For Such a Time as This

It is 4 A.M. Montana time and I have tossed and turned all night trying to get to sleep.  It seems I can't fall asleep and my heart is aching for my little village of Galena right now.  I am wide awake and just feel the need to get what we have been through the last week and half off my chest and written out.  I have had many restless nights of late so I guess whats another one.  Hopefully my body will handle it.  I feel God calling me to share this and what I am learning with all of you.  It is my first time having an extended period of time with access to a computer and not just typing on my phone so here it goes, lets see if I can express my deep feelings right now...

As most of you know, we moved to Galena about 2 years ago.  When my husband accepted his teaching job, we had no idea what Galena was like and we had only just figured out where it was on the map!  Some people would ask, "Why are you moving there?"  Our answer would be, "Because that was where all the doors were wide open for us to go."  We felt a nudge from God to move there for some unknown reason.  Did you notice I called it MY village in the paragraph above?  I didn't consider it MY village until just recently.  To tell you the truth my first year in Galena was pretty rough.  I was dealing with migraines constantly, homeschooling and feeling constantly exhausted, I was cold constantly, I hated our house which I later became thankful for, it was dark and cold all the time, my husband was having fun outside but I couldn't go with him because it was too cold for the girls to go out for that long, all the work and planning ahead that it took to live there was exhausting, and the list goes on.  The only thing that got me through that first year was that continual nudging from God of a sense that we were suppose to be there and our close group of friends who went through the trials of living there with us, developing an unbreakable bond.

Even though it was hard that first year, my husband and I decided to stay another year and signed the contract to come back.  It took a lot of courage for me to load up our trailer in Montana with more of our belongings and drive the Alcan with my parents and 3 girls while my husband was commercial fishing.  As we loaded the barge in Nenana (a town 45 minutes from Fairbanks) with those belongings and our year's worth of groceries I was bracing myself for another long hard year.  It was during this cold dark winter that I found myself filled with joy instead of exhaustion.  My husband and I had begun volunteering with Young Life, my husband had become part of the church counsel, and I was helping with CEF.  Yes, it still was hard to live in Galena but my attitude started changing and I was finding joy in what God was calling me to do.  I enjoyed having a bunch of teenagers over for dinner and bible study every Wednesday night and teenagers at our house on the weekends, even though it was a lot of work.  I enjoyed sitting with several children on my lap, listening to a bible story at Kid's Club.  I found joy in cooking for all the many different things I was asked to cook for.  I found joy in flying to a neighboring village named Ruby to help put on a little church service and have fellowship with the small group of believers.  My husband of course enjoyed all the snow machining, hunting, trapping,and wood hauling but also found joy in taking several boarding school kids out with him to experience life alongside him.  My husband found joy in teaching kids from all over the state.  We had stopped homeschooling due to my migraines and our kids were enjoying public school.  I only had my littlest at home with me. The girls loved their teachers and their teachers loved them.  They were blossoming into wonderful readers and loved every minute of school and their classmates!.  We were becoming more involved in the community which is very close knit and fun.  There were many activities to become involved in for a "bush" town and believe it or not we were constantly busy whether it be with mission type work or just the goings on of this bustling little bush village.  Actually we found ourselves at times wishing we could just slow down and have a little time to relax, something I never thought would happen in a bush town!   

It was during one of these times of joy that our bustling village drastically changed.  It all started at 5 something A.M. on Sunday morning the 26th when the Yukon River ice shifted and the ice started flowing in huge chunks down the river.  "Break-up" as we call it is always such an awesome thing to watch!  We were eating breakfast before church and I looked out the window and saw the ice moving off in the distance.  I let out a huge gasp and all my family froze thinking something was very wrong.  I finally said, "The Yukon is moving!"  We quickly finished up breakfast and went down to the river to watch it for a bit and to take pictures before church started.  While we were watching someone told us they had just saw a moose floating down the river on one of the ice chunks.  I was wishing I could of gotten a picture of that!










Here is a video of water washing over the road before it trapped us off from the rest of the town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0TKZGbL5sE

As we were driving on the road everyone was scrambling to get their stuff up high on the dike road.  There were vehicles, snow-gos, dogs, personal belongings, you name it on the road.  I found myself thinking about how I was upset that we had to move out of the house and now I knew why.  We would have lost almost everything if we hadn't of been mostly packed up and headed in that direction anyways.  These people we were passing weren't ready or were kind of ready but not for a flood this extensive.  I wanted so badly to stop and help but we had to make sure we weren't cut off from our girls.








