Help Needed for AKSOM

We are very excited about how the AKSOM simulcast system is working.  It is allowing us to be more effective in how we conduct the classes and has also allowed us to expand our base of teachers.  However, one area in which we need help is in producing the classes.  We are looking for people who enjoy working with video and computers.  This is an excellent way for you to contribute to what God is doing through AKSOM in training leaders for Alaska.

The producer is responsible for making sure the simulcast system operates properly and monitoring the chat function to ask questions of the Professor when students ask questions on the internet.  It would involve giving a Saturday (usually from 9 until around 4) once every two or three months.  If you are interested in volunteering for this, please contact Dr. Cogan at the office or by email (coganministries@yahoo.com) 

Dillingham

Wade and Susan Cogan spent Thanksgiving with Pastor Debbie and Dave Milligan, Pastors of Anchor of Hope AG in Dillingham.  Wade also had the opportunity to preach and to teach the Personal Evangelism AKSOM class.

This is Pastor Debbie Milligan.

Pictures of the Anchor of Hope Congregation.

Togiak

Wade Cogan was in Togiak teaching two classes:  Introduction to Pentecostal Doctrine and How to Interpret the Bible.  They had a wonderful time visiting with Pastor Joseph and Lucy Andrews and getting to know the students.  Wade also got to preach at the Sunday services.

This is Pastor Joseph and Lucy Andrews.  They were recently appointed by the Presbytery as Pastors of Togiak Assembly of God.

There were five students attending both classes.

Holy Spirit Conference

We are very excited about the Holy Spirit Conference this year.  We would encourage you to make plans to attend if possible.  If you can't make the trip, it will be live streamed again by Voice to the Village. This event is sponsored by Muldoon Community Assembly, the Central Region, and the Alaska Ministry Network.  I love partnerships!

Thanksgiving Greeting from Pastor Bill and Dori

 

The following proclamation was made by Governor Bradford in 1623, 3 years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth:

To all ye Pilgrims, Inasmuch as the Great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

Ephesians 5:19, 20 encourages Christians everywhere, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ALWAYS giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."

Dori and I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!  As we enter into the holiday season, we are very thankful for the Alaska Assemblies of God and the wonderful opportunity you have given us to serve you and represent our Network.  We are very mindful of the outpouring of God’s grace over our lives.  We want to express gratitude for each of you and the wonderful blessing we have experienced because of you and the goodness of our Heavenly Father.  This will be our 26^th Thanksgiving in Alaska.  As I reflect on the years past, my heart is full of gratitude.  We are very excited for what the Lord has planned for all our families and friends in the years to come.

My prayer is that your families and ministries will be blessed beyond comprehension.  We love you and are praying you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you will experience the 2011 holiday season in a fresh new way, as Jesus manifests His grace and love.

^“I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart . . . all of you share in God’s grace with me . . . And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:3-11, NIV

You are loved,

 Bill and Dori

North Pole AG

I had a great time in North Pole this weekend with Pastor Billy and Aubrey Welch and North Pole Assembly of God. This is a historically strong church and continues to thrive under the leadership of Pastors Billy and Aubrey. Left to right above is Pastor Aubrey, Pastor Billy, Sheila (bookkeeper) Pastor Todd (Youth Pastor), and Pastor Kory (Children's Pastor). It is exciting to see what God is doing here. They work together very well as a team.

The temperature was around 35 below zero.

One of the Pastoral tasks is to stoke the fire twice a day to keep the church heated.  Fortunately, the pastoral staff helps out.

The Santa Claus at the Santa Claus House of North Pole is a believer and a member of North Pole AG.  He is a very nice guy.  Wow!  THE Santa Claus calls Billy "Pastor". 

Riggs Scholarship for High School Seniors

            A high school senior that plans to attend one of the 17 undergraduate Assemblies of God endorsed colleges or universities (www.colleges.ag.org) may be eligible to apply for a Ralph Riggs Scholarship. This scholarship fund is made available by the Assemblies of God Trust in partnership with The Alliance for Assemblies of God Higher Education.

            Two Riggs scholarships (The General Superintendent’s Scholarships) of up to $30,000 each will be awarded (over a 4-year period) to one male and one female high school senior. Eight one-time scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded to high school seniors (and distributed over the student’s first two semesters).

            To be considered for a scholarship, an applicant must have a minimum of a 3.7 GPA; an ACT score of 28 or SAT score of 1870; be active in an Assemblies of God church; and plan to attend an endorsed AG university directly following high school. Scholarship recipients will be chosen based on these qualifications: academics, extracurricular involvement, Christian service, Christian life, financial need, personal essay and references.

            The Riggs Scholarship Fund is one of three scholarship programs sponsored by AGTrust in its efforts to train young leaders and empower future generations. The AGTrust is under the leadership of Chairman Dr. George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God.

            Since 2009, AGTrust has awarded a total of $310,000 to 32 high school graduates chosen as Riggs Scholarship recipients. The 2012 Riggs scholarship winners will be named in April 2012.

            To download the Riggs Scholarship application form, go to www.agtrust.org. The application submission deadline is February 15, 2012.

