Just a quick note to let everyone know that we arrived safe in Billings. The flight had a little turbulence, but not too much (although some of the youth thought it was pretty rough). We are currently waiting for our luggage at the baggage claim, so we are safely on the ground.

I think the current agenda is to grab a bite to eat here then head to Cody. Parents: Don’t take that as the absolute truth as we haven’t decided anything for sure.

Thanks for all of your prayers throughout this trip!

-Ole

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we landed safe and sound at Sea-Tac. I’m currently sitting at our gate waiting to board. Will be just a couple of minutes until we start boarding for our short, short flight to Portland.

On an interesting side note, when we pulled out of the driveway at Camp Bingle at 5:30am, there was a rollover accident that happened almost right before we got to it. Two people were injured and were spread out on the pavement when we drove up. The pickup truck was in awful shape. A couple of highway troopers were present, but no ambulance was there yet. Since there is only a single road leading out of the camp, we figured we’d be sitting there for 2 hours (per the troopers) and would subsequently miss our flight in Fairbanks. Mr. Eddy talked to the troopers and as soon as the ambulance left, they quickly cleared a path for us to get through; WHAT AN AMAZING ANSWER TO PRAYER! Please say a prayer for the two that were injured in the accident.

Love to you all, can’t wait to be home (although some youth has expressed that they already miss Alaska, hahaha!).

-Ole

Quincy-

Today we went on the Riverboat Tour – Discovery III Boat. It was quite cool. Got to see a small plane take off and land in the river next to us, saw a number of beautiful houses along the river. Saw a dog sled operation (including 2 puppies Learned a lot about the Native American way of life by visiting a model village. Lunch was at a place we saw from the Riverboat tour – sat outside on their porch for lunch. Then, went to the University Museum where we saw a movie about the Aurora, some beautiful paintings and a natural history section. Then we stopped in downtown Fairbanks for a bit.

I’m so pleasantly surprised and proud of this group of young people – their dedication to get done with items on the camp ‘To Do List’, their positive attitudes toward each other and their work ethic. I didn’t really have any expectations before going on this trip, I just prayed and hoped for the best. I truly hope we have all contributed to each other’s faith walk. I’m already looking forward to youth group in September. I thank anyone who prayed for us! Always appreciated and needed. Looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday! We’ve really enjoyed our time here, but I’m ready to come home to my family and cozy bed!

And, for all the parental figures out there, here is the flight data for tomorrow:

Fairbanks to Seattle-Tacoma, Alaska Airlines Flight 0124
D: 0845 A: 1318

Seattle-Tacoma to Portland, Alaska Airlines (Horizon) Flight 2181
D: 1400 A: 14:52

Portland to Billings, Alaska Airlines (Horizon) Flight 2634
D: 1545 A: 1844

Casey Leong-
today we went on the river boat tour and we got to see an airplane take off and a shelterish looking thing for sled dogs and learned how the escomos lived then we went shopping in the pioneer hotel after that we drove to the pump house where we ate lunch then we went down town to shop there really wasn’t much there but we had fun and we bought fudge at the fudge pot and in the park across the street there were two boys that looked liked twins drumming on 5 gallon buckets then we came home and thats are day, bubye

Sara Reed-

Today I had to sleep in a little because last night after the crew blogged we went on the the camps speed boat and it was SUPER FAST, even faster then grandpa’s boat! Anyways, enough about last night, today was soo much fun, although the temperatures kept changing on me. We spent most of the day at Chena Hot Spring Resort, first we went swimming but I was kind of mad because the only pool us kids were allowed to go in was just an inside pool but the adult pool was amazing. It had a bunch of boulders around it that steaming mineral water came out of. Plus it was outside and then I maybe wouldn’t of been too hot because it was lightly raining outside. After we went swimming we were about to go back to fairbanks to eat but then Bret my dad said that he was pay for us to go on a tour of the Ice hotel. It was really cool and the whole thing was made of ice. They even had a ice bar, and for 500 dollars you can stay the night in one of the two rooms. Brrrrrrrr, I had to leave earlier because my feet were freezing off! What a sight to see though. Everyones stomachs were talking to everyone else’s so we decided to eat at Silver Gulch brewery and I had the best Root Beer EVER! The food was great too. After our great meal we went to the North Pole and Visited Santa… He called me a Princess <3 All and all today was probably the best day, but who knows theres still a tomorrow!

