Three Laps to Go

January felt like a short month. I think some of that is because I did not get up to Alaska until the third. It was a bit of a shock coming back after being in Portland. The lack of day light was not hard but coming from an area that had no snow to a place that had about two and a half feet was crazy. Scott and I had parked our vehicles on the side of the apartment and because we were not here to move them, the snow piled up on them. Scott’s Jeep was parked behind my car so I had to dig his Jeep out and move it before I could free my car. When it was all said and done, it took about an hour and a half to get both vehicles free.

Getting started after Christmas break was hard. I think one reason for this was just being away for a month. It took me a while to get back in to the swing of things. Another reason it was hard is that we were delayed in starting work. Chris missed his plane and was not able to get back up to Alaska for about a week. All the administrative stuff Scott was hoping to cover that week had to put off a week and the students were not yet back from Christmas break, which left Scott and I with nothing to do. The final reason that it was hard to get back into the swing of things is that Alaska Pacific University does a block schedule. With a block schedule, most of the students are not on campus in the month of January. Ben was out in the wilds of Alaska for learning about winter survival, and Tyler was in Mexico for a rock climbing class.

Without any girls on our team, it makes it harder for us men to reach out to women and help them grow, but God is helping us deal with this. Macey, the student from University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) would really benefit from a godly woman in her life to help her grow in her faith, which is something that I am not able to do. Scott just happens to know a woman that moved to Juneau recently. Her name is Jolee and she was on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ until her journey in life brought her to Juneau. Scott gave me her number to call and talk to her about helping us reach students at UAS. During our conversations, she told me that leaving staff was a difficult and sad time for her, and that she is excited to be able to get back involved in students’ lives. I asked Jolee if she would be interested in mentoring students. She told me she would love to disciple students and was very thrilled about the opportunity. Later that week I called Macey and asked her if she would like to be discipled by Jolee. Macey was eager at the opportunity to be poured into by another woman. They have since met a couple of times and have really enjoyed getting to know one another.

Did this all happen by chance? I don’t believe it did. We needed someone to help Macey grow in her faith and talk about things that as men, we are not able to do, so God brought Jolee to our attention.

This month the team went to the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) to share our faith with students. While I am not a big fan of initiating conversations with people I don’t know, regardless of topic, I am a fan of hearing where students are in their spiritual journey. I was saddened by what I heard. The last week in January, Chris and I talked with a few students that don’t believe the bible can be trusted. They feel that there are translation errors that have corrupted the true meaning of what the bible is saying. Others think the bible is some nice collection of stories on how we should love people. A large majority of the students we talked with thought that they would go to heaven because they are good people and try to live as best they can. Scott and Levi, Pastor of Anchorage Wesleyan Church, explained to a student they were sharing with that, it is not by works that people get to heaven, but by the grace of God through the acceptance of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. This student still felt like he could get to heaven by being a nice person.

Talking to the students at UAA has shown me just how hard the soil is up here. Despite student’s skepticism about the bible and God, they are still open to talk with us and share their views. This is great news because while none of the students we talked with accepted Christ they were open to chat with us and gave us an opportunity to join them in their spiritual journey.

Everyone is on a spiritual journey as believers in Christ we can help them find the way. There are four ways we can help people find God. The first is as an explorer. This is just simply asking questions to see where someone is coming from spiritual speaking. The second way is as a guide. A guide is someone who shares the gospel. The guide simply points people to Jesus. The third way we can help someone in his or her spiritual journey is as a bridge builder. As people are shown the way to Jesus, obstacles come up that prevent them from getting to know Jesus. It is the job of the bridge builder to help people get past these obstacles. The final way we can help someone is as a mentor. The mentor helps to strengthen a person’s relationship with Christ.

As we go through life, we are all given opportunities to join people in their spiritual journey. We are their cojourners, and it is our job to find them, show them the way, remove obstacles blocking their path, and to help strengthen their faith. You never know how you might impact someone’s eternal life.

Things you guys can be praying about are: ~ That Macey would grow in her faith and understanding of God ~ For God to continue to soften the soil of students hearts ~ For seed that have been planted in students hearts to grow ~ Continue to pray for God to raise up more leaders in Alaska ~ For more students to come to Ben and Tyler’s bible study and APU

God bless and happy journeying,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22:33