Sukkot in Alaska

All around the world believers gather together for Sukkot, keeping Yahwh's appointed times the best we can until His return.  During Sukkot Yahwh tells us to live in temporary dwellings to remind us of the dwellings the Israelites lived in for 40 years in the desert.  Here in Alaska the cold makes camping out difficult so there aren't any big gatherings.  This year we decided to hit the road in our temporary dwelling and visit other believers who "...keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah." Rev. 12:37

We spent the first two days of Sukkot in Nondalton so we put a sukkah up over our dining room table.  The kids went out and cut some boughs and then Caleb put them together with David's and my help.  We celebrated the first day of Sukkot with Lavonne and Josh and Regina. The first two nights Paul and I camped out with the kids in the living room and then we headed to Anchorage and our motor home.

 Our first stop was Wasilla and the Martin's house.  We had a wonderful time catching up with them.  They invited some friends over and we had a great time of worship. We had fun sharing stories from our trips to israel with their friends Daniel and Michael .  We discovered that we'd both stayed at the Jerusalem Hills Bed and Breakfast and become friends with the Singerman's. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.

Next we headed up to the North Pole.
We enjoyed the view of Mt. McKinley/Denali as we drove north.

Jack and Jamileh Waid and their three boys hosted the northernmost part of our Sukkot trip. Jack is the base historian at Eilson Air Force Base and he is an awesome tour guide. Below we are standing under the oil pipeline that stretches from Prudhoe Bay to Valdex, AK

Next we went to see the "Lady of the Lake".  It's a B29 that ended up half covered in water in a pond on the base.  

You can see the cowling, tail and part of a wing sticking up out of the frozen pond.

 Jack shared the history of the plane with us.

 Jack is also an experienced shofar maker.  He had bought a case of kudo horns hoping that he would have someone to share them with over Sukkot. We were very happy that Yahwh sent us his way. They had some more friends from the area over and we made a party of it. Making the shofars was a great experience.  He very patiently helped the kids make their own.

 Above Joshua is getting an idea of how a real kudo looks.

 Above we are all practicing and making sure they work.

 The Waid's are also experts in Krav Maga.  They teach the self defense classes on base a few times a week.  We had a lot of fun letting them show us some of the basic moves. Above their oldest son Andrew is giving Paul a lesson.

Above we are saying goodbye as we continued on our journey. The Waid's want to get a Sukkot gathering going in Alaska next year. I think that's a great idea and we look forward to seeing them there.

Next we were going to go to Tok but some of the kids of the family we were going to see there got sick so we headed straight to Kenny Lake.  Our first stop in Kenny Lake was to visit the Riggins and their friends.  Again I forgot to get my camera out, but we had a good time of fellowship with them.  Their friends had just moved up from Texas and are spending their first winter in Alaska.  The kids all played a fun game of Risk.

Next we went and visited the Henry's also of Kenny Lake.  We met the Henry's in Aniak, Ak many years ago and we enjoyed catching up with them.

Their oldest son Dawson loves to study the bible and is also studying Hebrew.  He and Paul could have talked nonstop the entire time we were there.

 

 Their daughter Beth Ann is carding and spinning some wool for a neighbor.  She got it all out for us so I could see how it's done.  Very cool!

 Kenny Lake is on a plateau between the Copper and the Tonsina rivers. Paul and Thad and the kids went to the edge of the bluff overlooking the Tonsina river.  They climbed down a little ways.

 Anna is carefully climbing over the edge.

Sarah is showing off a head of broccoli that came from the Henry's garden this summer.  You gotta love the endless sunlight of the Alaska summer!

 Dawson, Beth Ann, Anna and Quentin playing a game of Settlers of Catan.

Before we headed back out to Nondalton, Lonny and Kristy Elliot took Paul and I out to eat.  We always enjoy our time of fellowship with the Elliot's. We appreciate the prayers they bring before the Father for us.

We had a great Sukkot!!!

Joshua turned 13

Joshua turned 13 last spring and to commemorate that special occasion I put together a slide show. I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up.  Joshua is a true blessing.  He loves to draw and create things and he's a natural athlete.

April Down South

After Trey and Deborah's betrothal we headed down to Colorado to take Dayton and Abigail home. We spent a day on the slopes with them. Thankfully the kids picked up on skiing quickly and had a blast.

Abigail and Sarah taking a break.

Next we went to North Little Rock to visit my brother John Mark, his wife Sandy and their daughter Catherine. We celebrated Paul's 52nd and Anna's 15th birthdays there. Sandy had an awesome cake waiting for us.

The next stop on our trip was Family Week in Kentucky.  We had a great time reconnecting with lots of the friends we met on our trip to Israel and celebrating Passover and Unleavened Bread with them.  

We got to do lots of dancing.

It was raining on Passover so we headed to the Tennis Center to have our supper.

After Family Week we headed to North Carolina for the Versteeg family reunion.

