A team of 22 members from the Spring Meadows Church in Sanford, Florida, arrived in Alaska on July 1, 2022. Their teams worked in the towns Selawik and Kotzebue. Though the central Florida church has completed 40 mission trips since 1992, this was the first time they worked in two different locations. It’s also the first time "friendship evangelism" was the main focus.
The Selawik team almost completed building a garage to house an ATV and snowmobile for Edna and Jose Estrella, Arctic Mission Adventure workers. They also installed new windows in the mission house. The daily vacation Bible school helped to build friendships with local children. These children even came to the airport to send the team off with a tearful goodbye.
The rest of the team stayed in Kotzebue where there are no Adventist missionaries. Their assignment was "friendship evangelism." They shared a Vacation Bible School each evening in the Kotzebue Friends Church. During the day, they depended on the Lord to provide them with work and interaction opportunities.
Their first day was July 4, 2022, where they helped the Parks and Recreation Department at the fairgrounds with garbage clean-up, a 5K race and other activities. A policeman talked to the team several times during the day.
On another day, they sorted, bagged and labeled 35 large garbage bags of clothes and shoes for the Baptist Church's clothing distribution center. And on another day, they weeded and helped in the Chukchi Arctic Gardens.
They also helped with food distribution at the Church of God, and got the sound systems in both of their churches working again. They had lots of individual interactions with people they met.
God faithfully gave them opportunities to meet and help people. In the process, the team learned to depend on God and know that He would provide opportunities — often at the last minute!
The whole team thanks God for this opportunity to work for Him in Northwestern Alaska.
The Kotzebue Church where the VBS was held is more than 100 years old.
The Selawik team worked to build the shed for Edna and Jose Estrella's ATV and snowmobile.
