49th Ministry

Crossing the Finish Line

2007-05-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

April has come and gone and we are just finishing our last week of work. The students are in their finals week, which is the first week of May unless you are an Alaska Pacific University (APU) student, in which case you would have taken your finals the last week of April.

The weather up here is great. The sun is shining, the snow is gone, and I am able to enjoy going outside in sandals and a t-shirt. The sun rises earlier than I want to be up and it sets around 10:00 pm, but it does not get completely dark until after midnight.

Ministry in the month April was busy. We facilitated three different outreaches at three different campuses, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), and APU. I was glad to be able to have these different outreaches because it was a great change of pace. I was having a hard time keeping my mind in the fight during my last month of being with the students. So while I get nervous and a little scared for doing outreaches, it was a much need change to the normal schedule.

The out reaches at UAF and UAA were the same. We created postcards that have the website EveryAlaskanStudent.com on the front and have a brief description of the website on the back. The website allows student to safely explore questions about God, Jesus, stress, sex, binge drinking, the purpose of life, and many other topics that are relevant to college students. To go along with these postcards we created posters that said EveryAlaskanStudent.com. We put the posters all over the campuses in every possible place that school would allow.

So how this out reach works is, Chris, Scott, and I would split up and cover the three busiest areas on campus that we could find and hand these postcards out to anyone who would take one. I use the term anyone because students, professors, campus employees, and people th at came to campus to use the school’s computers where all given a card. We have had 170 plus hits on the EveryAlaskanStudent.com website in the last three weeks, which is great.

For the most part, people just took that card and walked on. I did have a few conversations with students. Some were with fellow believer who thanked me for what I was doing. One conversation stands out the most. These students defined all religions as a cult, and wonder why I would promote a cult. There seem to be a lot more going on below the surface but I was not able to find out because he had to catch the bus.

The Stump the Pastor out reach did not bring in as many students as I would have liked. Nevertheless, I know that the two students that showed up were there for a reason. One of them will be a suitemate with Ben and Tyler next year. The other guy was very out there in his beliefs. This man thought that if we do not use the exact name of Jesus, which he thinks might be Yeshua, he believes that without calling Jesus’ proper name, not the English translation name, you cannot be saved because Jesus will not know you are talking to him. The same is true for prayer. During the conversation if Pastor Levi said “Jesus,” this man would ask “who?” So then, Pastor Levi would have to say Yeshua in order to carry on the conversation. Pastor Levi was able to get this man’s email so that he could talk to him further.

What have I seen God do while in Alaska? Well first off, I saw Him use our team to have a huge impact in our team members’ lives. God used our team to help Laura deal with the wounds of her past. God used our team to challenge Amy to grow and trust in Him more. God used Chris, Scott, and me to work in each other’s lives. He helped Chris to be able to confront people when they do things that bother him. He used Chris and me to stretch Scott in many ways. God used Chris and Scott to show me I have some pride issues that I need to work on. God also used my roommates to teach me to listen to constructive criticism and not lash back. I could probably write a book about all the ways God has used us to work in each other’s lives.

God did some great things in the lives of students. He used Chris and myself to get a bible study started at APU. He used us to challenge Ben and Tyler to grow. God brought us into contact with Macey, showed us she needs someone to help her grow and then He gave us Jolee to work with Macey. God used Chris to challenge students in Fairbanks to be more proactive in reaching UAF. He used Chris, Scott, and myself to help the UAA ministry get healthy. God worked through us to plant seeds in over 371 students hearts across the state of Alaska during the spring semester. You, my support team, are apart of all that God has done up here. Thank you in your faithfulness in giving financial, and for praying for us. You have made a huge impact in Alaska. So thank you on behalf of myself and the students of Alaska.

Things you guys can be praying for:
~ That God would continue to work in the

lives of Alaskan students
~ For God to continue to soften the soil

of students hearts
~ Continue to pray for God to raise up more

leaders in Alaska
~ For students leaders to be bold

in proclaiming Jesus
~For my safe travel back home

Thank you for a great year and God bless,

Wesley Bennett
2 Samuel 22:33

One Lap to Go

2007-04-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

March was a great month. It feels like in terms of days, March was shorter than February. The weather up here is becoming quite nice with temperatures in the mid 30’s to lower 40’s. I am enjoying the warmer weather except for all the slush. In front of my apartment, there is a six-inch deep pool of water. This pool makes it impossible to park out front. Lucky for me I can park next to my apartment on high ground. The latest report on daylight is good. The sun is up by 7:00 am and is setting a little after 9:00 pm.

With things coming to a close we have decided that our time would be better spent working with the students and colleges where we already have a presence. This means that we will not be doing anything further with Charter College. I am not even sure if there is anything we could really do there besides pray. Reaching college students at a campus were students only go to take class and that is all, is going to be very difficult. So I think praying for Charter is the best thing we can do for now.

