M/V CHRISTIAN
Southeast Alaska
Bind Us Together, Lord
by Sharon Geldaker, R.N.
Do you ever have a song that plays over and over again in your head? It can be an irritation sometimes, especially if the song has no particular meaning. But 
other times I have had songs become a chant, even a prayer, as I move through my day.
This is what happened as we prepared the M/V CHRISTIAN for this summer’s hosting that began in Hoonah, Alaska. I was making up all the bunks below deck for a women’s retreat. A friend of ours, and cultural anthropologist who works for the National Park Service (NPS) in Glacier Bay, wanted to do something special for the women of Hoonah, and asked for our help. This particular community has had tragic events occur over the last couple of years, including suicides and the shooting of two police officers. We know that often times, the women of a community bear the lion’s share of its sorrows. There is little personal time to get one’s bearings, and to gather strength when their attention is needed to keep families functioning. As a nurse, I know that after a time, this paucity leads to ailments, of the heart and the body.
So we offered the boat as a retreat space for the women weavers of Hoonah. And the song I found myself singing in my head as I made the beds was ‘Bind Us Together, Lord’. I didn’t plan that song; but found that in a way, it became my prayer for these women that I didn’t know yet. The next day, they boarded the vessel, and Stan and I became ‘hands and feet’ to give them respite and retreat for four days. This retreat also had cultural significance. The Tlingit women have little access to the traditional homeland and waters north of their village, now a part of Glacier Bay National Park. The NPS and the local tribal office, Huna Indian Association, worked with us to plan visits to ancestral sites, while the five master weavers each taught two students how to gather and weave Spruce Roots into tiny baskets, just as their foremothers had done for generations before them.
At the end of our time together, the women gathered on the top deck to drum a song of gratitude for this time together. And whales danced around the boat! What an uplifting time, and answer to my prayer, that God would somehow bind us together, in friendship and healing.
In July, we spent a weekend in Angoon, where we found another way to pass along God’s comfort and love. Women from around the country and Alaska had once again blessed the boat with quilts. A village friend and I spent 
two days, distributing 14 lap blankets to elders in the village, and 15 baby quilts to young moms. We also touched base with two friends of ours who each morning, text a Bible verse and morning prayer to folks on their cell phone list. This ministry of prayer travels around the world, even to soldiers in Afghanistan. We offered to provide housing on board for their guests in August, when they will be binding their lives together in marriage and service to God.
In Hydaburg, during morning devotions, our VBS team worked on the story of Joseph as we prepped for our time with the village kids. Again, the Spirit was working this idea of what it is that binds us together. When asked to give the message at church the following Sunday, I knew what I had to say...
I believe what really binds us together in this life is our brokenness. Jesus came for this very purpose, to show us that what breaks us in this life need not consume or destroy us, because it doesn’t end there. Just as God turned what was meant for evil toward Joseph into something good for Himself and His people, He raised Jesus to show us that we need not fear the tragedies of this world. God is still Creator God, and relishes taking our brokeness, and making something good, in ways only He can imagine. There is so much more ahead, not only in this world, but the next.
Join me in singing today:
Bind us together, Lord
Bind us together, Lord
Bind us together in Love.