Decisions. Cold Temps. Love for Alaska

Once again it has been a long time since I've last blogged. A lot has happened in the last month and it is hard to gather my thoughts. Please bare with me. :) On December 27th, Ben's dad and two brothers came to the great state of Alaska to visit us. Ben and I were SO excited to have them here. We arrived at our "airport" and it was pretty windy. We thought it would be a pretty rough landing for them, but to our surprise, it was pretty smooth. Within about 20 minutes of getting settled, Nathan was ready to go explore. Something that I love about the Harvey boys is that they love the great outdoors. This is something I wasn't as into when I met Ben. And then we got married and moved to a place where it's pretty much expected of you. I'm not going to lie, I've LOVED being outdoors and seeing God's creation everyday. It's simply amazing. The next day, Ben and his two brothers went out on an adventure and I have no clue what they were doing on their adventure. I have learned to not ask and appreciate when Ben comes home safely. Dennis stayed back because there weren't enough snow machines for everyone. So, him and I decided to walk down to the store. He got to see the expensive prices of simple necessities, and some guilty pleasure items. I think in the week that Ben's dad and brothers were here there was more soda, chips, ice cream in our house than there had been since moving up here. I was definitely NOT complaining. However, I knew as soon as they left I would become friends with my elliptical again. I have also never watched so many "man" shows or movies in one week. The next day all of the men got to go out moose hunting with one of our native friends. They left around 2:00, which made me a little nervous because at that time it starts getting dark around 5:00. I knew however that if they caught a moose it would be late once they returned. Long story short, they got to witness our friend Matt catch a moose. Matt also gave us a leg, which was good because our moose supply was running out. In the next few days it continued with more snow machine adventures and some fort building. :) When it was time for the men to leave, it was pretty foggy in Mountain Village and so they all had to snow machine over to St. Mary's to catch the 12:00 flight. They got to experience the TRUE bush experience. Ben went along with his dad and brothers to Anchorage to do some shopping and hang out in the city for a couple of days. Now, while you may be feeling sorry that I didn't go..don't. I enjoyed watching chick flicks, reading, cleaning, and relaxing. Moose and I had a lovely three days.

     Ok, then it was time to go back to school. As some of you know, Ben and I have been wrestling around with whether we should stay in Mountain Village or go back to Minnesota. We value our families so much and we miss them and our "Minnesota" life. However, there is something that we love so much here in Mountain Village. The simplicity, the people, and for me I have a job that I love. Ben has a much harder job with some tough kids to teach. However, more and more things were happening where Ben and I really felt like we should stay here. Now, I don't want to say it is final because we haven't made that decision yet, but I'm asking to please pray with us on where God would lead us. I'm also not saying we are staying in Alaska forever. In Ben and I's perfect world, we would love to stay here for two more years and then move back to Minnesota and start a family. We also know that sometimes plans change and God's direction can be different than our direction. One of Ben's student wrote him a Christmas card/note that was very uplifting and kind have gave him a sense that teaching has not been wasted here. The letter went like this,

                                      Merry Christmas Mr. Harvey!
                      You can just make us so...mad! You are so, "Cobby"
                    but, you are an awesome teacher. Don't ever leave us! :) Even
                  if we say, "We don't like you!" We're just mad at you because you don't
                let us get our way. Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year! :)

Now isn't that sweet? If you're wondering what "cobby" means, it is just another way of saying lame or dumb. We also had our elementary Yupik teacher came into my class when Ben and I were talking after school one day and she had said how much they appreciate us being here and that we have been the best "couple" in Mountain Village. Please keep in mind that all of this was happening when we were struggling the most with what to do. It was in that moment that Ben and I thought, maybe we should stay here.

Another hard part about living here for the last year is that our church has been without a Pastor. We have still been able to go to church, but we had just not received solid Godly instruction at church. This started to ware on us more and more. Then, what do you know.....God brought us a new pastor. His name is Don Cross, and at the beginning, there were some things in his past that raised some red flags, but I think Mountain Village Covenant Church is blessed to have this man here. Him and his wife and three kids moved here from Elim, AK, a village up North. I have left church the last three Sundays feeling encouraged and challenged. God is good and SO faithful.

It has been pretty cold here lately and that has caused a lot of water problems. It is -11 today and our water was out from yesterday afternoon until just now. That was pretty good. All week last week our kids got out of school at 1:30 because our water was too low. I shouldn't have to explain this, but think about 230 children at school without flushing toilets. Yuck city!

Anyway, that is about all I have to report up until now. I hope to update you sooner than later, but my track record isn't so hot. I will try though! :) We appreciate all of you!

Ben and Anne