I have really enjoyed ministry this month. The team has been busy with all sorts of planning. Chris has been planning a trip to Fairbanks from April 14-18. He has been contacting different ministry leaders in Fairbanks to talk to them about having a retreat there in the fall. Therefore, we will be going up to meet with these leaders and hammer out details. Scott and I will be passing out post cards that have everyalaskanstudent.com on them. This website has many resources for students to help them in their journey of find God.

Scott has been busy planning and getting things ready for the summer project that Crusade has for men up here. He needs to find a place for the staff to live, line up different events for the students, and he still needs to make time to meet with students to take them out sharing their faith.

I did not have as much planning to do as Chris and Scott but I did have to iron out a few details for an outreach at Alaska Pacific University (APU) on Friday the 13. Pastor Levi of Anchorage Wesleyan Church volunteered his service to help reach college students. The idea that came to mind was to have a “Stump the Pastor” out reach. As the name implies, we are going to have Pastor Levi on campus for students to try to stump him with whatever question they may have.

The hardest part about planning the event was getting a room on campus to use. The person in charge of conference service is not very nice or helpful. He would not let us use a room or even pay to use a room. What kind of school turns down money? Lucky for us, Chris and I have gotten to know the Chaplin at APU. He is a great guy and very helpful. The Chaplin gave us permission to use the chapel, which is out of the control of conference services. Praise God we now have a room to use! Now the only thing we need is for students to show up. Please be praying for students to come to our outreach on April 13 from 1-4 pm. And pray for God to give Pastor Levi wisdom.

I have continued to take Ben and Tyler to the University of Alaska Anchorage to go evangelizing. Our conversations have continued to go well. In the month of March Ben, Tyler, and I have talked with 25 different people. Tyler and I talked with a guy who I will call Mike, on March 28^th. He was in a motorcycle wreck five years ago and is paralyzed from the chest up. During our conversation, we found out that, Mike was already a believer and that it was his faith in God that really helped him get through the hard times. Before Mike left, he shared with us the joy of eating a sub sandwich all by himself for only the second time. I am not sure if we were more of an encouragement to Mike, or if he was more of an encouragement to Tyler and me.

Ben and Tyler still only have a few students coming to their bible study, but they are not discouraged in anyway by this. They view it as a success, and are excited about what next year may bring. Ben is already thinking of ways to reach out to students next year.

Another success that we have seen at APU is the forming of a club. Ben and Tyler were able to take over a club that already existed. A student created the club, Campus Ministries, last school year but has since then graduated. To become a club at APU, it takes a year from the time you submit your paper work. Being a club gives you access to the school’s passenger vans. This opens many doors for Ben and Tyler to serve their fellow students.

Things continue to go slowly in Juneau. We still only have one student, Macey. However, having someone there to disciple her has been great. Jolee, the woman discipling Macey, has been very encouraged at the growth she has seen in Macey. Jolee will be taking Macey out to go sharing on Tuesday the 10^th. I am excited to hear back from Jolee how things went.

Alex Kettles, staff from Oregon, came and spoke
to the UAA students to encourage and challenge
them as well as spend time with us

Things you guys can be praying for:

~ That God would bless Macey and Jolee as they go sharing

~ For God to continue to soften the soil of students hearts

~ Continue to pray for God to raise up more leaders in Alaska

~ For students to come to Stump the Pastor at APU on the 13^th

~ That I would trust God with providing me a job before I leave Alaska

God bless,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22:33

Fur Rondy & Iditarod

2007-03-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Fur Rondy, was February 23 through March 4 this year. Vern Johnson is the father of the event. Johnson and his friends decided to establish a 3-day festival to coincide with the time the miners and trappers came to town with their winter's yield. It was a three-day sports tournament February 15, through the 17 in 1935, and featured skiing, hockey, basketball, boxing and a children's sled race.

Many new events have been add since 1935. The World Championship Sled Dog Race in 1946, the World Championship Dog Weight Pull in 1967, Rondy Carnival, the Grand Parade, the uniquely Alaskan Men's Snowshoe Softball, and the Grand Prix Auto Race, one of the oldest street races in North America and ice bowling just to name a few. Rumor has it there will be a running of the Caribou at next year’s Rondy. Look out here comes Comet and he looks mad.

All of these events lead up to the Last Great Race on Earth, The Iditarod. The race is from Anchorage to Nome. Sled teams of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1,150 miles in 10 to 17 days The official start this year was March 4 with a ceremonial start, taking place in downtown Anchorage on March 3. It takes a tough individual to compete is such a race. While men hold the large majority of the teams, women also compete and win. The first woman to win was Libby Riddles in 1985.

Chris and I were able to see some of the Iditarod teams weave their way through the city of Anchorage. Loads of people come to cheer on the dogs and mushers as they leave Anchorage. Some come to cheer for their favorite team, others just to cheer.

Second to None

2007-03-09T10:19:00.000-09:00

February has come and gone. The daylight continues to increase. We are gaining about five minutes of daylight each day. I remember waking up one morning and it was light outside. I am sure this is not the case, but it felt like the morning before was dark and then bang there was light. The sun is setting a little after 6:00 pm. We have had nice glorious sunny days this month. All the daylight and brightness is quite deceiving because the average temperature for February was about 10 degrees. A few days were quite chilly at the end of February due to wind. The high for the day would be 15 degrees but wind chill made it feel like -15.

