Weeks 2 and 3 (and the beginning of 4)

Wow time flies when you're crazy busy! (I think that's how the saying goes...) So sorry for not updating sooner but I have been going at the speed of light or so it seems. Let's see where did I leave off? I believe my last post was right before our fishing trip which was awesome! Here are some of the pictures I took just on the drive

Once we got there we saw that our lovely staff had already set up camp for us and so once we unloaded all of our stuff we did the obvious thing to do at 11:30 at night on the Kenai, we went fishing. We threw on our waders, grabbed our poles and hiked about a three quarters of a mile to our fishing spot. We got our lines in the water as soon as possible and started fishing. Not all of us decided to go over night though some of the guys decided to come at a much more reasonable 4 am. We were fishing for Reds aka Sockeyes. The funny thing about fishing for Reds that I didn't previously know is that it isn't so much fishing as it is snagging. At this point in their run they aren't eating so the only way to catch them is to snag them in the mouth as they swim upstream. I hooked into a few but none of them in the mouth which is the only fair way to catch them. Even though I didn't get to keep them, fishing for them and reeling them in was a blast! After a good days worth of fishing we headed back to camp and heard a message from one of the former leaders of the Alaskan Men's Project and then immediately after some of the guys went right back out on the water. I didn't though for fear of falling asleep on the river and drowning. Justin, one of the staff, and my co-worker (I'll get to that in a second) Ben all decided to get cozy for a couple of hours in our little tent in camp bromance. All of the camps were named and as it happened that was ours. After a few hours of sleep we all headed to the river to meet up with the diehards and fish for a little. I didn't hook into anything this time but had a blast none the less. Below are some pics of fishing, fish, my action group leader Byron, and a mama bear with her two cubs who was pacing the other bank the whole weekend.

The day after our fishing excursion was Ben and my first day of work. Work is pretty cool and the people there are pretty nice but it is pretty difficult to keep up with it all day and the hours can be really long. Basically it can be a little stressful since we are technically driving shuttle for 3 hotels and moving bags and stuff for 2 hotels and there is only 2 of us on at any one time (unless there's a bag pull which I'll explain later). Usually there is one guy running shuttle most of the time and the other guy has to go back and forth between hotels to put away/get bags from the bell closets or rooms. When things are busy it definitely gets hectic but so far so good. The reason the hours can be long is that when a big tour bus comes in the hotel makes all of the bellman who can come in come in so that we can manage the sudden appearance/disappearance of bags which happens sometimes 3 or 4 times a day so if we are able to work at that time, we are working. The pay is great though. I get paid $10.68 per hour and then for each bag pull they charge the tour companies $8 per person that we pull bags for and that money gets split between all of the guys working that day. Plus tips are always a nice contribution. All in all last week I made around $850 when you factor everything in (and out...darn you taxes!).

During our first week of work we also had our first week of our city life team's ministry, the sports club. We weren't expecting a very large turnout which proved to be true with just 2 kids coming. This was a little disappointing but it was really fun anyway and afterward we got to treat them to some Taco Bell and drive them home.

After our first week of work a few of us guys decided that we would go floating/fishing down a river one of the days of a weekend. That was really neat but we really did not give ourselves enough time so we only got to fish for about 2 hours and nobody caught anything unfortunately. It was still really fun though! You can see the pic of our inflatable raft crew below.

After this trip we had another long tiring week at work but an amazing experience when it came to our city life team time. We weren't expecting too many more kids than last time and were hopeful for 6 or 7 so that we could play a full court game of basketball but the Lord definitely provided and more than 20 kids came! We were so shocked and excited at the number! We had such a good time too! We played a variated version of football and then we played some basketball and the kids all had a blast! We are even more optimistic for next week because unbeknownst to us, the front door actually locked on us this week on accident so there may have been kids that tried to come but who couldn't get in. It was just so cool and we are so excited to see how the Lord is going to lead us in this and we would all definitely appreciate all of the prayers that we could get for us and the kids involved.

After this week of work was done we went on a backpacking trip on a trail down near Seward. Again we started out pretty late and actually got on the trail around 10:30. The hike up was really great and I was privileged enough to get to spend time with and get to know better some more guys on the project. I set the pace for the group and when I first saw the lake that we were going to be staying at I was breathless. As you will see in the pictures below the scenery was spectacular! We rolled into the place we would camp at around 2 am and immediately my friend John and I set up our little tent and passed out. The next day we got to sleep in and then spend some discussion time with our roommates which was really amazing. We got the rest of the day to ourselves as well so I just spent some time near the lake and just taking in God's beauty. My tent mate and I found a beach near the lake where every single rock was a perfect skipping rock and we spent some time just skipping stones across the dead still water. The next day we took our time packing up and taking off and eventually we got going back down the trail which was even more beautiful than the way up! There are so many things that I'm probably leaving out but it was an awesome trip and I'll let some of my pics speak for themselves. Oh and that picture of the lake with that speck sitting on the snow beside it, the speck is me.