Here is a video of the ice floating by while the river was running before the ice jam stopped it completely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmUBbV962Pc



When we got to our new house, we found a pile of stuff that people had graciously dropped off on our driveway so we worked on moving that into the house.  Our neighbor had some room so we moved some of our stuff over to their house to be stored so we could clear out some of our belongings in order to work on framing some rooms in the house.  The entire time our plans were to work on the house and prepare it for our family to live in the next school year and to get our pile of firewood split and stacked so it could dry over the summer and be ready to heat our house for the next year.  In the previous post you can see the house and the plans we had for it.  We weren't thinking the flood would ever reach our subdivision as it is one of the higher spots in Galena and had never gone that high before.  After moving our things from the driveway, running down to the road by the river to look at what it was doing, running our freezers over to a friend's house for him to watch for the summer, and Ross running around helping other people, we finally went to bed at our neighbor and friend's (Jason and Kim) house.  Kim and their younger daughter were out of town but their oldest daughter (Kaylin) and son (Daniel) were there with Jason.  We stayed there because we had planned on staying with some other friends while working on our new house the last two weeks we were there.  We hadn't planned on staying in our new house until August as we hadn't hauled water to it and the sewer system wasn't all switched over and ready to go.  Also we didn't have any furniture or beds so Jason let us sleep at their house so we wouldn't get cut off from the house if the river started flooding over the road.  Well as I was saying, we finally went to sleep at I don't know what time.  I woke up about 6:30 in the morning and looked out the window to find that the water in Crow Creek behind the houses had risen a lot and was now touching the back piling of Jason's house and the sewer tank of our new house.  Jason was up and moving his snow-gos.  The water was going over the road on both sides of the road going out of the subdivision and we were completely trapped off from the rest of town.  A little bit later that morning we saw that the water level had gone back down.  This happened all throughout the day where the ice would start moving again and there would be a surge of water but then the water level would go down again, then the ice would stop moving and the water would go back up.  The entire time I don't think anyone on our street thought it would go much higher and I still can picture two ladies that have lived in Galena in that subdivision for quite some time playing scrabble on a picnic bench in the front yard.  One of them was Aubrey's teacher and I thought, "You know what if they aren't worried, I'm not going to be worried.  They have been here a lot longer than me and have seen the river break up year after year."  So I went on my way and started working on things around the house.

 It wasn't till a neighbor came racing down the road on his motorcycle saying, "This can't be good!" that I began to think it might flood our subdivision.  The water had knocked out the road and was running into the slough behind the houses on the other side of the street and it sounded like Niagra Falls rushing in from a distance.  We helped them move things up from their back yards and started gathering up things in our front yard.  It wasn't fast enough though as both sloughs on both sides of the street had filled up and the water came rushing down the street coming from the end of the street and the beginning of the street.  I was in my jeans and tennis shoes but I didn't care.  I was scrambling to try to gather up all of our stuff in the front yard while Ross was helping Jason move his freezers to higher ground.  I watched the water rush in and carry the things I couldn't gather quick enough away into the slough behind our house.  We quickly started up the snow-gos and ran them down the road on gravel to the highest ground on the street. I was yelling at Ross because I couldn't get the snow-gos to go where I needed them to as they are harder to turn on grass and gravel.   People were jumping in their cars and backing them as quickly as they could to the higher ground.  Cars and snow-gos were lined up and scrunched in as tight as they could be to try to fit on the island of higher ground.  After I pulled our $500 bush car into one of the higher spots in a panic, I thought "Why did I do that?  I should have let other people with more expensive cars pull into the higher spot."  But it was too late I was trapped in.  It doesn't matter now though because they all got flooded anyways.  We were all running around helping eachother pull things to higher ground.  At one point in time I was trying to pull our neighbor's charcoal grill to higher ground but it was all tangled in a tarp and the water was rushing by pulling it away from me.  Another neighbor said, "I think it is a goner." and at that point I realized I need to look for the more valuable things and get them high.  After the initial surge, the water slowed a bit and Ross and I went to our house to get things off the porch and into the house.  While we were doing this the town siren went off what seemed like forever.  I didn't know this at the time, but the reason it went on for so long is because it was the siren signaling time for evacuation.  We found out that the room that we had just put some of our belongings in at our neighbors house was now flooded.  For some reason, we had put our computer along with our extra back up hard drives into the same box when we were scrambling at the old house.  This box was over there and got wet along with a lot of other things that I can't honestly remember what was over there.  Our computer and hard drives had all our pictures on it and that is what I am probably the saddest about.  Ross thinks there may be a way to recover them, so I am praying so.  Ross and I decided to count those things as loss and started moving our things on the main level of our new house to the top level.  By this time we were both in wet suits and carrying box after box up the stairs made us extremely dehydrated and hot.  While we were moving our things upstairs, the empty sewer tank was floating like a bouy under the porch and cracking off the porch.  It kept making huge cracking noises and shaking the house a little as the water was flowing by.  We finally got most of our belongings upstairs.  We left some things like our table because we couldn't fit it up the stairs and a few other things that weren't as valuable or just to heavy and bulky to move downstairs.  As the cracking on the porch continued and the water kept rising, we decided we better get back over to check on the girls.  Kaylin, Jason's daughter had graciously been watching them for us from the time the water came rushing in till now so I figured I better give her a break.  I still only had tennis shoes on and that water was cold.  Just walking to the house next door to ours made my feet numb!

