Just Pictures

We have been asked just to post some more daily life pictures - but I must add the following message.

I have been reading Charles Swindoll's Growing Deep - Exploring the Roots of Our Faith, here is an excerpt:
                 ...unless God is the major pursuit of our lives, all other pursuits are dead-end streets. The by-product of such a process is discovering the peace you long for so desperately.

I wish I could shout that from the mountaintops. Amen.

 Hiking on TeePee Ridge. This is what the light looks like midday in early January. No direct sunlight.

 View from Hatcher Pass

 Snow

 Aquarium in Seward, AK with Caitlin

 Sun coming back over the mountains into our living room!

 Youth retreat on Index Lake

 Grooming the cross country ski trails

 "Comb over"

 Frozen eye lashes - all day!

 Gunsight Mountain in the distance

 Wood shed for Miracle Lodge

Chris "feeding" the wood boiler to heat Miracle Lodge. This is done several times a day.

 Trash & burnables trailers

 Our garage!

 Back walkway to our home

 Victory's garden

 Victory's horse barn

 Moose tracks, not the ice cream!

 End of airstrip

 Awaiting summer

 Maintenance yard

 Fuel station

 Camp vehicles - not Nikki

 Truck we use to compact the snow on the camp roads instead of plowing.

 Camp housing for guests

 Camp gym

 Camp chapel

 Camp ice rink on Shallow Lake

 Miracle Lodge

 Liam working fund raising dinner at school

 Matanuska River

 This is where Debbie tried to back the truck off the edge of the driveway!

 Wilderness Camp at Victory

 Sleigh ride to transport guests to their housing

 Becoming an Outdoors Woman retreat hosted at Victory

 Miracle Lodge dining room

 Our kitchen

 Map of Victory Bible Camp

 Part of Alpine Camp

 Mt McKinley in the distance

 Miracle Lodge

 Baptismal for men's retreat

The snow on the path to our home is deep enough for Debbie to touch the roof!

Think On This...

The sermon message last Sunday was on sin. A huge, never ending, deep, and redundant topic - right? After church we enjoyed a soup/salad potluck lunch. Seated at our round table were Chris and I and 8 youths between the ages of 15 and 21. I casually stated we should just hand out "red cards" as in soccer matches to people when they sinned. The cards would indicate they needed to check their behavior whether in action or speech. The kids all thought that was a great idea and pretty soon we were all guilty of receiving a red card! How can that be? We were all friends and of all things inside a church. The point I'm making is obvious, we sin often and maybe need to check what we say or do before we speak. Words can cut and make deep wounds, That is why a red card, not blue or yellow. Jesus' blood on the cross was to cover our sins - He paid the ultimate price! Now, how about green cards - you know, for Godly encouragement?

His Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path

The Bible is the spoken word of God - the Truth for your life. Don't miss a moment of the plans He has for just you! Today - right now!

Leftovers

My question to all is - do we serve leftovers to guests we have invited for dinner because there isn't time to prepare a meal? Is it just another day, another dinner, where we hurry around and try to get some sort of food on the table for our family? Or maybe it is a quick drive through a fast food restaurant because we can't bare the thought of making dinner at all. Maybe we are exhausted from our day at work. Then there is the child that needs to be here for this activity, then there for that activity. The package that is already late that needs to get mailed. Plus you really need time for yourself to shop for that new dress, and well, after doing all that who has time to make dinner anyway? The truth is maybe we really don't like making dinner and we choose the easiest way to go about serving our family some sort of food. Are we satisfied? Was the food nourishing? Do we care? Did we sit still while we ate and share the events of our day with others, the ones we love, or are we too busy scrambling to complete our endless checklist of tasks?  .

Jesus has invited each of us to His table for dinner. Jesus will sit with you and listen to your crazy day. He will not hurry you along to the next task. Jesus will serve you nourishing food that will never lose its fine flavor or spoil. His food will never be luke warm. There will never be leftovers at His table. Jesus will give you His finest fruits.  There is no cost for a fulfilling meal complete with dessert. Are you interested in coming for dinner?

Come, sit, rest and be filled with His word. Break free from the status quo. Jesus is calling you to an authentic relationship with Him, with God. No complacency here. Don't miss it. God is Love. Crazy relentless, all-powerful love. Once you encounter His love, you will never be the same. When you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything!

Stop serving your leftovers to God - give Him your best - Amen.

.

