Two Beginnings, One Encounter

So now that I'm as you could say, back on the grid, I have so much to update everyone on. I finished my two weeks in Alaska and now I'm onto about 9 weeks serving across the country with Group Mission Trips as a red shirt. So I figured the best way to catch everyone up on my adventures would be to go one day at a time for both experiences. We shall see how this works, but here goes nothing.

On May 16 I traveled for about a total of 12 hours, in 4 airports, and 4 time zones to get to Yakutat, Alaska. There I met 21 other people from FOCUS campuses all across the United States; Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Maine, California, Florida, and many states inbetween.
Yakutat is a small fishing village that has about 600 people in the summer months. They have a post office, school, police station, and a couple of stores, and that's about it. The parish is called Saint Annes and the priest who is stationed there is Father Steve Gallagher, a missionary priest who travels all through out southeast Alaska to serve the small villages in the Diosease of Juneau. Father Steve is such a blessing, and my first encounter with him was when he picked us up from the small airport and drove is around the village, telling us stories of how he used to be a cop, then proceeded to get pulled over for speeding!

Our first night we had Mass, dinner, and got to know our team. We had four FOCUS missionaries, 15 students, a full time missionary and his intern. My team is below:
FOCUS
Devon: Colorado
Dain: Texas
Sean: Texas
Matt: Colorado

Students
Melanie: Indiana
Shannon: Texas
Jeanette: Arizona
Justine: South Dakota
Magggie: Colorado
Emily: Colorado
Jannae: Texas
Maddie: Minnesota
Lelia: Maine
Michael: Florida
Ryan: Texas
Kelly: Arizona
Jaime: Colorado
Aaron: Maine
Alex: Michigan

Full time Missionaries
Craig: Mexico City
John (intern): Massachusetts

These people were in my life for two weeks and each and every person has brought me closer to Christ.

So day one for Alaska, keep looking for day two!!!

As for my training: I'm an Office Manager, or the mom of the workcamps. I help set up and run Jesus based service experiences for high schoolers across the country. It's a lot of work, but so much fun!!!

We'll that's it for me and the first day!

Peace and Blessings!

1 John 3:18