Update from Melisa Page-Baile, Foster/Adoptive Mother, BD Missions Team
Calvary Life
Our next stop on the Movements of Compassion Tour was at Calvary Life, a 27-bedroom home where people suffering from addiction, the homeless and families looking for help can live in community to get back on their feet.
At Calvary Life, we took part in daily chapel services and prayed for the residents. We cooked, cleaned and spent time with the children living there. Gabriel really connected with a boy who was a couple of years younger than he was. As it turned out, Gabriel became be a role model for his younger friend, being willing and available to let God use him in many ways.
It was a time to bless those living there and to spend time visiting other ministries in the area. We were also able to take a day and drive down the Alaskan Peninsula for a visit in Homer.
Freedom House – Jennifer Waller, AK
Jennifer Waller paid us a welcome visit while we served at Calvary Life. Pastor Wayne Lanier, a good friend of ours at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, FL, introduced us to her wonderful ministry.
Her testimony is a story of her struggles with drug addiction, and with God’s grace overcoming it. Now she is on her path to open a facility to help others also struggling with addiction. Jennifer plans to call it “Freedom House.” While we were still in Alaska, Jennifer was in the process of attempting to purchase a building she found for it. She invited us to tour the building with her, and we prayed with her over the financing of what may become “Freedom House.”
Later in the evening, we all attended a native church service. As we left a very spirited and encouraging service, we took a moment to gaze into the Alaskan sky and witnessed the most stunningly breathtaking rainbow we have ever seen, as if God was giving us his promise that he heard our prayers for Jennifer’s ministry. We truly love her and give her prayers and support for her movement of compassion!
MARC Ministries (Missions Aviation Repair Center)
We also discovered a group called MARC Ministries (Missions Aviation Repair), and they offered to take us all up on a flight to see the terrain of Alaska. As their website puts it:
“Across the vast roadless wilderness of Alaska are hundreds of isolated villages where Americans live in third-world conditions. The rich native culture has been overwhelmed by rampant alcoholism, teen suicide, joblessness, and spiritual darkness.
“Less than 100 villages have any established evangelical church, pastor, or missionary presence; and many have no followers of Jesus Christ. When there is a pastor or missionary in the village, they are also isolated and cutoff from the normal spiritual and support networks typically afforded other Christian workers.
“Pastors and missionaries in village churches are fighting an uphill battle to share Christ in meaningful ways to an increasingly hard-to-reach population.
“Missionary Aviation Repair Center has provided a lifeline of hope to these villages, strengthened the ministry of Christians, and expanded the reach of the Gospel across the Alaskan frontier since 1964.”
– Team Courageous is recording all of their experiences on camera and soon our audience will be able to see the full story! In the meantime, enjoy the Compassion Journals here!
