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Leaders 4 Life 2

New Song SWOTs 3

CMJ Stands for... 4

The 2nd Coming ofthe Tower of Babel

5

Saying “Good-Bye” 6

Elder Needs andGood Deeds

7

AAADD: The Dis-ease...

8

Old Pictures 9

Being Biblical“Unbiblically”

10

What’s Happenin’? 13

McElwees AcceptCall to White Mt.

13

Inside this issue:

Reaching People for Christ’s Sake from near the North Pole

Chilling Newsthat Warms the heart

Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska

Jan/Feb 2008God Continues to Bless Hooper Baythrough Samaritan’s Purse

God’s blessing in the aftermath of the village fire in 2006continues. A new multi-purpose facility with a worship andyouth center [for picture see page 2] could be completed be-fore Christmas of this year. We thank God for His provisionthrough the ministry of Samaritan’s Purse and all who la-bored with them!

The finishing touch on the outside was the placement of alarge cross. As it was secured in place for all of Hooper Bay,the three involved praise God “from whom all blessingsflow.” This symbol of the cross will be the inaudible voice ofSpirit of God crying out to all who may be passing by. Mayit speak ever so loudly of the Savior’s sacrifice on the crossto take away the sins of all who trust Him! Cont’d pg. 2...

2

God Continues to Bless Hooper Bay, Cont’d...

The new multi-purpose buildingbuilt by a multitude of people frommultitudes of places all over thecountry is almost complete at thetime of this writing. In the picture tothe left, the side with the handicapramp is where the believers willgather for corporate worship. This isthe side that now supports a hugecross which is visible from a longdistance away.

On the right side of the facility is theyouth center. They will be providing

a service to the community via a restaurant. All of the students involved in “Leadersfor Life” will be working as servants and cooks. They received training from owners ofWendy restaurants that came in from North Carolina! The desire is to serve the peopleof Hooper Bay in the Spirit of Christ as the young people convey the love of Christ.

Hi, my name is Josh Funk and I am the youthpastor here in Hooper Bay. We just startedour Leaders For Life group here last summer.It started off really slow, (because of thebusyness of summer) but it kept growing as itkept going. When I say, "it kept growing" I'mnot talking about the number of youth in thegroup, I'm talking about the difference thisgroup is making in lives. See, Leaders ForLife is an accountability and mentoring pro-gram that is aimed at growing people in theirpersonal relationship with Jesus, and in theirdesire to work together as a team for Jesus. Inour group here we all meet once a month as agroup and maybe have a devotional time,prayer time, and a fun time too.

Also, once every week there are mentorship groups meeting.Each group is made up of 5 or 6 students and their mentor(guys with guy mentors, and girls with girl mentors). We havea student led devotional time from our

Leaders for LifeBy Josh Funk

Cont’d. pg 7... 15

JustPics

Pray: Our bi-monthly news-letter, “Chilling News”, is full ofstories about the people and min-istry of ECCAK throughout thestate. It also has a daily prayercalendar. If you would like to beadded to our mailing list, pleaselet us know.

Encouragement; W r i t i n gand/or calling those who serve inthe bush is a great ministry!Want to adopt a church or a pas-tor? Ask for a prayer card of apastor.

Mission Teams: There areoften times when we have needfor teams of people to come andjoin with a local church, camp,college, youth group, etc. For aspecific construction project oroutreach event.

Volunteers: The ECCAK of-fice needs volunteers to assist inadministration, grant writing,special projects, etc.

Financial: God often callspeople to give to ECCAK beyondthe normal local church tithe orchurches to place ECCAK in theirmission budget. Some are led to

leave a gift through estate plan-ning to carry on the work inAlaska into the future.

Credit Card Donations: EC-CAK can now receive donationsvia credit cards. The perforatedtab on the Prayer Calendar al-lows for this giving option. Also,you can contact Sara Scoles atthe ECCAK office (907) 694-6348and she will be happy to assistyou.

Teachers or Nurses: Chris-tian teachers or nurses oftencome to Bush Alaska as“missionaries” and serve in thelocal Covenant church during offhours.

Pastors/Youth Workers: Of-ten we have empty pulpits andare in need of pastors, short andlong-term. Many villages have noone reaching out to the youth.

Donate Air Miles: Many peo-ple accumulate free air miles.Please consider donating some toECCAK to help a bush pastorand family get away for some R &R.