Prayer requests:

For work not to overwhelm me

For the sports club to grow in numbers and in opportunities to share the gospel

For perseverance

For sleep

Thanks so much for all of you who have been so faithful in praying for me and the project!

End of Week 1

God has continued to shower down blessings on me and all of the guys up here. Monday was the first day that we were allowed to look for jobs so my roomy Joe and I went around looking. Or that was what we wanted to do anyway. We actually ended up looking for jobs online for a while, then taking me to an interview that I had for a souvenir shop. On Tuesday three of my friends and I decided that since we didn't have a bus pass or bikes yet that we would walk to downtown. Probably not the best idea. We had about 4 hours to walk downtown (the walk turned out to be about five miles), apply for jobs and walk back. Needless to say we kind of figured we wouldn't get a whole lot done, but God definitely led us. When we were on the outskirts of downtown we were walking by a hotel and on a whim we decided that we would walk in and inquire about jobs. As it happened they were looking for four bellboys for the summer and there was four of us. We gave the front desk our names and numbers and took applications to fill out. After that we left the hotel and went to look for jobs in the nearby mall. As we are walking in we get a call from the hotel asking if we could come back in a half hour and do a group interview. Obviously we said yes so we got a quick bite to eat at the food court and headed back to the hotel. Once there we had a group interview with all four of us but we found out that because of our unique time restrictions that they would only be able to take two of us and that it would have to be the two oldest which as it was was myself and my friend Ben Ooms. They set up a second interview with us for the next day bright and early so Ben and I woke up the next day and did that. We had a very successful second interview and then we were told that there would be a third interview with the head of all of the three hotels (all in downtown anchorage) that we would be working for. Up until this point Ben and I were under the impression that we would just be hauling bags back and forth to and from peoples rooms. We found out that the job was mostly driving a twelve person shuttle van that picked up from all three hotels, the Anchorage Museum, the airport and the train station. Since this would be our job (if the boss liked us of course) our future supervisor loaded us into one of the vans and took us around to the different places we would be driving. Then we had the interview and it went great! After this we picked up some work clothes to give our boss some time to draw up some papers and went back to the hotel to sign some things and do paper work. After this we were kindly driven down to the headquarters for the company we are working for to fill out more paperwork and then a couple blocks down was the place we needed to do our drug testing. It was definitely a long day but if all goes to plan we will be working by Tuesday! The job is also awesome because it pays over $10 per hour plus tips which is pretty good for a couple of guys with zero experience.

Since Ben and I had our jobs locked down, we were able to focus the rest of this week on our community team stuff, and as it happened we were on the same one which was strangely convenient. We had a meeting with the rest of our group and we decided to do a sports club for junior high and high school kids for the remainder of the summer on Friday nights. Once we had this vision set into place we spent the whole next two days going after it to make it happen. Muck of our time was spent trying to find a venue for it but luckily we ended up finding a Boys and Girls club on the east side of Anchorage that was more than happy to partner with us and seeing as they had an indoor gym, they were a perfect fit for our needs. We were supposed to start the program tonight (Friday night) but we couldn't because they were having a BBQ/concert there so we decided to go anyway and hang out with some kids and spread the word about our Sports Club that would be starting next week. All in all we had some amazing conversations with some even more amazing kids and our whole team is super excited for getting to start this club with them next week. Just so that you can get a feel for what the other community teams are doing as well I will give a brief description of each. One of the other teams is a college team that is partnering with the Campus Crusade here at UAA and is reaching out to college students. The other team is dedicated to Native Alaskan ministry and they are partnering with a church that is giving them ways that they can serve and love on that community. I have to say though that I have a particular fondness for my community team. While we are the smallest community team, and probably had the most to figure out on our own, I love what we're doing. I've always wanted to teach high school and it has been really neat getting to interact with students of this age and just to be able to connect with them. I also really like the sports aspect of our ministry since if you know me very well at all you know that I can be pretty competitive and I definitely like that about this ministry. It has already been a really amazing experience and it hasn't even technically started yet! Anyway that was what this week has looked like. Sorry I don't really have any new pictures but I will be sure to take some this weekend since we are going camping and fishing! Also next week Ben and I will hopefully be starting work!

