Orientation

Orientation day!  And what a beautiful view to have while sitting listening to the typical spiel: meeting, greeting, about the company, duties, etc. 

Highlights of the day:

• Saw a whale! 
• Pizza for lunch.
• Gorgeous day!  And I got to sit by the window!
• Finished 1 hour early.
• Walk on Brotherhood Bridge Trail with Dad.
• Dinner with Dad.
• Bonfire at Point Louisa with some Allen Marine crew.
  
  

I am very excited about working for Allen Marine this summer. They are a very reputable company. Some people have returned up to 5 times for these seasonal jobs. (This does not include the year-round staff.) I met a lot of nice people, although I will not be working with the majority of them. Most of the crew work on the boats, but I will be working downtown on the docks where the cruise ships come to port. So far, I have only met a few people who I will be working with directly, as some of our team has not arrived yet. The only parts of this job I am really not looking forward to are the days when I will be outside in the rain all day. So I will be praying for an extra warm and dry summer and always packing a raincoat and hat!

Hawk Inlet Excursion

On April 23, Dad and I went out to Hawk Inlet again. Hawk Inlet is about 30 miles south of Point Retreat (the tip of Admiralty Island, about 10 miles from Auke Bay where we launched the boat). This picture was taken going up Wheeler Creek. (It is named a creek, but everyone calls it the river. It appears to be a small river, anyway.) You have to go about 1.5 miles up the river to get to Westside Lodge, the cabin we stayed at. Yesterday afternoon Dad and I took the kayaks down the river. We hit rapids, but they were so tiny it was laughable. At the mouth of the river, Bill picked us up in the river boat and took us back upstream.

So typical Alaskan adventure. You can't have a good adventure without the following:

• Engine trouble.
• Stepping into water that goes over your extra-tuffs.
• Kayaking.
• And canoeing.
• And riverboating.
• Wearing 5 layers of clothes, gloves, hat, wool socks, boots.
• A good campfire on the beach.
• Pottying in the outhouse.
• Pottying in the trees.
• Hot-tubbing to warm up.
• Hot chocolate. Lots of hot chocolate.
• Chopping wood.
• Woodstove fires.
• Drinking brown water, fresh from the mountains.
• Heating water on the stove to wash dishes.
• Tromping around in the snow. In April.
• Seeing bear tracks. 
• Seeing orcas (killer whales).
• Seeing sea lions.
• Seeing porpoises.
• Smelling like wood smoke when you come home.

Note that it wasn't me who stepped in the water over my boots. Oddly enough, I have never owned a pair of extra-tuffs. (Shame, I know!) Nor did I chop wood. It might have been fun if I had, though. Maybe. I didn't see the bear tracks, either. Wish I had seen a bear, though, from a really far distance of course! I had my camera ready, just in case.

We returned home this afternoon, and I was cold but happy.  Just in time for a relaxing evening warming up before I start training tomorrow! 

First Cruise Ship

I spent the morning reading. I finished reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. Very intriguing book. Definitely thought provoking. I don't read a lot of children's literature, but this one I would recommend.

The rest of the afternoon I spent with my best friend Gabie and her adorable boys, Caden and Justin. Justin doesn't mind letting me hold him (he's only 10 months old). In fact, he is very good and lets me carry him just about everywhere. We ran errands around town, getting our exercise by walking around in Freddy's and Costco. (It was raining.)

This picture was taken this afternoon. Probably the most rain there has been since I got here. I am very thankful that we have had quite a few gorgeous days. Because of that, I could actually enjoy the rain today! (Not that I really spent a lot of time in it! Mostly looking at it from a window.) It is very hard to enjoy rain when it happens every day. The rest of the day was overcast but no rain, which made it quite enjoyable and almost warm.

This next picture is of the first cruise ship of the season, the Balmoral, as it was leaving Juneau. (Taken at about 8 pm.) It is on a world cruise with Juneau as its first stop and England as its last. This is actually a very early arrival for a cruise. The normal cruise season starts on April 29 with the arrival of the Norwegian Star. September 27 is the last day of the season.

My job for the summer will be working with all the people who are getting off these cruise ships. I start training on Saturday, April 25th. In just a few days! 

http://www.juneau.com/Cruise_Ship_Calendar_2009.pdf

Wetlands

Dad and I went out to the wetlands trail today. I have only ever been on the well-trafficked trail around the airport, but today was really low tide so we decided to be adventurous and take the usually hidden trail. We walked as far as we could until our boots started to get stuck in the mud.  (My new hiking boots have officially been broken in!) With waders on, my guess is the water was so low we probably could have waded across to Douglas Island. 

It was such a gorgeous day! I have been soaking up the beautiful days here, trying to spend as much time as possible out walking. These are the days that make me marvel at the beauty all around. The days that keep Juneauites here. The days that call my name like a siren, drawing me back . . . .

Perfection

Matthew 5:48 tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. But what kind of perfection is Matthew referring to? This word (perfect) comes from the Greek teleios, which means brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, that which is perfect (full grown, adult, of full age, mature). Philippians 1:6 says that he will finish what he started in us. That means that this perfection or completion we are commanded to have is not something we are to work for on our own. We can't do it!  Paul rebukes the Galatians (Gal 3:3) for trying to epiteleo (to bring to an end, accomplish, perfect, execute, complete) in the flesh (on their own) what was started in the Spirit. Nothing we can do makes us perfect. Those of us with a tendency towards perfectionism will try and try but never attain to what we think we need to do and who we think we need to be. The law will never make us perfect (Heb 7:19).  

So what brings us to this place of maturity (perfection) in the Spirit? First you need to have faith that Christ finished it all on the cross. The trying or testing out of this faith brings perseverance (endurance, steadfastness, patience), and when this is fully developed, you will be perfect (James 1:3-4).

Our idea of perfection has become so messed up. We expect ourselves and others to always do the right thing and when there is sin, we see ourselves as bad. The idea that there is right or wrong makes us often feel as if we are right or wrong. When we sin, there is a break in our relationship with the Lord, but we as people of God are never wrong. The cross restored our relationship with the Father and set us in right standing with him (Rom 8:30). Whether or not we sin, we are always right in God's eyes. If we sin, the only requirement to restore ourselves to God's standard is to confess our sin and to accept his forgiveness.     

We need to lay down all our expectations of ourselves and of others. God does not expect us to be perfect in and of ourselves. We have already been made perfect by his Son. There is no law or standard we need to live up to. Neither sin nor the law have any power over us (Rom 6:7, 7:6). Once we realize that the only requirement is to believe this, we can be released from a lifetime of trying to attain a fleshly perfection that can never be reached.  

God accomplished it all for us. There is a freedom in knowing that we can mess up and God still loves us. And whatever mistakes or sins we make do not detract from the perfection that comes from God alone. This is simply a testing out of our faith that ultimately brings us to maturity in Christ.  

 

Accepted!

I had my interview for Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry on Tuesday the 14th.  

The interview went really well, and the guy I interviewed with gave me encouragement that I would be accepted (although he couldn't say for sure, because someone else had to review my file first). He told me that I would know in 2-4 weeks, leaning more on the long side of that because they were so busy. I got my acceptance letter by e-mail only about 34 hours later! That is amazing to me! Now I can relax. I was not particularly worried about not getting in, but I no longer have to think about it.

Thank you, God! I am so super excited for this great opportunity. And I even have my first homework: I have to read Bill Johnson's book When Heaven Invades Earth over the summer. No problem, it's on my to-read list already.    

Bethel School:  http://www.ibethel.org/schools/ministry/?page=27

Boat Trip

I went out in the boat with Dad today.  We took a couple friends out to the cabin on Hawk Inlet, which is on the southwest side of Admiralty Island.  The first part of the trip was fairly calm, but coming back it was pretty rough waters.  

So on the way there, I found myself thinking that I really wanted an Alaska adventure while I was here for the summer.  Well . . .  We were a little over halfway there, right by Funter Bay, when the engine started making unusual noises.  Dad stopped the boat and went to see if maybe some kelp was caught in the engine.  That was not the case.  He lifted the engine and went to check to see if he could figure out what was going on.  Meanwhile, I am sitting up front thinking that we may just have to spend the night in the boat or maybe we were close enough to use the smaller trolling engine to get to the cabin (which we weren't, or rather it would have taken forever).  At least we were within swimming distance of shore, right?  So after calmly thinking that way for a few minutes, I started praying and asked God to show my dad exactly what it was that needed to be fixed.  Within 5-10 minutes, he had found the problem (some misbehaving wire), fixed it, and we were on our way.  Hooray!!

The 3.5 hours we were out on the water gave me lots of time to think:

1. Cold in Juneau is much less cold than cold in California.  
2. When your toes get too cold, they almost feel warm.  
3. Step one foot in Juneau, and you won't want to leave.
4. I need external motivators.  
5. God delights in us enjoying the outdoors.