Here is a video that Ross took with his Go-Pro when the water started rushing in.  It is pretty long but shows us pulling vehicles, sno-gos, and four wheelers up to high ground.  Later you can see all the stuff in our house that we had to pack upstairs still and some of the things outside our house that got swept away.  The pile of wood and logs that you see outside were all swept away.  You can also see the water rushing by the back porch and see why it picked up the sewer tank, taking the porch with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51McfwaKlak


As we started going on the jet boat, Charlie (the guy driving) said, "Ok now, we are going to get up on step."  I had the two older girls sitting on each side of me huddled up close because they were cold and Marina sitting on my lap.  She had just been woken up to move to this different boat.  As we got up on step and started going faster, she turned around and said, "WEEEE Mom, isn't this fun!  This is so much fun!"  I thought at that moment that she was definitely her Father's daughter and it was just a huge ADVENTURE to her.  Aubrey was probably the only one out of the three that actually realized the seriousness of it all.  We pulled up to the dike where a school bus was sitting and Marina said, "We get to ride a bus too!"  We got out, gave our life jackets to the men to go back and get more people and got on the bus.  Kaylin asked me where her Dad was and I had to explain to her that Ross and her Dad went back to get more people from our subdivision and that they wouldn't be coming with us.  It broke her heart as she thought her Dad was coming with and I tried to comfort her while trying to hold it together myself.  The bus took us down to the runway and dropped us off by the ERA building where we saw several smaller planes taking off.  We were told to go put our name on a list and we would wait our turn till the list was gone down.  We had called the pilot earlier that was going to pick us up to tell him we would not make it in time and that he should let other people fly out on his plane so now it was the waiting game.  As I waited around, I found out that the National Guard had only evacuated the Elders and then stopped the FEMA planes from coming back because it was not considered a serious enough situation yet.  I don't know why it wasn't considered serious as water was starting to stream over the dike which if that broke, the entire airport would be under water and our only way out by plane would be gone.  The only other way would be helicoptors, which would take much longer.  All of us at the airport would have to run for the highest buildings which were the dorms for the boarding school.  However, Samaritan's Purse stepped in as well as many other Christian organizations and missionary pilots.  They were the ones who evacuated most of the people who left Galena.  Thank you so much to them all.  I don't even know all their names but I am so grateful!  




We waited for what seemed like several hours before our names were called.  We were thankful as we were evacuated with our pastor and several other friends.  Kaylin was so helpful, holding a sleeping Mackenzie on her lap.  As soon as we sat down Marina was out and slept the entire way to Fairbanks with her boots falling off and her mismatched socks showing.  As we flew over this little village I had come to peace with living in and had even found joy in doing so, I looked down and saw how much worse it actually looked from the air.  My heart became sad, as I looked at people passed out on the plane with exhaustion and those who weren't, staring with glazed, shocked eyes.  I wondered what their evacuation stories were and I knew every single one of us had been through a lot during Memorial Day 2013 and that our trials had only just begun.


