A Transition

Well, as you can see, we have snow on the ground. Well, it doesn't melt much. Being from Texas,we just aren't used to having snow all the time. The kids love it and it is fun.
We have been back from St. Lawrence Island for a month and have tansitioned from "training" to "full time ministry". It is tougher for us than the first five months. The first five months were a regimented schedule with little idle time. We are know on staff, with daily meetings and work duties, ministry time, etc. and we also have down time. All of our belongings including our vehicle are still in Texas. So, we are in a new place living a "normal" life with none of our personal belongings. On top of that, we are living in "community", not in our own private home. Nothing is the same. It is a tough transition. God has us here for a reason and we are excited about it, but He is stretching us. We see that the Lord has us here to disciple under our leaders and slowly develop into the missionary lifestyle. If we would have jumped straight into living in a village without the proper training, relationships, accountability, and support from a strong ministry, we quite possibly and most likely would have flopped miserably. So all that being said, God is faithful and forgiving and we are dependant on Him. We know we will be ministering to Native Alaskans for a long time and this is just the beginning. We can't wait to see what God has for us in the future. Kev

The Beauty of Alaska

This picture is amazing isn't it. It is the cliff near Savoonga, St. Lawrence Island. I hope that when you read this blog that God has blessed your day some how. I have just listened to my Cowboys beat the Colts. Needless to say, I am a bit happy. We hit the ground running hear. After we completed our training and two months on St. Lawrence, we started working. We are spending the month of Novemeber in daily staff meetings and then base work duties. We are spending time seeking the Lord for direction for different ministry opportunities. Besides returning to St. Lawrence, possibly as soon as January or Febuary, we are looking at opportunities on Kodiak Island. We have a First Nations DTS starting the first of January. YWAM Arctic Mercy is really growing fast and being blessed by the Lord daily.
Sherri and the kids and I are doing well. Josh is working hard home schooling. This is a tough new adventure for us and Josh, but he is still making A's and B's. The girls are really having fun with the snow. We will be returning to Texas for most of December and are looking forward to seeing friends and family. We ask that you really keep us in your prayers for spiritual growth, safe travel. We continue to ask for prayer warriors to keep us lifted up and ask for you to pray and seek the Lord about joining our ministry in some fashion. God Bless you. Kevin

God is so good!

As we returned home from St. Lawrence Island last Saturday morning, God showed us the Northern Lights. It was the first appearance of the lights this winter. I think it was his way of telling us well done on the island. Well as our week went on, Sherri and I returned to our normal way of life. We had a little personal meeting and returned to tithing and giving a little monthly support to a friend of ours in the mission field. Well within 24 hours of that committment, we were informed of a church back home that wants to meet with us about support when we return home in Decemeber. We were informed by the lady that owns the B&B we were going to Saturday night, alone, that she wasn't going to charge us. A lady from a church here in Homer walked into our building and met with Sherri for 45 mins, unexpectedly, and gave us a support check from her and her husband. Then to end the week off, we recieved some more good news from two other friends who support us. All of this because we are being faithful and committed to serving Him. That's all He asks of us, to be committed to Him and what he asks us to do and serve Him. God blesses us everyday in some form or another. Sometimes we may not notice it, but He is always faithful to us. Stay committed to Him in pursuing the calling on your life, because He is so committted to you. God Bless you all. Kev

We're Back!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to write. I have been trying several days and am having problems uploading a photograph on the page. Also, our internet service has been in and out. Well, on to the important stuff. We returned from St. Lawrence Island on 10/28 at 4am. I was an amazing trip. The kids were awesome. You would never have known that we were in a different place/culture. They made friends in both villages and had children coming by each day to play with them.

We stayed in each village, Savoonga & Gambell, for one month. Our residence was the Presbyterian Church in the village. In each place, our whole family was in one room. What an adjustment! In each village, we were able to have daily prayer/worship times, quiet time, and time with the people in the community. While in Savoonga, I was able to do a teaching on prayer. In Gambell, Kevin gave the message in church, once on discipline and the other on putting value in each other. In Gambell, I gave a talk about unforgiveness and how it affects our walk with the Lord. God has done some amazing things in our lives while we were gone. We have learned to listen to Him, trust in Him and most of all that love truly is the "greatest". That is how most of our ministry exploded, just loving the people and showing them value, which is one thing that they long for the most.