Bethel

Pastor Jack and I had the chance to visit Pastor Dale and Pattie Jollotta in Bethel this Monday and Tuesday.  We enjoyed our fellowship with them and are excited about what the Lord has in store there.  They were called to Alaska from the New England Area, and have been serving as Pastors at Bethel Community AG since July.   Pastor Jack was planning on conducting a pastoral installation on Sunday, but the weather delayed travel.  Former Pastor Bob and Rachelle White continue to serve and be a blessing in the church as they look to develop a camp in the Bethel area. 

The church facility is very nice and well taken care of.

The Kuskokwim River flows by Bethel, and is frozen now.  Here you can see a barge that isn't going anywhere until Spring.

Kotzebue

I (Brad) was in Kotzebue this past Sunday filling in for Pastor Randy and Sandy Wren, who were attending their son's wedding.  I was excited to be there, as it was my first time in Kotzebue.  Thanks to Pastor Randy and Sandy for flying me up and letting me stay in their apartment while they were out.

Matt is a young man who is from Emmonak and was helping Pastor Austin.  He has moved to Kotzebue and is now helping Pastor Randy.  He did a great job leading worship on Sunday.

Darvin picked me up at the airport.  He has grown up in Kotzebue and has been a leader in the church for decades.  It was fun to hear Darvin and his wife tell fond stories of the ministry of the Mercers and the Westdahls. 

The Carters Receive Their STL Vehicle

The Carters just received their brand new Speed the Light vehicle!  It is pictured above behind the family.  They would like to thank the youth of Alaska for giving to make this possible.  Continue to pray for the Carters as they pursue God's call on their lives and minister in Japan.

First Hispanic AKSOM Venue!

We conducted our first AKSOM venue in Spanish this past Saturday.  I (Brad) taught the Life of Christ, and Pastor Gil Nantes interpreted.  There were four students, and they were sharp and hungry to learn more about God and ministry.  It was exciting to experience what God is doing.  Special thanks to Pastor Gil for working hard on fixing my PowerPoint translations and also to the New York School of Ministry for providing us with the text overview and tests in Spanish.

Dr. Cogan participated in the class and also recorded it on video.  We now have this class on DVD for future use.  We are very excited about what God is planning with the Hispanics in Alaska.

Pray for Western Alaska

The pictures above were taken by Pastor Jimmy Okitkin today and are shots of Kotlik and the AG church in Kotlik underwater.  This scene is playing out in many of the locations in Western Alaska.  Pastor Jimmy spoke with Pastor Marvin in Alakanuk, and they are taking on water as well.

Pastor Mike Christian of Nome reports that all roads heading out of Nome are closed except for towards Anvil Mountain.  Water is over the road heading to the airport, and the ocean is very high.  Waves are breaking over the roads, and they are expecting high winds tonight.  We have been unable to reach Pt. Hope.  However, Pastor Mike was able to speak with State Troopers who informed him that Pt. Hope has been without power all day.  The people are evacuated to the school building.  Pastor Mike was also able to reach Kotzebue, who reported that things are going ok there.

Pastor Caleb has been in contact with Shaktoolik, and they were not yet flooded, but anxiously awaiting the evening to see if they would flood during the high tide.  Winds are strong.

Pastor Linda Staub reports that her family is safe in St. Michael and assisting in evacuations.  We spoke with a person at the church in Unalakleet and she reported that people were seeking safe shelter.  Missionary Terry Hull has been trying to reach the Covlasky's in Emmonak, but has not been able to reach them for a report.  He will continue to try.

Please be praying for the people in the villages and communities of Western Alaska this evening as they continue to ride out this storm.

Online Credential Renewals Available NOW!

Credentialed Ministers, you can submit your annual credential renewals online at this site.  It is available right now, and I would encourage you to take care of this as soon as possible!  The online process is very easy, I just submitted my renewal.  You will need your AG Passport login info, and you should have received that via email from General Council.    Hard copy renewal forms will be mailed out by November 15th.  The deadline is December 31.

Consulting Resource for Churches

Pastors and Church Leaders, Dick Hardy of the Hardy Group is offering a new resource designed for churches in the 100-500 person size range.  It is called "Lead Pastor Tele-Consulting Networks."  Dick Hardy comes highly recommended as a consultant by these people, and you can find out more information about this valuable resource here.

Youth Conference 2011, Report from Mark

This year was a great year for us!  We had almost 1100 students and leaders from the road and off the road system.    Almost 1/3 of our students came from villages and from the South East which means that they had to fly to Anchorage (some had to take a ferry to get to the airport!). 

Highlights:
1100 in Attendance - on location
3564 individual computers logged on to watch our live production streamed
43 States!
41 Countries!

Speakers: 
Banning Liebscher / Jesus Culture, Redding, CA

Banning did a great job.  He spoke on holiness and intimacy.  Banning did a great job connecting with the students and leaders.  I love his passion for revival, however, what I loved even more was his clear and compelling call to live holy.  He was very clear that without holiness, we will never see the supernatural that many of us desire.  Banning will be back to Alaska!

