We did it! We made it to Alaska! It was a long drive that we made a little longer, but we did it! (By we, I mean kath and I, Bethany and the kids get here in a couple of days) Nothing too eventful happened on the drive, aside from a ton of animals for one day in Canada (3 caribou, 2 moose, 5 bears, 2 porcupine, 2 bison herds, and… more stuff but I can’t remember).
Because I was traveling with my sister, instead of driving directly to the MatSu valley we decided to swing up and spend a day in the Delta/Fairbanks/North Pole area, and man was it a huge nostalgia trip. So much has changed, and yet everything is still the exact same. We visited friends and mentors that we haven’t seen in 7 or more years, as well as stopped at Camp Li-Wa, where we both grew up going to camp, and were also summer staff at (and where I met Bethany).
When driving out of Fairbanks on our way to Palmer we both sat in silence for a while, both of us lost in our own thoughts, reminiscing about the past (yes everyone, Kath was actually quiet for a bit! I know its hard to imagine, but its true!). When we did start talking we talked about growing up. Who we were when we left Delta Junction, the ideals we held, and who we thought we would be and what we thought we would be doing at the age we are now. Let me tell you many of those things have changed drastically.
I will not get into Kath’s story, as that is hers if she wants to share at some point, but I will share mine. When I left Delta I was a shell, the year before had gutted me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I was trying to pick up the pieces of who I was and put myself back together again. The year before I had lost my faith, and then re-found it, and was trying to figure out what this new faith looked like. I was fighting depression and losing. There was a lot of loss, but also a lot of hope ahead.
Driving through these areas brought a lot of these memories back. The nostalgia and emotions were very very real, but so was the joy. Though everything God had brought me to He has continued to shape and mold me into who He wants me to be. Since then my goals and dreams in life have completely changed. Much like the areas we were visiting, nothing had changed, but at the same time so much has changed. Things have collapsed and been destroyed and re-built, or are in the process of being re-built into something so much more beautiful.
When I left Alaska as my home (aka when I left Delta, not when i left after Alaska Bible College), I didn’t have a lot of hope, or joy. I now find myself, 10 years later, returning to Alaska filled with hope, joy, and excitement for the things to come. I am excited to see how God continues to work in my life, as I continue to learn and grow in Him.
Anyways, I apologize if this seemed like just word vomit, because honestly it is. Normally I will go back through and edit my posts and re-arrange them but for this one I’m just throwing it out there, because that’s what I feel I need to do with one. It’s the raw thoughts from my head, vomited out onto the screen for you to read.
I know I have said this before, but I am planning on writing here more. It’s a “muscle” I do want to stretch and work on. In the future they will go back to being edited again, but for now this is what you get!
-BJ