Bret Reed-

Chena Hot Springs is quite an amazing place because they generate all their own power using a combination of geothermal, wind and solar with backup diesel generation for electricity. They also use the geothermal energy from the hot springs to heat their green houses and they also use the hot springs to cool their ice museum / hotel during the warm months. Lots of trees in Alaska, much like driving thru Yellowstone. It rained rained lightly from early morning till about 2pm. It is currently sunny outside and mostly clear. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow. Tammy had a nice wrap-up bible study to recap all our lessons. Tammy also has a nice way of providing a simple subject for study that can generate a lot of thought and introspection.

Tammy Scott-
Stick a fork in us we are done! It has been a grueling 8 days of labor but the last project has been checked off the list and we are celebrating by taking showers and turning in. Who that say that we ain’t bad? Parents, you should be very proud of your children. They took their jobs seriously and worked hard to get them done right. I have gotten lots of positive feed back from the staff of camp bingle about the quality of work that our kids have done. I do believe we are going to Cheena Hot springs tomorrow and soak some of the soreness away hopefully. Then we may take a short trip to the North Pole and visit the reindeer, Yes you read that right. We are all definitely ready for some much needed and much deserved r & r. I’m looking forward to the next 2 free days and really looking forward to getting back to Cody Saturday. This has been an amazing experience but as our dear friend Dorthy Gale has been known to say, There is no place like home!” Love to all, we’ll see you soon!

Anna Reed-
Hmmm… it was the last day of working, which is beyond exciting!!!!!! 8 days of raking and hauling and cutting down trees makes me feel like a very accomplished person
Today eric and i painted the outhouse, and then helped move the boat holder and cleaned the house with the help of the rest of the group. The use of a baby voice has been very common lately in the mission house hold. And as usual my dad has been working later than everybody else… but unlike home he can’t work until it gets dark so i think he is a little frustrated. The most entertaining part of today was listening to eric and his mom’s phone call. I believe everybody wishes they could speak spanish now
Because this is my last blog i want to make sure that everybody knows how great of a group is here. Our leaders are amazing and everybody is one big family, working with this group has really been a great experience. The next two days are going to be a total adventure. Hot springs and swimming maybe seeing an ice museum and then a riverboat tour and shopping the next day:D and Hopefully some really good seafood!
Dear Family, Little Bubs, I miss you very very much and when i get home i’m gonna give you a huge hug, and you too mom along with lark and bells and ricky I am sad to be leaving but i will be happy to be home soon.
Love from Alaska see everyone Saturday night

Kennedy Corr-
Hello Everyone! To all who diss the Peanut Butter sandwich, it was actually pretty good (this coming from someone who extremely dislikes raw onions!).
Anyways – Today was our last work day and we got everything done on our original list! We did have a few extra projects that didn’t get finished but thats ok because everyone at the camp was so happy with what we did for them and their camp! I am very excited for the next couple of days that we’ve been calling our ‘free days’. We’re going swimming in a hot spring and going on a riverboat tour. Plus shopping in Fairbanks and North Pole, Alaska! Yesterday the camp director Ray gave us T-shirts and some of them say ‘staff’ so we feel special! I hope everything is going well to all other friends and I can’t wait to see you sunday!
Mom – I miss you extremely and I’m glad the show is going well. Tell everyone hi for me tonight! I’m also glad that All-State went so well! Did dad or grandma and grandpa Corr go? I wish I was there but I’m enjoying Alaska so much! Even though the water was really cold I was glad I got in again because I did have a slight fear there for a couple days and you know I love the water! About the car… yeah. I’m kind of freaking out inside so wanna give just one more detail? Type of car perhaps? I love you so much and I will talk to you very soon! Love- Kenn

Macy Kenney-
This will be short. Tomorrow is our two fun days! I am so excited for them! We are going to go to the Hot Springs and to Santa’s village, where there are Caribou! Then we are going to go on a riverboat tour and shopping in Fairbanks on Friday. We also got some awesome t-shirts that i will love and cherish forever! That is so sweet that Jessie is bringing me dead birds! It touched my heart!

Ole Sondeno-

First off, I apologize to my Mom & Roy for not replying to all of their comments. Mom – Thanks so much for taking care of our Princess Myla and watching the house, thanks for all of your help and keeping up with us on the blog (and posting comments too). Roy – Thanks so much for keeping watching over little Denis the Menace while we are gone and keeping us up to date here on the blog with comments!