We are looking forward to our return to Texas and have so many stories to share. We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support - we wouldn't be doing the things that we are without God & your support.

God Bless

Sherri

p.s. God really blessed our trip and ended it in the most amazing way. On our way home, we stopped by the side of the road at 1:30 in the morning and saw the Northern Lights. Who could see such a site and not believe in a higher power?

St. lawrence Island, Alaska

Osiyo(Cherokee for Hello),

We pray that all of you are well. It is Sunday the 27th of August and we leave for St. Lawrence Island on the 1st of September. We are all very excited for this chance to go and serve the people of this Island, off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. We have completed the lecture phase of our DTS and now we go to "work". The picture above is our outreach team. This is an amazing group of people from all around the US and Canada. Please remember to "pray for us daily that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Jesus Christ...." Col. 4:2-3.

As most of you know we will not have cell phone service or Internet service, but we will have a telephone. We will leave our number with and contact regularly our mothers, Chey, Josh's dad, and our mission team leader at our church, New Hope. We will ask them to send out update emails weekly to keep you up to date on our activities.

We love all of you and look so forward to our return to Homer to check our emails and phone calls.

God bless you, Keivn, Sherri and the Kids

Counting Down!

Sorry it has been awhile since we have made a post. Over the last few weeks, we have had several visitors. Both memas and aunt Karo came to visit us. As soon as mema Carol left, then the others showed up. It was an amazing time and we are so glad that we got to spend time with them. I hope they enjoyed Homer as much as we do. We have also been preparing for our 8 week outreach. We will be leaving next Thursday for Anchorage, to pick up last minute things. Our flight leaves Anchorage on Friday morning at 6:40. We will land on St. Lawrence Island about 4 in the afternoon. First, we will be staying in the village of Savoonga and then in the village of Gamble for one month each. We will be doing some teachings for the adults and either a vacation bible school or an after school program for the children. Everyone is really excited about going, even the kids. Thank you to everyone who has supported us through prayer and by supporting us financially. If it wasn't for all of you -- we wouldn't be able to be here following the call that God has placed on our lives.

While there, we will not have any internet service or cell phone service. We will make sure that an e-mail is sent out to let everyone know how we are doing. Please be praying for our safe travel and for the Lord to use us in mighty ways while on the island.

We have committed to stay at the Homer base for the next two years. We will be returning to Texas in the month of December. We are really excited about what God has in store for us! Love ya, Sherri

Pedro Bay

This last week we were in the village of Pedro Bay. This village is in the "bush" of Alaska. There are only 60 people in the village. The only way to access the village is either by plane or by boat. The village sits in a valley on Lake Iliamna, which is 100 miles long. While we were there, we helped the missionaries, Chris & Mary Sanners, move from their home to the new home/church. They are an amazing couple. They have been missionaries for twenty something years. They have 8 children. We were very blessed to be there to help them in any way we could. We also had a time of intercession each evening. We had "night watches" which consisted of two people praying for one hour during the night, from 11pm - 5am. God really spoke to us during this time. I was a little concerned about getting up and praying in the middle of night, but this is really when God shows up - when we least expect it. The girls did really well! They enjoyed throwing rocks in the lake, walking in the water puddles, and playing with the Sanner children. We miss everyone and are looking forward to our family visiting us in the next couple of weeks. Sherri -- p.s. the picture is an arial shot of Pedro Bay on the flight into the village.