Light! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas - Peace on Earth and Good Will to All Men

Dear Faithful Readers,

It is Saturday morning and I am taking some time to make origami Christmas stars, drink a nice warm cup of coffee or two, and watching the Brady Bunch on TV! Our last post was on darkness - we can't stop there. We are at 5 hours and 20 minutes of daylight, however the visible light lingers longer. A full moon is just around the corner and our night light will be bright enough to take a walk without a flashlight.  Each of our homes here at camp are lit up with outside Christmas lights. I'd like to think each of those lights are a reminder to those who live here that even though it is dark out, there is lots of light to be found. The light of the Gospel, the warmth of His words, the love of our Heavenly Father.  Seek and ye shall find - knock and it shall be open unto you. Matthew 7:7.  Please pray that all those who visit Victory Bible Camp will see the light of Christ. This also means the daily UPS man, the mail lady, to the young man pumping our septic systems!






What a gift and a treasure it is to know we are following God's will by serving here at Victory. We may be the hands and feet but our limbs CANNOT move without the support of the rest of our body. More like the body of Christ, our supporters, our loving church family. Thank you all!

Last evening, at Liam's Glacier View School, we were entertained with a "Traditional Country Christmas" program. Liam's HS class put on a mini production of  Dicken's A Christmas Carol. There were a few twists and turns along the way - the 3 ghosts were Mrs. Santa Claus, Elvis, and Darth Vader. Alas, the ending of this classic story was still the same "God bless us everyone".  More fun followed with singing, instrument solos, 3-5 grader's skit, a poem recitation and ending with the song "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".

We are doing well and busy. The cold days just mean more layers of clothing although the coldness doesn't eat through you like it does in the Midwest. We frequently go for a walk in zero degree weather! The biggest problem we have now is our oil drip furnace. It warms the house, however we have found it is very expensive to run. We keep it set on the lowest setting to help keep the cost down. Prayers are requested to help us find a more efficient heating source - our home (the "old Parmenter place") is not setup for a wood stove - which would be the most cost effective heat solution.

We want to also update you on the rest of our family.

Cody and Aurelie were married on March 23rd. The day after our anniversary! They moved  in August into Chris' parents home to help take care of Chris' dad. Cody has started his own web design business.  Aurelie and Cody just returned from a 3 week trip with Navigators to Japan. Their hope is to return in a year and witness to the people and spread the Gospel there by starting a coffee shop ministry with another family that already lives in Japan.

Morgan and Brian have been married 3 years in April. Brian works in the corporate office of State Farm and Morgan teaches HS history. They are both expert game players with Uno being one of their favorites. They love being close to Lake Michigan and of course are Packers fans. They spend a lot of time biking and "playing outside" in the beautiful state of Wisconsin.We hope they will make it up to visit us next summer!

Caitlin - is in her last year of college studying Biomedical Illustration. She will go on to grad school to study a form of prosthetics -  as in designing artificial limbs or possible facial reconstruction devices. She is an amazing artist and student! She is also the "proud owner" of our old minivan. It does come in handy when she has a lot of stuff to move around. We setup her bedroom at my mom's home. This is a great place for her to meet her sister half way from WI for a visit with their grandma! She will be here with us for Christmas and New Years! She visited us last August with her boyfriend Stephen.

The following pictures are some winter shots of camp and our drive into town.  Merry Christmas!

God Bless Us Everyone!

Darkness

An Alaskan high wind snow storm blew in Thursday evening and our power went out about 9:15 pm. The power came back on at about 5 am Saturday morning, 30 plus hours later. When the lights go out it gets really dark! It makes me think about how our lives would be without God. When we have no light we fumble and stumble around not sure where we are stepping, not sure what our hands are reaching for.We want to find what we believe to still be where we left it last - our flashlight! Instantly we have light. Oh, so good! We can see clearly again and know where are footsteps are going. This is exactly what God is - our light, our clear guide. He has a plan for each of our footsteps if we believe in Him. But even in the darkness we must believe and have faith that He is here. Amen

Update - Address Correction

Isaiah 1:18

"Come now, let us reason together,"

says the Lord.

"Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow."

We just sent out our Fall newsletter to our faithful supporters. We would like to share it with the rest of you! We have also included our first real snowfall pictures.

IN ADDITION - the contact address in the letters we sent had a typo! Our actual street number is 64741. Thank you to my cousin for pointing that out to us!

Mocks at Victory - Fall 2013

Dear Friends,

        How does one sincerely thank those who have pledged and partnered with our family? Words seem to fall short of truly describing how it feels when the Spirit moves you to uproot your immediate family (and disrupt your extended) by moving 3700 miles away to minister to strangers. Why now? Why there? Why them?  It is like if a person would ask you, ”how do you know you love your child?” The answer clearly is - you just know deep down in your heart. We have followed the guidance of The Holy Spirit. This is how it is at Victory Bible Camp for all 3 of us. This is where God has placed us for now. So we thank you for making God’s will for us possible.