14

PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Why is abbreviation such a long word? Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds? Ever stop to think, and forget to start again? Is not a conclusion simply the place where you got tired of thinking? If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent? Do you feel more like you do now then you did a while ago? Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected become the expected?

You may be saying toyourselves, “Strategies Iunderstand, but what is aSWOT?” Good question.

At this year’s ECCAKPastor/Leader Retreat,ECCAK and CYAKleadership took everyonethrough an exercise us-ing a tool called SWOT.The “S” and the “W”stand for strengths andweaknesses found withinthe body of Christ as anorganization [their localchurch]. The “O” and the “T” stand for opportunities and threats that are a part of ourenvironment [external factors]. After identifying these things by making long lists,they used these “insights” in strategizing for the future. Nehemiah is a good book tostudy if you want to see these dynamics at work. It goes without saying that in themidst of the mix, prayer and biblical truths are key in the discernment process.

In the picture above, leaders from New Song Covenant Church pose for their FieldDirector after developing their SWOTs. At a second meeting, they started down theroad of seeking God to help them utilize their strengths and opportunities as well asovercome their weaknesses and threats. ECCAK has made itself available to all theAlaskan churches who feel a need to assess themselves in this way in order to seekchurch revitalization.

3

New Song SWOTs and Strategies

Very Distinguished ECC GuestsCome to Pastor Leader Retreat

Donn Engebretson and MaryMiller join the ECCAK pastorsand leaders on the campus ofInterAct where the 2007 ECCAKPastor Leader Retreat was held.We are always honored to havesuch distinguished guests travelsuch a long distance to be a partof one of our special gatherings.

4

CMJ Stands for:Compassion, Mercy and Justice

Pastor Nathan Toots addresses a fullhouse that gathered for ACC’s fund-raising dinner at the Eagle River Com-munity Covenant Church as PresidentDr. Keith Hamilton looks on. Nathanwears many hats: Associate Field Di-rector of ECCAK, Associate Pastor atAnchorage First Covenant, Chair ofthe ACC Board, husband to a greatwife, Isabelle, father, grandfather andon and on.

Out-going President Glenn Palmberg had a vision for helping those who are in greatneed. The world provides us with innumerable opportunities, even in our own back yard.ECC now supports a new department called CMJ where Deborah Blue new serves as itsfirst Executive Director.

Even before this became an “official” department, many Alaskan churches have been onthe receiving end of their granting program. We have the opportunity of receiving match-ing funds in the following arenas:1. Seed Grant: for a local church beginning a new compassion and/or justice ministry

with poor or at-risk people.2. CDC Grant: for a local church beginning or working through a Community Devel-

opment Corporation or agency to do ministry with poor or at-risk people.3. Partnership Grant: for two or more local churches that are working together to do a

ministry with poor or at-risk people.4. Organizing Grant: for a local church interested in empowering others through com-

munity organizing – addressing justice and advocacy issues with poor or at-risk peo-ple.

5. Training Grant: for a local church interested in sending individuals to education ortraining events, or sponsoring a similar event in their church, that will have a directimpact on supporting a church’s ministry with poor or at-risk people.

ECCAK can receive up to $30,000 each calendar year in matching funds, but not withoutchurches who take the time and effort to take a good hard look around them. ECCAK isthankful for those who have taken advantage of this over the last five years. Followingare some of the creative ways we have been able to reach out further by taking advantageof this wonderful opportunity: Cont’d pg. 7...

13

2008 ECCAKSuperintendent Meeting January 6-11 Chicago, ILECCAK General Council January 18-19 Anchorage, AKECC Mid-Winter January 28-31 Chicago, ILECCAK Annual Meeting March 5-9 ACC Soldotna, AKACC Board Meeting April 5-6 Soldotna, AKABA Board Meeting April 26 Nome, AKSuperintendent Retreat May 19-22 Portage Lake, MIThe Feast June 21-24 Green Lake, WIECC Annual Meeting June 26-29 Green Lake, WIPastor Leader Retreat November 3-6 InterAct-Palmer, AK

2008 Bible Camp:Call to Worship May 25-27 North RiverStudent Leadership May 28-June 2Senior High June 2-9Junior High June 9-16Trailblazer June 16-21Pathfinder June 21-26CEF TBDVision August 5-10

McElwees Accept theCall to White Mountain

The McElwee Family pose at their Texashome. Ross and Ruth [center] later wentthrough the candidating process and traveledto White Mountain with the Sawyers. At thistime, they are heavily involved in raisingtheir support. They can be contacted at903.984.9034 or ross-ruth@juno.com. Moreon the McElwees in the next issue!

