Coming to a close

It's hard to believe that I only have a few days left in Juneau. From countless service projects to a number of community outreach events, the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. A couple highlights have been a high school/college aged lock-in that we put on, a salmon bake that over 80 people came to, and working to build a pavilion out at a local church camp. We have also had the opportunity to serve at a local soup kitchen on a few different occasions, and do a lot of random yard work for people in the community. I'm looking forward to this weekend when we'll get to take part in the 4th of July celebration downtown. Each year thousands of people flood downtown Juneau to watch the fireworks over the water, including celebrities like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and Mel Gibson, who have made it a tradition to watch the fireworks from their yachts. We are taking advantage of the mass amounts of people to go sharing our faith downtown, so please be praying for that.

One of the highlights of this summer has been watching how the local students of Juneau have really taken ownership of the ministry here at UAS. They have been leading a weekly Campus Crusade meeting on Wednesday nights the entire year, and have continued it on into the

summer. We are here to assist them in any way possible, but it's been so encouraging to see how they are eager to maintain control of the meeting. The weekly speaker has been a talented young guy from Juneau named Erik Peterson, who has been a joy to learn from. We have also invited locals to join our project's ministry teams, which include the prayer team, evangelism team, and the Native American outreach team. Our heart behind this is that when project is

over and we all return to our campuses, the students here in Juneau will have had the opportunity to grow in their passion for prayer, evangelism, and service among the Native population, and hopefully continue these teams after we are gone. It's been so awesome to see locals step up in leading the movement here at UAS.

With the end of the staff's time in Juneau comes the decision of who to turn over the leadership to. This Monday will be the night we completely hand off project to new student leaders, whose task it will be to carry on our vision of reaching all of Southeast Alaska with the gospel. It's crazy to think it's already time to start thinking more about the next half of my summer. For those of you who don't know, I'll be leaving Juneau on the morning of July 8th, driving to Dallas by the 13th, flying to Chiang Mai, Thailand on the 15th, doing ministry on a college

campus there for 2 weeks, fly back to Shreveport on the 29th, and then fly back to Alaska on August 3rd to wrap things up for the students in Juneau. It'll be a busy next few weeks, but I'll try to find the time to update my blog to let you know how things are going.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read my blog! Also, thanks again to all of my supporters, who play such an important role in my ministry--my experience this summer would definitely not be possible without them. Below are a couple pictures from a camping trip we went on the other week, which was an amazing break from our busy schedule! Hope all is well.

Robert