The Maniilaq Key

Many who are familiar with Native Alaska are aware of the story of Maniilaq the Eskimo Prophet. It is a wonderful story of how God can use a willing seeker to teach truth to those who have never heard of Jesus.

Maniilaq began to hear God as a boy though a small white bird. Soon he was lead to choose a supportive wife and he began to challenge the shamans' and their taboos. He kept the Sabbath, and promoted cleanliness and the rights of girls.

I feel his story has much to teach us about how to reach the Eskimo culture and we need to dig deep until we have learned how create solid native congregations who can lead and bring in new seekers. Of course it is not the only key, but it has not been used to its full advantage.

Verity

When there are no words

Pain. How do you deal with it on a daily unrelenting basis?

Right now, I have a friend who, in about one week, has been raped, had a close cousin die, discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her, was evicted from her place, and felt forced to give up her parental rights. She grew up with people making bad choices that hurt her deeply and she turned to alcohol. Not long ago she turned to Jesus and was trying to live a straight life. But her daughter was temporarily staying with someone else and that person molested her. This hurt my friend all over again and her life spiraled downward.

There are no easy fixes for problems like this. Selawik is a place dealing with constant tragedy. There have been four deaths (cancer, suicide, old age, heart attack) and a home burned to the ground since early November. This is in addition to the usual daily conflicts.

I do believe that Jesus is the answer, but that sounds like just a cliche when you don't trust anyone and feel no one really cares. It takes a lot of work to believe, to change, and to stick with it when you are surrounded by those who don't and won't.

Our job is come alongside people who are hurting and just care for them as Jesus did. We need to hold them up as best we can without encouraging destructive habits. Then when they are ready and able to trust and change, we will be able to help them. It doesn't matter how many times they fall, every step they take with Jesus will be there as a memory of what life can really be.

Verity

Warren's parents have been talking about coming up to Selawik for a visit for some time. Well, they finally they were ready and wanted to do a VBS with us. I was quite skeptical for our ability to handle a large crowd with just four adults, but they seemed very excited.

Warren suggested having a Jesus theme. We worked out a very basic outline focused on different people he interacted with and parables he told. This helped me to choose the crafts. We wanted really nice crafts that the kids would want to take home. I found birdhouses, wind chimes, an idea for flip-flops/Jesus sandals, air dry clay, and prayer journals. But we still weren't sure just when Warren's parents would come. Meanwhile Warren was asked to speak at the annual Memorial Weekend Singspiration at the Friends' Church (Sabbath evening, May 29).

On the last Wednesday of May Warren's parents told us they would be coming tomorrow and they would be here for less than two weeks. Now we really needed to hustle. The ice was going out on Thursday when they arrived and we took it easy watching it go. Friday was busy getting ready for Sabbath and choosing a snack menu.

I designed an announcement but it was stranded on my computer because of printer/computer issues . Warren wasn't available to fix things because he had an end-of-the-month food distribution workload (at his new job). I was hoping that he would have time on Friday to work on his talk that he had to give Saturday night at the Friends church. But he helped me with the finishing touch of the announcement and found time to work on his talk before Sabbath morning service while I posted one announcement.

Warren's talk at the Singspiration went well and we were grateful for the chance to share as brothers and sisters in Christ. Warren's parents were also given a chance to greet the people.

We posted our final announcements on Tuesday the day we began the VBS. Attendance was good and things went more smoothly once we began. I was very glad knowing that God had brought all our loose ends together and tied them so nicely.

Before you ask, He will answer

It was Thursday night and Warren and I went for a walk. The subject of our financial situation came up. We were getting close to the bottom of the money barrel again. We came to no conclusion except that we felt less willing to leave than ever. It seems the longer we are here the more it feels that this is where we belong and where God wants us. Yes, there would benefits to leaving, but they would be only for our family, and that is not enough for us anymore.

We didn't feel the need to beg God's help; we were not worried. I felt God did want us to stay and was waiting to see how he would provide for us this time. He has kept us here for over four years by his faithfulness. He is so good.

Friday morning, Warren got a call offering him a part-time job helping to meet the needs of the community. It is a wonderful job that will help him get to know more of Selawik and their needs.
The past four years have been filled with adjusting to running a house in the Arctic, the radio project, and becoming familiar with the culture (though not in the systematic way we would like to have done). We have gotten to know many people, but there are also many we do not know.
This job should help with that. It also happens to mean that we will have the finances to stay.

I am reminded of the dream Ellen White had of the journey to heaven and the cords of faith that they trusted. My cord of faith has been growing gradually over the past four years and it has just gotten a little bigger.

So even if this job doesn't last long or work out as promised, we know God will provide for us in another way, and that is all we need to know.

Why I am glad we didn't go to campmeeting

Our family was fully anticipating a trip to Nome for Native campmeeting last weekend. Twelve people, in addition to our family, said they wanted to go. This was exciting. However, we knew space would be limited on the small planes that would be available to fly us. So not knowing the flight arrangements that had been made, we prepared to stay if they didn't have enough plane seats for all of us. This was Native campmeeting after all and we wanted them to have the first chance to go.

Then we discovered that there were only ten seats available for Selawik. Warren and I were praying and trying to find a workable option for everyone who wanted to go and would gain a blessing from it. Finally it seemed that it would truly be impossible for all to go. And now there were more than twelve that wanted to. We didn't want to "play God" and choose who could go and who had to stay. But I kept praying and telling myself that God would make a way, that he wanted everyone to go as much as I did.

God did make a way. Jim Kincaid had a charter to Kotzebue with two seats free. They could meet with the other ten from the two planned flights later in the afternoon. Two people from Kotzebue decided not to go, so that left two more Selawik seats on the 19 seat Bering Air charter to Nome. And we had several people who decided not to go as well, so we were back to twelve who wanted to go and they were ALL going. Amen, Hallelujah, and Praise the Lord, this was a blessing indeed. Getting to be in Nome ourselves couldn't possibly feel better than the joy we had that weekend. We have heard testimonies of the refreshment received by those who attended the meetings. They had a wonderful time with Jesus and his friends.

Truly our cups are overflowing, God is so good.

The Challenges of Starting Over

We have been here for four years now. Abby celebrated her fourth birthday a few weeks after our arrival. Having just turned eight, she remembers little of our former life in “the outside world”. Miriam was born after our move and knows nothing of that life. Sara, at 11, is the only one who carries any real memory of our pre-Arctic existence. Much has changed for Warren and I as well.

The ebb and flow of plumbing difficulties dominate my memories of the first year, back when everything about village life was a novelty. At least once, I believe, we were unable to wash clothes, dishes, or ourselves all at the same time. There was a few weeks last winter when we had to use a honeybucket (a 5 gallon bucket toilet) for the first time. At the apartments they were stuck using honeybuckets most of the winter, so we got off easy. It is probably part of my personality, but I found these problems more amusing than annoying.

Learning to squish the remnants of our 1400 square foot home into 600 square feet was another part of the novelty at first. Later, having boxes stacked to the ceiling and sitting on beanbags was not so fun. But through gradually reducing our excess belongings, we gained the room for our place to become a home. A cast-off couch covered with a blanket also helped a lot during family and worship time. Finding out how few things I really need has made more room in my thoughts to just enjoy life.

I have been growing a lot and learning to show love to my family better as I have grown closer to God. As I have decided to place our school time much lower on the priority list, the girls have been much more helpful. I have more time for Warren and more patience with the girls. And the school work is also getting done. God really does have the best answers.

When people ask me how I like it in Selawik, I tend to say how beautiful it is here. And the beauty is more than I can absorb at times. But even more than that, I can't bear to think of leaving the people here. I want them to see all wonders of life with Jesus that I see. Even when they (mostly children) do things that hurt us, I just don't have it in me hold it against them. I know the hurts they face daily and I want so much for them to have Jesus in all his fullness to heal them.

At times it feels we are in the wrong place, that we are not the right ones for the job. But today it comes to me that perhaps the radio project that has occupied the largest part of Warren's time is the main reason we are here. And perhaps more people will begin to trust us and to see Jesus in us the longer we stay. We have begun to see God working in new ways. We are very excited about the recommitment of one of our members through baptism. He has a lot of growing to do and things haven't been perfect since his baptism last month. Still, we are encouraged as we are praying for him to have God's strength to deal with all the challenges of his new start.

When does Sabbath begin in the Arctic?

Recently a friend wrote to me regarding an email he'd received from a friend of his. The topic was, when does the Sabbath begin (and end). I have thought and studied long on this subject, since we are living in the Arctic region and sunset comes so early (or so late) here. I ended up writing a long response to him, and I have edited it into an article for your enjoyment (and hopefully edification) here.

First, no matter where you are on earth there is a 24-hour cycle. How that cycle is measured may differ. At the poles, in mid-winter (Around December 21), you will observe a slight decrease in the darkness every day. That should correspond to Sunrise, Noon, and Sunset, all at once (though the sun will never actually rise). In mid-summer (Around June 21), you would observe a slight decrease in the light every day as the sun dips in it's cycle around the horizon. That should correspond to midnight.

In the Arctic regions in mid-summer, the sun will visibly travel around the horizon, from North (midnight) to East, to South, to West, and back to North. In mid-winter, the sun (if you are far enough south to even see it) will appear briefly over the Southern horizon then dip back over the horizon.

Before the advent of railroads, people's time was actually more correctly kept by the sun. You could set your clock to 12 noon when the sun was high overhead. But that was inconvenient for railroads to keep track of, because if you traveled some distance your pocket watch would be off by some unknown number of minutes and you would end up missing appointments, etc. The railroad decided to use time zones, so when you arrived in a new time zone you could reset your watch by a whole number of hours, instead of some unknown number of minutes.

In the process of using time zones, governments have put an unnatural influence on the time system, which God intended to be based on the sun. While it is convenient, it is completely artificial to have time zones as we do today. For instance, when Alaska first was "time zoned" there were three different time zones, based on dividing the width of Alaska by the distance covered by the sun in one hour. Since the earth is about 24000 miles in circumference, the distance in each time zone should be about 1000 miles. Alaska is not 3000 miles across but it is more than 1000 miles across, so part of Alaska was in each of three time zones (with the majority of it in the middle time zone). However, for convenience' sake the government has now put all of Alaska into the same time zone. This means that the sun is highest in the sky for us, not at noon (as it should be) but about 2 pm.

Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, before his death due to cancer, wrote an article dealing with this subject. I recommend reading it before you continue reading this post. I highly respect Dr. Bacchiocchi, but I differ with him on several points.

First, considering how the government has played with time zones, not only in Alaska but in other areas where it is convenient, it is clear that the "time" does not always correspond to the actual "sun time". This is especially true when Daylight-saving Time (DST) is in effect.

Due to this, I differ with Dr. Bacchiocchi's argument that in polar regions the Sabbath should be kept from 6 pm to 6 pm. (Though I might see some sense in keeping it from the average Sunset to Sunset-- which would actually be about 8 pm in our region due to the skewed time zones).

Bacchiocchi also makes a couple of other points I differ with:

1. Bacchiocchi appears to claim that the Old Testament does not specify when Sabbath should begin, and that we only have New Testament custom to determine that. He does mention the "even to even" specified regarding the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:32) but seems to think that the other Sabbaths' starting/ending times would have gone unspecified. I have a hard time believing God was that vague. He specified the day as "The Evening and the Morning" for the first through sixth days (Genesis 1:31) and rested the Seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3), so the evening-to-evening specification of a day seems clear enough.