We’ve been keeping plenty busy with all the fix-up stuff around the camp and our devotionals each morning. Today we put out the dock on the lake for the speedboat and rearranged some of the material that leads out to the dock, which took all of us missionaries and all the camp counselors (the stuff was quite heavy and awkward). We also finished a bunch of little jobs here and there like trimming grass and small shrubs from around a couple cabins, chopped up more firewood, dug trenches under a few cabins to help with drainage problems, tightened up the hardware on the bunkbeds throughout the camp, Bret got hot and cold water flowing at a cabin near ours, and lots and lots of other fix-up jobs around camp.

We had a wonderful dinner of chicken pot pie and after dinner Ray Eddy (the camp director) had wonderful gifts for us; Camp Bingle t-shirts!!! We will be wearing our new gifts during the Sunday service we will be putting on June 12th, so keep watch for them.

All the blogging for tonight. Tomorrow is our last day of working around the camp so we will be trying to wrap up the jobs we are only midway through and after that we will be heading out for fun in Alaska.

SPECIAL NOTE TO JONENE GEILE & TYLER HENRY:

Thanks for your help in putting together the service for this Sunday. Based on what we’ve planned with the youth, here is what I’d ask of you two:

Jonene – If you could put together the normal worship service (within Sunday Plus on the projector computer), using the information that Bret e-mailed Gina (the hymns, call to worship, etc.). If you need any pictures for the service feel free to grab them from our blog (http://fpcchurch.wordpress.com) website. As for the sermon portion of the service, we will be having a PowerPoint presentation so you can leave that slide blank or just skip it.

Tyler – The service should be fairly normal, except during the sermon portion which will be a PowerPoint presentation. We will have that put together and loaded on the projector PC before service begins (and the PowerPoint will be tested). You will just need to switch from the SundayPlus software to PowerPoint when the sermon begins. As the youth plan their PowerPoint presentation I’ll let you know of the details as Sunday gets closer.

THANK YOU BOTH FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP!

-Ole

Eric Garcia-

Blogging again. yay! today was a good day. Anna and i were shoveling and picking at the ground around the ATCO cabin. we did that ALL DAY. Then we painted the outhouse….white. who paints the INSIDE of an outhouse white? i fell asleep in a chair straight up. We watched the movie Shrek The Final Chapter. Pretty good. the others put in a dock today for the speed boat. i will attempt to drive said speed boat. we didn’t canoe today cause we were tired. I tanned a little bit. but I’m sun proof so not much. bye.

Emily Reed-
Today we did various tasks around the camp which included picking up brush piles, sorting them into piles and stacking wood. We also loaded up the dock boards and transported them down to the waterfront. The counselors for the camp have all arrived and invited us to do a team building game with them. We had to stand back to back with our arms linked together and they placed a water ballon in between our backs. Then we had to go through an obstacle course. Me and sara successfully went through the course without bursting the water ballon. Today was the warmest day so far, besides the day we arrived. Yesterday, we went and saw the great Alaskan Pipeline and skipped rocks underneath it. One of the counselors bought us Alaskan Ice Cream, we had some tonight for dessert. It was sooo good. I hope you all our enjoying summer in Cody hopefully without bugs!!

Kennedy Corr-
Hi Mom! Holy cow this morning it dawned on me… I miss you a lot! Hope everyone is having fun in Cody so far! About next sunday, 1) We are aware that next Sunday is Pentecost and I didn’t pick Pentecost songs so if they won’t work that is absolutely fine! I tried to choose some that have been ‘traditional’ that many people like and there are 5 so choose the ones you would like – #1 A Heart For You, #44 Lord I Life Your Name On High, #59 Shine Jesus Shine, #68 They’ll Know We Are Christians, and #76 You Have Been Good. Choose whatever Jonene would like. And… we all were planning on it being the usual crew – you, me, Joe, and Jonene. I love you lots and tell everyone hi. I am making postcards tonight so I hope they get to you on time and if not it’s ok that just means I get to see you first Love, Kenn

Bret Reed-
Ole did a great job with the bible lesson today. First he opened up with a lesson in praying 1st praising the Lord by acknowledging all the Lord’s wonderful attributes, 2nd prayers of thanks giving for all the Lord has done for us and 3rd, prayers of petition for all the things we need help with in our lives and the people we interact with.

Ole’s focus was on keeping our spiritual fire burning brightly. He gave a chemistry example of throwing boiling hot water into sub zero temperature and the water appears to turn in to steam and vanish. This is what can happen to our spiritual fire if we surround ourselves with only people/friends who have contrary religious beliefs.