12

DEEP THOTS

The sooner you fall behind the more time you'll have to catch up.

Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.

When there's a will, I want to be in it.

The obituaries in the newspaper prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that people

die in alphabetical order.

Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

After hearing two eyewitness accounts of the same accident, you begin to won-

der about history.

“...the only effective hermeneutic* of the gospel is the life of the congregation thatbelieves it…” - Lesslie Newbigin in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, pg 235

*The science of interpreting the meaning of an author's words or phrases and explaining it to others.

5

The Second Coming of the Tower of Babel

A young man was strolling down a street near

downtown Anchorage. As he passed a large building un-

der construction with a wood fence around it, he heard a group of

people chanting "Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen…" over and over

again. Curious, he tried to see over the fence, but couldn't. Then he spotted a

knot hole in the fence, and put his eye to the hole. He momentarily managed to

spy several people sitting in a circle on their toolboxes chanting, when suddenly

a finger came out from nowhere and poked him in the eye.

As he staggered back, the people on the other side of the fence started chanting,

"Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, fourteen..."

Thirteen and Counting

In the Dec. 5th issue of the Anchorage Daily News they had an article on the increasingnumber of minorities in the Anchorage school district which supports 50,000 students. Itseems that the non-white to white ratio now hovers at 50-50. “In 1976 when the districtstarting keeping track of its diversity, 13 percent of the students were minorities.” Thereare 95 different languages spoken in the school district! For the teachers, this must be like

the Second Coming of the Tower of Babel! Fol-lowing is a breakdown of the major languagegroups and the number of students in each group“on a day in October this year:”

Spanish 1,294 Samoan 754

Hmong 657 Tagalog 605

Yupik 222 Lao 190

Korean 174 Russian 92

Mien 77 Inupiaq 54

Romans 10:12-14 (NIV) 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--thesame Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone whocalls on the name of the Lord will be saved."14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they be-lieve in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someonepreaching to them?

6

Time to Say “Good-Bye”...Time to Say “We love you.”

Jon, Lisa and Rachel headedback to Scammon Bay viaMARC after a long time inCalifornia undergoing medicaldiagnosis. Jon reported that“there is a 90% chance that Ihave Lou Gehrig's disease.” Ofcourse, that leaves the chanceof 10% that it is not. What elseit could be is a mystery at thistime, except to God.

In the meantime, the Cardwellsare going to be wrapping thingsup at the Scammon Bay Cove-

nant Church during December after having served there a little over two years. They areplanning on being back in California in early January so he can continue to receive teststo determine the cause of the “Lou Gehrig type” symptoms, which are degenerative tohis muscle system. He asks for our prayers. They are certainly trusting God through thewhole ordeal. One of Jon’s favorite verses in the midst of this is, 15a “Though he slay me,yet will I hope in him... [Job 13:15a].

Good-byes are never permanent for the follower of Christ. When God called them toAlaska, He made them a permanent part of our hearts. They are a part of the Covenantfamily wherever they live.

We are asking brothers and sisters from all of the family of God to show their love atthis time of difficulty and uncertainty. When they returned to Alaska to close things out,their cash flow was near ground-zero. It is time to not only say “good-bye” to them, butalso, “We love you, Cardwells!” ECCAK has a special fund called “Love the Card-wells.” We are asking everyone to pitch in to help them re-settle in California. There aremany costs involved in this unexpected life transition. Please prayerfully consider howyou can help. There is an insert inside of this newsletter to allow you to respond. Maythe Cardwells be overwhelmed with the love of Christ through His people.

Galatians 6:10 (NIV)Therefore, as we have opportunity, let usdo good to all people, especially to those

who belong to the family of believers.

11

Being “Biblical”, Cont’d...

regarding certain doctrinal issues. Or wemay even disagree on various ministryapproaches or practices. But we still areall part of the family of God. The GOS-PEL says that we are going to spend allof eternity together. While we mustnever stop seeking truth in theology by“rightly dividing the word of truth” inthe church, it is the GOSPEL of JesusChrist that is the only hill worth dyingon, the line we do need to draw thatseparates us from cultish teachers thatadd to the GOSPEL by claiming newspecial revelations or salvation byworks. We must be careful to rememberthat we are to take a strong stand on theGOSPEL, but there is lots of wiggle roomwhen dealing with doctrines and issuesthat are not a part of the GOSPEL. Twoindividuals of the faith may feel that theyare being absolutely “biblical” by point-ing to passages that “prove” their pointand yet still be at odds. We become un-biblical Biblicists when 1) we insist thatour “biblical” is the only “biblical” outthere, 2) that others must conform to ourview of being “biblical” or we will de-clare them to be “unbiblical” or perhaps“heretical,” 3) we refuse to be open tolearn and be stretched in our understand-ing that just might allow us to grow asdid the Bereans [Acts 17:11], and 4) weallow our differences on the minor doc-trines to diminish our fellowship withone another or even worse, to divide andseparate us. We should be humbled by