Our flight landed in Fairbanks around 5 A.M. and we were met by a man with a smiling face named J.R.  He brought us to a Christian school that his church was just down the hill from.  Kaylin, Daniel, the girls and I  walked into the  two rooms he had set up and their were air mattresses calling our names.  I laid each of the girls down on them and the younger two were out immediately.  Aubrey lay there crying for her Daddy and scared for his safety, so we said a prayer for him and I tried to comfort her.  She finally fell asleep, but now I needed comforted by my Heavenly Father.  I lay there praying for a long time, not able to fall asleep.  When I finally did fall asleep, I would awaken quickly with a startle, dreaming about ice chunks floating in and hitting all the houses in our subdivsion.  So I would pray again and drift off to sleep only to hear a strange cracking noise just like the one our porch was making as it was being wripped off the house.  I finally woke up enough to realize I wasn't in our house being flooded by water but that it was the school intercom going off very loudly.  I prayed again for Ross and all those who stayed behind and woke up to Kaylin coming in the door saying that people from the Red Cross were here or something like that.  I went out the the kitchen and found our neighbors at the beginning of the subdivision.  Jason had gotten them out and Ross had run some of our other neighbors to the Galena school where people were evacuating to as well, but neither Ross nor Jason were there.  Our very close friends Keith and Tabitha walked in the room and Tabitha gave me a big hug.  I had held it together without crying until then, but when she hugged me and told me how worried she was about us as she hadn't heard anything from our subdivision, I couldn't hold it together any longer.  I broke down in tears.

Here is a slideshow created by Kaylin about our evacuation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRcOC5_clSo

I was emotional the entire rest of the day.  Everything was making me cry...from the donations people were bringing in from the church of specific clothes needs for our children, to food galore, to Pastor J.R. praying for Galena and those left behind.  I kept thinking that I know Ross well and if there is a need for him to stay and help people out and keep them safe he will stay.  I was so worried about his safety and I knew he wouldn't be as we look at danger differently.  I was concerned after those dreams I was having and kept picturing ice chunks trapping him under water or something.  I know I needed to trust in God more but I was running on no sleep for basically two nights and high emotions.  A wonderful woman (Debra) who became like our Mom who took care of us during our time at the shelter pulled me aside and asked me if I would like to pray with her.  We prayed for Ross to make wise decisions and for everyones protection and for God to use Ross how he needed.  Ross thinks it was during this time that he found our VHS radio and he picked it up and could hear Charlie's voice (the man who took us by boat to the bus).  Charlie told him the National Guard was sending a C130 in about a half hour and that the water was very close to going over the dike.  Ross quickly took the canoe to everyone's house in the subdivision to see who wanted to be on that plane and told the men with the jet boats to come get them.  The Doctor and her three kids and one of Aubrey's teachers came with and a few of their dogs, but 8 people decided to stay behind from our subdivision.  Ross decided to go because he didn't know when the next time he would get out would be and he was thinking of the girls and I.  Part of him really wanted to stay and he battled with this in his mind, but not knowing what the future held, he decided to help those on our subdivision get out that wanted to.  About 2 hours after Debra and I prayed, I got a phone call from Ross.  I knew he had gotten on that plane because the cell towers were out in Galena and there was not a form of communication at that time.  He finally walked in the door and I gave him a huge hug!  At the community evacuee meeting we had for Galena, several people came up to me and told me that my husband was a hero and how much he had helped them.  I always knew he was a stud, but hearing this made me feel better about him staying behind for as long as he did!  I can't remember when but sometime the next day we finally heard that the ice jam had broken.  Praise God!



Here are some more videos Ross took after the girls and I left while he was still there.

Sno-gos and things in the car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKvKSUsCxUA

Here you can see the inside of our house after we got most of the stuff moved upstairs and water started coming in it.  By the time Ross left he said it was up to his knees so higher than in this video.  At 2:30 time into the video start watching the garage and you will see something flying out of the end of it.  A chicken needed rescued.  Just to add some humor to the situation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFt6PLRs0bA

Ross leaving Crow Creek, rounding up neighbors, and heading down the road on a boat to be evacuated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-xULW9yjEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljsrPTUMnrc

At first all of us at the Fairhill shelter were kind of in shock and it took us a while to wrap our minds around everything.  After a couple of days we finally felt like we were able to think somewhat straight.  We were and are so thankful for the Fairhill church body and all that they provided for us.  Usually we are the ones on the giving end so it was very humbling being on the recieving end.  They covered us with love and I am reminded of this verse when I think of them...

