Announcing Sydney Anne Alarid

Congratulations to Shannon and Lindsey Alarid on the birth of their new baby girl!  Sydney Anne Alarid was born on December 16th and weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz.  Mom, Dad, and baby are doing great.  Shannon is Youth Pastor at King's Way Assembly of God in Eagle River.  Congratulations also to Supt. Bill & Dori Welch, as Sydney is their fourth grandchild.

Central Region Christmas Party!

We had a great Christmas party last week.  Pastor Fay led the event, which was hosted at Calvary.  Pastor Fay had some great games, our Samoan brothers and sisters provided entertainment with music and island dancing.  It was awesome!  Brother Moe brought a powerful word to us, and Rachel from MCA cooked all the food for this event. It was incredible!  It was a rich time of fellowship together.Here are some pictures, which were taken by the Ganeys.

PK/MK Retreat!

The PKs and MKs are out at Little Beaver right now, have a great retreat!  Mark and his team put together a great time for the 60 or so Pastor's and Missionaries kids from around the state.  Thanks to all the leaders who are helping out and the churches who put out money to help the kids get there.  We have great PKs and MKs and appreciate them very much!  Pastor Bill and Dori were able to go out last night to greet them.

Christmas Season!

It's the beginning of the Christmas season!  This is a very busy and exciting time for churches.  We put up the Christmas tree at the Network Office yesterday.  Today we had our annual 1048 Building Christmas Party, and invited our tenants to join in with us.  We are blessed with great tenants who lease space in our building.  What a blessing!  Here are some pictures of the party today.

Youth Conference

Youth Conference was incredible this year.  Sean Smith was the speaker and Adam Barta led worship.  One of the highlights of the Conference was the drama that featured the STL theme of "Compelled."  It challenged youth to be compelled to pray, compelled to give, and compelled to grow.  There was an iPhone app launch to help youth after Youth Conference.  The worship was intense and the teaching was life giving.  It was breathtaking to see a generation go after God and gave great hope for the future.  On Friday night there were about 1,000 people in the building and about that many more computers logged on through Voice to the Village.  Thanks to Mark & Heidi Zweifel and the Alaska Youth Ministries team for putting on such a top notch event.  Here are some pictures.

Nome Campmeeting

Nome Campmeeting was a great success!  Presbyter Austin Jones and Pastor Mike Christian of Nome partnered to host this event.  Odis and Debby Ganey were a tremendous blessing in assisting with food preparation, serving, and Odis was also the morning speaker.  Terry Hull streamed the services, and many people logged in to watch.  Dobie Weasel was the speaker this year, and we saw God move mightily in the altars as he brought powerful words in the services.  Sissy Padgett ministered in song each service, and she was a blessing.

We also set aside a couple hours for collaboration on the Network Strategic Plan.  There was great participation and excellent input and suggestions.  Overall, it was a time of great refreshing from the Spirit and rich fellowship.  We enjoyed the spirit of the people in Western Alaska.  Watch out for the things God will be doing soon in Western Alaska.  He is up to something!  Here are some pictures of Nome Campmeeting 2010.

Presbytery

Presbytery meetings are happening this week.  It's been a very productive and life-giving time and we are blessed with a Spirit-led Presbytery.  Pastor Joany of Burkino Faso brought the devotion this morning and we had a powerful time of prayer.

Call to Prayer from Pastor Gary Morton

Lovers of the Harvest,

I’m sure that you have also been deeply moved by the prayer request from our Missionary to Kenya, Jeff Nelson. What an opportunity! To “reach” an “unreached” people group! To remove them from the list of the “unreached”!

Jesus said, in Matthew 24:14, “14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

I encourage an urgent, Network-wide intercessory mobilization. Our local fellowship at Anchorage First Assembly will begin this weekend to focus our prayer ministries fully on this great opportunity. Let’s all join the intercessory cries for 1500 Decisions for Christ - during the days of November 14-22, 2010!

The Joshua Project’s latest figures updates the population of the Rendille people to be around 60,000.

The Rendille occupy an area in Northeastern Province of Kenya from the Merille River and Serolivi in the South to Loyangalani in the North from Marsabit and Merti in the East to Lontolio in the West. The primary towns include Marsabet, Laisamis, Merille, Logologo, Loyangalani, Korr, Kamboi, Ngurunit, and Kargi.

Brother Nelson reports great advancement among the Rendille in recent evangelistic efforts. Jeff said. “I never expected that our largest church planting effort would be among an unreached people group.” Check out more about the ongoing victories among the Rendille.

What can we do?

1. Take time to dialogue with our Network family about your intercessory efforts on behalf of this great opportunity.

2. Post a comment here on our blog.

3. Make this request on your Facebook status. (Jeff Nelson’s current status is: Pray for a historic mission: the "unreached" Rendille People of Kenya becoming "reached". EAST Rendille Mission November 14-21, 2010. Goal at least 1500 decisions for Christ.)

4. Let’s start an “Alaska-sized” encouraging effort, sending notes and prayers to Jeff and Janelle Nelson.

The Harvest is ripe! The laborers are being mobilized, come on Intercessors! Let’s partner to bring this one in!

For the Harvest,

Gary Morton

Prayer Request from Jeff Nelson

I am requesting that Alaska Ministry Network and churches come along side East Africa School of Theology (EAST), Nairobi, Kenya, by providing special prayer for the Rendille of Kenya November 14-22, 2010. We are having a Rendille wide mission during this week. We are working with all churches and missions among the Rendille that are willing to cooperate with us for this event. The event will take place in six of the largest Rendille communities: Marsabit, Laisamis, Korr, Kargi, Loglogo, and Merille.

It is our desire that this mission will enable the Rendille people group to be moved from the "unreached" 1.2, to the "reached" (Significant/Established Church) 3.1 category (Joshua Project). We are praying for at least 1500 decisions for Christ during this week and many to be added to the church.

Over the past 18 months teams from Evangel University and EAST have seen 973 Rendille make decisions for Christ and have planted two churches. A third church will be planted in November. An EAST alumni planted two churches within the past three years which now have 350 members.

Thank you for assisting us with prayer and publicity for this event.
Jeff Nelson,
Alaska District Missionary and Vice Chancellor, East Africa School of Theology

Ask Dr. Wood!

Today at 11:00am Alaska time, you can watch Supt. George Wood field questions on how to handle criticism.  You will be able to use Twitter or email to send in questions.  You can watch this live at www.ministrydirect.com/live.  If you miss it or don't have time today, I'm sure it will be available to watch on demand at http://www.agtv.ag.org/.  In fact, you can watch the most recent Q & A time with Dr. Wood in August at http://www.agtv.ag.org/ask-the-superintendent-8-10-10.

Northern Region Advance

Had a very fruitful and blessed time at the Northern Region Minister's Advance.  Pastor JR and the Northern Region Committee did a fantastic job planning this event, and Pastor Paul and the team at Fairbanks First AG were top notch hosts.  We deeply appreciate everything they did to make this an excellent event.

Pastor Kent Redfearn and Pastor Rick Benjamin taught on Integrity and Excellence in Ministry.  I wish that every minister could have been there to hear this teaching, it was so good and practical. Nathan Lopez came up from Wasilla to lead in worship, and he did a great job.   I was impressed by the turnout, as nearly everyone from the Region was in attendance.  It was so good to see everyone.

We spent some time collaborrating on the strategic plan yesterday afternoon.  We received very good suggestions and input, and appreciate everyone's feedback.  We will be bringing that feedback to the attention of the Presbytery next week.  Thanks Northern Region for such a life-giving event!  Here are some pictures.