The Baran Family

November has gone by so quickly.  It’s hard to believe that we spent our last Wednesday in Alaska this past week.  For that Wednesday we were with Turnagain Baptist Church in Anchorage for their evening service.  The church is currently renting a very nice warehouse to meet in until they can purchase their own building.  Several young families are attending the church and we even met a lady who moved to Alaska with her husband just so they could help the church in Anchorage.  Being so far from the lower forty-eight states, Alaska is still America but yet it is a mission field.  The weather can make living here a challenge as well.  It’s wonderful to meet people who have come here for the purpose of spreading the gospel and being a light to this state.

We traveled north of Anchorage to the cold city of Fairbanks.  The drive was beautiful and we were excited to finally meet Pastor Duffett and Bible Baptist Church.  Pastor Duffett and Bible Baptist were very instrumental in helping us contact other churches in Alaska and even provided a vehicle for us to use while we were in the state.  The church went above and beyond in their care for our family!   It was such a blessing to get to know them and the ministry in Fairbanks.   I was also excited to see a couple that had lived in New York and gone to our church in Eden!  The Days were faithful members of our home church for years before they moved to Alaska.  Once they moved to Fairbanks they saw a need for churches and started a church in a remote village west of Fairbanks.  It was wonderful to see how the Lord has used the Day family here in Alaska!  We also met some people from Capital City Baptist Church, where I went to church throughout all my years of college!  Seeing these people was amazing but then the Lord blessed us again and had us meet Brother O’Brien, the father of John O’Brien, missionary to Ukraine.  This is the family that Elizabeth visited on her missions trip to Ukraine in 2008.  Needless to say this was an exciting time for us and we greatly enjoyed meeting and reacquainting with these dear people!  The church graciously decided to partner with us financially and prayerfully.  We praise the Lord for all He has done! 

Our next meeting took us to Northern Lights Baptist Church in Anchorage, Alaska.  It was wonderful to see a church excited to serve the Lord.  The people were very friendly and interested in the work that God has called us too.  Before we attended Northern Lights Baptist Church, I went to a youth rally and met several young people from the church.  It was great to see them again in their own church.  Two of these young men were college students, attending the Bible Institute that the church provides.  They reminded me a lot of years past when I was a college student, working hard and living from one day to the next, praying that God would provide my pressing needs.  These were times when the Lord strengthened my faith and had me prove Him again and again. When I was a college student, preachers and missionaries would come through our college and take time to be a blessing.  Now that I’m a missionary, I pray that the Lord will use me to be a blessing in the lives of other young men and take the time to invest in their lives. 

We went to Wasilla, Alaska to see Pastor Tucker and the people of Pilgrims Baptist Church.  We were only there for one service but we greatly enjoyed meeting the pastor and some of the folks from the congregation.  After the service we were invited to an Alaskan dinner with the pastor and his wife.  They had prepared moose and then gave us some fresh salmon to take home.  Elizabeth and I have just fallen in love with the churches we have met and this beautiful state.  We have been so blessed!