M/V CHRISTIAN
Southeast Alaska
Summer 2011 Onboard the M/V CHRISTIAN
We began our summer in Hoonah, Alaska, a Native community along Icy Straits. This year, we offered to partner with the National Park Service and Huna Indian Association, in an effort to bless the women of this community.
Five Master Spruce Root weavers came aboard with ten of their students on retreat. During the next four days, the culturally rich skill of weaving tiny spruce tree roots into baskets was passed on to 
more community members and to another generation.
Hoonah has suffered many tragedies these past years, and we wanted to provide respite to the women of the community and support any path that would strengthen their Native identity, helping them feel respected and loved, just the way God made them. While they received their instructions and wove together, we were able to take them to their ancestral sites in Glacier Bay. Although the areas are considered their homeland, many rarely have access or opportunity to visit them any longer. When we sailed back to Hoonah, the weavers all gathered on the top deck of the M/V CHRISTIAN, and drummed a song of honor, as whales swam along each side. We give this honor to our Creator for the powerful time we shared together.
Next we traveled to Angoon, where we caught up with our friends who live there. The harsh winter winds had prevented us from getting there last February, and we were eager to catch up on their lives. Two of our friends planned to marry in August, so we offered to help house out-of-town guests on the boat when we returned to do Vacation Bible School. Another villager and I visited 14 elders and 15 new moms, giving each a new blanket that had been donated to the boat ministry?
Next we pulled into Kake. While there, we visited with Lutheran volunteers assisting the local churches and the community's culture camp. A highlight was 
singing and praying with the village women at several village sites they selected, claiming Christ's hope and power for the healing of their community at each location.
Then we picked up volunteers in Petersburg, bought groceries, fueled and began the next leg of our journey along the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. Our goal for the next two weeks was to spend time in Hydaburg, to provide Vacation Bible School for village kids, as well as to be servant hands and feet for their Culture camp. We seek to help in any way to strengthen their community and identity as Native people under the Creator. We each shared a sermon message on Sundays about how our brokenness unites us, and how our identity in Christ frees us. And we spent time in homes and on porches with the people, building trust and relationships wherever possible.
Next was the village of Klawock, to celebrate the completion and raising of four totem poles. We met with folks from all over Prince of Wales for a potluck and discussion of Timothy Keller's DVD, 'The Prodigal God'. This was part of our summer bridge of Bible study using Crossway’s ‘Parables of Jesus’, a series of study we initiated in three communities since January 2011.
Our summer season was completed then in Angoon in the last weeks of August, with Vacation Bible School for kids 5-16. Our volunteers from Pennsylvania used different parts of the boat to illustrate our faith in God. They taught that the Compass is the Bible, which directs us in our relationship with God. The Wheel is our Heart and Will, which can turn toward God or away from Him, each with different consequences. The Anchor is Jesus, who keeps us safe from floundering when we set our lives firmly in Him. The Ladder symbolizes our Connection to God, always there to lead us up and out of the water. We also gifted the kids and anyone aboard with blankets, to represent the Holy Spirit, who revives and comforts us.
Movie and game nights for teens, potlucks and Bible discussions onboard, followed by visits and gatherings in the village completed our time there. Our last day, we visited an elder and son, then brought our portable keyboard to another elder to worship and sing hymns with her and her 
family. We gathered for dinner with other friends as a send-off, and prayed late at night with a grandmother who just heard about the death of her grandson.
The ministry of the M/V CHRISTIAN is about relationships. The boat is trusted space to visit, to unload griefs and burdens, to work healing through the promises and grace of Christ, and to learn ways to serve.
Please keep us in your prayers, as we minister to Hoonah, Angoon, Kake, Edna Bay, Hydaburg, Klawock, Kasaan, Meyer's Chuck, Thorne Bay, Coffman Cove and anywhere else God leads us. We can only do this with the prayers and support of fellow Christians with a passion for the Lord and compassion for the people of Southeast Alaska.
Many Thanks!
Pastor/Skipper Stan Berntson & Sharon Geldaker RN