"For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home."  Matthew 25:35

After a couple of days, a couple staying in the shelter got what we thought was food poisoning but then a couple of nights later Mackenzie was throwing up all night and the flu quickly spread to almost everyone staying at the shelter.  Ross, Aubrey and I got it the night before the girls and I flew out and Aubrey was throwing up all night long.  I kept thinking how am I going to handle this flight to Montana?  I am completely exhausted, leaving my husband all summer, and feeling very sick but then the verse from this song kept coming to my mind...

You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my all in all

We said an emotional good bye to our friends, not knowing if or when we will see them again.  Pastor Chris flew back out to Galena to help with clean up and Michelle went to Soldotna for now.  Tabitha and the boys will be flying to Puerto Rico to be with Keith's parents while Keith stays in Fairbanks to help run things from there for the US Fish and Wildlife.  Geremy and Keilah were flying out to be with family and then the shelter would be empty.  Ross will be flying back out with Grandpa Tim on his plane full of supplies for clean up.  Ross will work on anything he can help with there in Galena until he starts fishing the middle of June.  So not only did we say goodbye to our friends with an unknown future ahead, but us ladies and kids also said goodbye to our husbands and Dads for an extended period of time.  You see right now they are asking only for volunteers who can be self sufficient and not require extra from the dorms where they are housing and feeding workers that are coming in to fix the infastructure.  They have made it very clear that women with children are not to come back.  Everything is contaminated with fuel and sewer.  When we left, we saw sewer and water lines floating in the water.  The fumes, I have heard are quite strong.  Several fuel tanks were knocked over.  Several houses floated off of their pilings or are tipped.  There was no power until today.  I heard there may be some in certain parts of town, but houses that got wet don't have power.  There is silt and mud all over the floors of the houses.  Piles of ice chunks and washed out roads that they are working on as I speak.  I even heard there are ice chunks lodged into buildings.  Power lines knocked over and down.  They are trying to clear out rancid meat in freezers so that the bears don't come in to town.  We are all uncertain of our future and if there will even be jobs or school to go back to in the fall.  There is a lot of uncertainty in all the peoples lives from Galena right now, some not knowing when they will be able to return to even get some belongings to survive on till they can return for good.

I landed safely in Montana, exhausted and in much need of sleep, but all I could think about as I was flying was Galena.  I have a place I can go to for rest.  I will be spending the summer with my parents and other family until I know what the next step is, but what about those people who are stuck in Fairbanks and a shelter for who knows how long.  They have no other place to go.  They are homeless and jobless.  The government is suppose to be stepping in but we don't know how much assistance will actually be provided.  And as we all know things take a long time with Government red tape.  While people are waiting for assistance, the mold is growing and infesting their houses and they aren't allowed to go back to work on them for the most part.  We all have the winter to think about as well.  Galena takes a lot of preparation to live in during the winter.  People have to gather fire wood because most of it was washed away, salmon, berries, do barge shopping, shoot and process a moose, etc.  How will this all be done before winter when people's supply of meat is rancid and firewood that we all worked on gathering for months is all washed away?   As all these questions race through my head a song by Casting Crowns that we sang in church last Sunday keeps repeating in my head and I find comfort in it.

I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

[Chorus:]
And I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to you
And you raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You

But as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

[Chorus]

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth

[Chorus x2]
  
The sermon that Pastor Chris preached as the guest Pastor at Fairhill church (the church that gave us shelter, clothes and food) also keeps coming to mind.  He preached about Acts16, where Paul and Silas are in prison and they are praying and singing hymns.  Suddenly their is an earthquake and the prison doors are thrown open and the chains of all the prisoners came loose.  When the jailer saw this and thought all the prisoners were gone he picked up his sword and was about to kill himself, but Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself!  We are all here!"  Then the jailer brought them into his home and fed them and he and all his family were saved.

