Hello from Ketchikan!
 
It’s hard to believe we are headed into our third week of outreach!  We had an exciting trek and great ministry opportunities along the way.  We left the Salem base with great fanfare on Labor Day, Sept 4th in “The Guppy” a small tour bus loaded to the gills and Lenard Nance’s 8 passenger van.  Just outside of Seattle the left front tire blew out on the Guppy.  Our guardian angels worked overtime and we got pulled over safely just around lunch time, so we had a picnic on the side of interstate 5.  It took us awhile to find a tire store open on Labor Day but God blessed us in that area also and we were back on the road within 3 hours or so.  The only other vehicle incident was on day 2 just outside Smithers, Canada.  We hit a deer, square between the headlights,  the Guppy experienced a small crack in the plastic grill, the deer unfortunately spun out and rolled, not good.
 
We were hosted in Washington by several different families.  Fred and I were blessed by Herb and Mary Erickson, a wonderful couple in Sedro Woolly.  Our stay in Smithers, Canada, a quaint little town was a little more challenging.  We all slept on the floor of the Salvation Army facility.  While in Smithers we helped in a near by native village with an after school “Fun Day”.  We had a bon-fire and roasted hot dogs, played games and just had alot of fun with the kids.  At the end of the day a little girl was up on the roof of a building and slid off.  It wasn’t very tall but the roof was tin and she sliced her wrist open on the sharp edge.  Pat Metcalf one of our team members was an EMT so she was able to apply a pressure bandage.  The hospital was a half an hour away!  We all prayed over her and got news later that evening that the doctor said it was a miracle because no tendons, veins, etc were sliced.  We also held an evening church service at the Morristown Pentecostal Church.  The clan elders played drums and electric guitar while Fred played his guitar and sang.  We did a skit, Kiley and Kendra danced then we had a good time of corporate prayer.  After we were treated to fresh salmon sandwiches!
 
Saturday a.m., that’s 5:00am, we hit the road for Prince Rupert to catch the ferry.  We made it and got on board with no hassles.  The six hour ride was interesting but site seeing was difficult due to low clouds and rain. We did see a couple of small humpback whales.  Fred and I met a man from Juneau who gave us some good insights into the weather, whale watching, fishing and the culture.  We arrived in Ketchikan Saturday evening in a driving rain.
 
Fred and I are staying with Joe and Suzie Williams along with the Blakes.  They are wonderful hosts and we have our own room. Joe is the borough mayor of Saxman.  The rest of the team is staying in the Salvation Army house, we have meals and meetings there.  We’ve been busy this past week with several different types of ministry:
Sunday: we awoke to clear, sunny skies!  We attended Good News Fellowship and were blessed with a wonderful worship time.  They have incorporated the native drums and singing style into their music.
Monday’s are our “official off day”.
Tuesday: we headed down to the Salvation Army facility in Ketchikan to meet Majors Jim and Illene Halvorsen.  They gave us some history of the army’s influence and functions in Saxman and in Ketchikan, then we did a prayer walk through downtown Ketchikan, particularly the Creek St area.  The historical tourist area that hosts “Dolly’s” the town brothel.
Wednesday: we met a Haida couple, Steven and Jackie, from Prince of Wales island and prayed for them.  They were on their way to Sitka. Jackie had to have some surgery.  We prayed for their village and the work they are doing with their church.  They are key people for any ministry we will be doing the weeks we are on Prince of Wales.
Thursday: Ketchikan hosted a record of 7 cruise ships, that’s an influx of over 10,000 people in one day.  We all went down to the docks and met with people, prayed with some.  Fred and I met Dan  from Wyoming.  We prayed for healing of his knee.  Please pray for Dan, he has an infection in his knee replacement and may need to have it operated on again.  In the afternoon we all went to the boys and girls club to meet the director and see what areas we would be able to help with.  Fred and I are going to help with the Power Hour a couple times a week.  We will help kids with their homework and then we can play games with them after wards.
Friday:  we did the chapel service for the Church of God school.  It was fun, Keith led worship and we performed of skit “You are Special.”  The kids split up into groups and Keith did a great job talking to the Junior and High schoolers.  I sat in with the elementary group, we played some games that taught about trusting God.  Friday night we went to the county jail.  Fred led a time of worship and I gave my testimony.  I had been praying about it for a couple of days, asking God what He would have me share.  I was pretty nervous but we did some intense prayer as a group and the Holy Spirit just took over as I went up to speak.  Keith gave a message afterward and at the end Kerry gave a powerful in your face challenge to all the inmates.  Afterward my team members said my testimony was powerful and I had every ones attention. They could see the Holy Spirit touched many of them through my story.  It was a humbling experience for me to see God relate to these hurting and wounded hearts through my past.  A past only God could redeem and use to His glory.  I am interested in going back on Thursday nights to help with one on one ministry with the women.  Please pray for open doors and opportunity.
Saturday: we worked on the Salvation Army house the team is staying in.  The front yard was overgrown and the back deck had alot of junk piled up on it.  Katherine and I cleaned out an old chest freezer that had several pounds of salmon rotting in it.  It was a stinky job and we encountered a few maggots but managed to get it done.  I told Katherine this didn’t hold a candle to some of the stinky -creepy crawly- clean up jobs we did in Haiti.
Sunday: we headed to the north end of the island to Clover Cove CMA church.  We sang a group song, Johnny and Karina sang the 23rd Psalm in Dutch and then Fred led 3 or 4 worship songs.  Pastor Tim from Wales, gave an interesting message and folks were blessed by our participation.
 
Sorry for the lengthy update but we don’t have our laptop with us and we haven’t had access to the Internet until this week. We’ll try get our updates out more frequently now and keep them shorter.  On a final note, we’ve been blessed with 4 days of sun shine, 3 of them in a row!  Today we got to go through the Saxman cultural tour and I wore the traditional regalia and danced in the clan house!  It was great.  We’ll try to send some pictures with the next update!  We love you and we know you are praying for us!  Thank you.
 
Carol and Fred