Trip to Juneau

This last weekend I made a quick trip to Juneau, AK.  I spent last summer in Juneau helping lead a summer missions trip, which is termed a “summer project” by Crusade.  There has been a men’s only summer project in Juneau for the past four summers, and last summer was the first time women were invited along to minister to the girls in the city.  Along with two other women, I helped set direction to future summers in Juneau and tried to figure out what the addition of women to the Juneau project would mean.  This next summer I am going to take 11 other women with me (students from Nebraska, Minnesota, and New Mexico) to form a separate women’s project.  So, there will be both a men’s project and a women’s project in Juneau this summer.  We are trusting God to transform the city and our lives for eternity.

 Craig Johring, the director for the men’s project, Christina Dodson (who will be helping me lead this summer), and I met in Juneau to meet with church pastors, elders, and student leaders to plan and process how to most effectively work together this summer.  We had some great meetings and good time for planning. 

It snowed the whole time we were there.  It literally never stopped snowing.  It was like living inside a snow globe for 4 days, and it was absolutely beautiful.  It was fun to go around Juneau and visit places that I’ve only ever seen in summertime.  Juneau has a glacier right in town, and we got to walk on the now frozen lake that surrounds it and even go right up and touch the glacier.  In the summer, it’s never safe to kayak very close to the glacier (or climb on icebergs), so this was a real treat.

I also got the chance to connect with some of the girls I know from last summer, and it was a joy to hear how they are doing and what God is teaching them.  One of the girls, Kimberly, just turned 16 a couple of weeks ago, but her spiritual maturity is the level of a college student.  She’s an absolutely beautiful girl with a reflective spirit, and this year has been a real challenge for her.  Her best friends at school are non-believers, and she prays every day to be a light to them.  With little to no community around her, the battle alone can be long and hard.  But, God has encouraged her with small victories in her relationships, and I can only imagine what He is preparing her for in the future.  There is a spiritual war being fought for the high school and college students in Juneau, and girls like Kimberly are the mighty warriors God has placed there specifically for His name and glory.

~ by karensharp on February 6, 2008.