Alaska Mission Trip #5

Sorry for the delay since last post...partly due to Christmas but mostly due to processing the experience and how to share it with you. Especially true for what we experienced in the next couple villages, Koyuk and Elim, and to some extent Nome as well.

Wednesday was a trip to Koyuk. As was the case each day, we were not sure we were going to fly until just before we took off. We had tied the plane down the night before because of high wind but it settled down enough to allow us the short flight to Koyuk by late morning. The terrain changed at this point to being much more forest and hills than the strictly flat coastal villages of the two previous days. Very nice surroundings - and finally much snow. In fact we were met at the 'airport' (a runway with lights and a building that stored snow removal equipment) at both Koyuk and Elim with sleds pulled by snow machines.

We usually went directly to the school and ate with the students. All the schools were very modern and well built. Any place in the country would have been proud to have these facilities.

We were on the regular schedule by this time: afternoon assembly with an evening performance for the community. It was a very responsive audience!


We had some time to walk around the town and enjoyed the time in the snow - snow machines and four wheelers were quite active! We walked by the Koyuk church, just up the street from the school.

This image shows the typical size of the local churches. The
Koyuk church was very ably led by Was Mute and his wife Jean. Jean played organ that night as we sang some Christmas carols before the Rally.


Here is where we encountered some of the critical challenges facing the natives. A mother stayed after to talk with Bob (he always makes sure to say in his talks at the school that if you are experiencing abuse you have permission to talk to someone). This mom had two beautiful daughters and both had been sexually abused. The problems that these villagers experience are the same as ones we experience in the lower 48. But the remoteness of the location and the harshness of the conditions seems to intensify everything. These two young girls, unfortunately, were not alone. We talked to a disproportionately large number of women who had experienced that. Small villages with no real 'police' presence meant that the village elders have to handle the problems, all the problems, at least initially internally. With a clash of cultures still going on (these folks were living here while/before Abraham and Sarah were around in the Old Testament and they have only experienced the white man's ways for something like 100 years) it makes for confusing times. I don't want to imply that the natives do a poor job of handling things or that there is an excuse for bad or harmful behavior but there are forces we don't really understand from the outside with a quick visit or distant peek at their world. The culture has a strong reliance on influence of the elders and the 'rules' that guide(guided) the culture are/were widely understood.
Those rules are challenged with the 'new and improved' modern ways of doing things that have come with our culture. Sometimes what looks like an improvement may have subtle but far reaching impact. Freezers allow individuals to keep and store food much longer but it has changed how the community shares food in a subsistence culture that breaks the community bonds little by little. It also affects the sense of purpose. Subsistence life had its own flow and, of course, challenges. There is huge adjustment to how life works in the new way. Add to that the influence of alcohol in a culture that did not have it and it makes for big changes and challenges. The villages are either dry (no alcohol allowed at all), damp (alcohol can be brought in but not available for sale), or wet (alcohol allowed and sold). Nome is the only 'wet' village we were in, the others were 'dry'. But we heard of parents who went to Nome for the weekend (translate that into a flight out of the village to get there) and were too drunk to get back in time for school so kids stayed home till they got there. And the pastor in Elim (that comes on Thursday) was only there two years and had already performed four suicide funerals...in a village of 300 people.

We met many great folks up there. They were very warm and welcoming and capable and family oriented. But they are living in a culture in transition, and are dealing with many forces that can hurt and destroy. That is why we wanted to go and work with the local Christian churches to spread the message of hope that comes through Jesus Christ. It was important to connect with the local Christians (two of the five villages had native pastors, two had white pastors and one had no pastor...Nome's pastor had been there 12 years and was in another location in Alaska prior to that - he's invested!) so it wasn't just a flash in the pan and then nothing. Especially important are the native pastors and long serving white pastors who understand first hand and who invest and love and serve as Christ to the natives who need to hear the good news.