to select new student leaders for each of the ministry teams, which are the evangelism team, the prayer team, the Native American team, and the Wednesday night meeting team. All of them have been extremely dedicated and have worked so hard, and along with help from my assistant director, things are going pretty smooth.  I'm so excited  to see what all will happen over the next couple of weeks, but it's going to be pretty difficult to leave come August 8th--I've made some amazing friends here from all over the country.  So yea, things are going great up here. The best summer of my life, and definitely the most stretching.  I'm pumped to bring everything I've learned back with me to Fayetteville.  The summer's not over yet though.

 

Aside from the busyness of the schedule, I still am able to make time for the Alaskan adventures that I've dreamed about for so long.  The last weekend staff was here, I got up at 4 in the morning with 2 of them and went fishing for king salmon, the ultimate Alaskan catch. I ended up catching 3 of them--you would not believe how big these fish get! One of the staff I was with, Wes from Missouri State, hooked one that was pushing 40 lbs. Crazy! Later that day we drove to a place at the end of the road called Echo Cove and I flyfished for pink salmon. We totaled between 35-40, and I was lucky enough to catch about 15. THE GREATEST DAY OF FISHING IN MY LIFE. It was incredible--almost every single cast we were catching fish. I have no idea how I'm going to bring home all of the salmon I have accumulated in my freezer. Haha.  If you go to school with me, be expecting to come over and grill salmon at my house this fall.  We've also been able to do a bit of hiking--last weekend we backpacked to Eagle glacier and camped on the side of the glacial lake it emptied in to. And last night we were lucky enough to have on of my roommates, David from California, arrange for his boss to take us by boat to an island off the coast of Juneau and drop us off for the evening to camp. It was the most incredible place I've ever camped at in my entire life. Completely secluded, surrounded by ocean, snow-capped mountains, and wildlife. We saw quite a few humpback whales, and even after the sun set we could hear them surfacing and spraying water throughout the night.  Everyday here I remind myself how lucky I am to be here--these experiences are ones that I will carry with me the rest of my life. I've got to give all the credit to my supporters though, without whom I would not have been able to have these experiences. It's so amazing how God has provided so abundantly and is truly doing some amazing things in the lives of the guys on Project Foxtrot, as well as in Juneau. 

One thing I'm pumped about is that we've been able to coach and assist students on the UAS campus to start their own campus ministry affiliated with Campus Crusade. It's so cool knowing that God is using this summer to impact people long after we are gone, and it's amazing that he has allowed us to be part of the process.  There are so many stories from this summer among the guys here that are so incredible and just show how much God is in control. It's so awesome. My assistant director and I have been meeting with the two future student directors of the ministry who will take control after we leave in August, and they are both excited to carry on the ministry when we are gone.  The entire summer we have been transitioning the Wednesday night meeting (which looks like a typical Cru meeting involving worship and a speaker) to being lead entirely by students from Juneau.  By now our parts in the Wednesday night meeting are minimal, so it's great seeing it Juneauites take control. It's so cool knowing that this has been building for the past 6 years since Juneau Summer Project started, and that people all over the country have been/are praying for this.  Over the next few weeks we will continue to build into the future leaders of the campus-ministry. So yea, cool things are happening up here.

Sorry I haven't been able to update as regularly as I would have liked, but from certain time constraints it's just been difficult.  I hope this is able to even halfway depict how amazing this summer has been. Only 3 more weeks! Crazy.