Ole tied this to Ephesians verses talking about unity with fellow believers and the the Holy Spirit. Each believer is an important part of the whole body and when all parts of the body work in unison under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God’s plan will be accomplished in amazing ways. We must have some time with God and fellow christians to renew our spiritual fire so we can see and hear God’s plan for our lives. The youth talked about how prayer is an important component to protecting and fueling the flame.

Ole used a Galatians passage focusing faith being expressed thru action of love. This led to the discussion by the youth of how the work we are doing here will allow the camp counselors to prepare spiritually to lead the youth at camp instead of preparing the the camp physically to receive the campers. I am excited to see Ole’s activity tomorrow for teaching his lessons.

Eric Garcia-
Today was our first “day off/ planning day” we got up at around 9:15. Last night we watched the movie Babe. We stayed up till 1:30am BUT IT WAS STILL SUNNY AND THE SUN SET AT MIDNIGHT!!!!! We went for a midnight canoe trip to celebrate the land of the midnight sun. The girls found a mouse today in there room. his name is chubs. Mr. Reed ran our activity this after noon. we had boat races to learn about doing things as a unit. Macy and Kennedy tipped out of their canoes today into really cold water. they are still alive. after a small break today we went to the Alaskan PIPE LINE!!! it is huge, but we really went to go get ice cream well goodnight cya whenever I do this again!

Tammy Scott -
After four grueling days of labor we took a day of rest today. We all needed to take a day and be thankful for where we are:) After a delicious breakfast made by Mr. Reed we went back to the cabin where the youth planned the different parts of the Sunday service we are in charge of on June 12. Everyone has assignments to participate in next Sunday’s service and report in their own words what they learned to the congregation during the trip. We then enjoyed hanging out at the beach and enjoying what sunshine snuck through the clouds. Starting to feel a bit bad that we have brought the rainy weather with us to Alaska! We did an activity that involved canoes and learning how hard it is to maneuver one by yourself and working with others to get through the choppy waters. Macy and Kennedy learned first hand how cold the Alaska waters are this time of year, other than getting extremely cold they are fine and are now proud members of the polar bear club! When it was time for the leaders to man their own canoes it turned into a race in which your truly won, o I jumped into the frigid waters to celebrate and join the polar bear club! Not the best decision I ever made. Burrrrr! After dinner we made our way to Delta Junction, a little town one hour away to see the Alaska pipeline. We saw some moose on the way and talked to a security guard for the pipeline who happened to be from Montana originally. Small world. we then got some ice cream from town and headed back home. A big thanks to Isaac and Rudy our new friends from camp who played tour guide for us and introduced us to Alaska volcano chips and northern light creamery ice cream! Thank you all so much for your prayers and blogs and encouragement:) We love and miss you all and even though we are enjoying our time together, we are looking forward to going home to you. God Bless!

Kennedy Corr-
So… Alaska can be very dangerous I’ve decided! We’ve been dealing with a lot of wood and sticks moving and chopping and stacking which is not too hard but my arms are very scratched up! Then today we were doing canoe races first singly and then in pairs and Macy and I decided we wanted to take a swim! The water is so cold that it could stop a person’s circulation if in there too long. Mom I am fine! It was nothing some shaking, a fire, lots of dry sweatshirts and a blanket I’m glad I packed couldn’t fix. But it’s not all bad! Today I attempted to skip rocks at a river under the Alyeska (Alaska) Pipeline and then we got really good ice cream at the Northern Lights Dairy Ice Cream Shop… long name. Also today we planned our service for next week and we need a little help from home. Mom – do we have praise music next Sunday? If so, I have songs picked out. If not, I have songs picked out and I would like to do Praise Music if possible… Well that is all for now and can’t wait for more fun coming up this week Tell all family hi and I’m glad Jack is having a good time! Love to all, Family and Friends

Macy Kenney-
Today I fell into the lake with Kennedy. It was scary and actually kind of fun! It was really cold though. The canoe flipped over when we where trying to turn. The water froze me so fast that i couldn’t breathe. But Tammy and Quincy where there in a pattle-boat and saved us. Other than that, today was a nice relaxing day. We also saw the Alaska Pipeline and went and got ice cream and fries. It was REALLY good! Talk to you guys later!

Casey Leong -
Hello everyone it is great to hear comments from you people, now to be honest with you I usually do not talk much in public and now I guess Im getting on everyones nerves but everything is going great a lot of work but it seems that everything is ahead of schedule it is actually kinda good to get away from some technology where there are no distractions Im still not home sick but then again iv never been home sick in my life i say it is freedom from my house however I do miss my dog. It is really great to hear from you guys and good bye.

