Our Ministry
Outreach to Remote Native Communities
For the last 10 years, Lutheran Indian Ministries has been sending volunteer teams to the communities of Beaver and Venetie, Alaska. This year was no exception.
Pastor Mitchell W. Gowen led a volunteer team from Hawaii to teach Vacation Bible School and help with building repairs to the communities as needed. These communities are primarily Native Alaskan in population. Since these communities are very remote, they are only accessible via plane. Former staff member, Dan Treakle, has a long established relationship with these communities and arranged to get the volunteers air transportation into Beaver and Venetie. He also volunteered his time with the team for the week.
The first community they visited was Beaver, Alaska, located along the Yukon River just below the Arctic Circle. The population of this area is less than 100 people.
Pastor Gowen reports, "Aloha! We just returned from 10 days in the bush. We had a small group of kids for VBS and the worship service we did. We did a few hammer and nail projects as well."
Next the volunteer team visited Venetie, Alaska, along the Chandalar River above the Arctic Circle. The population of this community is just over 200, however, approximately 43% of the them live below poverty level.
"In Venetie we had 13 or 14 for worship and 20 for VBS. We hosted a Potlatch with about 40 people on Sunday afternoon with Moose, Caribou and Salmon (Dan and I cooked and we actually got complimented on our ability!) We also did a few hammer and nail projects here mostly on the Mission House."
Despite extreme mosquito populations, our volunteer team faired well. We praise God for sending us volunteer teams that are willing to leave the comfort of their own homes and share the Gospel with those who otherwise may not ever hear it. We pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to grow the seeds that have been planted this summer.
Thank you for your partnership in spreading the Good News of God’s love among remote Native communities. We could not do this important work without you!