#17 Saturday, August 25th Room at the Inn

Dear Friends

Two weeks from today, we will begin our 756 mile journey from Anchorage to Haines, Alaska,

where we will board a ferry to Bellingham, Washington. It will include a full day across the province of Yukon, Canada. We are hoping to see some caribou.

Kathleen has found accommodations along the way, including a night at Igloo Inns of the Inland Northwest. (see picture) We are staying at a brand new property of the chain which will be open just in time for our arrival! Among the amenities are these:

An ice pick in every room (there are no ice machines)
Free Frozen dinners are available on request! 
Microwave rentals ($15.00 a day)
Snow Cone Tuesday (all snow cones are 50% off in snack bar)
Snow Globe Thursday (all snow globes are 50% off in gift shop)

But wait, there's more! Fresh imported iceberg lettuce is used in all salads in the cafe and Eskimo pies are placed on your pillow each night (weekends only). And (can you believe it?) the manager's name is Jack Frost, who promises a warm welcome to all.

Way to go Kathleen for finding us this wonderful place to remember our wonderful time in Alaska, as we begin our journey home.

John 

P.S. Canada's Board of Travel gave this chain the coveted "5 Ice Cube" award last year!

#16 Saturday, August 18th Special Weeks/Moments

Dear Friends

Among our special weeks this summer were when Emily and Christopher visited. Emily came in late June. Christopher came in early August. 

The highlights during Christopher's week included many opportunities to see wildlife (and especially birds, including puffins that seemed to walk and then run on water before lifting off in flight) during trips from Homer and Seward, not to mention eating fish and chips on the spit. The highlights during Emily's week included a trip to Denali National Park (we got a peek of the peak of the highest mountain in North America), walking on a glacier and enjoying a meal on the roof of the 49th State Brewing Company.

Needless to say, both weeks created new and wonderful memories which we will be playing over and over in our minds for a long time. While pictures help freeze special moments in time, nothing can replace the real time joy of seeing and feeling their real time joy. Part of a poem at one of the marshes we visited helps capture this:

A little boy skips stones
across the outlet
as if all that mattered
was the moment between 
each weightless bounce.  (Wendy Erd)

Thank God for the moments in life when nothing else matters, except what is going on right then, right there, right in front of us! Such moments come and go quickly, although sometimes we are lucky and they linger. For sure, they do not last forever, but they give us the strength and motivation to keep going, confident that there will be other such times in the future. 

And what keeps us wondering and waiting with eager expectation is that such moments often happen without any of our planning but appear as surprise gifts, already opened, already bringing us pure joy. 

I have said these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (John 15:11)

John

#15 August 11, 2018 Special K

Dear Friends

Special 5k that is. Not the cereal. It was part of the Alaska Distance Classic held last weekend. For a special combo medal, some chose to do both the 5k and 10k (with a short break in between) but I know my limits and the 5k was just fine for me. The courses wandered around the campus of Alaska Pacific University and Goose Lake, just a few minutes from the Thomas Center.

What made it special and different from the multitude of 5k's I have participated in were some of the greeters and hosts. This was a fundraiser for the Alaska Special Olympics team. Various team members who had competed in Seattle this past spring, among other things, led a Zumba warm up before the race and gave us a pep talk before the starting gun was fired.

I especially enjoyed my pre-race conversation with Matthew who was proudly wearing the gold medal he earned as part of the basketball team. He asked me if I wanted his autograph. I asked if I could have a picture with him. The joy he and the other special athletes shared was infectious to all who came to support this event.

I didn't get a personal best or place high enough for a medal in my age group but it didn't matter. I got to be with Olympians from Alaska. And that made this a special day, a special 5k.

John

P.S. I also had fun going around before the race asking kids if they were in my age group, feigning relief when they told me, with puzzled expressions, no!

#14 August 3, 2018 Letter to Editor

Dear Friends

While I have been enjoying this new ministry and Alaskan adventure (including writing this blog to have a recorded memory of it) I have gotten out of the habit of writing letters to the editor. That ended this morning as I submitted the following letter to the Anchorage Daily News. I have intentionally avoided politics in this blog, but current events compel me to voice my opinion for this one. I especially hope those who may disagree with me will at least consider my two contemporary translations of familiar scriptures at the end. 

This country has great challenges. There is a great need for healing. But we are a good nation of good people who have more in common than not, and I long for the day we can return to a time of more polite and intelligent discourse, starting at the top. It's a sad day when the networks have to bleep our president on live television.

Here is the letter:

Five top intelligence officials at a press briefing told us that Russia is trying to "weaken and divide" the United States ahead of the midterms. Some of the outrage that may produce should also be directed to our president, who weakens and divides our country almost every time he opens his mouth. We have elected a Divider in Chief who demonizes anyone who disagrees with or tries to hold him accountable, whether that be democrats, the press, or any group or person who tries to exercise their first amendment rights. And that doesn't include all the personal insults and assaults he throws at individuals. Yes, others do this, but he is our president. Is it too much to expect that he should set a higher standard and better tone?

We desperately need a President of the United States, not a President of the "President's Base". More important than a republican or democrat, we need to elect a Uniter in Chief in 2020. In the meantime, I would remind some of my good, faith-filled friends who turn a deaf ear and blind eye because of the improving (for some) economy: For what will it profit a nation to have "good numbers" while forfeiting its soul, by condoning the words and behavior of a president whose lack of discipline, decency and dignity, continues to divide us. If a country is divided against itself, that country will not be able to stand.  

John Saville

#13 August 2, 2018 "Where sirens and nature sings..."

Dear Friends

Don't worry. My memory is still intact. I know the correct words to that carol are "and heaven and nature sings..." But one of my observations in living at, and walking the paths around the Thomas Center, is that city and wilderness meet all the time. It's still a little weird but I'm getting used to it. 

Thomas Center is at the corner of Tudor and Lake Otis, one of the busiest intersections in Anchorage and about 10-15 minutes from the airport. Day and night we hear sounds from the road, which has included several weeks of overnight maintenance work and sirens all the time (we are a few blocks from two hospitals). Day and night we hear sounds from the air, which includes commercial and cargo planes (and due to current runway renovations, we are in a direct flight path). 

But we are not complaining. Not one bit. On this morning's walk, we saw a moose for the 22nd time! (Kathleen's been keeping a record). We also saw our first salmon in Campbell Creek which runs along our regular route. (It has been a very slow year for salmon). When we got back, we found today's paper (see attached photo from front page) featured a front lawn scene from a hillside home near a middle school, which is rare even by Anchorage standards. And this afternoon, we had our closest moose encounter yet. The attached photo was taken through our living room window. (If you're on facebook, you can see the video I took, which Kathleen posted. At the end, I come face to face with our neighbor, separated only by glass).

Yes it's a strange and dissonant duet....walking along a beautiful path while hearing a babbling creek and cars speeding on the overpass above. But it's all part of the experience of this "summer in the city" where sirens and nature sings. 

But wait.....there's more. Just twenty minutes in any direction from where we live, we are suddenly and wonderfully in the wilderness, just wilderness, where heaven and nature sings.

John