The fires are no longer a concern. Rain has put out the one south of town and the other fire is just smoldering out in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for everyone asking about us and your prayers.

The group from Covington was a joy to have around and a lot was accomplished. The next group will be up July 22nd through the 28th and plans have changed as to their projects. They will now help us build a 12'X16' cabin that will be a lot easier to heat in the winter. We have received a gift that will pay for the majority of the construction cost. We will finish the interior as funds are available. We would like to have the cabin at the airport but we don't have water or sewer there and the city won't allow outhouses. So we will build the cabin in a friends yard and have access to their plumbing. The cabin will be constructed so it will be easy to move out to our lot at the airport when we get a well and septic system.

The second work group of the summer is here and we are getting a lot done! We have started on the cabin and I will try to update the pictures every day. It rained most of the day today, more than the entire summer it seems. We were still able to work under the tarps and peel logs. Things should progress rather quickly from here.

Well we are wondering if we should have built an Ark instead of a Cabin. We have had over 5 inches of rain in the past two weeks. That's almost half of our annual precipitation. The folks from Georgia were a blessing to have and we all worked together very well as you can see from the pictures. We could not have done this without them.

On another front, we still do not have definite word as to the delivery date of the airplane. If it is not ready by the middle of Sept. we will wait to go get it next spring. There is no need flying back to Alaska in the winter.

Things seem to be going slower on the cabin now that most of the progress is "finish work". We had help from some friends here in town this week with the spline boards in the window and door openings. The next step is to seal the logs, of course it needs to stop raining. We are in the rainy season now and it shows no sign of letting up. We have a source of heat for the cabin, a Monitor heater, we determined that wood heat would not be practical if we were to be gone for an afternoon much less a couple of days.

We have received word from Maule about the airplane. It will not be ready until next spring at the earliest. There have been delays in getting the FAA down for inspections and there has also been a few design changes in the gross weight increase project. It will work out fine to wait for the plane for several reasons. First we will have a far more versatile airplane when it's completed, it will give us the capability to carry full fuel with just about any load (fuel in the tanks is a precious commodity here in Alaska). Second this will give us more time to recoup from the expense of building the cabin and continue saving up for a hangar.

It's starting to get cool at night now and we are every mindful that winter is right around the corner. The cabin continues to keep our day's full. Adam still hopes to get out and moose hunt this year but shelter is more important than food right now. There are several new pictures so you can see of our progress.

We are also stuffing envelopes with our latest paper version of The White Pages so keep an eye in the mail box. A little known bit of trivia for you, we send out almost 300 copies of our Prayer letter so it takes a while to get them out. Now you know why the web site and e-mail has spoiled us!

Please continue to pray for the City of Nenana, Our Mayor was married last month and will be moving out of state soon so we have the whole election thing to go through again. However a more important thing to pray about is that there were two High School Students that tried to commit suicide last night. They are alive and recovering in the Fairbanks Hospital. Alaska has a suicide rate that is 86% higher than the national average. Winter is coming and with it comes depression and substance abuse and all the associated problems. Please pray that we will be able to show folks the real way out and how to deal with their troubles.

The events of the past few weeks have had a great impact on Alaska. The shutdown of the U.S. airspace crippled Alaska. Everyone relies on aircraft for things that range from mail delivery to food and fuel to personal transportation. Alaska has more aircraft per capita than any other place in the U.S. We heard reports that there were over 600 hunters and fishermen stranded in the woods with no idea what was going on and waiting for their pickup, Nome was without milk and bread for three days. Several aircraft from the 'Bush" were intercepted by F-15's only to then find out that the airspace system had been shut down because of the attacks. The FAA realized the importance of aviation to the state's economy and safety and lifted all the restrictions a few days later. It's my understanding the "lower 48" took several more days to get airplanes back in the air and there are still some restrictions that we don't have to worry about up here.

Alaska also has a very large military presence, several sites are still on the highest state of alert from what we hear. Clear Air Station the radar site just a few miles South of us is "locked down" and we understand that most of the civilian contractors are still not allowed back on the base. We have also heard that the folks stationed there are having to eat MRE's vs. eating at the base cafeteria because of the "lock down".

One thing we have noticed is that folks are thinking a lot more about eternal things and worrying about the future. Pray that we will have the opportunities to help folks with those questions and that God will give us the answers. A song I played last week on the Bluegrass Hour, Seven Hillsides by Ricky Skaggs, had the best words of comfort that I've heard so far.