During February, I decided that I would not be doing another internship with Campus Crusade. I feel that I need to pour myself into my marriage to LeAnn. I know that after a long day on campus I would not want to come home and talk with LeAnn because I would be worn out. I am beginning the process of finding a job in Bozeman.

Ministry this month has been encouraging. Ben and Tyler hosted a movie on the 28^th to kick off their bible study for the spring semester. They watched Bruce Almighty and provided pop and popcorn for the students to scoff. While this may seem like a bad movie, it in fact is not. I know that the previews made it look like a movie that makes fun of God, but it shows how bad things would be if we were given God’s power.

In the movie Bruce, the main character, blames God for all the hard things in his life and accuses God of not doing his job. So God gives Bruce His powers and tells Bruce to do a better job. Bruce uses his powers to make his life better but in the process messes up the city of Buffalo, NY. Bruce’s life comes all undone. He loses the woman he loves and in the end confesses to God that he cannot do it on his own and that he needs God.

I was encouraged at how many came to the movie. Seventeen students not counting Ben came to the move. Ben gave the students there a survival kit. The kit has a copy of the New Testament, a water bottle, the book Blue like Jazz, and other cool things.

I have been taking Ben and Tyler to University of Alaska Anchorage to go evangelizing. During our times, we have had good conversations with people. A few of the people we talked with do not believe in Heaven or Hell. They do not think about what will happen to them when they die. I would ask them what the purpose of life is and most of their answers came back that there is no purpose, or that there is no way to know what the purpose of life is until one’s life is over.

I was saddened by the state of students on campus. They do not know what they are living for. It is as if they are not living but just existing in this world. I wonder what brings joy to their lives, what helps them get through the hard times?

When I asked a student if I could explain to him how someone can go to heaven, he told me that he was content not knowing. I cannot fathom how anyone could be content with not knowing how to get to heaven. How do you bring the love of God to someone who is content not knowing it? I guess this proof that when someone gives his or her life to God, it is solely through His greatness.

Chris and I went to Charter College this month. Charter College is for older working people who are seeking to advance their education, or are seeking to switch careers. It is a very small college, which has only one building. Normally we take a few hours to walk around a college, become acquainted with it, and pray over the campus. It took Chris and me 15 minutes to accomplish this. Charter College is going to be a very difficult campus to reach. The students at Charter only go to campus to attend class and then leave right away to go to work or to go home to their families. To get a bachelor degree at Charter it takes two and a half years. This means the turnover rate of students is rather quick. I am praying that God will give us wisdom on how to reach the campus.

For Valentines Day LeAnn sent me a book entitle, The Five Love Languages Men’s Edition. While the book is meant for married men, it gives a lot of great insight into how to speak love to someone. The author, Gary Chapman, explains there are five love languages, words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. He explains that no matter how hard we try to show love to someone, if we are not communicated in their love language, they will not feel loved. The book is quite good and I would recommend for you all to read it, well maybe not the men’s edition since not all of you are men.

During my time in the word, I have been going through first and second Kings. I am always amazed at how many of the kings from both Israel and Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. I cannot help but think that these kings were not very bright individuals. Some of the kings thought that they could worship both God and idols. God would send a prophet to warn the kings and they would not listen and continue doing evil. God would then remove the king from power and replace him with another king. The kings never caught on to this pattern and kept doing evil.

God has shown me that I am really not all that different then the kings of old. I don’t have a prophet coming and telling me I need to change things in my life, but I do have God’s word speaking to me. So while I may not be worshiping idols, or make human sacrifices, I am still not following God in all the ways I need to.

Things you guys can be praying for:

~ That Macey would grow in her faith and understanding of God

~ For God to continue to soften the soil of students hearts

~ That I would trust God with providing me a job in June

~ 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,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22:33

Three Laps to Go

2007-02-08T10:18:00.000-09:00

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

Half Way there in this Winter Wonderland

2007-01-15T11:12:00.000-09:00

Well December for the most part was laid-back. The team was in Alaska until December 10 and then we flew to the south, a.k.a. the lower 48, for Christmas. It was nice to be able to go home for Christmas. My time at home was busy. The first few days back I spent with my brother and his wife in Billings. I then went to Bozeman where I meet with friends and went to a wedding. I made it back to Buffalo on the 17 and hung out with some friends and my parents for a few days before going to Powell and Greybull WY to visit my grandparents. I was back in Buffalo on the 24 and then left for Billings on the 26 so that I could fly to Portland on the 27 for Campus Crusade’s Winter Conference. I feel tried just thinking about all that travel, but it was a nice to see family and be home for a little while.