IDENTITY IN CHRIST

This last week has been really good! We have been learning what our identity in Christ is. It is awesome to learn that our identity in Christ is perfect and sinless! I'm sure most of you are like me and have heard this before, but this week the speaker really drove it home for me. He started the week talking about the tabernacle and the significance of it. The significance being that in the times of Moses, only the High Priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies. Everyone else had to stand behind walls & curtains and listen for the sounds of the bells attached to the ankle of the priest. If the priest did not consecrate himself correctly, he would die and the people would be in a state of mourning. Today, because of Christ's death & the tearing of the veil -- EACH and EVERYONE of us is allowed into the Holy of Holies -- to have the intimate personal contact with God. How amazing is that?

We are leaving tomorrow (Sunday) morning for Pedro Bay. It is a small village of about 60 people. We will be there till next Saturday doing ministry, helping move the church and encouraging the only missionaries there. We are very excited about this opportunity. Please be praying for safe travel and for the Lord to do amazing things through us while we are there.

God Bless, Sherri

On the road again!!!

Hello friends,
I hope that this finds all of you well. We are sorry that it has been a while since our last post. We have been very busy. We have just returned from Anchorage and Wasilla. We were in Anchorage for three days meeting with Dan Jarrell, the pastor of Change Point Church. In Wasilla, we met with a lady named Joy Gifford, who was a missionary to St. Lawrence with her parents from childhood until her college years. She returns to St. Lawrence with youth groups annually and considers it home. We heard great stories of St. Lawrence and the people there. It is a very remote place, but they struggle with the same things we do in the states. They are subsistance culture, so we will get to experience eating a virtual cornucopia of "sea life".
Next Sunday we leave for Pedro Bay. It is a small village on Lake Illiamna. Most villages have no road access, so we will be flying into Pedro and assisting the missionaries there with there church and home. We will be there for a week and then return to Homer, "home", for a few weeks before we leave for St. Lawrence and Nome for 8 weeks. Please be praying for us for safety and guidance, in addition to our 8 week outreach costing us $10,000.
The girls are doing well. They love the outdoors. We can't keep them indoors for long. They loved clamming on the beach and throwing rocks into the water. Josh will be coming back in a few weeks with Mema Carol. We are ready for him to be back here. Chey is doing well in Texas. She is really missed here.
Thanks for all the e-mails, prayers and love. God Bless, Kevin & Sherri

The weekend is here

Well we made it through another incredible week. We had a speaker this week named Rod Wilson. He spoke this week on Spiritual Warfare. WOW it was awesome. We are just exhausted. This will be a week that will take a while to process completly. The two older kids are enjoying their time back in Texas, but we really miss them. Our 8 week outreach has been decided on. We are going to St. Lawrence Island. This is an Island of Yupiks in the Bering Sea, between the US and Russia. It is 38 miles from the Russian Coast. The Island is one of the most remote places in the world. They have a church exsistence there, but they have been without a full time pastor for quite some time. They have a high rate of suicide there among teens as well as drug and alcohol abuse. It is a remote island and all accounts indicate to us that is is a lonely forgotten place. WE ARE EXCITED. We feel, as a base, that the Lord has sovereignly directed us in this direction. The entire team of people, staff and students alike, came to this base and this DTS with a heart for these people. Please keep us in your prayers. God Bless You Kevin

Missing them already!

We spent this weekend in Anchorage. We left Saturday and took the two older kids to the airport. We were able to go to Walmart while there. That was really nice. Things are much cheaper there, plus there are no taxes. We got up early this morning (3:30 am) to go to the airport. The kids made it to Texas safely. They were even able to go into the cockpit while they were on a stop in Seattle. I'm sure that was really cool! I know they are both excited about being back there. I bet they miss the cool weather here. We will miss them both, terribly. We wish them both a happy birthday! Sherri