Paul’s words from I Cor. 13:12, “Nowwe see but a poor reflection; then weshall see face to face. Now I know inpart; then I shall know fully, even as Iam fully known.”

Please do not misconstrue this article asa call to stop searching the Scripturesdiligently, even over theological issuesthat are not directly tied to the GOSPEL.There are important doctrines that mustcontinue to be discussed, understoodand contextualized. It is very importantthat we hold God-glorifying discus-sions, as recently exemplified by ourdenomination through the Covenantpaper written on human sexuality. But,we must learn to have such discussionswith a spirit of love and humility. Theworld watches us more than we areaware! The way we conduct ourselvesover “being biblical” could become astumbling block to people who mightotherwise be attracted to our message.

Doctrinaire dogmatism over minor doc-trines is the “damn” that inhibits theflow in the river of Christian fellow-ship, whereas, steering off course of theGOSPEL leads to the whirlpools of en-trapment found in the flood waters ofdeception. I think a quote from JohnWesley would be the best way to sum-marize this article: “In essentials, unity;in non-essentials, liberty; in all things,charity.”

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV) 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of firstimportance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that hewas buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...

10

Field Director’s Corner

Being “Biblical” Un-biblicallyBy Rodney J. Sawyer

How often and how easy it is to find ourselves drawing lines in thesand over theological issues. This practice can be good or bad;biblical or unbiblical. It is important to discern which doctrinesfrom the Bible are tied to the GOSPEL of Christ and which are not.We need to recognize that theological differences that are not tied tothe GOSPEL are not reasons to consider others to be outside of the faithand “unbiblical.”

The GOSPEL of Jesus Christ from the Scriptures is not a difficult ordebatable doctrine. God is perfect and He is just. Those who sin will bepunished. We all have sinned which destines us to the punishment ofeternal separation from God. No one can ever pay the penalty for theirsins or do enough good works to gain God’s favor. Cults and false re-ligions promote working your way to heaven. The true GOSPEL is allabout God’s loving and saving grace through the Lord Jesus Christ,God in the flesh, who came to earth and died to pay the penalty for all.Jesus’ death was the only perfect sacrifice for our sins. He is the onlyway to God. All who repent of their sins and come to Jesus Christ infaith, believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus’ death onthe cross is sufficient to pay the penalty for all their sins, have theirsins forgiven. This overwhelming enlightenment compels one fromwithin to become a follower of Christ. This GOSPEL is non-debatable!The Scriptures are final! Dreams or visions, science or technology,man’s opinion or anything else cannot overrule, add to, change, or ne-gate the GOSPEL in the Scriptures! This is the place to be “biblical,” todraw the line in the sand.

However, within the Christian community, there is room to disagreeover all sorts of other “biblical” issues. We may disagree over mattersof free will and God’s election, over the timing of Jesus’ return, overhow the spiritual gifts play themselves out, over women in ministry,over the mode of baptism and the list could go on and on. However, ifwe agree on the pure unchangeable GOSPEL, we need to recognize thatwe are brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of our particular brandof being “biblical” on the lesser doctrines.

This is one of the biggest challenges for Christians, that is, to recognizethat there are people of the faith with whom we may strongly disagree

Cont’d pg. 11...

Elder Needs andGood Deeds

Karl Ashenfelder is an elder of 70 years ofage who lives in White Mountain andloves to sing praises unto God at hischurch. Recently, he informed the ECCAKoffice of how he was “so blessed by NickBruckner” on a visit to White Mountain .Karl said that Nick hauled in trees and

chopped enough wood for three whole weeks! Nick ministers under his uncle Byron’ssupervision and is a chip off the old block [pun intended]! Karl said that we need toshare these acts of kind deeds to show our thanks to God for His provision.

7

CMJ, cont...

1. Camp Gilead received seed grant to help in camp operations for those with addic-tion problems.

2. CYAK House received seed grant for to help support the UAF students for thatyear and the operations of the CYAK house.

3. Nome Covenant received seed grant that allowed them to remodel their kitchen toreach out to the homeless.

4. Hooper Bay Covenant received training grant that allowed a large group of studentsto attend Warriors Summit in OK.

5. New Hope Counseling Center received a CDC grant that allowed for start up pur-poses

6. Alaska Christian College received a seed grant that enabled students to receivetraining in food services as they were employed in the campus dining hall.

7. Several bush churches have received training grants to allow them to attend the 2x2Connection in 2008.

8. Nome Covenant received a seed grant to help buy upgraded cooking utensils for thesoup kitchen.

"Touchpoints For Leaders" book, prayer, verse memorizing, and hanging out. It's beenreally encouraging for us, and I believe it has and will continue to strengthen each of usin our relationship with Jesus. These meetings are not our youth group time, they takeextra time and commitment, but it is worth it if they pull us together as a team servingJesus.

Leaders, cont...

8

AAADD: The Disease That Never Gets Diagnosed

As you get older, there is a diseaseknown as AAADD and it is rarelydiagnosed even though the symp-toms are obvious. AAADD justcomes upon most unsuspectingpeople and they live with it untilthey die. AAADD stands for AgeActivated Attention Deficit Disorder.Perhaps you have AAADD like Ido. How do I know? I will describemy day yesterday and you will getthe picture.

Yesterday, I got up feeling great! Idecide to change the plugs in mybroken-down snow machine be-cause my wife wants a ride in thefresh new snow. As I start towardsthe door, I notice that there is mailon the hall table. I was supposedto pay the bills, so I decide to gothrough the mail before I changeout the plugs. I lay my snow ma-chine keys down on the hall table,sort through the junk mail and startto put it in the trash can under thetable. It is too full. So, I decide toput the mail back on the table andtake out the trash before my wifegets on my case about that. Butthen I think, since the post office isjust across the street, I can takeout the trash and pay the bills atthe same time. I take my check-book off the table, and see thatthere is only one check left. Myrecollection tells me that my extrachecks are on the dresser in thebedroom, so I go to the dresserwhere I find the can of Coke that Ilost a couple hours earlier. I'm go-ing to look for my checks, but first I

need to push the Coke aside sothat I don't accidentally knock itover like I did last night and got introuble with my wife. I see that theCoke is getting warm, and I decideI should put it in the refrigerator tokeep it cold. As I head toward thekitchen with the Coke, a vase offlowers on the counter catches myeye--my wife told me to water themso I had better do it now or get intomore trouble. I set the Coke downon the counter, and I discover myreading glasses that my wife and Iwere searching for all last night;boy was she mad. I decide I betterput them back on the night standby my bed, but first I'm going towater the flowers. I set the glassesback down on the counter, fill acontainer with water and suddenly Ispot the TV remote. Someone left iton the kitchen table. I realize thattonight when me and my honey goto watch TV, I will be looking forthe remote, but I won't rememberthat it's on the kitchen table, so Idecide to put it back in the livingroom where it belongs, but first I'llwater the flowers. I go to put somewater on the flowers and I think Isee something move out of the cor-ner of my eye. As I look and seenothing, I pour most of the water onthe floor. So, I set the remote backdown on the table, get some papertowels and wipe up the spill fromthe floor. I get up and head downthe hall way. About half way down,I stop and try to remember what Iwas doing before I spilled the wa-ter.

Cont’d pg. 9...

9

AAADD, Cont’d

Wanted...OLD PICTURES!We hope that many of you enjoy the new 2008 ECCAK calendar. We thank manyfor the pictures they shared. As we think about putting out another calendar for2009, perhaps you have some old pictures from the “good old days” that you wouldlike to share with all of us. Please send them to ECCAK—PO Box 770749 EagleRiver, AK 99577. We will scan them and return them to you. Be sure to provideus with your return address.

At the end of the day: the plugs in the snow machine still need changing, thebills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flow-ers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't findthe remote, I can't find my reading glasses, I don't remember what I did withthe keys to the snow machine, and my wife is in a real bad mood again! Thenwhen I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled be-cause I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is avery serious problem, and I should go to the emergency ward, but first I'llcheck my e-mail. Then the process starts all over again with the PM version!!

Picture taken in White Mountain. None of the names are knownexcept that perhaps the 5th from left might be Steve Agloinga.

This picture was contributed by Kathy Bergamaschi.