I ask you, what would you have done in this situation?  Most of us would have seen it as a sign from God to flee and that he had set you free, but something in Paul told him to stay and the jailer and his family were apiritually saved because of it.  Right now it would be easy for us to leave Galena.  All our stuff is packed already.  We don't own the house we hopefully will be living in.  In fact to live in it we will have to do a lot of work to repair the water damage and to finish the inside as well as spend many hours gathering firewood for the winter ahead.  All we would have to do is get our snow-gos up and running and our vehicles and put our stuff on the barge to be shipped out of Galena and move somewhere that we know we have a job for sure.  It would certainly be a lot less work and stress to go this route, but something in us tells us to stay right now and to help as much as possible.  Things are very busy in Galena and the demands for mission outreach and just surviving and living in harsh conditions in the bush are great, so after such a busy year Ross, the kids and I were suppose to be enjoying a week of family time traveling around Alaska just enjoying each other right now without other outside demands.  We have given up this precious family time so Ross could go back to Galena to help before he has to start commercial fishing the middle of June.  We don't know what the future holds in the fall as far as a teaching job, but if there is one we will be there.  I am battling this in my heart, but I have that still small voice telling me we have been placed in Galena for such a time as this.

Do you ever see God's work in motion and wonder what he has planned?  I have seen that in Galena these last 2 years of living there.  I have seen God work in so many powerful  ways and wondered why his presence is so strong there?  It didn't use to be that way.  In fact, it wasn't very long ago, it was a dark place spiritually.  I had a feeling we were all placed there to show God's glory during a time of hardship but I didn't know what that hardship would be.  I ask myself, have we all been placed there for such a time as this?

Why has a boarding school been placed in Galena?  So that it makes it a place where kids from towns and villages all over Alaska come to one place and creates such a huge mission field.  For such a time as this!

Why are there so many Christian teachers and dorm staff that have been hired? So that they can reach out to these kids from all over Alaska.  For such a time as this!

Why has Galena Young Life become so supported and attended?  So that it can reach these students who then go back to all their villages and are God's light to their village.  For such a time as this!

Why has the Galena Bible Church become a strong and vibrant church with many strong Christian members?  To be a light to others and to help others through this trial.  For such a time as this!

Why are their so many ministries in Galena for such a small community such as CEF, Young Life, SEND, etc.?  To reach out to others before and during this time of need.  For such a time as this!

Why has Galena become the hub for mission outreaches to the other interior villages surrounding it?  To reach those villages that are needing support spiritually.  For such a time as this!

Why did we meet Grandpa Tim and little Marina adopt him into our family and now he is considered one of our girls' Grandpa?  So he could support us through all this trying time with his understanding ways and his  plane to haul in flood relief stuff for the people of Galena.  For such a time as this! 

Why did Grandpa Tim's Dad and sister die in a flood when he was a young boy?  So this trial would grow him into a man who wants to help however he can and he would have a heart for Galena Young Life and the people of Galena.  For such a time as this!

Why did mostly mission planes evacuate the people of Galena instead of the government?  So that people would see that the Heavenly Father was the one who cared for them and saved them.  In fact there was a teacher that we haven't ever seen in church before that came to the Fairhill church and gave a testimony that she had no doubt there was a Heavenly Father who cared for her because of all the mission planes that arrived to carry these precious people out!  For such a time as this!

Why have we all been placed here on earth?  To glorify God and be a light for Him in this dark world!  For such a time as this, yes, for such a time as this!

In closing I ask you...Why are you here?  You may be going through other trials of your own.  Is your heart making a joyful noise eventhough it is hard through it all?  My heart is heavy and sad for Galena right now, but through it all, I know God was there and when I didn't have strength he was there to pick me up.  I don't know why this flood and trial has happened or what our next steps should be, but I do know Ross and I were placed there for such a time as this!  And I want to help however possible.  Right now it is hard as I am down in Montana, but I want you to know that I would love to do a presentation on Galena if anyone is interested.  Also if you are interested in what has happened in Galena and current information so that you know how to pray, you can go to Yukon River Rescue  for updates and Galena Rebuilders Flood Relief for more pictures and ways to support on facebook.  If you are interested in donating, you can go to http://www.akmissionconnection.org/galena-relief/   The donations go directly to Galena Bible church who will then use it to help Galena community members who have been affected by the flood.  If you have any questions or ideas please email these to galenarebuilders@gmail.com

Thank you so much for reading my long drawn out blog.  I had so much on my mind and just needed to get it down.

Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.



I do not know who took all of these pictures but I want to give credit to those that I do know took some of the pictures, I just don't know which ones they took.  So here are the people I know took most of the later pictures in this blog...Kaylin Kopp, Paul Apfelbeck, and Shawn Bjorgen. I will try to post some post flood pictures pretty soon.