Emily Reed -
Hello to friends and family back in Cody. So far we have survived the Alaskan Wilderness. This morning me Sara and Quincy went on a run, instead of seeing a moose we saw a car . But all is not lost, later in the day as we were working an older man told us he had spotted a bear cub up in a tree of off the road. Ole went to investigate, but to only find the cub was not a cub it was a fungus mound growing off the tree. We named it the Fungus Bear. In the morning we took all the canoes out of the boathouse, and blew up the blowtoys. Then we moved on to gathering all the brushpiles and sorting them into piles (Alaska has way too many trees). We finished of the day by cooking hotdogs and roasting marshmallows and a little canoe/paddle boat ride around the lake. Tell the boys thank you for taking care of Bentleys pen sounds like you guys are having a good time back home.

Macy Kenney-
Hi everyone! I like to type on the computer and be close to technology so that’s why i’m blogging again out of turn. Just kidding, i like to tell everyone who reads this blog whats the scoop. We’ve been working hard, like really hard. And i have been able to run some big scary leg-chopping type of power tools. I learned how to weed-wack and i will soon learn how to drive a 4-wheeler! Even though we don’t have one at home. It’s weird being 10:07 pm and it’s day light. I’m happy dad talked me into bringing a watch. Tomorrows the day-of-rest and i’m looking forward to it. We went to a store called the Knotty-Store that was made out of wood like the wood at Old Faithful. It was an amazing store! I bought good stuff! I have also taken ALOT of pictures. The only animal that i have seen is the dead stuff squirrel in the cafeteria. I used the trick that dad taught me with the wet towel over the face to make a mask for the weed-wacking and the lawn mowing. I hope that the cats are doing well!!!! Miss you all!!

06-03-2011

Ole Sondeno -

Good evening everyone! Today was another busy day in much higher temperatures (didn’t see a thermometer though, so can’t provide details though, sorry!). After a delicious hot breakfast of pancakes, sausage, oatmeal, coffee, orange juice, milk, and cereal, Quincy led a Bible study centered around developing ones daily life with several scripture verses, including Exodus 20:1-17, Proverbs 14:29, and Mark 4:1-20.

After our study, we started the manual labor. Today, we did a lot of brush, tree, and grass trimming around the main lodge and the cabin we are staying in. Bret was busy running the heavy-duty weed eater and the chain saw as Eric and Casey split the wood using a hydraulic wood splitter. Anna and Macy cleaned our cabin very thoroughly as Emily and Sarah washed all the windows. Kennedy helped everybody do a bit of everything. Macy did lots of weed eating and mowing. Quincy and I tried to do a bit of earthwork down at the lake front. Tammy, Anna, and Becky (the facility manager for Bingle Camp) hand-trimmed all of the larger brush from around the cabin.

Dinner was a tasty chicken noodle casserole, green beans, corn, green salad, and chocolate chip cookies. After dinner we played a Biblical-based game of Scrabble and then planned on a camp fire for roasting marshmallows for s’mores, but a rain shower put us out of commission, so we roasted marshmallows over the gas cooking stove in the kitchen instead! Not quite as fun, but just as tasty. Following our s’mores adventure, Ray Eddy (the camp director) came back after buying all kinds of supplies in town. We helped him unload the pickup and then headed back to the cabin for a fun-filled evening of Crazy Uno. A special thanks to Daniel and Balea Olson for teaching us the game!

Well, all for now, thanks for the prayers and keeping up with us on the blog!

Anna Reed -

Whoo first blog of the mission trip… so far on this trip i have tripped, chopped down at least 300000000 trees, gotten bitten by so many bugs i could not even count and laughed a ton limping around the bingle camp has really been interesting and a lot of fun. Alaska is amazing and so beautiful, it reminds me a lot of Yellowstone actually. Today i learned that i LOVE chopping down trees there are these neat tree choppers that are a ton of fun. its one of the jobs i can actually do. The food is amazing the people are all nice and i can not wait for the next day when i go to sleep. Mom i miss you and bubs a lot, how are lark and the cows? is Bells better? I hope its actually warm down there because sadly we brought the rain up here. Today it was cloudy, but it cleared out until we wanted to build a fire and it started raining The laKE is so beautiful and paddle boating is great physical therapy for my knee. Anyways i think im going to go to sleep because we are all so sleepy goodnight all!