Youth from the Bush of Alaska Attend
Summer Bible Camp for the First Time

Nestled among snow capped mountains and glaciers in the Alaska Range of mountains sits beautiful Lake Clark. The lake water is glacier blue since all of its water comes from runoffs of nearby glaciers. (If you are ever flying over Lake Clark on Alaska Airlines at 35,000 feet, the lake looks like a beautiful sparkling blue topaz setting between green mountains.) To the south of Lake Clark is Lake Illiamna, where recently the largest deposit of gold ever found in the North American continent is being mined.

Midway up Lake Clark sits the small community of Port Alsworth. Gravel airstrips are on both sides of the small community, and right in the middle of the village on the lakefront sits Tanalian Bible Camp. The camp has been there for some years and it serves over 30 nearby villages for summer Bible camp for youth. Out of the current 30 villages it serves, only eight villages have a church and only one village, the village of Dillingham, has a youth group at the Dillingham Moravian Church.

Recently Franklin Graham, director of Samaritan’s Purse, was visiting the camp and had breakfast with the camp director, James Walsh. Over a bowl of Cheerios, Franklin asked James how Samaritan’s Purse could assist the camp. The camp ended up with a brand new beautiful two-story lodge and all the cabins were restored with cedar siding all provided by Samaritan’s Purse. The lodge faces the lakefront and serves as a church on Sunday mornings for the community as well.

Last summer, the Dillingham Moravian Church was blessed with a team from the First Baptist Church of Moore, Oklahoma, who flew up to Alaska at their own expense and hosted a Vacation Bible School and held nightly outreaches to the teens.

While the team was in Dillingham, Pastor Conrad shared some of the problems that village youth face in the bush of Alaska. It is estimated that over 80% of youth suffer from some form of abuse and the suicide rate is five times higher than the national average.

Pastors Rick Whitaker and Brad Aylor from Moore, Oklahoma, had a challenge to come back to Alaska this summer and host a Bible Camp, free of charge, for youth who never attended any type of summer camp. The two leaders from First Baptist flew back up to Alaska last October and met with Pastor Conrad and James Walsh in Anchorage and flew on to Tanalian Bible Camp in Port Alsworth to the discuss the plans. The result of the meetings was a decision to offer to the youth from three new villages where youth have never attended to come and attend a free week of camp with all expenses paid this summer. The villages of Manokotak, Togiak, and Twin Hills were chosen. All three of these villages have a Moravian Church in them and are part of the Togiak District of the Alaska Moravian Church.

Pastor Conrad was able to fly to the villages early in July this summer with Mark McGee, the Director of Follow-Up and Outreach of Tanalian Bible Camp, and recruit several youth to attend camp. Forty-one youth sent in registrations and attended Bible Camp July 28th through August 4th at no charge. It was an incredible time of blessing both for the staff and campers. The camp staff came from a ministry in Alabama, First Baptist Church of Moore, Oklahoma, and the Dillingham Moravian Church.

The air travel was provided as a joint effort of Samaritan’s Purse who has a ministry in Soldotna, Alaska, named Samaritan Air and MARC (Missionary Aviation Repair Center). Samaritan Air has two planes that fly in and out of Russian to assist believers in the Chukotka region. They have a 10 passenger Caravan and a 9 passenger King Air that they gave to the camp to use free of any charge to pick up the youth. The pilots were provided by the MARC ministry in Alaska. It is a ministry that has four 9 passenger Navahos and offers air travel for only the cost of fuel to ministries throughout rural Alaska. (The Alaska Moravian Church uses MARC every January for the yearly provincial synod.) The pilots from MARC flew in and out of the villages of Manokotak and Togiak to bring all the youth to camp.

It was awesome to see the excitement and joy on the faces of the youth as they arrived at camp. Many decisions were made that week to follow Christ and for discipleship. Since most of the youth attend Moravian Churches, the follow up will be through their local Moravian church in each of the villages.

Their only complaint was that camp was too short. They can’t wait until next summer to attend camp. Plans are already being made for next summer to hold two camps for free to different age groups in even more villages. If you or your church would like to be a partner with this camping ministry for youth who never attended camp in the bush of Alaska, please contact Pastor Tom Conrad at 907.842.5477 or write to him at PO Box 1350, Dillingham, AK 9576.