CROSSWALK

Hope everybody is doing well. We have been very busy, but the Lord is really working in our lives. Today, for community outreach, we walked through town carrying a cross. The purpose of the walk was to make us step outside of our comfort zone to evangelize to the community, as well as to intercede for the town of Homer. The person with the cross was about 50-100 ft ahead of everyone else. When we began discussing this, I became very anxious. I didn't want anything to do with this. I was afraid of what people might think or what people might say to me and how I would respond to that. This anxiousness caused me to become easily irritated. The person carrying the cross was in the lead and was following the Holy Spirit as to where to go. Kevin went first. As we were walking, I became irritated because I was usually at the back, pushing two beautiful little girls in a double stroller. Anyway, we were following Christine down a big hill and I told Kevin that I was worried because we had to walk back up the same hill later, since we had already walked several miles. At the bottom of the hill, we stopped. Christine picked me to follow her. As I picked up the cross, God told me to go left, which meant walking back up the hill we had just gone down. I argued with him, but He persisted. As I put the cross up on my shoulder, all the anxiety I felt just melted away. As I began walking, God began to speak to me about doing things through His strength. I knew I couldn't do it on my own, it would take Him to help me walk it out. During the walk, I felt pride that I was able to do this for the Lord and felt no shame or embarassment for carrying the cross. I was able to carry the cross all the way to the top of the hill without any problems. We should all pick up our cross and follow Him, no matter the circumstances or our emotions. All He wants is a relationship with us and obedience when He asks us to do something. Sherri

Hello to you, our friends and family. I hope all are doing well. If you are not aware of the picture, it is the Spit. The spit is a 4 mile piece of land and its a natural land formation. On the spit is the Homer harbor and fishing hole, boardwalks, and different kinds of charter services. Well, we spent the afternoon walking around down there, doing a little shopping. When we were done shopping we stopped in at this little restaraunt and ordered a fish and chip basket and sat on the outside deck and snacked on it. I have to tell you right know that Halibut is one of the finest things I have ever eaten. Well as we were sitting on the the deck overlooking Kachemak Bay and the mountains and St. Augustine(the volacano that smokes, 76 miles out in Cook Inlet)we were just marveling at God's creations. I could have spent the afternoon there and just sat in God's presence. I began to think about something that I heard this last week about that very subject. I wonder how many of you have met someone and said "I can see Jesus in that person"? I believe I may have learned the secret to this. The secret is...It depends on how much time you spend with Him. The more time you spend with Jesus, the more you begin to take on His appearance, you begin to smell like him, act more like Him and sound like Him. My true desire is to spend so much time with Jesus that this begins to happen to me. I hope all of you are well and will keep us in your prayers as you are in ours. Please send us a note letting us know if we can pray specifically for you about something and let us know how things are going. God Bless You Kev

The importance of prayer

I was wondering, tonight, if you realized how important it is for you to hold us up in prayer. We ask for your prayer because of its incredible value. To give an example, look at Exodus 17:8-13. Moses sent Joshua into the valley to fight the Amalikites and Moses stayed on top of the mountain with the staff of God and lifted them up in prayer. As long as Moses held his hands up, Joshua was winning, but when he would drop his hands the Amalikites began to win. So Aaron and Hur moved a rock over for Moses to sit on, and when his arms grew weary, they stood beside him and helped him hold his arms up. Moses held his arms up until sunset, and Joshua was victorious. As long as you hold us up in prayer, we will be victorious for God. We ask you as Joshua in the valley, please be our Moses and hold us up in prayer. Blessing on you, Kevin

At Rest

Well, we have been here for 11 days and it feels like home. We have been made to feel welcome here at YWAM Arctic Mercy. Sherri and I are so excited about the future. We completed our first full week of classroom study. The focus this past week was rest in the Lord. The topics were resting from the past, rest in the present, and rest in the future. We also had great times of prayer and worship with the Lord. God has revealed some things to Sherri and I this week that are really good. This time of training is a time to rest in the Lord and focus on our relationship with Him, not to focus on our ministry. I have begun to learn about something called protocol. This is a powerful tool that is necessary when dealing with first nation people. I really sense the Lord has placed us here to really focus on learning about this thing called Protocol once we have completed our DTS. It is hard to believe that this was only our first full week of teachings and training because we are so comfortable here. We look forward to your emails and calls and pray that God blesses you. Love in the Lord, Kevin

Prayer request

Hey All,

Thanks so much for the love you are showing us. The emails are great. We do need prayer continually for two things specificly. The first is for our house to sell, and the second is for our finances. As most of you know, we do not receive a salary, so it is through the blessings of others that we serve. Please be praying that the Lord will bring us answers to our requests. Thanks and God Bless, Kev

The Vision of YWAM Arctic Mercy

Hello again,

I thought I would take a little time to let you know about YWAM Arctic Mercy here in Homer. This base through much prayer and planning was placed here, by God, to focus on the need of the Alaskan people, primarily the Native people. The native people here in Alaska are dealing with the same issues as the Natives in the lower 48, examples are, alcholism, sexual abuse, drug abuse, AIDS and other health issues. The staff here has an enormous heart for intercession, so another ministry is the prayer room. The vision of several people here at YWAM and in the town of Homer is to see prayer 24/7. Although this ministry, like YWAM Arctic Mercy, is in its infancy, the vision is being cast and blessed by God. The prayer room is open daily, and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights from 2am to 3am for prayer for the community, the Natives, and the Nations and beyond. Another vision of YWAM Arctic Mercy is exactly what the name says, Mercy. The shoeline of Alaska is eroding away. This means the villiages on the shores of this great state are dissapearing. There is also an enourmous need for housing for the teachers of this state in the small villiages. YWAM Arctic Mercy wants to help build housing to fulfill this need and to help the villiages relocate what is being damages by the erosion. I don't have a real list of needs yet, but I do know that we are praying for a boat that will aid us in assisting the people affected in the Alution Islands and the shoreline. As I said Arctic Mercy is still young and growing, and I can't wait to see what else God has in store. Please continue to pray for us and consider that God may want you to help some how. God Bless You, Kevin

Adjusting!!!!

We have been here for three days and we hit the ground running. Everyone is adjusting well. We have done some hiking in the mountains and went to the beach (see picture). Yesterday, it was cold and rainy here. We weren't completely prepared for such cold weather - but we made it through. We have been getting to know everyone in our class including the staff. They are very welcoming and really include the children in everything. We were able to go to the store and boy was I surprised at the cost of things. We went to a place called Kachemak Wholesale - they go to Anchorage and buy stuff at Costco, ship it here and inflate the price. A box of diapers cost $28.00. Anyway, please pray for continued adjustment to a new surrounding and God's provision for the rest of our tuition money. We love everyone and miss them. Sherri

We're here

Well, we made it to Anchorage safe and sound. We fly into Homer tomorrow. It is amazingly beautiful here. The mountains were breath taking while flying in. It was very interesting traveling with 4 kids. They handled it well for the most part. Check back, Kev

North to Alaska

Well, we are out of our house and staying with Sherri's mom. We had our "going away" party tonight and it was wonderful. It is so nice to see friends and family together. So many people we don't get to see very often. Thanks to all of you for coming and giving. We are so excited to see what God is going to do. Stay tuned. Kevin

Some good news!!!

We sold our van, thank you Lord. We are getting closer to being out of our house. We are still packing stuff to go to storage and preparing a box or two full of bedding, toys, etc. to ship to Homer. Not much else has changed. God blesses us on a daily baises, It's some times to hard to remember everything. Check back for more in a few days. Kev

Busy Busy Busy

Well, the days are going by fast. We are so busy everyday, meeting with friends and supporters, moving our things into storage, and just running around like chickens without heads. Joshua and Chey's last day of school before summer is tomorrow. We are trying to be out of the house by the first of June. Our prayer requsts are the same. Please pray that our house and van sell, that our funds come in to allow us to pay for our training this summer, and we need prayer for wisdom and discernment to make all our desicions based of God's call on our lives. Thank you so much for checking in on us and may God bless all that you do. Kevin and Sherri

The day is nearing

Well, we leave for Homer, Alaska June 5th. We will be serving with Youth With a Mission Arctic Mercy there. The first five months will be spent in training. We will probably return home for a month or two in November, then return for a two year commitment. We will stay in touch through future posts so stay tuned......Kevin and Sherri