Nikiski in a Nutshell

Last week, we (along with Dana) led our congregation's youth group on a mission trip to Nikiski, Alaska. Nikiski is a small country like town on the Kenai Peninsula. It was a really good week and we took SO many pictures. We're planning to burn CDs for each of the teens. But for the blog I tried my best to just give a snapshot of the week's activities without going overboard. Still it's a lot of pictures, but it only proves that we did A LOT in just one week.
This is our group when we left last Saturday from Juneau (complete with the stuffed polar bear in the background). This was our Sunday morning worship service--inside the belly of the big fish. Can you guess what the VBS theme was?
On Sunday night, one family hosted our group to a hot dog roast in their back yard.
The first part of our week was mostly spent doing work projects for some of the elderly and widows of the congregation there.





The second part of the week was primarily spent helping the congregation put on their VBS program. The main part our teens did was the daily skit telling the story of Jonah.
Our two little kids enjoyed VBS too. They especially liked the crafts and games.


We also had plenty of time to relax and play. We were so blessed to all be housed by wonderful families from the church that all lived on the same road and lake. Having our group so close together gave the week a sort of summer camp feeling. The teens were often out on the lake when we had down time.
One evening we took the teens down to the beach of Cook Inlet. We were able to see Mt. Redoubt across the inlet in the distance. This is the volcano that recently erupted and caused a lot of air traffic troubles a few months ago.
Elijah, the youngest chaperon.


We saw moose almost everyday. This is a little different for us Juneau-ites because we don't have any moose in Juneau. But they were everywhere on the Kenai Peninsula--walking along the side of the road, through people's backyards, or trying to cross the road in front of our van!!!!
One evening Shawn and Carly went out fishing in the lake with our homestay host, Chris. You also might like to know that this picture was taken at 10:15 PM! It stayed light SOOO much later than we're used to in Juneau.
On our last full day in Nikiski, Chris pulled whoever wanted around in an inner tube behind his boat for a few hours before VBS started. I was really glad that Carly was brave enough to take a turn. She rode with Brittany and had a great time.

We also took one day to make a day trip to Homer, Alaska--with a stop in Anchor Point at the KNLS radio station that our Juneau congregation is involved in supporting.

Look out TMZ--we had a celebrity siting in Homer. Do you know who this guy is?
No, Geoffrey didn't fly up to join us!
This guy just happens to be Jon Hillstrand, the captain of the Time Bandit, a crab fishing boat on Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch reality show. The Time Bandit's home port is Homer and they just recently opened up their own gift shop along the main tourist shopping lane. We just happened to be in the Time Bandit gift shop at the right time. Dana was able to get him to autograph a copy his book. You'll have to ask her how the inscription reads. (And then wash her mouth out with soap!)
And finally, we were back on the plane headed home to Juneau. Whew! It was a great week full of great work, but it's good to be home.