|
|
Christmas Changes
'Twas the Night Before Christmas in Kodiak'
What a Full Stomach Does
Send Us Your Memories
I Grew Up in Your Cow Pasture
Faith Hope and Love
Kodiak Baptist Mission Contribution
Return to Kodiak Baptist Mission Home Pages
This
will be my 16th Christmas in Kodiak, well, with the exception of
years two and three when I was able to travel to Ohio to be with my family.
There have been many changes over the years. People have come and gone, events
have changed. Sometimes it has felt like a slide show on fast forward as I think
back over the people and events that have been a part of this time of year here
at Kodiak Baptist Mission.
My
first Christmas away from home, I was determined to make it just like Mom and
Dad did. I cut down my own tree and decorated it with ornaments saved by my Mom
and given to me when I moved out. I made wassail for our staff Progressive
Dinner and unknowingly introduced a tradition that continues through today.
(Imagine, folks never having wassail made from hot apple cider, orange juice,
lemonade, and spiced with cloves, cinnamon and allspice.) Today, Lucien makes
10-15 gallons of the drink to serve at our Currier and Ives Christmas Party.
Our very first live Nativity was held at Community Baptist Church the following year. Emil, my husband now, and I were Mary and Joseph. Dressed in our Carhartt coveralls with shoepacs under our Mary and Joseph costumes I managed to perch side-saddle on a rather bony donkey while Emil led her in a snowstorm from the Harbormaster’s office to the church. Other folks in the church including Jack and Donna Ruch, and the Krauszer family; Paul, Diane, Jenny, Lizza and Mary dressed as Wise Men and Shepherds walked with us. We huddled in a make shift lean-to in the parking lot, sang a few carols, and went inside to warm up with hot cocoa.
Other traditions of Christmas Teas and Progressive Suppers have changed over the years. In 1996 Rev. Evan Jones Sr. suggested an Old-Fashioned Christmas party open to the community, Currier and Ives was born. In a year of struggle and hardship, not knowing if KBM was going to make it after giving up almost half a million dollars in State grants, we celebrated the birth of Christ. Karrol Clark dressed up as Charlie Brown and remembered a Christmas celebration in which Linus shared the true meaning of Christmas.
This year is the 10th anniversary of Currier and Ives. It too has changed. We still have the Live Nativity, hope to ice skate and have one horse open sleigh/cart rides weather permitting. Wassail and Christmas goodies will flow in abundance. The flat-bed truck is transformed into a rolling Christmas tree and carries happy carolers around the neighborhood. The Christmas dance finishes off the evening with the participants laughing, jostling, clapping and stomping their feet as they celebrate the coming of Christ. This year there’ll be new faces and new skits. ‘Twas the night before Christmas in Kodiak will be read and Anthony, Azarias, Stacy and Ryan are working on marionettes for the children.
I’ve never really considered Christmas to be a season of changes. It seems we always focus on traditions and keeping things the same from year to year. However, when you think about it, Christ coming to earth was a tremendous change. Not just for Him to leave Heaven for the squalor of a stable, but for us. Christ’s incarnation was a change in the hope we have. Without His birth, we would still be stumbling around in darkness. Praise God for His gift of life, hope, and change.
If you happen to be in Kodiak on December 17th, come join us. Even if it’s pouring down rain, we’ll still be celebrating; celebrating the birth of one who brought the greatest change of all to our lives.
—Heather Norton
Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the boat
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a stoat
The stockings were hung by the cook stove with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there
The children were nestled all snug in their bunks
While visions of piroche danced in their trunks
And Ma in her Carhartts and I in my Stormy Seas cap
Had just settled down to a long winter’s nap
When out on the bay there came a great splash
I sprang from my bunk only to crash
Away to the porthole I flew like a streak
Scraped off the ice outside for a peek
The moon on the crest of the storm-tossed white caps
Gave a luster of mid-day to all the fish traps
Like nothing I’ve seen as an old fish spotter
I saw an 18 foot skiff and eight furry otters
With a little old driver so lively and quick
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick
More rapid than eagles his courses they came
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name
“Now Ole! Now Benny! Now Yanofsky! and Kouskov!
On Baranof! On Rezanof! On Ismailof and Purtov!
