Revelation 12:11: Never have I ever...

That's a fun game, isn't it? To think of all the things you've never done in your life, then find out all the people who also haven't done them. Makes you feel not so alone. Well my dear readers, I just marked a ton of never-have-I-evers (aka NHIE) off my list this past week! And I know many of you are dying to hear about it, so let's start, shall we?

Many of you may know already, but my new job in Alaska is going to be working for an organization called CYAK (Covenant Youth of Alaska). This job is placing me at First Covenant Church in Anchorage and working with the youth pastor, Phil, to help with his high school ministry. I've always had a heart for helping people, and when I really got down to what makes my heart excited and on fire, it always comes down to reaching out to the needy. I'll be helping with high school youth group, teaching Sunday School to high school kids, and going to lots of weekend retreats and camp in the summer to meet students from villages around the state. I am SO incredibly excited about this job. It's a different feeling than I had last year when I started teaching music... I can't explain it. Except that this job just feels so.... right. Like I'm meant to be doing this.

Ok, I had to provide all of that FYI for you to understand why I went away last week. I traveled by small-charter plane (NHIE #1) to the village of Unalakleet, AK off the west coast and up off the Norton Sound. I was actually right on the Arctic Ocean (NHIE #2). This place was so breathtakingly beautiful. Just rolling hills and tundra, with the ocean quietly framing life in the village. I went to Unalakleet to attend CYAK's Vision Camp that is designed for 18-25 year olds. The camp is located 10 miles outside of the village, so we drove for about a half hour on a dirt road to get there. We parked the truck in this old potato field, and I kind of looked around like, we're here? There were no signs, no markings. Just a field with a muddy trail leading in to the woods. I heard that we were going to be "rustic" this week, but I was at least hoping for a cabin! I quickly learned that my multi-colored polka dotted rubber boots from Target (I call them my "cute boots") were going to become my best friends for the next week as we head to strap on our bags and hike another half mile into the woods to get to the actual camp! And since it had just poured the day before, the trail was SO muddy. Might I just say, my boots definitely made me stick out as a "city girl", as everyone else had on real mud boots that were made for this kind of stuff. Nevertheless, we arrived at the camp Tuesday afternoon, ready to dive into a week of worship, fellowship, eating, fishing, and more!

I could detail the trip out for you, but I am just going to continue my NHIE list, including high lights of this week.

NHIE #3: Our first night there we ate silver salmon and Alaska King Crab legs for dinner! Score!

NHIE #4: We hiked into the tundra up a mountain to view the beautiful landscape. On our walk back we picked blueberries, blackberries, and a few salmon berries! JUICY and YUMMY!!

NHIE #5: One night, for what I liked to call "forced fun", we went down to the beach to shoot skeet. I've never shot a gun before... EVER. No, Dad's little bee-bee gun that he used to shoot squirrels in our backyard doesn't count! And guess what? I actually shot a skeet!! I aimed, and bam! I gotta say, I was pretty proud of myself:)

NHIE#6: I got to go salmon fishing with my director and a few others. This was fishing like no other I've experienced. We get in the boat, go down the river a bit, and the men cast their poles in the water. I get ready to settle in and enjoy the scenery, but 30 seconds later my director, John, is shouting to move on, there's no fish to catch here! I asked him why he didn't want to wait a little longer, but I later learned that salmon bite RIGHT away, and if they're not biting, they're not there. We ended up catching 9 fish that trip, and I got to help net them and clean them off! Should I mentioned I screamed like a little girl a LOT while doing all of this? The boys were very patient with me!

NHIE #7: I got to ride on the back of a four-wheeler back to town Saturday night! It was really fun, but when we arrived back at the Covenant auditorium, my hands were stuck in a claw-like position and my speech was quite slurred from not being able to move my freezing cold cheeks! Totally worth it thought! The sunset over the ocean was just magnificent!

On top of all these wonderful firsts for me, I met some awesome people! There were some single moms joining us for the week with their little ones, and I just fell in love with their little babies! Native babies seriously have the biggest, sweetest, most kissable cheeks EVER! I also really enjoyed meeting some other girls that are on CYAK staff in other parts of the state. We bonded quite a bit, and I'm just feeling really encouraged knowing they're going through what I'm going through, too.

Here are a few pics of the week: