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Thanks for following the 2015 Alaska Middle School GO Team’s blog. We appreciate your support and prayers! Stay tuned for more information about future Alaska Middle School GO teams.

Back in Minnesota

We have landed in MN and are on the bus headed home! We have many kids with red eyes as the “game” was to see who could stay up the entire trip. See you in Madison between 10 and 10:30 depending on traffic.

Homeward Bound

We are now starting to work our way back to normal life. About to board the plane for a redeye back to the lower 48 or “The Outside World” as some of the locals refer to it as. In a short 6 hours we’ll be back to Minneapolis.

See you on the flip side!

Shout-outs #5430

Anna – Hi family! I miss you.

Luke – Hey family, I can’t wait to see you again.

Sam – Shout out to waterproof mascara!

Leah – Hey Fam! Love you guys! Can’t wait to see you again sooooooooon!!!!!

Matthew – Nick, I know you missed me so much, but I’ll be home soon!!!

Max – Apologies to Dave for beating him in mini-basketball….

Tessa – Hi everybody! Thank you sooooo much for all the cards, they are AWESOME! Casey, I saw a moose! Laura, your cards were so cute! Teagan, you’d love it up in Alaska, there’s so much nature! Kendall, I’ll be home soon! Tell Maddy I miss her! See you all soon!

Ella – I miss you Mom and Dad! But I will see you soon!! Did you give Champ his birthday present?

Kendra – Tell Leia that I will be home soon. In the meantime, remember to keep feeding her. Korbin is adorable.

Anthony – Hello friends and family! Thank you for your letters of encouragement. Also, big shout out to Eaglecrest for being wonderful hosts!

Second To The Last Leg

On Friday, we had the most students of any other day-a huge 6! Breakfast was French toast casserole, and the Skills Clubs were Building Catapults (no casualties) and Cupcake Decorating. In a direct quote from Dave: “Cupcake Decorating went well, but Cupcake Eating was even better!” We also had small group discussion times. That night, we had a community cookout. Most of us fell in love with an adorable little girl named Savannah, who made us all laugh. Most memorable? Luke was wearing Phineas’ (Craig’s Irish alter-ego) bright green glasses. When anyone else would put them on, Savannah would burst out laughing. When Luke gets his glasses back…..poker face.

On Saturday, we went on a hike to the same gold mine as the one that we went to a few days before, only this time, we went up the other side. There was a twisting path that eventually led up to a sort of valley with two beautiful lakes. We all sat in a circle on a small hill to eat lunch and have a few people share life stories. After that, most of our team climbed the rest of the way up the mountain. But unlike the part before in which one only had to walk up a trail, this section required using hands as well as feet to climb the slope. The team encouraged each other all the way up the mountain and eventually every member made it. Dave went at the bottom, promising to catch us if we fell! There was also a mini snowball fight at the top with around a small patch of remaining snow. There was also a particularly excellent shot from Max, straight into Dave’s face as Anne was taking his picture.

Later that night we moved into a church (where we are posting this blog post from) for sleeping in order to make room for a new group at Eaglecrest. After Kelsey shared her life story, Dave volunteered to pray for her, as someone does after each story. He warned us that he wouldn’t get all the way through it, so Kendra volunteered to finish when he couldn’t do it anymore. We all closed our eyes and waited. The only words that came out of his mouth were “That’s all I can do”.

This is a just one example of how close this team has grown over the past 8 days.

-Tessa and Kendra

Debrief in Alaska

Hi everyone back home! Our day camp experience is over and now we begin the process of processing what we’ve been through. We are spending some time as a group at the top of a hill ( it’s really a mountain but when in Alaska….. ). We have had a wonderful time and are sad to think about it coming to an end. God was seen daily on our trip!!!

Snow @ Hatcher Pass?

Today, we woke up nice and rested due to an earlier bed time last night. We had breakfast which was pancakes and sausage, before heading into our devotional time, and today’s topic was initiative. Next the Alaskan students arrived, and we took a look at Gracie’s wonderful drawings. After the drawings an epic round of “The Trash Can Game” broke out. If you don’t know what that is just take our word for it, it’s crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

We began our skills clubs of Mexican s’mores/ fire-building, and archery. Next we had a bit of free time before lunch which was filled with Ga-ga ball and river adventures. Then we had lunch which was homemade pizza and soda. After lunch we played games and we had devotional time along with life skills. Somehow a random make-up application class broke out.

 

Tonight we get to hike at an old gold mine at Hatcher Pass. Should be a great night as long as the weather holds up. Today might be the first day without rain at some point throughout the day.

Shout outs and pictures to come later….. Stay tuned.

– Rylei and Anna

Swimming…. In Alaska??

Hey Everyone! Brady here. It is now Wednesday night here in Sutton. With things winding down for the night I can say that we are a tired but a happy team. It’s interesting when you sit down and think about what makes a good team. The easiest example to think of is a football team. You need players for offense, defense and special teams. If a Linebacker tries to player receiver they might be successful for a short period of time they will never be as successful as they could be player the position their given skill-set fits. My personal favorite example of this is watching a Kicker try to run down the field and make the tackle. Let’s be honest, 98% of the time this is going to end in complete humiliation or injury. Gold star for courage though! With both of these examples the team as a whole suffers. However, if every player stays true to their assignments the team will have the best chance to succeed. That’s what wins games.

Now to make the transition from sports to our team on the ground in Alaska. One on the most exciting things to me on this trip thus far is watching the students start gravitating to things they are good at. They are starting to realize that each one of us has a specific skill set that God has given us that we bring to our team’s table. Some are great being in front of a large group while some do better in small groups. Some students can walk right up to someone new and connect instantly while some might need the whole week to connect with one student. Some are good at building fires while some are good at acting out random skits on the fly. Each student is on this trip and has a role to fill. It’s amazing to sit here and say this team of middle school students get that. This understanding hasn’t come easily at all times but they truly get it!

Thanks for listening to me ramble a bit. Wednesday has been a great day. We had the privilege of hearing about native Alaskan culture from a wonder lady named Pat (I couldn’t tell you her real name if I tried so I apologize for that). After that we packed up lunch and picked up local students from a program that the Sutton Library puts on and we headed to Victory Bible Camp tucked up in the mountains on a beautiful lake. You guessed it, that’s where students (some crazy leaders as well, yes I do group myself in with the crazy ones because I swam too) braved the chilled waters of the mountain lake while occasionally sliding down an Iceberg….that’s right an ICEBERG! Well okay, it was inflatable but when we tell the stories of sliding down an iceberg in Alaska we’ll conveniently forget to mention that part. Then to end the night we hit up the local DQ and then had a wonderful campfire to warm us up from our day.

Thanks for reading! Things are well here and much love is sent back home. We miss you all but that goes without saying. A huge thank you to all who wrote letters to us!!! They have been a shot in the arm some days when it’s need the most. Now check out a few pictures below. I will warn you, the picture of the lake doesn’t show the true beauty of this place…. not even close.

– Brady Parks

View pictures of the AK GO Team on Facebook!

Just a reminder that you can view a lot of beautiful pictures of the AK GO Team on the Eaglecrest Alaska Missions Facebook page!

Alaska – Monday Fun

First off – apologies for the delay in getting a blog about Monday up so late….  We simply ran out of time and were having too much fun!

The first day of holding the day camp was a very fun day. We welcomed the Alaskan students, Gracie, Jared, Dillon, Brie and Tanner. We played Giant Tic Tac Toe and Sardines. The skills clubs were Mexican food making and mosaics.  We made awesome salsa that was enjoyed by all the students.  Lunch was soup and grilled cheese.. PB&J was an option too!  We had a large group sing along around the “unlit” campfire…  The group talk was about the camp theme Alive…  Some saw a big bald eagle fly past over the river behind us.  Not everyone saw it….  That was extremely sad….  After dinner, we went on a hike to the Butte!  It was 875 feet tall… we hiked up in small groups where we had to stay together as a team building exercise.  A favorite part was climbing up the rocks…  When we got to the top, it was REALLY windy!!!!  The hike down was really dusty..  Our shoes were filled with dirt when we got to the bottom.  We are having fun and miss you all….  Pictures will follow with a later post…  on to lunch now!

Shout outs from the team –

• HAPPY 5^TH BIRTHDAY CHAMPERS!!  – Ella
• Hey Noah, Miss you!!!   – Luke
• I’m having a good time – Grahm
• Mom – I forgot my retainer…. – Grace
• Hi to Maddy! I’m  having a great time!  Thanks for the candy – Tessa
• Dad, the card made me hungry too!  Mom, I miss you – Leah
• Dad, How’s it going? How’s Grandpa? – Cade
• Hello Fam! – Rylei
• We laughed at Korbin’s note…  a lot!!! – Dave & Kendra
• Thanks for the prayers, cards, notes and love!  They are encouraging us so much! – Craig

Keep posting the comments!  We love  them!!!!