coming home with the summer

Chad Reimer - YWAM Arctic Mercy- Homer, AK-
as the fire weed grows 2/8/10

Well time seems to be moving faster than normal, I cant believe I've been out of Winnipeg for 7 months already but I guess only a slim majority of that time has been here in Homer, as I did a fair amount of traveling. The fire weed is blooming here telling us that summer is on its way out(not that we really had a summer anyways), it also tells me that I'm going to be home soon. I am arriving in Winnipeg on August 22^nd until the 31^st and then I am back up in Alaska until late November when I'll have to renew my “visa”. I again want to thank you for all your support and prayers through these hard but good months.

From July 10^th to July 24^th me and a team of 6 others the first week and 14 including 5 kids the second week we were in Ouzinkie, Alaska at a mission house owned by Kodiak Baptist Mission that YWAM Arctic Mercy is partnering to reestablish as a base of village ministry. The house was built in 1938 served at a orphanage, preschool, clinic, church, most of all I think it served as a place to build relationships. The first week was a really intense work week, we put up about 96 sheets of drywall the first 4 days, while doing a little demolition. We muded and taped the next couple days into all hours of the night usually after losing time due to a villager insisting on sharing a meal or fellowship with us, it was all welcome. From listening to a elder talk about how Jesus had met him and his family time and time again, to hearing a young teenage girl cry out in her frustration we experienced many deep heart wrenching conversations. The second week we installed 11 windows, continued with muding and taping, textured primed and painted the kitchen, installed cabinets and counter tops, and finished off some electrical work, installed counter tops at the house of a woman who just lost her brother( he was going to install them but he passed away suddenly). There is something about a old house, something about a weathered community that has put a spark in my heart.

I think this YWAM experience has taught me something about the body of Christ and how it is working. Vancouver during the Olympics, Haiti after such a disaster, even here in Homer in the face of church splits I am finding people willing to humble themselves to their brothers and sisters in the name of Christ. I ask myself why cant this be the normal church, it seems like in the face of disaster or when Christians know the spotlight is on them they can rise up above such pride and be the hands and feet and eyes and mouth etc they were made to be. Its kinda fun looking at different denominations and the different strengths they have, in Haiti I saw this with the 200 plus people from all over the world. Its cool to hear other peoples opinions on Mennonites too, we are notoriously hardworking and steadfast servants.

This past month has been really busy, I have often been working on stuff until the sun was going down which is around 11pm here now. The “projects” on my plate while in Homer have been doing the groundwork for our hockey camp this fall: advertising, website work, researching event sponsorship. Helping pioneer an Adventure DTS slated for spring-summer 2011: researching cost, seeking out the vision, making a promo video, trying to get to a place where we can get a website up. Lately I've been heavily involved with staffing a mini DTS which is a 3 week version of our 3 month lecture phase which has been good, and we just had 30 youth drop in for a couple days who were part of a different missions group called teen mania.

Colossians 3:1-17 have really been my life verses recently, I'm realizing how God doesn't want us to just avoid sin but to actually clothe ourselves with His own qualities.

Thank you,

Chad Reimer

3838 Bartlett st., 99607, AK

http://withgracealone.blogspot.com chad.reimer@gmail.com

ouzinkie blurb

From July 10^th to July 24^th me and a team of 6 others the first week and 14 including 5 kids the second week we were in Ouzinkie, Alaska at a mission house owned by Kodiak Baptist Mission that YWAM Arctic Mercy is partnering to reestablish as a base of village ministry. The house was built in 1938 served at a orphanage, preschool, clinic, church, most of all I think it served as a place to build relationships. The first week was a really intense work week, we put up about 96 sheets of drywall the first 4 days, while doing a little demolition. We muded and taped the next couple days into all hours of the night usually after losing time due to a villager insisting on sharing a meal or fellowship with us, it was all welcome. From listening to a elder talk about how Jesus had met him and his family time and time again, to hearing a young teenage girl cry out in her frustration we experienced many deep heart wrenching conversations. The second week we installed 11 windows, continued with muding and taping, textured primed and painted the kitchen, installed cabinets and counter tops, and finished off some electrical work, installed counter tops at the house of a woman who just lost her brother( he was going to install them but he passed away suddenly). There is something about a old house, something about a weathered community that has put a spark in my heart.

ouzinkie

little video of some scenery/ the mission house/ ouzinkie

report to follow

old house

july 14th 2010

Here I am sitting in a 70 year old house in a small Alaskan village, sipping 35 year old tea, reading white fang while the sun dips just beyond reproach at 11pm. Another day is eloquently coming to a end another day, i just think of all the days that this house has seen. Earthquakes, funerals, weddings, raising up kids while raising up the village's children teaching them to read teaching them to learn, one rooms inscription reads joyce's office/ examination room, wonder what wounds have been stitched, if anybody has died in this house. A house is such a simple thing wood, nails, glass, and various other materials but what makes a house more than just a house, is it simply the age of this house that makes it seems so fascinating to me, or was it the 50 summers, autumns, winters and springs that were lovingly endured in the wild of it all. I ask myself who am I to tear down a 50 year old wall, what right do I have to demolish the past. I try my hardest to soak the house in, but its not really the house that speaks to my searching heart, its the life that was so dedicated to serving a community, so dedicated to Jesus to the nails in his hands and feet, to anointing Jesus's feet with tears and perfume, with a lifetime of service. If you asked me today if i ever wanted to leave this house, i would say “no, never”. I keep on seeing this trip as a perspective changer, maybe ill have afresh way of looking at things, if anything i think it might shift my heart to be completely committed to where I am The people here are different than ive ever experienced before, we arrive at the pier with no plan on loading our gear, our material to bring them to the house, we get a truck and a driver willing to drive for us right aways, guess he didnt have much other road ahead of him as the village only has 3 miles of road. We leave the light on, so if your in the neighbourhood wed love you to come for a visit. Ill have fresh tea on, 30 years old but fresh nonetheless.