        We have made a pledge ourselves to pray for each one of our supporters during the course of each week. We have made a list of all your names and have them on our refrigerator. We counted up the numbers for those of you that like details. 29 monthly, 4 quarterly, 25 annual, and about 60 one-time gift supporters.

        The snow now covers the mountains around us. It is called “termination dust”. It will soon be reaching down to our elevation here at camp which is about 2200 feet. When this happens, any day now, fall has terminated and winter is upon us. Our view has changed now that there are no leaves on the trees. Many things have changed for us too. A few of them being the closest grocery store is now over an hour away, the power may go out at any moment, sometimes we have no water, we don’t go hiking without a gun, a moose could look in our kitchen window, we eat mostly moose meat, the sun does not set in the summer, we have been wearing our winter coats since early September and our zip code is Sutton, AK which is 55 miles away. It is comforting to know when so many things change around us each day God is still and steadfast!

        Our small cabin is heated with a oil - drip furnace which predates WW II. Yes, the furnace is that old, but seems to work well. Basically, you turn a valve to allow a small amount of oil to drip onto a little pan within the furnace and when lit with a match produces a flame which equals heat. There is no blower involved and it does not require any electricity. This is especially good if the power goes out. We have flashlights strategically placed around our home  because when the lights go out it is very dark! This makes us think about all of us not hiding our lamps under a basket - let it shine - let it shine - let it shine! Maybe God has us strategically placed in Alaska for His good works. As the days shorten here and darkness comes around us we have to know God is our lighthouse!

        Our work here varies from day to day. Chris has many things to fix and check on. For example: boilers needing attention, propane tanks to bury, huge potholes in our roads to patch, beavers who make dams in the wrong places, broken toilets, hot water that won’t turn off because of too much calcium build-up, grease traps that clog up way too often, vehicles to prepare for winter, feeding the wood stove at Victory’s Miracle Lodge, insulating water pipes - just name a few. Debbie volunteers many hours in the camp kitchen. This past week was very busy, as was the last, seeing groups like The Sweet Adelines, Wasilla Baptist youth group, army chaplains, homeschoolers, and the Palmer Valley pastors. The meal count at each meal surpassed 175. She is learning a lot about how much food needs to be prepared - a lot! All our breads and desserts are homemade so this takes more time. On an interesting note, the kitchen is all used stainless steel bought from a hospital remodel job. Our counter tops and storage cupboards are all out of the surgery suites! One very large and wide counter top is from the morgue. Enough said!

The sun is just appearing over the mountain tops and it is 9:30am. The bus picks Liam up for school at 7:54. His bus, one of two, arrives at school about 8:30. School starts when both the busses have dropped the kids at school. All 38 of them! Liam is one of 3 freshman with a total of 9 kids in high school. He is fitting in well, although he really misses his friends from Pella. He has added an additional online course to his studies. Glacier View School sits looking straight onto the Matanuska Glacier. It is a very modern school and his two teachers are very devoted to educating their students. One of his teachers is originally from Dubuque, Iowa! Although a Hawkeye fan. Boo! The high school students are also fundraising! It is for an “UP-CLOSE” trip to Washington D.C. in April to experience how our government works. They put on a Italian Dinner in September. The next event is a Bavarian Dinner in early November. This doubles as an opportunity for the community to gather together and have a nice meal out since there is only one other restaurant in our area in either direction for over 50 miles. It also gives us an opportunity to get to know the many unchurched people in our community.

So how are we “being” missionaries? The answer is simple - loving on all whom we have contact with each day. Being available, ready, and with willing hearts to follow God’s direction. Waiting on God’s timing and praying for His words to bring in the harvest. Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? Christ came to give us true life and freedom. We, as followers of Jesus, have to continually remind ourselves that it is God himself who is our refuge and supplier...God himself who is our  sustainer and provider.

For many of you who give one-time gifts, these monetary blessings go directly to the operative cost of Victory Camp/Conference Center. These monies also may cover us and other camp families when pledges fall short. This is very similar to how our church handles their offerings. Thank you on behalf of our Victory family for these gifts.

Each month we deeply appreciate the many financial partners who faithfully send us their hard earned support. And yet it is God himself who supplies by using YOU! We are so grateful for your commitment. We are humbled by God’s blessings!

Because of Christ - Chris, Debbie, and Liam

Our contact information:
Victory Bible Camp and Conference Center                                                                                            

Chris, Debbie, and Liam Mock
64741 South Victory Road
Sutton, AK 99674

Blog: MockstoVictory@blogspot.com
Web page: http:/www.vbcalaska.org

            Phone: 907-745-4203

Since sending out our letters we have had a foot or more of snow - all in one snow "shower"!

Please pray for God's Will, God's Way, Everyday