We got to stay for a week with my parents and had the opportunity to help out with a few odd jobs. In the picture above and below the kids are planting grass plugs in the front yard.

Joshua

Paul and Quentin spent some time working on the motor home.

We also got to spend some time with my brother David, his wife Misty and their kids Makayla, Maris and William.  Here Caleb is holding William. 

My Dad harnessed up the mules to the wagon and gave rides.

Quentin driving the mules with Grandpa by his side.

Dayton and Abigail going for a ride in the wagon.

Before we left we gathered at Grandad's for our annual family picture. This year Ronen was in Abigail's tummy so this is a five generation picture. Every year I wonder if this is the last time I will get to see my Grandad whom I love very much.  He will be 103 this year. I never dreamed it would be the last time I saw my Dad. But it was and I'm glad we got to spend that time with him.

Tennessee and the Lupinacci's was our next stop. Kenny and Diane are a lot of fun and we love being around them. Their son-in-law Caleb, took Paul and the kids to a swimming hole and caves while Kenny and Diane and I swung on the rope swing. Their daughters Tali and Kendra fixed us supper and we enjoyed a good time of fellowship together.

Diane couldn't quite reach the rope swing seat but her gallant husband lay down so she could step on him to climb up. It was very cute and I did capture it on film, you can watch it here.  http://youtu.be/35ofgrEru5c

The music and the clips of their music video are of Kenny and Diane's daughter Angela's singing group Teshuva.  You can see the rest of it here   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_oSYLPu6Y
(Abigail, Dayton, Will, Sarah, Barrett and Devin are all dancing in the video.)

Kenny taking his turn.

Our next stop was to visit the Fleming family.  They were also a lot of fun.  The are so hospitable and so creative. We loved checking out all their inventions and projects.

 The kids got to help the Fleming girls exercise their horses.

We ate supper and fellowshipped in the back yard as we watched a storm roll in.

Spring in Nondalton

I'm going to jump back to last spring for a post. Dayton and Abigail came up to visit us and we had a lot of fun.  They came just as Deborah was making the decision that she wanted to marry Trey and with all the excitement I never posted a blog about their visit, so here it is...

Dayton and Abigail relaxing during our Shabbat study. The gold fish in the background reminds me of a movie we watched once where the fish followed the main character everywhere he went.

Dayton and pregnant Abigail heading up the mountain on a glorious day with the rest of the older kids.

Anna

I have to say, we live in one of the most beautiful spots Yahwh created.

 Joshua trying out his new snowboard.

Quentin

 Towing on the frozen lake behind the snow machine (that's what they call them here in Alaska)

Joshua

Caleb

Abigail and Sarah

Dayton grew up snowboarding in Colorado, so he's pretty good.

He was showing the kids how to do it.

Ooops!

Down the mountain we didn't have much snow last winter, but the ground was frozen so we were able to go touring on 4 wheelers.

It wasn't all play and no work.  Dayton helped put a new floor in one of our apartments.
Then we all had a great time driving down the Alaska Canadian (ALCAN) highway together.

Their Story

Over the years as our children have grown we have considered the path to marriage.  What is the best way to help our children through one of the most important steps they will ever take, finding the man or woman that they will enter into a covenant with that will last until death do them part?  It is a pretty important step. Early on we recognized that the typical dating scene common today is not ideal.  The emotional ties made and broken at the very least bring unnecessary baggage into a marriage. Our desire is for our children to enter their marriages physically and emotionally pure.  I don't believe there is a cookie cutter recipe to achieve this, but I believe there are some principals that can be applied. With nine children I am sure that by the time they are all married we will have nine stories that are all different but that have common threads that run through them.

Trey and Deborah's Story:

Last spring and summer our family spent quite a bit of time with the Lance family.  As Trey got to know Deborah and our family he began to consider Deborah as a possibility for marriage.  He talked with his parents at length and while they also thought that Deborah might be the perfect wife for Trey, they encouraged him to wait and pray.  Deborah was still 17 at the time and Paul had just given away his first daughter. Shannon correctly surmised that Paul wasn't ready to consider giving away his second daughter yet. 

Deborah turned 18 in December and in January Shannon called Paul and told him that Trey was interested in marrying Deborah. Now, there are some varying opinions among families that we know that are using something close to this model.  Some feel that if a young man doesn't go to the prospective bride's father and start the process of seeking his daughter's hand in marriage, he isn't much of a man, that he is somehow cowardly. Although we aren't totally opposed to the son making the first approach we do have a bit different perspective on it.  Paul's response to a young man who approaches him would probably be, "thank you for you interest, is it okay if I talk with your father?" The first reason for this approach is that we would like our children to marry sons and daughters who have good relationships with their parents. The second reason is to protect the heart of the son as well as the daughter. We taught our daughters to guard their hearts until Paul approves of a young man. We don't believe it's a women's place to pursue a husband. Considering this man or that for marriage only leads to dreaming and fantasizing that is unhealthy and will lead to baggage being brought into the marriage. The son on the other hand, with his father's help, has to make a decision to pursue a young lady. We have tried to think of a better way, but short of an arranged marriage, we can't think of a way that the young man doesn't have some emotional involvement. Talking to a perspective Dad about his daughter is a huge emotional step for any young man. By having the fathers speak first and discuss the possibility of their children marrying, the emotional involvement of the son is minimized. The fathers can discuss beliefs the two families have and see if there are any reasons they feel their children shouldn't be married. 

