Blessings - A "God" Thing

The word blessing has a great deal of meaning in it. When God blesses, He is “present” in the “blessing.” His Spirit is present, in fact. We know these things are true because His Spirit reveals this to us. As we trod along the rocky terrain of Point Hope [Alaska], we felt the blessing of God all around us. His Spirit revealed Himself. We got to know our Lord in a new way on this trip when He provided help to us at just the right moments.

As the four of us stood on the wind-blown airfield, suitcases in hand, waiting for someone to pick us up and take us into town, He presented a lone man on a four-wheeler. When we hailed him down and asked him about our ride, he said, “Good thing I came along. It’s a long way into town.” Yes, indeed a "God" thing.

When our ride finally came and we climbed into his truck, he mentioned that he would try and see if he could upgrade us into the nicer place to stay. He did; it was a God-blessing. We were able to cook our meals on a stove and take showers.

On our first lonely night, as we were walking around town trying to survey our surroundings and meet the people of Point Hope, he presented us with the “town atheist,” who explained the mystical history of Point Hope. It was a God-blessing, because it once again reminded us how much we needed Him.

On Sunday morning, He was present in the service that was entirely led by lay people. They welcomed us by asking us to participate as readers and Sunday-school teachers. It was a God-blessing that opened doors that we could not have opened on our own.

After we spent almost the entire Sunday preparing our lessons, decorating the church and hanging up signs outside, we waited to see who would show up on Monday morning. The children did come, and we did get to share the wonderful story of Jesus and the power He has over sin.

After a week of lots of children and never seeing the adults who lived with these children, we wondered about having a closing. It was clearly a God-blessing that the VBS closing was packed with adults and the parking lot was full of the four-wheelers that they came on.

It was a God-blessing that we had enough food for the week and enough to share with the people of the village.

On our last day there, we woke early to begin our walk to the “Point.” After almost two hours of walking through gravel and sand, we stood facing the crashing waves that spilled out onto the land that juts into the Chukchi Sea. We stood looking out on the awesome power of the sea when a stream of water shot up in the air and a Bowhead whale appeared 20 feet from where we stood.

As we stood in awe, watching the creature emerge and disappear every three minutes, a four-wheeler appeared over the cliff. Abigail, an 81-year-old elder, came over to speak to us. In her native Inupiaq tongue, she uttered some words and then translated them for us: “God is good. His creation is good.” It was a God-blessing.

In fact, this whole trip began as a blessing—answered prayers to unknown needs—people donating money to make all things possible. When we began this venture, we were told that during this trip we would both be blessed and be a blessing. I think we were the more blessed.

Kamryn Green, Volunteer

To download a PDF version of this article, click here.

Previous
Previous

Highlights from the 2015 Lutheran Indian Ministries Staff Retreat

Next
Next

Lutheran Church Extension Fund Highlights Haskell LIGHT Construction