I have recently realized that it has been a couple months since I wrote on my blog meaning that I have not written since I arrived in Nome to be Co-Pastor with my husband.
Today is a beautiful day in Nome, much like the day that David & I arrived in Nome. On Thursday, July 3, David & I landed in Nome and as we landed, the pilot told us that it was sunny and 80 degrees in Nome. I thought he was joking since I never experienced that type of warmth when I lived in Nome before. How wonderful it was to know that it was really this warm! I felt as if we were truly being welcomed! After that warm spell, we quickly dropped to 40 & 50 degree ranges and actually had to turn on the heat in the parsonage! Now 7 weeks later, we are enjoying some great weather again!
This journey to Nome to serve as Co-Pastor with David for the next four years has been a wonderful experience as well as an adjustment. On our first trip to the grocery store, we experienced "sticker shock" when we saw the prices of milk and other foods. Wow! Things were pricier now then when I lived here before, but not this much! $6 for a half gallon of milk?? Needless to say, we got ONLY what we needed and found our moods drop slightly. This meant no junk food! This is good for our budget and our waistlines! Now we are used to the prices, though one of our strategies is to buy items mostly when they are on sale. In addition, we ordered food in bulk from a barge company with some of our friends. We had to order a minimum of 25 cases which is why we went in together with another couple. This order should arrive sometime in September. Another thing we are doing is ordering organic vegetables from a company based in Washington State - several people in Nome do this and it is pretty reasonable. We pick up our order every other Wednesday so it is like Christmas when a new box arrives of 14 different fruits and vegetables. We are learning to prepare veggies such as kale and beets. Not only is this saving us a little money, but it is expanding our horizons as well.
On the ministry front, David & I are getting a sense of working together. For the first three Sunday we were here, we did what we call tag-team sermons. We divided up the thought blocks of our sermon and took turns speaking. It was kind of neat. Now we are dividing up the Sundays and at the moment preaching alternating weeks. We enjoy pastoring together, even amidst the growing edges. We have also visited people in our church together and visited the local nursing home today once last week and once this week already. David led worship at the nursing home today. We have met with the committee that is in charge of supervising us to begin working on a vision for the church. We have asked the committee to name some of their expectations of us and in turn have shared what we feel needs the most attention immediately. We would ask for your prayers as we seek to re-establish a children's ministry in this church. We have been getting to know the children who come to our playground. Our dogs have been great helpers in this endeavor. Part of the fencing around our yard where the dogs play shares a boundary with the church's playground. Many of the children are curious and want to play with our dogs. I have invited children to come into the fenced yard and sit on the front steps of the parsonage with me as they play with the dogs. Some of these children came to our recent Vacation Bible School led by our Volunteers in Mission Team from Pennsylvania. We want to build on these relationships and have a program for kids once a week in the evening. Again, please keep us in your prayers as the church begins this program.
One of my favorite things about living in Nome before was berry picking! It is now the time of year when the blueberries are ripe and more are getting ripe by the day! Woo-hoo! I can even see blueberries when I sleep. About a week ago, I went out with some awesome and totally amazing women from the church and found some cranberries! All week, I have been feeling like I am truly in the Kingdom of God! I love picking berries and being out in the fresh air. Something about it just energizes me! I have told a few people that I do indeed feel like I am in the already, but not yet Kingdom of God. I am "already" there in the sense that I am experiencing God's provision of some great berries to pick and put away for the rest of the year. Even though fuel and food prices are escalating, God is still providing for our needs through the plentiful berries on the tundra - free of charge - all we need to do is pick them and put them in our freezer! The "not yet" part is the fact that a bear could be lurking about since berries are part of their diet as well. Since I am afraid of the bears, I cannot experience the full Kingdom of God. Do we live in a perfect world??
God is also providing through David's fishing pink and silver salmon. We were not even in Nome 24 hours when David went fishing with someone from church. He caught 8 pink salmon and the other man caught 7. This generous man gave us all of his as well. David bought a fishing license and is now going out fishing every chance he gets. Thursdays evenings and Sunday evenings have been his typical fishing nights. The time he goes all depends on when high tide hits.
Throughout this part of the journey, I am learning that God certainly does provide. In fact, this is a message that I preached a couple weeks ago when I preached on the Matthew passage where Jesus asks Peter to walk on water. When we get distracted by our doubts, it is hard to keep our eyes on Jesus, on God. One of the things that worries and distracts many is the rising cost of heating fuel. God will provide for our heating bill in one way or another - maybe that means that each of us has to give a little more in the offering plate and maybe there will be some United Methodist Churches outside of Nome who will want to partner with us and provide some financial support as well. God will provide. In the meantime, we need to be faithful to what God is calling us to do with the resources we have - we have a building that is conducive to having children's programs and a beautiful worship space. We need to teach the children about Jesus and show them that because God loves and cares for them, we love and care for them as well.
Well, this is certainly enough for now. I hope to post more soon. Thank you for being on this journey with me.