The next step for us was for Trey to talk to Paul.  Here Abigail and Deborah's stories are a little different. We had spent so much time with Dayton already that we felt we knew him well.  Paul had already grilled him on all of his beliefs, not from the perspective of a future son-in-law but just because he loves discussing scripture and Dayton was eager to discuss scripture also as we spent time driving around Israel. Although we had spent a lot of time with the Lance family the summer before getting to know them and Paul and Shannon had kept up with each other through phone calls, Paul hadn't spent much time visiting with Trey up to this point.  Although I have to admit Shannon did his best to get Paul to get to know Trey.  During one of our visits to their house last summer Shannon invited Paul to go work with him and Trey on a house they were building. As we spent time with the Lance family, we enjoyed our time together, but when a young man wants to marry your daughter there are questions that need to be asked that delve beneath the surface.

So, we set up a separate email account for Paul and Trey to write to each other.  We are not a very private family and our kids read through all our emails to see if there's anything interesting going on.  That part worked pretty well but the frequency of calls between Shannon and Paul (which sometimes turned into a call with Trey) caused some of the older children to be suspicious that something was up. Paul takes this step very seriously. He feels it is his responsibility to screen a young man before approving of him. Paul wants his daughters to feel secure that if he allows a young man to ask for their hand in marriage, they don't have to worry about his character or whether he loves Yahwh.  It takes many probing questions, but also and most importantly, a lot of prayer. After a couple of weeks of visiting back and forth with Trey, Paul was convinced that he and Deborah would probably be a good match and Trey was convinced that he really wanted to marry Deborah. So the next step was to ask Deborah what she thought.  Paul and I talked to her and she thought that the idea was worth considering. We told her to take as much time as she wanted to think about it.  She could wait until we made another trip to the lower 48 and had spent more time together.  We didn't want her to feel any pressure to make any snap decisions. So she began to think and pray about it. Over the next few days I would see her looking at pictures we had taken during our times together with Trey. She was thinking back and reflecting on the character he had shown and praying that Yahwh would prick her heart with feelings for Trey if he was the man Yahwh wanted her to marry. After three days she told me that she thought she wanted to marry Trey, but she wanted to see him in person again.  She wanted to make sure that the remembrances she had of Trey in her mind form the summer before were who he really was.  She had done a good job of guarding her heart and had not been thinking of Trey as a prospective husband (or anyone else for that matter) and she wanted to make sure she wasn't creating an image of him that she wanted him to be and not who he really was.  Paul thought that was very wise and he decided that he too would like to see Trey face to face and talk to him.  We made plans to go to Family Week in Kentucky and stop by and see the Lance's on the way. This was an easy plan because Grandma Effie's house is on the way to Kentucky and the Lance's live only two hours east of her farm.

We decided to meet the Lance's at the Hughes' home.  The Hughes' are mutual friends that live in Minot which we go right through on the way to Grandma's house.  We got there on Friday and spent Shabbat with them.  It was pretty awkward between Trey and Deborah with such a big question hanging out there, but by Saturday night Deborah had decided that yes, Trey was who she thought he was and she really wanted to marry him. Paul had also spent time visiting with Trey and felt that, if Deborah agreed, Trey was the man she should marry. So, he gave Trey his permission to ask Deborah to marry him.  Trey asked Deborah, she said yes and we announced their decision to the rest of the crowd. Some were pleasantly surprised and some said they knew it all along.

The next step was the betrothal.  We choose to get betrothed and then married because that's the way they do it in the Bible.  The Bible is rich with examples and analogies of betrothals and marriages. If we as the church aren't using that model for ourselves, then the analogies will lose some of their meaning. In the Biblical model the betrothal is binding. Consider Mary and Joseph.  They were betrothed and Joseph was going to quietly divorce Mary until he found out that the baby Yeshua was from the Holy Spirit.

The next step was the wedding. We had to decide whether to return to Alaska and then return for the wedding or have the wedding before we went back to Alaska. Trey and Deborah decided that sooner was better than later so we decided to make it happen.  Up until now Trey and Deborah had been guarding their hearts, but now they were betrothed, legally married and they could open up their hearts.  The betrothal period is a time of emotional (not physical) wooing.  They along with their fathers decided to limit their physical touching to holding hands. Because their emotions were starting to soar they were chaperoned at all times to make adhering to that decision easier.  The betrothal period was a fun time for them as they got to know each other in a way they hadn't before.  It all culminated in the wedding ceremony where they shared their first embrace and their first kiss.