To the top of the railing! To the top of the Hull!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”
As dry spruce cones that before the wild nor’easter fly,
When they meet with a wake, mount to the sky,
So up to the crows nest the coursers they flew,
With the skiff full of toys and St. Nicholas too.
And then in a twinkling I heard on the deck
Such scraping and clawing I said “What the heck!”
As I drew in my nose and was turning around
Down the exhaust stack St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in rain gear from his head to his foot.
And his Grundens were all tarnished with oil and soot
A
bundle of toys he picked up with a squat,
And he looked like a crabber just opening his pot.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like rose hips, his nose a salmonberry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the exhaust stack he rose;
He sprang to his skiff, on his horn gave a blast,
And away they all flew like the down of dried cotton grass.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."
—Heather Y. Norton & Barbara E. Ell
I wonder what it might have been like if Jesus picked and chose who he would feed. When the 5,000 men stood before Him with their families can you imagine the disciples telling everyone to form a line and Jesus would see if they really deserved a meal? It seems silly to even ponder the thought. Of course Jesus Christ would feed all who came to him, believers or not. We don’t know the stories of each and every one fed by Christ, but we do know they left with something they didn’t have when they came. I wonder what just one nourishing meal did for all those people. Were their minds able to focus more devotedly on Christ, did the satisfaction of a full stomach help lead them to a closer relationship with our Messiah? I’m not sure, but I know it made a difference.
The Kodiak Island Food Bank has been blessed with a ministry so important to Christ; feeding his people. This Thanksgiving the Christian community gathered together to help provide an extra food box for Food Bank clients. The amount of food given exceeded any expectation Ryan Gorectke, Food Bank director ever had. It was at that time he went to his knees in prayer. Our God the one who fed the 5,000, was the only one who had the ability to distribute this magnitude of food. He was able to use Ryan, his disciple as each box was given out. Ryan watched the Lord move in an amazing way successfully delivering each box, in record time.
We don’t know the stories of the families served, or what one nourishing meal did for them. But our Lord says to I rest with the assurance that Christ does know.
—Kelli Foreman
We love to receive mail at the Kodiak Baptist Mission. Especially letters like one we recently received. As I opened my e-mail it surprised me to read the title below. I was soon caught up in a story, not just of history, but of how the Mission was real in this person’s life. We would like to encourage others to share their memories of the Kodiak Baptist Mission so we in turn can share them with others.
I can not tell you how proud I am of your decision to kick out the state and regain the true mission mindset I remember from my childhood. It was such a disappointment to hear the state had weaseled in and like a python was squeezing the lifeblood out of the mission my grandparents had sacrificially served in for many years. I had frankly written it off in my mind as a lost cause. I started to cry when I read of your bold stance and am overjoyed at the purpose God intended to be continued.
We lived in a trailer in the cow pasture. My Dad (Jim) used to manage Marlene Clark's Trailer Court. He and my Uncle George moved up there with my grandparents in 1961 or 1964, I think. Pa drove the school bus up Pillar Mountain during the Tsunami from the Good Friday Earthquake and said the Bull was bellowing like a calf on top of the barn roof when they got back. I was one of the first babies born in the new hospital instead of the clinic down by the channel. Thanks for the pictures on the website, brings back lots of good memories. Some day I will have to bring my family to visit.
Sorry I am rambling down memory lane. I remember more than 13 kids sitting around the dinner table at McWhinnie and how huge the pans we made cookies in were. Is the roller rink my Pa built still being used? We moved off the rock in 1980 and I have only been back to visit once in 1987 so my rememberer isn't working like it used to. Seeing pictures of the Evangel and Camp Woody and the old thrift store just floods my mind. We used to get rides on Old Sugarcane the horse. I used to eat carrots out of the garden and wash them off at the pump by the house where the Brittans lived. Tim and Dianne Haigh and the Cooks who later moved to Wasilla used to live there too. I remember how big the falling leaves were this time of year as I walked up the road to East Elementary by the Stone's house. Thanks for doing what you are doing and staying the course.
Kodiak’s winter is upon us: the mountain peaks have donned their frosty winter caps, while the lowlands entertain a typical exchange between snow, rain, freezing and melting. The autumn months at the Mission have been bountiful with new challenges, fresh innovations and timely improvements. To augment these developments, new faces have also arrived (Praise the Lord), their faces alight with a willingness to serve.