just some thoughts

chad

bon voyage

well as I type the ferry i am on is getting cleaned getting fueled and getting ready for the 9 hour trip to kodiak. long story short these next 2 weeks I am going to be in a village names Ouzinkie doing renovations on a baptist mission house. I am excited to be on this trip as I really do love the villages of alaska, and i know that we will have the opportunity to show that love these next 2 weeks. this past week was a really hard one, but I come out of it with wisdom or at least i hope so. It feels like the boat of my life is still at harbour, getting ready. i pray that grace will be my wind, love will be my sails, trust will be my wheel house, joy will be my galley(the real heart of my boat), and hope will be my gangway.

well i tried posting this like 2 hours ago and we are still sitting here waiting for the boat to be finished loading, so it may relate to my frustrations of life too if my life was a boat, but ill get where im going even if i dont know where that is.

chad

joy comes in the morning (even when you ruin your oatmeal)

Well I will be honest, I've been very up and down, side to side lately, feeling like I'm being tossed around in a whirlwind of sorrow/ regret and yet a underlying laughter. Summer is slow in coming, my heart isnt as warm as i want it to be. circumstances seem to have kicked me to the floor, well im on my knees now. this past weekend was a long weekend for us due to 4th of July there were some really key parts to this weekend, I got ministered to in a way I hopefully wont forget anytime soon. though a lot of it didn't sink in until yesterday night, God spoke through others that I am like a wall in a good way where i am constantly moving forward as a ground breaker and actually protecting the inhabitants of my heart, and my heart is to serve and to bring joy. the joy of the Lord is my strength, and last but not least that the places where i feel like ive hurt people are going to become new.
earlier last night i didnt believe any of these good things about myself, i felt like the mistakes that ive made have made God angry and that He is rejecting me for my disobedience, that He had lifted His presence off of me and that peace that He offers was too far gone, that i was a wicked man being tossed in the waves of destruction, I turned to the Bible and really it didnt help me much the first reading, to which i asked God why was i feeling such condemnation, a aha moment told me this wasnt God that was making me feel such a weight such hopelessness and believe me this feeling has been building for a while. I simply said "God has accepted me, paid for me with a price, Jesus is my hope and i put my trust in Him" bam heaviness was already being lifted off and in came some valid hope, i felt conviction for a few things that i was feeling condemnation for but i read the same words in the bible and they brought a new understanding.

this morning i woke up at 6am and went down to the beach for about a hour watching the waves, felt joy and peace again, trying to go back to the simple place of abiding in Christ, and seeing circumstances in the eyes of hope and love and those eyes are Christs eyes.
chad

sing it out

ok so here it is 12:30 am still bright enough outside to see pretty clearly one of the quirky Alaskan things, but i figured i should just bear the lateness and just write a quick something.

so its been like a month since the graduation of our winter DTS which it seems like june went speedy fast, i had half a week of time off which was nice and then we had a short term mission mime team that was passing through town come and stay for a couple days and we helped them help us in a few great service opportunities in town like helping at a desert/ auction fundraiser for 3 couples from around the community who's houses have burnt down recently, where it wasnt necessarily a christian event and the families arent necessarily Christians but people of the church community wanted to bless these people in the midst of their loss. we have been meeting every morning to have a corporate worship ( i havent blogged about it yet but one of my biggest pet peeves is having "worship time" unless you schedule it for 24/7 and stop limiting the word worship to singing) we sing, we pray, we read the bible aloud, and its really been about reconnecting with each other, trying to set our hearts on who God is and how we can serve Him best. and i spent 3 days on a canoe trip which was fun, it was my first trip like that in Alaska. we have been ferociously trying to paint our building, but then we all got really busy with planning stuff that its kinda unfinished at this point, Im glad i graffitied some stuff on the half finished wall.

looking to what is ahead things get pretty busy, we still want to consistently have time in the morning to meet and worship together, but I have alot of projects on the go. for Hockey camp at the beginning of september( one of our major local outreaches) we are starting to try to get sponsors, trying to get raffle stuff together, starting up communication with the rink to finalize some stuff, working on the website updating information, working on getting jerseys, working on advertisement, etc. And next year we want to start a Adventure DTS where pretty much we are trying to embrace challenge as opportunity going out into the wilderness but also to the people/ tourists of the trails. almost every other week we are out in the wilderness doing things like hiking, canoeing, and fishing, and then we have one week of lecture. so we have to do some more ground work, promo video and trying to get stuff together for the website, etc.

so these next months look like this, working on all that stuff^ as i am on both those projects. On july 10th to 24th i am in a small village called ouzinkee doing some more renovation on a mission house, which we have been working on for a few years, and will be glad to see completed so it can serve the purposes it was build for 50 years ago, to bring the love of Jesus to the community. and then we have a Mini DTS from july 28 and then it goes for 3 weeks. and then I come home for a week and a half august 21-31 for Kurtis's wedding, and then return to homer for the Hockey camp sept 9th to the 13th and then hopefuly go up north for a month or so and then we have staff conference in early november and then i have to fly home before november 19th to renew my "visa".

so thats my life, i really would like to update relational news like interactions with people, some of our guests have had a wealth of knowledge and encouragment but i have a meeting in 1 minute so adios. so i didnt finish this the first attemp at 12:30 at night but i fell asleep and finished it this morning.

-chad