Alongside the Mountain (Manokotak)

We made it to Alaska and survived our first week our Vacation Bible School (VBS) with a total of 60 different kids! The highest we had a day was 46! Our first week we were flown to the village of Manokotak. This is the first year that a VBS team with Home Missions has been there. We found out that there is another team that goes to the village to teach VBS also. Paul, Carissa and I arrived there Monday morning after a quick stop at the Shire for some coffee and the world’s best cinnamon rolls. The experience of eating a warm cinnamon roll while flying over the tundra and seeing mountains is one of the many reasons why I love Alaska.

Here’s a little background information on the village. Manokotak in Yupik means alongside the mountain. There are actually two small villages alongside the mountain that are roughly eight miles apart. To people outside the village they are known as Old Manokotak and Manokotak Heights; to people in the village they are Manokotak and Housing.

We started on Monday with a total of 19 kids. We set up shop and had our first successful day with the kids. They loved the puppets and songs. After VBS we went to the basketball courts to hang out the kids some more. We got to meet some youth and young adults around the courts as the evening progressed. We also met the Pastor of the Moravian Church who also let us stay in his house for the week.

On Tuesday we had the first time experience of having seagull eggs for breakfast. Yes, they do taste like chicken eggs. We also got to try some Moose Jerky for lunch and dried salmon for supper. At VBS that day we had 41 kids, we gained 21 new kids! After VBS we had a nail polish party with the girls and played basketball until supper. During supper two kids came over to come hang out with us more.

Wednesday we hiked up the mountain with about 15 kids and youth. The youngest was five years old and hiked the mountain like a pro. We only had one kid fall and scrape his chin. After the hike, we had just enough time to eat before we went to Wednesday church. The service was half in Yupik and half in English. Then we heard that good news that Alisha was on her way to Manokotak. Due to a previous family engagement, she was unable to be come sooner. We are sure glad to have her. To greet her we had fourteen kids come to greet her once she was off the airplane. She got around 9:30 so we took her straight home and gently kicked the kids out so we could sleep. The kids would sleep over if we let them.

Thursday we had our first full day with Alisha. It was a full day indeed. We had kids show up around noon and had them until 8 when we hung out with some youth from the village until 11:30. Playing ball tag at 11 o’clock at night is possible in the land of the midnight sun.

Then came the dreaded Friday. The whole week the kids were asking us if were leaving and if we could stay. Some of them gave us their numbers and wanted our signatures too. Before we left we had a program for the parents to see what their kids were up to the whole week. I definitely left a piece of my heart with those kids as we gave multiple hugs goodbye. Jeremy came and picked us in the plane and we headed out to Nakenk for the weekend before we head out to Koliganek on Monday.