A Story Worth Telling

 

This past week I enjoyed a missions trip with Kyler up to Alaska. For the second year in a row, we spent a week with InterAct Ministries in Palmer, Alaska. Here, I was invited to speak as their plenary speaker for their annual missionary retreat where all the missionaries in the field meet together for preaching, field reports, testimonies, singing, and fellowship together. At this meeting, both current and retired missionaries spend time together. Throughout the week, listening to reports and praying together are emphasized. I had the privilege of having retired missionary Doris Hagedorn as my prayer partner for the week.

Doris Hagedorn

Doris was raised in Washington and graduated from Multnomah School of the Bible in 1959. She began her work with Arctic Missions (now InterAct) in 1960 as a single missionary. She has served with InterAct since then in village ministries in South Naknek, Tanana, Kokhanok, Pedro Bay and Nondalton. Doris moved to Wasilla in 1988 to continue urban and village outreach ministry with her fellow single missionary Flo, who worked with her for 40 years. Though retired and now 85 years old, she remains active in several ministry spheres from her home in Alaska. In addition to the work she can do serving the Lord as a retired missionary, she writes and publish books about her life as a missionary in Alaska. She is currently finishing her third volume.

As I visited with Doris each day, I had the privilege of both hearing her story and praying with her. In many ways, she represents InterAct missionaries of every kind. She dedicated herself to serving among indigenous, immigrant and unreached people groups across Alaska. She describes her walk with the Lord as a single missionary in the sweetest of terms. She never felt alone because she always had the Lord with her, even today. She has served as a full-time, and now a retired missionary who still works as much as she can, for over 60 years.

The picture above is she and I holding hands as we prayed together this week.

 

Serving in Villages of less than 400 hundred people

As I listened to the reports of the various missionaries throughout the week, I quickly realized that many of them serve in villages of under 400 people. One family I met serve in a village of 160.

Why? Because 60% of Alaska Natives reside in remote villages with limited discipleship opportunities. Over 100 remote villages in Alaska do not have a gospel-centered church.

These are fellow Americans (since 1959) who have no one to tell the beautiful story of Jesus.

 

Started Serving in the Dead of Winter

I was challenged by the number of missionaries who live in limited access places. One family, Jordan and Jessica Martin, packed everything they owned in a plane and landed in their village of Ruby one week before Christmas, with their five children. With temperatures -10 to -20 below zero, they began working with the less than 160 all native/indigenous people who live there; they are the only white family in the village. The whole town helped them move in as it was in the dead of winter. Without even as much as firewood to get through the winter, they began their ministry in Ruby – with sub-zero temperatures and all darkness until almost March. The first weekend they were there, he invited everyone in the village to a Christmas Eve service. Once they began assembling, the service was interrupted before it was fully started for everyone in the village to take buckets and fight a house fire. So ministry began the past winter for the Martins.

 

These Stories Continue

I rejoiced to hear Dennis Richardson tell of eight individuals who are being baptized in his native and immigrant church in Anchorage, Alaska today. One dear lady he helped rescue out of alcoholism and a very rough life eleven years ago. Today, she has chosen to get baptized, join the church, and continue her walk with the Lord. In this choice, she is alone. No one in her family supports her walk with the Lord.

Alan and Linda Ross serve in Kenai. Linda is part of the indigenous people of Alaska. Alan and Linda met in 1965 while both were attending Vancouver Bible Institute/College and were married shortly after. They were accepted as career missionaries in 1971 with InterAct, arriving in Alaska in 1973. They continue to serve in her hometown of Kenai as full-time missionaries, now in the fifty-first year.

Aaron and Tisha Dalton serve the Alaska Native people where her grandparents used to serve in Grayling, Alaska. There, he pastors the local church body and seeks to bring the hope of Christ among Alaska Native people by building relationships and making reproducing disciples. In this small village of under 400, their church shines the light of the Gospel.

You can read many more of their stories at this link.

 

Steve and Jill Horsman

Steve and Jill invited me to Alaska to help serve them during their week in missionary training. In 1989 they joined InterAct and ministered in Alaska for two years before transitioning to Canada, where they were blessed to live among the Chilcotin nation for twenty-one years. The Horsmans transitioned back to Alaska in 2013 to focus on equipping, facilitating and networking with InterAct Alaska. Steve serves as the Alaska field director overseeing and leading the field. Jill serves as his assistant and works on ministry program development and implementation. Both also coordinate EnGage! Alaska and serve as Directors for LEaD Alaska, a residential discipleship ministry.

Steve explains their vision for Alaska. They desire to do the best they can do with the missionary families God has given them. Their focus is one state with thousands of people in unreached villages who do not know the story of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Similar to the lower 48 states, the Native Peoples have suffered greatly. They are happy as an organization to be one inch wide and one mile deep – focused, passionate, and dedicated to the unreached people of Alaska.

I rejoice in their commitment to every element of the Great Commission. They live and share the gospel of Jesus Christ as they seek to grow people in discipleship. Their commitment to biblical counseling also rejoices my heart as well.

 

Great Week with Fellow Followers

Kyler and I went to be a blessing to these people; we came home blessed. I teased them about being invited back a second year. The first year I am always grateful; the second year is the surprise. On a serious note, please pray with us for these brothers and sisters-in-Christ who serve the unreached people in Alaska, an unreached part of the United States.

 

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