In the after-school program, enrollment has increased dramatically and thus the need for more space. A wall was knocked out in the administration building, and Trevor’s former office was transformed into a substantial art and crafts room. The basement of McWhinnie Cottage has also become a key activity area. With nearly 40 children now between 2:30pm and 5:30pm, the after-school ministry has even called for the use of walkie talkies! The four of us A.R.K. leaders can keep track of the kids (and each other!) as we disperse in various groups to our recreation spaces on the Mission grounds. These higher numbers, though sometimes difficult to manage, produce a spirit of adventure and community similar to Summer Day Camp. This vitality keeps us on our feet, and speaks volumes about the demand in this community for the kind of quality day care we provide.
One of the most relevant aspects of our youth ministry is the fact that these kids are all growing up together. Many of our after-school students and summer campers have been with us since they were three or four. It is simply awesome to see a fourth or fifth grader who has been involved at KBM since that time, and how their time spent at the Mission has made a noticeable difference in their lives. On many days when I don’t feel like I’m making much progress with preschoolers or kindergarteners, or I wonder if my job is all that critical, I can look at some of our older students. I realize that through the years our ministry, in partnership with a solid family life, does indeed help Kodiak’s youth grow up to be more spiritually, socially and mentally fit. I love being reminded of this truth every day.
As I look forward to traveling to South Dakota this Christmas to see my parents and sister, I recall previous visits. It has often been difficult to explain to folks the good work that God is doing at KBM. My family and Christian friends have been very supportive, but sometimes old friends or college classmates react with a kind of skepticism when I tell them about the Mission. At best they regard the work here as quaint, perhaps somewhat humanitarian, albeit tainted with religion. To the world, Christian faith-based programs like ours are often linked to the notion of proselytism. We are not regarded as messengers of love bearing truly wonderful news and providing vital life-building principles, but as grim dispatchers of a musty religion, a religion that is often dubbed as the cause of all strife throughout history. So be it then…religion is a problem. Jesus would be the first to say so.
More than once I have been asked if our motive in this work is to “convert” the children. What we are doing is preparing them. These children are too young to know what awaits them in this world, so we introduce them to a relationship with the Creator, to offer them the spiritual tools they need now, and in years to come. Our goal with the children is not to make them religious. Our goal is to introduce them to the abundant Life which is to be found in Jesus Christ and His teachings. These teachings, presented with the Faith, Hope and Love that are the beacons of true Christianity, will be made available to them for the rest of their lives. Therefore they will always have something powerful and real to draw on when the world, in all of its splendor and genius, turns its back on them one day.
This Christmastime, it is my prayer that these children - while they eventually grow, age, take on responsibilities and suffer the inevitable consequences of becoming adults - will always remain children spiritually, that is, always be open to the pure Word of God. May they never lose the wonder, joy and enthusiasm for Jesus that is the mark of one redeemed from darkness and spoil. It’s good for us “adults” to remember as well. That “unless we turn from our sins and become as little children, we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
—David Kitzler
Campbell’s Labels for Education is longer accepting front panel product labels. Instead they are asking for individuals to clip and save UPCs and lids from participating Labels for Education Brands. They ask that specific steps are followed when preparing the UPCs and lids. For all the steps as well as further information please go to www.campbellsforeducation.com or kodiakbaptistmission.org on the homepage.
Campbell’s labels have been and continue to be a great way for KBM to receive resources to help with our growing programs. We truly appreciate those who are dedicated to help minister in this way.
I would like to sponsor KBM by contributing:
□$10 □$25 □$50 □$100 □$_________
I would like this to be charged to my credit card as a:
□one time gift (your card will only be charged this amount once)
□monthly basis (your card will be charged this amount every month)
If you are giving on a monthly basis how long would you like to give:
□Six Months □One Year □Until I indicate otherwise
_________________________________________________
Name as it appears on your credit card
_________________________________________________
Mailing Address
___________________________________________
E-mail Address Phone Number
__________________________________________________________________
Credit Card Type Credit Card Number Exp Date
_________________________________________________
Signature of card holder
Please return this card with the enclosed envelope