Jay Mooney – National Youth Director
Jay spoke our Speed the Light service and a leaders session for us.  Jay hit it out of the park!  He spoke a powerful, compelling word on Jesus’ challenge to Peter about “taking” care of my little ones!  He set the stage for our STL offering.  We had just over $26,000.00 come in for our offering at the conference.   There are several things we did that I think will help us with sustaining STL giving!

We printed self-addressed, postage paid remittance envelopes that students/leaders could use, and take home with them.

The envelopes gave people 3 options to give:
1.  Cash
2.  Credit/Debit cards ($11,000 worth of the giving)

3.  Recurring automatic debit ( we have almost $1,000.00 of recurring [monthly] giving now)

We also asked students to make a 30 day STL goal and to send their offering in with the envelopes!  We are excited about what that will do long-term for STL awareness!

Jay also spoke to our leaders concerning campus ministry.  Many of my youth pastors came up and said..."WOW" Jay painted a picture for campus ministry that everyone in this room can get involved in.  Thanks Jay for your leadership!

We also recorded a live worship CD this year with a 60 voice youth choir!  It was epic!  Our worship leader was Adam Barta (www.iclv.com) who is on staff as the Worship/Creative Arts pastor at the International Church of Las Vegas!  He is super easy to work with and I believe is one of the top worship leaders in North America!  Super humble and amazingly anointed!  Our producer was from Seattle - Brandon Bee (brandonbeemusic.com). 

Lastly -- we launched a 30day Push manual that is a workbook companion to or Alaska Youth Ministries App (iTunes & Android).  It is a growth manual designed to help students deepen core spiritual habits 30 days following conference.   You can download this manual for free @ www.akyouth.org.

Blessings,

Mark

MCA baptisms

Exciting night at MCA last night, as 13 people were baptized!  Many of them were from the new MCA site "Island Revival", led by Pastor Moe. Praise the Lord!

www.MinistryDirect.com

Have you discovered the value of Ministry Direct, produced by the General Council?  They produce many videos that help in areas such
as legal issues, ministry, preaching, etc.  Below I have
embedded two examples. 

The first is a roundtable discussion of Children's Ministry, and
the second is a discussion by Dick Hardy about working with Church
Boards, part 1. You can see many, many more excellent resources at www.MinistryDirect.com.

Youth and Children's Ministry Training Resources

The children's and youth specialists from Valley Forge Christian College presented some excellent resources at the DSOM Summit for people desiring to grow in their gifts of ministering to children and youth.  Essentially, Valley Forge is offering internet classes that are fully accredited for $99 per credit hour.  This type of class would work very well for either full-time or lay leaders who want to be trained in their giftings but can't afford to leave their location.

The Youth track includes classes such as Youth Ministry Leadership, Youth Culture, Introduction to Youth Ministry, etc.  More information on the Youth Ministry track can be found at www.youthstudiesonline.com.

The Children's Ministry track includes classes such as Pastoring Children, Early Childhood Ministry, Ministry to Children with Disabilities, Child Evangelism, etc.  More information can be found at www.cmuo.com.

DSOM Summit

Dr. Wade and Susan Cogan and I (Brad) are attending the annual District School of Ministry summit in Columbus, Ohio.  This is a time when the School of Ministry leaders get together to learn from each other and look ahead to future improvements.  The 27th DSOM has just recently been approved, it is exciting to see this movement growing.

One thing I am really excited about is that Alaska is giving back!  We are currently the only DSOM doing the Simulcast Venue.  Today, we demonstrated the Simulcast system to the rest of the DSOM leaders.  Dr. Campbell was in Anchorage at the Network Office, and he and Dr. Cogan demonstrated how the system works.  It was received very favorably, and many saw possibilities for how their District could utilize this technology.

Dr. Cogan leading the Discussion

Another way Alaska is contributing is with textbooks.  Pastor Jack Aiken of Eagle River saw a need for a good Ephesians textbook.  So he wrote and published one!  He gave us a copy to distribute free to each of the District Schools of Ministry today. 

The New York District School of Ministry has developed Hispanic curriculum for the entire CM level.  They have blessed each DSOM by providing us with a copy of this.  That is the beauty of the DSOM movement and why the cost is so low....everything is shared.  Alaska is already taking advantage of this curriculum, and the first AKSOM Hispanic  venue will be taking place on November 12th.  I (Brad) will be teaching Life of Christ, and Pastor Gil Nantes will be translating.

Supt. Dave Dillon, the Superintendent of the Appalachian District and pictured below, is the President of DSOM, and this event was hosted by the Ohio Ministry Network.  It was a great time of sharing and fellowship.  We are grateful for what the Lord is doing to equip the called throughout our fellowship, whether it be through DSOMs, Bible Colleges, or Church Based Schools.  I am excited about how God will use AKSOM to continue to develop people for ministry in Alaska.  Dr. Wade Cogan is doing an excellent job as Director.  His wife, Susan, does a great job doing the administrative tasks.  Thanks also to Dr. Campbell for serving on the leadership team, and to the professors, Voice to the Village, the students, and all the technical support staff who help make AKSOM possible. 

As a reminder, you can tune in this Saturday at 9:30am at www.aksom.net to view the Simulcast.