Oh one last quick story. We needed to try our waders on since this weekend we were going fishing. We also needed to make sure they didn't have leaks in them. The way we checked this is we went across the street to the pond and we all waded in. Somehow I ended up getting into a wrestling match with my action group leader Byron and needless to say we both ended up soaking wet! I have to give him credit though, he definitely bested me that time. Rematch pending. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support they are much needed! There have been a few requests for my street address up here in Anchorage so here it is:

Tim Joyce
c/o UAA Conference Services
3700 Sharon Gagnon Lane
Anchorage, AK 99508

A few prayer requests:
For Ben and me as we start our new jobs that we could learn quickly and do them with a heart of love
For our Sports Club, that we would have lots of kids show up and that we could show them the love that they may or may not be getting at home

Days 1-3

And so the adventure begins. I took off for LAX at 4 am with my father to catch my plane for Anchorage Friday. Even at 5:45 am the line for airport security was ridiculously long but alas I made it through. The five hour flight went by surprisingly fast. Even though there were small children running up and down the aisles and three loud Bulgarian men making fun of each other directly behind me I was able to get some sleep and soon I was landing in Alaska. Right when I turned on my phone on the tarmac I received a text from Byron Womack who said that he would be picking me up and that he would be my action group leader for the summer. I called him and as soon as I picked up my bags he was there to take me back to the place I now call home at the University of Alaska Anchorage in on campus apartments. There is six of us in this apartment/action group and we are all from all over the place. I am sharing a room with my new friend and brother in Christ Joe Klinger who was the only one to road trip here. If I thought my 5 hour flight was bad I have nothing on Joe who made a 10 day road trip all the way from Pennsylvania. After we got settled in the staff threw a barbecue for us and we went on a really sweet hike pictures of which can be seen below:

Here it's a little difficult to see but that is a gigantic bull moose on the trail. Luckily we weren't going that way...



The end of the hike where we stopped was absolutely gorgeous. We could see for miles around and it was breathtaking. God's majesty is even more evident on top of a mountain. Oh and in case you were wondering all of these pictures were taken between 8 and 10 pm. Yes it's true, the sun is just always up which is great if you want to do something outdoors at night like go on a hike.

Needless to say after we got home we all just fell right to sleep since many of us were suffering from jet lag and general tiredness. The next day we heard from a great guest speaker named Kirk Brower for most of the day and  it was simply amazing! Yesterday (day 3) we received some evangelism training and we went sharing in Anchorage. The part of town that we went to was a somewhat lower income area and one of the first residents my partner Brian and I talked to warned us about some of the people in the neighborhood but we had no problems. One thing that did kind of shock me is as we were walking by a car I happened to glance and see a guy rolling a joint right there in the front seat of his car. This broke my heart for this guy and this community. One conversation in particular really stood out and blessed Brian and myself immensely and that was completely unexpected was a conversation that we had with a guy named Tom (Tom wasn't his real name but to respect his privacy that will be his name for the sake of this blog). Brian and I were walking by his house and he was in the front yard trying to get his lawn mower to work. We asked if we could talk to him and he was very kind and had us come right into his yard and sit with him. We asked him some questions about manhood and how he felt on certain issues concerning what it meant to be a man and he told us how his father had been missing from his life. Soon after this Tom just began to really open up to us about so many things. His girlfriend and he had recently had a child and had recently been released from prison. They had been stealing food in order that she (being pregnant at the time) could eat and feed the starving child inside of her. Because of this they were not supposed to have any contact with each other and a father was not supposed to be in contact with his child or girlfriend. He also shared with us that his older brother was in prison as well but that his dream was to start a halfway house of sorts where guys getting out of prison could come and stay until they get back on their feet. Little did we know that we were sitting on the stoop of that house, the dream of his brothers that Tom had brought into reality. Just that morning he had gone down to the local food pantry and had filled up the house with food for the people he was currently helping to rehabilitate. Another issue faced tom though in that he was not supposed to have any organization like this due to the terms of his probation. With sponsorships from local organizations though he was able to pull it off. Through all this we could clearly see how great his heart was and how much he really cared for people. This was so encouraging for Brian and me. We also got to share with him our beliefs and how we could rely on God when the going got tough. While Tom was not a Christian when we got there, and he wasn't a Christian when we left, we were still able to share a little of the good news with him and just to let him know that in a world of people who were trying to keep him from achieving his goals that we were praying for him. I also got to help him with his gas can that he had been having trouble with since we got there. While walking away from that conversation left me heartbroken and with hands smelling strongly of gasoline, I also felt this tremendous peace and joy from talking to Tom.

Well that has been the last three days in a nutshell.I hope that now that I have gotten the difficult part of making this blog out of the way I will be able to post pretty often about the rest of my experience here in Alaska and how God is working in this place.

A  few quick prayer requests:
For job seeking
For bonding with my brothers
For a heart of service for the Alaskan people