"The time has come to keep the Faith for others shattered by their loss, remind them of the loving God who's Son like theirs paid the cost to save a sad and wicked world, through sacrifice our love is heard."

It is especially in times like these that we see the this world's need for Jesus. Thank you for your part in keeping us in Alaska where we can be a help to those in need of a Savior. We pray that you are able to help those around you too.

Wow, has it been that long since we updated the web site? Time has been flying the past month. Winter came in like a lion and we already have several inches of snow with temperatures forecasted to get down to -20f this weekend. The river here in town is almost frozen over as well.

"Termination dust", aka snow, fell around Oct. 10th and it won't go away until spring. We prefer to call it "determination dust" especially when you have a thousand things that have to get done before the snow sticks. One of those thousands was getting the cabin livable. That job was wrapping up just in time for the furnace to go out in the camper. Adam is still working on the finishing touches but it's wonderful to be living in the cabin!

Things are going great with "The Bluegrass Hour". The listener response is positive and we have already received several invitations to come and visit folks. If we just had a way to get out to some of them but more on that in a bit. Many of you have commented that you can't get the radio on the internet any more. Sorry. Due to some pending legal battles many stations across the US have decided to stop their internet feed until things are resolved, VFCM included. Apparently there are some problems with artist and voice talent wanting to get more in royalties if their work is on the internet. There has also been talk of making the increased royalties retroactive, and this might be cost prohibitive for a lot of stations. It seems to be a classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face, although a workman is worthy of his hire. Somewhere is the balance.

We received word from Maule and testing is going extremely well for the gross weight increase. The wing passed with flying colors, and the tailwheel is next. The FAA needs to review things and we all know that the government's wheels sometime turn slowly. Please continue to pray that things will progress rapidly and safely. We still expect to take delivery spring/summer 2002.

Once again another month has come and gone and we are happy to be in the cabin. We have had temperatures down to almost -30f and strong winds but are staying very warm and cozy. Thank you to everyone who had a part in the cabin project.

Thank you also to all the "proofreaders" out there. On the last update I stated that Winter had come in like a loin (vs. lion). Well, I don't know exactly what that would have been like but thankfully it was brought to our attention and fixed. Spell checkers are a wonderful thing but they don't help you if you spell the wrong word correctly.

Sunday School is continuing to go very well. We have one student that is asking a lot of very good questions and is wanting to know more about what it means to be a Christian. Please pray for him and his search for the truth.

There is now an AWANA club in Nenana! We are helping out and are excited about another opportunity to share with kids about God's love for them. We are also excited about the impact AWANA has with the entire family of those that participate.

The "Bluegrass Hour" will now be a full 60 minutes. Well, you say, that only makes sense but in radio that's not always the case. It used to be only 50 minutes because of news and weather but the schedule has been revised and I get a full hour now. The program continues to receive good comments from listeners and this should be a welcomed change. Still no word if or when VFCM will resume their internet broadcast.

Lyndy is also helping out at the radio station now. She has taken over the production responsibilities of "Native New Life Radio" a 79 minute program that airs twice a week on all the outlets of the I AM radio network, plus one other station. Native New Life is a group of folks that meet in Anchorage every Monday night and have a wonderful time of singing and testimony with a featured speaker. This program is a tremendous outreach to the Native and Non-native communities in Alaska. The stories of how God has used this program are too many to count.

December is a busy month for everyone, us included. Sabrina will be a year old December 7th, my how time flies. Adam's mom will be up for the month of December and his dad and sister will be up for a couple of weeks, for Christmas. We hope to get our Christmas letter to everyone before Christmas this year. Last year we had to wait for Sabrina to be a part of the family. If you would like to be added to our mailing list send us an e-mail. We are also planning a trip into the "bush" after the first of the year to visit some friends.

Things are going well and we are very comfortable in our cabin. We have had -40f and colder in the past week and we had no problems keeping warm. We are having to leave two windows opened just a little to keep the humidity from getting too high. When you have a 12'X16' cabin with four people breathing and all the cooking that's going on too it's tough to keep the windows from frosting over even with arctic windows.

Adam has been working at the radio station everyday here recently because one of the staff families just had a baby girl! It's been fun to see how things run at the station during the week and we are grateful that we can let them spend some time getting settled with the new baby. Congratulations Dave and Laura!

Adam had an opportunity to help deliver boxes of food to almost 30 families here in Nenana last week. What a blessing to see the expressions and have a chance to encourage folks. I just wish there was more time to sit down with some of them that wanted and needed to talk. Now that all the boxes are delivered maybe there will be more opportunities now that folks know us a little better.