Winter Conference is something that Crusades has every year. It starts December 28 and goes until January 1. The conference is a time for students to come and hear from great speakers, be trained in sharing their faith, and bring in the New Year worshiping God. At Winter Conference, we have a day of out reach where we sent the students out into the town to share the gospel with people. This year we handed out socks to the homeless, cleaned people’s yards, built homes with Habitat, helped the Salvation Army clean their building, and many other services. The idea behind this day was to serve the city of Portland while teaching the students to share their faith as they worked side by side with people who do not believe in Christ. During this day of out reach, I went around taking pictures of people, which was fun and hard. The reason it was hard was because I had to find the students who wherespread out over the city of Portland and take pictures of them while not looking like I was stocking them.

My other job was security. It was my job to make sure that students knew where to go to get to the conference building and that they were safe during the seven minute walk. Taking pictures was fun but it was also draining. Working security was not the most fun. I had to stand out side for a half hour before the meetings started and wait out side a half hour after the meeting started. A few of the nights, it was really windy and cold. But hey, I survived and no one got attacked.

We had two new schools represented at Winter Conference this year. These two schools have never had a student go. University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau (UAS) and Alaska Pacific University (APU) each had one student go. Ben, from APU, and Macey, from UAS, both had a great time at conference. They are really on fire to go back and use what they have learned. On the last day of conference we asked students to make a commitment to be an ambassador for Christ. As a sign of this commitment, students filled out cards, signed them, and walked to the front to put their cards in clay jars. Macey has committed to launching Campus Crusade for Christ at UAS. Finding this out was a great encouragement to me because UAS in one my campuses.

In sadder news, we have lost another teammate. Being the only girl on the team Amy has decided that it would be too hard to stay here in Alaska. Amy’s time with Crusade however is not over. She will be going to the lovely state of Montana to work with Crusade. The Montana team operates the same way as we do. The only difference is that Montana works with more native students and native colleges than we do up here in Alaska. It was great to work with Amy and I had fun getting to know her. I wish her the best with her team in this on going battle against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ministry this month was mostly training and raising support for those of us who did not raise enough support this summer. Thanks to God and him using all of you,

I have all the support I need. I finished a book I was reading before Christmas, Faith is not a Feeling, and I read The Master Plan of Evangelism, which our whole team read. I would recommend reading both books as they provided some good insight.

Faith is not a Feeling, is a book on how we need to take God at his word. When we go through hard times we can either get mad at God and blame him for what we think is bad, or we can take God at his word, which tells us that he has our best intentions at heart and wants the best for us. This will help us to stay positive and keep our eyes on God which where they should be.

The Master Plan of Evangelism, is a book that looks at Jesus and how he chose to reach the world. The book has eight chapters that talk about Jesus and how he chose the 12, why he poured his life into them, and why he sent them out. The book goes on to talk about how as Christians we have gone away for this format which is evident in how slow the gospel in spreading across the world. I think that there is some truth behind that. I mean if Jesus started his battle against Satan with 12 men, whom he laid out the foundation of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, then who am I to think I have a better way. Even if I pour into only two guys and they each pour into two more that is six people in a relatively short time.

I would like to thank everyone of you for supporting me, not just financial, but also in prayer. Without your prayers, I would not be able to keep battling with Satan day in and day out. During my time up here, we have had five students indicate that they have accepted Jesus as their Lord. Again thank you for all that you do.

Things you gu

ys can be praying about are:

~ That God would bless Ben and Macey in reaching their Campuses

~ For God to continue to soften the soil of students hearts

~ Wisdom for us as men to reach the ladies at the different colleges

~ Continue to pray for God to raise up more leaders in Alaska

May God shine his blessings on you,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22:33

The conference MC’s and some staff having fun.

A student seeking God in prayer.

Some bodies of mine showing their brotherly love.

A Weekend of killing….brain cells

2007-01-14T17:32:00.000-09:00

Alaska had a cold spell the first weekend in January so to help pass the time during this cold spell Scott and I played Time Splitters Future Perfect. I had some credit at Game Stop so I bought the game for about $10. Scott and I have definitely put the game to use. We can play the game and follow the story line either one or two players, or you can go into the arcade mode and just battle. Scott and I found that it is a lot of fun to play as a team against the computer. Our favorite characters to be are these two little monkeys that are dressed up like a Ninja, Scott, and Robo Cop, me. These characters are so fast that they are hard to control at times. This helps us when we use mines, oh ya its time to lock and load. Who wants some?

Fantastic Four

2006-12-06T09:41:00.000-09:00

The month of November was bitter cold. The whole month hovered around 10 degrees or less. With the weather this cold it was hard for me to want to get out and do anything. We have not received any more snow since that first storm at the end of October. The temperature is supposed to climb back up and reach a balmy 29 degrees. Break out the shorts and sun block I’m going to go play volleyball. No seriously, 29 degrees is a lot warmer but the humidity makes it feel colder than it really is. I am not use to that back home. The daylight up here continues to fade. The sun rises around 9:30 am and sets about 3:50 pm. Being back for Christmas will be crazy because of how much day light there will be.

November was a life change month for me and for my girlfriend LeAnn. She came up to visit me for Thanksgiving. While she was up here, I lost a girlfriend but gained a fiancé. So I had a very thankful Thanksgiving. I asked her to marry me on Sunday the 19. LeAnn and I went out to take pictures of the sunrise on Sunday. While she was taking pictures, I read her a poem that I had written for her. The end of the poem was asking her to marry me, since she is my bride to be, I will let you guess what she said. We hope to get married in August. This should give us time to plan a wedding.

Thanksgiving was nice. Pastor Levi and his wife, Heidi, invited the team over for thanks giving. He is the Pastor of the church we have been attending. Amy was in Montana deer hunting and Chris went to a friend’s home so they did not go to Levi’s home. However, Scott, LeAnn, Ben, one of the APU guys, and I went. The food was good. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, and stuffing. For dessert, we had homemade pumpkin pie. I ate way too much food but it would not Thanksgiving otherwise right? The fellowship at Levi’s was nice and I enjoyed spending the time with Ben.

In sadder news, we have lost a teammate. Laura has decided to take herself off the team. She has had very rough childhood and needs to heal from some past wounds. A soldier will not last very long on the front line if they are not at full strength for the battle. God has given Laura wisdom to see this. She will be going to Portland to live with a friend and to get help from very strong Christian women there. The team will miss her but we know that while she may not be physically here she will be doing battle by praying for us. Many a battle has been won by a well-timed call to bring in the artillery. That is what Laura is going to be doing for us. She is going to pray to God to bring down the heavy guns to bring down the evil one’s strong holds.

Ministry has been very encouraging this month. Chris and I have been meeting with Ben, Tyler, and Jake, the guys from Alaska Pacific University (APU). Their passion and excitement to reach their fellow students has been a nice change. Because APU is here in Anchorage Chris and I have been able to get out of our apartment and meet with them. We have been going to Tuesday night chapel at APU. Chris and I meet with the guys after chapel to see how things are going with them and talk about starting a bible study. Ben, Tyler, and Jake filled out the application to be a student leader and signed the statement of faith paper saying that they agree with what Campus Crusade believes. The guys have no problem sharing their faith and from the sound of it, they have been sharing with people on campus already. APU now has a student lead ministry, praise God!

Chris and I explained to Ben and Tyler that we would not be leading the Bible study, nor would we be telling them what the Bible study should cover. We want the Bible study to be theirs. This will make sure that they take ownership of the ministry on their campus. We explained to them that the Bible study needs to be out reach minded, a place of acceptance, and a time for believers to grow. Ben and Tyler were encouraged by the freedom that we gave them. They ran their ideas by us to see what we thought. They have some good ideas on how to keep the Bible study fun but also a time to grow and learn about God. I am excited to see how God is going to use them. The guys leading the Bible study will be at APU for a while, which is nice to ensure that there is a ministry there next year. Ben is a freshman and Tyler is a transfer junior.

During Thanksgiving, Ben talked about their first Bible study. He was so jazzed and excited to have had the first Bible study of the year. I was so encouraged hearing the energy in his voice. The Bible study was on Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Tyler and Ben are thinking that they need to move the Bible study to a later time because some students that wanted to come could not because of class.

Chris and I will continue to meet with Ben, Tyler, and Jake. We will dig into their lives to help them grow in their ministries skills and their faith.

Things you guys can be praying about are:

~ That God would bless Ben and Tyler’s Bible study

~ Strength for Laura as she deals with the wounds of her past

~ For safe travel for the team during Christmas break

~ Pray for God to raise up more leaders in Alaska

Merry Christmas & may God shine his blessings on you,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22:33

Third Times the Charm

2006-11-08T23:20:00.001-09:00

Things up here are going well. We are losing about five minutes of daylight each day. The sun does not come up until about 9:00 and it sets about 5:00. I am use to the sun setting earlier in the evening but I am not use to the sun rising so late. The lack of light makes it a little hard for me to want to get up but other than that, I have not felt any impact from the lack of light.

The weather here has been nice until the last week of October. The temperature was hovering around 40-50 degrees almost the whole month, and then the last week of October the temperature dropped and the snow came. We received about 5 inches of snow on Sunday. The snow was a nice change from the rain that we had been getting, plus it is a lot easier to throw at people.

We have been going to small church on Sunday that meets on the campus of UAA. The church is going to begin remodeling a building that they have just purchased on November 4. Some of us plan to help because it is always fun putting holes in walls. Attending this church has been great for us to meet people outside of our team. One person in particular gave us his couches and his table. He has not used them because he is remodeling his house. I have gone over a couple of times to help him hang sheet rock and to put insulation into his attic. I have really enjoyed getting to know him.

Ministry was hard this month. We had to start calling all the students we met during our travels to UAF, UAS Juneau, UAS Sitka, and Sheldon Jackson. Calling students and getting to know where they are coming from spiritual, is fun when we are able to get a hold of them. When we are not able to talk with students on the phone then we are working on our new staff training assignments. This is hard to do after traveling all over Alaska because I do not feel like I am doing any work. I want to be out there meeting students in person and sharing life with them. So for me to sit and read a book is hard. Granted, the books we are reading are good and they help me in influencing students, but it does not feel like work. I think some of this mind set comes from years of working construction because at the end of the day, I had something to look at. I could see the progress of my labor. I may never see what becomes of my labor up here and this is something I have to be ok with it. God is working and doing great things. We have seen two students come to know the Lord. I have been able to talk with about 25 students about God and I have shared the gospel about 10 times.

Things in Juneau are moving slow. The students that I have been talking with have been busy and have not had time to read over the starter kit. This kit explains to students how to start a ministry on their campus. In this kit, there is an application that students need to fill out. We have this application because it gives us insight into the students and helps us see if they are ready to lead. We also have a sheet of paper that has Crusade’s statement of faith. Students are required to read this and sign it, indicating that they agree with Crusade’s statement of faith. By having every student leader do this it helps to ensure that the leaders are all on the same page and have a clear understanding of where they need take their ministry. The last important thing that we go over with the students is the critical path for the local leader. This paper explains the four pillars a ministry needs. These pillars are prayer, evangelism, discipleship, and sending. Most students have no problem with prayer, discipleship, and sending, but they do not feel like they need to share their faith. We work with them and help them understand the need for sharing the gospel. A ministry that does not share the gospel is one that is dying.

The team was planning on going to Valdez, but heavy rains in the area knocked out the bridge into Valdez. We looked into taking a ferry to Valdez but there was no guarantee when we could take a ferry back because of the large number of people trying to leave. Flying would have been too expensive so we figured that this was a clear sign from God to hold off on going to Valdez for a while.

Instead of traveling, we stayed in Anchorage and went to Alaska Pacific University (APU). APU was once a Methodist university but about 25 years ago it stopping being a Christian school. APU is now a very liberal school. The college is a private school, which makes it hard for us to reach because of all the restrictions. I met with the person at conference services who needed to give us permission to set up an information table. He told me “we do not allow religion on campus. We never have and we never will.” This was discouraging because the information table was how we were meeting students, but God put Chris and me in contact with three Christian students at APU.

Chris and I have since met with these guys a couple of times. We talked to them about what we are trying to get started and how they can help. These guys were ready to get something started right then. We went through the starter kit with them. We do this to make sure that if we are going to put our time and Crusade’s resources into helping them get something started, that they agree with what Crusade is doing.

Things you guys can be praying about are:

~ That we would be patient in getting ministries started on Campus here.

~ That Chris and I would meet strong Christian women to help lead the ministry at APU

~ For safe travel to our long distance training in Reno

~ Pray for the University of Alaska Anchorage student leaders

Take care and God bless,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22.33

APU Pray Walking for…. Cars

2006-10-30T14:57:00.000-09:00

One fine Wednesday in the middle of October the team was prayer walking on the campus of Alaska Pacific University (APU). Chris and Amy paired up and head off to pray for APU, Laura and I paired off and head the other way. This left Scott, our Spirit filled leader, to pray by himself. While walking around praying, Scott decided he should go through the parking lot and look for used cars. He notices a nice car but no for sale sign. What Scott did notice however was that the car had three different Christian bumper stickers on it. He took out a piece of paper and wrote down an invitation to help us launch a ministry and our team’s email address. After a quick prayer to God to prevent the rain from making the ink run, he crammed the note into the weather striping of the drive’s door. A week of Scott checking the email and no response left him with little hope the note survived. Nevertheless, God was at work.

Chris, Laura, and I head back to APU a week later to prayer walk again. During our time with God, we asked for the walls to come down, for God’s truth to break forth, and for some women leaders to rise up. Later that day the three of us went to a young adult group. After hearing a great message, we headed out to the lobby to see if some friends wanted to hang out. While deciding where to go a girl walks up to Chris and asks if he went to the University of Idaho (UI). It turns out that she was part of Crusade at UI and was in the same sorority as a friend of Chris’. She just happens to have transferred to APU and told us of a note from some guy Scott (which was crammed in her window) that she need to email. Before parting ways, she gave Chris her number, and told him she was anxious for us to get back to her. God is at work up here in Alaska and has been great to be a part of it.

Second of All

2006-10-03T13:04:00.003-08:00

I find it hard to believe as I travel around Alaska that it is part of my job and that my boss is God. I have been able to see some amazing works of God. For example on our way to Fairbanks we drove through Denali National Park. We were able to see Denali (Mt. McKenly) in all of it’s glory, towering over the land. Denali is so tall that it makes its own weather patterns around it. God also blessed the team with the ability to go sea kayaking on a lake in Juneau that is feed by a glacier. We were able to kayak over to a cove, beech the kayaks, and go explore an ice cave made by a stream that flows into the glacier. It was incredible to see where the glacier carved a trough through solid rock. I have some great pictures that you can view on my website.

The first day on campus is decoding which means we spend 2-4 hours walking around praying for the campus. The time we spend in prayer depends on the size of the campus. Next we find out about students, where they like to hang out, how many live on campus, what are the popular majors, and get a feel for the culture of the campus. We then track down the person in charge of student activities to see what it takes to be recognized by the school as a group. We find out where we can set up tables and hang posters so that we don’t violate any rules. Day two and three are giving out servival kits. These consist of a laundry bag with a copy of the New Testiment, a toy of some sort, a DVD of the Jesus Flim, a music CD, and a book. All that the students have to do is fill out a one minute questionnaire that lets us know their spirtual views. Day four and five are spent meeting with pastors to find out if they would be willing to partner with us, and meeting with potential student leaders. The reason for meeting with pastors is that we want a church we can tell students to go to. The church needs to be biblically sound and a place where they can grow in their faith.

Fairbanks is a beautiful place in the fall. Picture forests as far as you can see made of birch and aspen all turning their fall colors with a few dark green pine trees mixed in. Not everything in Fairbanks is bright however. The campus is very dark spiritually speaking. Some of it could be attributed to the long cold winter that has temperatures that hover around -30 to -40 almost all winter. Another possible factor is the three hours of daylight Fairbanks gets during the winter if the weather is good. We need lot of pray to break down the strong holds of the evil one at University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). There is a Christian club there that makes other believers not refer to themselves as Christians. The man that leads this group has been called the most hated man on campus according to newspapers. This club is an “in your face” pushy type. Their message is that of a street evangelist. I am sure you are familiar with the type. They tell you that you are going to hell because you are a wicked person who is full of sin. While this is true for some it is not the way our Lord and Savior taught us to share our faith. We had to change the name of Campus Crusade for Christ to CRU. Alaska so that people will not think we are connected to that guy and his group Creation Club for Christ.

Our time in Fairbanks was good. We were able to meet some believers that want to see some changes on their campus. The sad thing is that there were only a handful and the most eager ones were women. There is a lack of men stepping up to serve here.

Juneau’s climate is that of temperate rain forest. This make for lush green forest with dense foliage on the ground. The terrain is very mountainous and the clouds hug the hills closely. This sounds like a place where you would like to live right? Well I hope you like rain, a lot of rain. It rains there about 300 days a year. Chris and I were walking in the rain to a student’s apartment to meet with him and we notice a stream next to us that was not there a day ago.

The students at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) in Juneau are very open and friendly. There is stronger feeling of joy there compared to students at UAF. We had no problem getting to know students or giving out survival kits. God really blessed us with contacts on the campus of UAS Juneau. We were able to get more contacts than at UAF.

Sitka has two campuses, one is UAS Sitka and the other campus is Sheldon Jackson. Sheldon Jackson is a private four year school that use to be owned by the Presbyterian Church. But about 20 years ago the church relinquished control. Both campuses are small and students at UAS take most of their classes online which makes it hard for us to meet up with them. We are trying to figure out a way to do this. But in spite of this problem God has blessed us with some really strong believers that want to see things changed for God. We plan on helping them reach students however we can.

My definition of ministry is changing into a view that is simpler. We had a regional director come up during our time in Juneau and he did a good job of showing me this. He likes to say “give em heaven” which has helped me to see that ministry is life. Jesus told us to “go”, but this “go” is better translated “as you go”. I am starting to better understand this and how it plays out in my life regardless of what I am doing. Thanks for your prayers and keep them coming because we can not have too much prayer.

Things you guys can be praying about are:

~ The Devil’s strong hold in Fairbanks would be broken

~ Men would step up and serve like God has called us to

~ God would give the team wisdom in reaching the campuses

~ Pray for me to seek God above all and that this would overflow into my ministry

Take care and God bless,

Wesley Bennett

2 Samuel 22:33

A Weekend with the Tempo

2006-09-10T22:10:00.002-08:00

The guys went fishing over Labor Day weekend. The girls were invited to go camping in Homer with a contact, which turned into staying at someone’s house that had nice warm BEDS and showers.

The guys went fishing for pink salmon on the Kenai River on Saturday. Fishing for pink salmon was a blast. Every fish that we caught was at least five pounds. Scott caught a pink on his second cast. It was not hard fishing. The easiest way was to just snag them but if you don’t hook a fish in the mouth you can’t keep it. Pink salmon are not very good eating so we did not keep any. Scott did catch a nice sliver salmon which we did keep and eat, tasty. Chris probably has the record for smallest fish caught will salmon fishing.

Saturday night was not a good night because all of the camp grounds were full and it was raining making it worthless to try and pitch a tent. So we sleep my Ford Tempo. Yep all three of us big strapping young men stayed the night in the tempo. Well actually we did not sleep in my Tempo because sleep implies rest. We did how ever take three to five, one hour naps during the night. Needless to say we did not feel very good in the morning, but there was fish to be had. Scott slept hugging his rod case all night. Chris’ night was spent curled up in the back seat with my rolled up sleeping bag. The night for me consisted of trying to use Scott’s rolled up sleeping bag as a pillow while playing twister with the front steering wheel. Scott is a snorer and Chris decided to join in with is own melody. The two of them combined was to much of harmonious melody for me to over come.

On Sunday we went fishing for trout on the Russian River. It was a new experience for me because fishing for Alaskan trout is different from fishing for trout in Montana and Wyoming. I am use to fishing structure and looking for places the trout might be hiding and the bugs would hang out. But in Alaska you use a plastic bead that looks like a salmon egg. This is tied about two inches above your hook. You then have a strike indicator where your leader and fly line are tied together. When the indicator bobs under you have to set the hook quick. I did not catch any trout. I hooked one but it got off. I guess I need more practice. Over all it was a great time. Scott showed Chris and I a think or two about how to hook a trout. The pictuer to the right is what the rainbow trout looked like. This fish however was not caught by any of us.

The First of Many

2006-09-09T18:55:00.002-08:00

I have made it to Alaska safe and sound. God has put together a great team. My teammates are Scott Wyneger, Chris Bemis, Amy Gibson, and Laura Falbey. We are short one girl because she was unable to raise the support needed to come. It has been great to hear my teammates’ stories of how there support went . In order to go to our training time, we were required to have at least 80% of our support raised. Laura had only 35% raised with one day left to reach the 80% mark. Her church let her know that they would support her and gave her enough support to reach 80%. The team praised God for that because we really needed her, not just for Amy’s sake, but to complete the team as well.

The drive up to Alaska was beautiful. British Colombia (BC) is full of trees. It took Chris and me two days to drive through BC and the trees never stopped. We would top a hill and look out and all we could see was more hills covered in trees. The logging mills up there are vast. One mill in particular stretched out for at least a mile. The terrain does not become rugged until you get into Yukon Territory. The mountains there look enormous because of the low elevation. The elevation is around 1,000 feet and the mountains reach up about 4,000 feet or higher. Chris mentioned that it look like we were driving to the mines of Moria for those of you who are Lord of the Rings fans.

Our first couple of days in Anchorage was spent getting a feel for the city. It has been a little hard to get my bearings. I have not gotten lost yet, but I have had to make some U-terns. On the 27^th we went to Change Point Church. The church has three services and has about 3,000 people. The feel reminds me a lot like the church my brother and his wife go to in Billings. On the 29^th the team went out looking for places to live. The housing up here is outrages: for a two bedroom, one bath apartment it is anywhere from $875 to upwards of $1,300. Most apartments include heating, water, and cable. The prices are not bad for the guys because we can split it three ways; the girls had a harder time finding what they could afford. We were able to find a place that we all like. The girls will have to share a room, but the apartment is good sized and there was an opening right across the hall that is a two bedroom place where the guys can live. The area looks like it use to be an old army base, but it is in a nice neighborhood. Another perk of where we are livings is that it is close to the airport and to a grocery store. So God really blessed us with a nice place.

The guys lived in a facility provided by the Wesleyan Church of Anchorage and the girls stayed with some people that Chris knows here until we were able to move into our apartments. Living at a church for two weeks has been an experience. Chris and I were sleeping in a nursery and Scott was sleeping in the hallway because he snores. For showers, the guys went over to where the girls were staying. I had my first incident using a coin operated laundry facility which was a nice learning experience, but I am glad the apartment has its own washer and dryer. For food we have been eating sandwiches, going to Costco and Scott bought a little BBQ grill that we have use to cook burgers and salmon.

Most of our ministry work has been planning what this fall semester will look like. During the month of September we will go to Fairbanks, Juneau, and Sitka to meet with students, share our faith, and get local support. We will be spending a week in Fairbanks and the Crusade students from the University of Alaska in Anchorage are going to becoming up to help over the weekend. I am looking forward to the trip to Juneau because we will fly into to Juneau, stay there a week and then take a ferry to Sitka for a few days. The ferry ride should be beautiful.

God has done a lot in putting people in our path to help us. I am excited to see what God will do in the future.

Things you guys can be praying about are:

~ Safety for our travels around the state

~ That our team would seek the Lord

~ As teammates, we would have patients in dealing with one another

~ That we would be not believe the lies Satan is trying to tell us

Take care and God bless,

Wes Bennett

What I believe

2006-08-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

God sent his son to die on the cross for our sins that we may have a personal relationship with our Father in heaven. But to be a part of this relationship I must believe with all my heart that Jesus is the son of God and died on the cross to wash my sins clean.

49th State

Alaska was the 49th state to enter the Union which was back on January 3rd, 1959. This state is two and a half times larger than Texas or 586,412 sq. miles. The state motto is North to the Future, which our team does not think is very orginal but hey. The state flower is the forget-me-not, the state bird the Ptarmigan, and the state fish is the King Salmon. I didn't know that states had a state fish but Alaska does. The best way to describe Alaska is to think of the ruggedness of the mountains on Hawaii but with pine trees and aspen as dens as the forest in the east. Now add deer, elk, mose, caribou, muskox, bears and whole slue of other animals. It is quite beautiful and all of you should take the time to drive up to Alaska at least once.