Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a little different for us here. Most people, unless they grew up here or have family that have moved in here, do not spend it with their extended family. Instead we spend it surrounded by friends and students. Most of the boarding school students do not go home for Thanksgiving as it is so expensive to fly to their home village and the school does not pay for their flight out and back for Thanksgiving. Therefore the community is relied upon to host students in their homes. Both last year and this year, we hosted around 15 to 20 students. We paired up with The Hornfischers (our German missionary friends). We have held it over at their house as they have a bigger house than ours for hosting. We split up baking and cooking responsibilities between our two families. One has to plan ahead for this and have someone get a turkey and Thanksgiving supplies for you in town. You can't just go to the store and get a turkey without spending an arm and a leg for it and even then a turkey may not be available. I was lucky enough to be in town for a Young Life retreat in October so I brought home a turkey then. Each family cooks a turkey in order to feed this large of a group. Sometimes it just feels like another work day, cooking for that many kids, but it gives us a great opportunity to connect with more kids and give them a home environment that they would not have staying at the dorms for Thanksgiving.

Each year the Catholic church and the Bible Church take turns hosting the Thanksgiving service Thanksgiving morning. We all gather together under one building and celebrate the things we are thankful for, especially our Lord and Savior. This year the service was held in the Catholic church. It is neat, because they have a time to share and so many people have awesome things to share about what they are thankful for. Last year, Aubrey got up in front of the entire crowd and stated she was thankful for Jesus dying on the cross! I was shocked she had the courage to get up in front of everyone.

Afterwards we hurry home and do the final preparations for our big meal. I have been blessed both years, by Ross cooking the Turkey so at least that part of the equation is handled and I don't have to think about it. One may wonder what we do with that many students for an entire afternoon and evening when the temperature outside is 20 below? I forgot to take very many pictures this year as I was busy getting the food ready, so I thought I would include pictures from last year as well, so that you can see what we do with the students...

Eat lots of course!
More eating! Dishing up desserts.
Play with our little ones. Here is Marina with a special friend! This student asked Marina, "Why are you so cute?" Marina replied, "Because, I don't know. Because, Jesus made me that way!"

Shoot Nerf darts at people in strange places so that they look like aliens!
Play a hand coordination thinking game!
Visit with dear Grandma Virginia (an elderly woman who lives here).

Be the first to complete a maze by only looking through a mirror while drawing. Let me tell you everything seems backwards and it is a lot harder than it looks!

Play a guitar and sing songs.
Play a fishing pretzel game. The first team to finish the pretzel without touching it with their hands wins!
Lots of smiles and laughter!
Lots and lots of games
More eating downstairs!
Watch a beautiful sunset over the Yukon River
Take a stroll down to the Yukon
Go sledding down the bank to the Yukon
Run and play along the Yukon
Sit on a chunk of ice jetting out of the Yukon...
...while watching the beautiful sunset.
More playing while the sun goes down
Go exploring through the chunks of ice.
Other things we have done during Thanksgiving are "snow-going", tubing behind the snowmobile, soaking up the heat in Hornfischer's sauna, and Ultimate Frisbee with a lighted frisbee and markers at night. I was unable to get pictures of this as I took my camera outside and then it fogged up. It is one busy day, and we usually need the entire next day just to recover, but it is well worth it!!!