Alaska - Day 8

We awoke early today to coffee and devotions with Dennis and Celesta. Then we ventured out for the long day of ministry ahead. We arrived to Mountain View Baptist Church around 8:30 to prepare for the food shelf that runs the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. We saw how organized and structured the program is. It takes many volunteers and food donations to run each week as it serves 40-50 local families. Don and I were able to serve by helping people carry their food to their cars or to their homes. There also were a few opportunities to pray with people. It was a reminder to us both about how blessed we are to have food in our cupboards. Many of the people that came through were very thankful for the food. Once the food shelf was finished and cleaned up we drove to the Alaska Food Bank to stock up. Their food supply had run really low and when we showed up at the Food Bank it was like Christmas. The Alaska Food Bank is a place where retailers, wholesalers, etc. donate food and then non-profit organizations can come pick up food for $0.18 per pound. Dennis said they were lucky to get a couple hundred pounds of food lately but today we got 1700lbs of food. We packed a Ford Explorer and Dennis's car full of food. Then we spent most of the afternoon unloading and storing all the food we got.

Dennis squeezed in a quick tour of the church and shared many needs for the church that we can help with next summer. There is much need there and I am excited for how countryside Chapel can serve next summer.

After a quick rest and coffee break we had to get ready for Kids for Christ club which starts at 5:30. We had a meal then went upstairs to sing some songs. There was about 30-40 kids there from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Don taught them a song and then I was able to share with them about Jesus for about 15 minutes.

It felt good to finally get back to the house and relax. Some friends of Dennis and Celesta came over and we just spent some time hanging out and eating ice cream. Hopefully we can get a few hours of sleep tonight because we have to get up at 5:00am tomorrow.