2. Bacchiocchi makes a quite a point of needing to work the other six days according to the fourth commandment, as though we'd be breaking that commandment if we are unable to work for an employer because of our Sabbath observance. There are a number of flaws in this argument:

God never commanded us to work for an employer. We could take Jesus question "Are there not twelve hours in the day" and combine that with "Six days you shall labor". If Bacchiocchi is right, we should be laboring for 6x12=72 hours a week, and Bacchiocchi implies that it must be for some employer other than ourselves (otherwise, we could simply ask for Friday off and work for the Lord, preparing for the Sabbath). The real issue is, doing that would be inconvenient for most people living in the temperate zone, much less in the arctic.

There is nothing wrong with asking your employer for two days off, especially since God designed the sixth day to be the Preparation for the Sabbath. Maybe we really should not be working for an employer on that day anyway. That would leave us free to keep the Sabbath from Sunset to Sunset wherever we live. At least, we should make sure we are prepared for Sabbath before Sabbath begins.

If you take Bacchiocchi's argument as true, people living even as far south as Seattle would be working until after the Sabbath began, since Sunset this year (2009) in Seattle is as early as 4:17 pm. How far do you want to take this argument? It doesn't make sense to advocate 6 pm to 6 pm for the arctic region, but not for Seattle as well. If you make that claim, then we might as well all observe Sabbath from 6 pm to 6 pm.

I think it is better to take the Bible as it reads, even if it is inconvenient for our schedule-driven society. It's a good reminder that our schedules are subject to God, not our own wills. Yes, it may be inconvenient in Seattle to ask to get off as early as 4 pm (3 pm if you want to get home before Sabbath, in traffic, Noon if you want to have any Preparation time). Here in Selawik, it's also inconvenient when the sun sets at 2:41 pm. Farther North in Barrow, you don't even have any actual sun. You might have to use the lightest point in the day (dark as it is) as your sunrise, noon and sunset all in one. (For reference, the earliest ending of twilight in Barrow in December 2009, is at 2:54 pm).

Now that I've made my counter arguments, I want to make it clear that I don't think God is so much interested in us measuring the precise moment the sun goes over the horizon, as the principle of letting God rule our schedule. Your horizon might differ from mine, depending on how high a hill you live on, and how high the mountains are between you and the sun. But God can still be master of your life and mine if we let Him.

I believe there are several practical reasons God had for starting the day in the evening. Bacchiocchi brought out some of them, such as a family gathering from their work. I also think there is a psychological start to your day in the evening. If you go to bed with your secular thoughts, you will likely awake with them as well. God wanted us to retire for the night, having already welcomed the Sabbath, so when we awake, we would be ready to commune with Him in a special way.

As for how our family celebrates the Sabbath, we have decided to keep Sabbath for more than 24 hours. In the summer, we begin Sabbath observance at our supper meal, even though the sun will not set until 2 am Saturday morning. This is because of the aforementioned psychological reason I believe God had for the Sabbath beginning before you go to bed. We want to make our Friday evening meal a special one even if it is not technically Sabbath yet.

In the winter, though Sabbath may be technically over as early as 2:41 pm, we may not have finished potluck yet, and we certainly don't want to stop celebrating and enjoying the Sabbath hours. So we end up celebrating it until later in the evening. Since Sabbath is a delight to us, we do not see any reason to limit it to a mere 24 hours, though I wouldn't try to keep it all week as some Sunday keepers claim they do. Clearly there is a place for the 6 days of labor, but I don't think that should mean we cannot keep a few extra hours of Sabbath to guard it's edges.

In conclusion, I've outlined my scientific, Biblical and practical reasons behind how we observe Sabbath as a family. However, I also feel it is important to leave some of these details up to the conscience of others. While I am happy to share my reasons and beliefs with others, I wouldn't want to impose my specific method on others. I would rather that others find Sabbath to be a delight, than that they burden it down with legalistic rules for when it should begin and end. I hope that by my example, others can find the joy of true Sabbath observance, which begins in the heart, with a relationship with the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ.