Hello from the top of the world,
This is the April/May 2008 newsletter.
We have been very busy the last couple of months. All of our snow melted away in May. Just the North side of hills and the upper elevations still have snow. The ice on the River here in Kiana moved out the second week of May. I have not got my boat in the water yet, my tilt and trim hydraulic was leaking when I uncovered my boat and my boat dealer said I needed to send it in for warranty repairs. I still don't have it back, hopefully any day now.
We are trying to get ready for the short summer. There is work to be done around the house and the church. We need to make a plan to better our septic drain lines worked on to the septic tank. I need help in knowing what to order and getting the material ordered for the work we need to have done, planning for Vacation Bible School, putting up fish, Caribou, Moose and there is always picking berries. We especially like to get lots of blueberries.
I'm going to try to put in a small garden plot this summer but I need to get busy on as daylight is burning so to speak and it is burning 24 hours a day up here on top of the world, so it goes real fast. LOL
April and May’s opportunities and happenings.
Kim had to go to Anchorage to have some dental work done. Her gums were receding on her bottom front teeth and dental surgeon took a graft from the roof of her mouth and stitched it on the gums to the lower front teeth. It was looking like it was healing up fine but now has begun to look like there's a tear. She took a picture of it and trying to e-mail the oral surgeon to see what he thinks. Let you know more about that later.
While Kim was in Anchorage she was able to attend the Women on Missions celebration. This year in attendance, from Kiana were, Kim, Bucky, Amy and her sister Katherine. This year's celebration was extra special because Judy Rice, the women on mission director for Alaska, was retiring after 30 years of service. She had been to Kiana many times early on in her Ministry and the women here in Kiana remember her fondly. They had a great time sharing their memories with everyone at the celebration and honored Judy with some gifts, also.
At the celebration Kim met Susan Partridge, from China, and she invited Kim and her women friends from Kiana to come to China in 2009. They were all excited and are planning to make that trip in May 2009. The missionary said they would even get to see the church where Lottie moon served.
While in Anchorage, Kim also attended a Vacation Bible School clinic. A couple of days later, after the clinic, she had lunch with Judy Rice and Barbara Young, Barbara is another long time servant of the Lord, in Anchorage, and has also been here in Kiana many times.
I went down to Anchorage on the 27th of April. Kim had a dentist appointment that day and the dental surgeon thought she was healing up nicely, at that time. I had a doctor appointment the first of May to have my arm checked to see if it was healing yet. I really believed that God was going to heal my arm, but expected that I would be in a cast for another month or two at least. After the doctor looked at my x-rays he told me that the arm was healed enough to take the cast off right then. When I left Anchorage just four weeks earlier the arm had not started healing at all and now he was telling me it was healed enough to take the cast off.
Our God is so amazing, why do we ever a doubt His abilities. For all of , for you who may not know, I broke my neck 30 years ago and have a lot of paralysis on my right side and can only really move my fingers and wrist on my right arm.
The doctor and I were concerned about how the arm would heal without doing surgery. The doctor wondered if he did surgery it would cause the radial nerve in the back of my arm to shut down and that is the nerve that works my wrist and fingers, the only motion I really have in my right arm, so that's why the doctor thought it would be best just put it in a cast and not do surgery.
I can't help but to say it again, Our God Is So Amazing. My arm is pretty much healed now, except my elbow is still a little stiff. Kim and Alexis are being my physical therapist trying to get my arm so it will straighten out all way.
Oh, you probably don't know who Alexis is, she is a 11 year old girl from Barrow Alaska and is living with us this summer. We are praying that this next school year, Alexis and another girl from Kiana, Laura, will go to the Christian school in Birchwood which is a suburb of Anchorage. Please pray that this would work out for them.
Kim and I attended the Pastor Wife Retreat at First Baptist Church Anchorage, thank you FBC Anchorage. It is great to be able to attend, not only to listen to speakers, but to fellowship with others serving the Lord around Alaska that we don't get to see except in meetings once or twice a year.
Traveling is getting more expensive everywhere but just for us per person to get to Anchorage is over $600 now and that's if you buy your tickets three weeks in advance. Plus you have your expenses in Anchorage and the expense of renting a car.
We traveled back home to Kiana on the third of May. It is good to be able to go to Anchorage but is also good to be home.
On the seventh of May we joined in with the community to say our goodbyes to Noel and Joyce Frisbee, teachers that have been here in Kiana for eight years and to say goodbye to Ludy a teacher at Kiana for a couple years, and Glenn Miller retired this year from teaching, but will not be leaving as Kiana is his home.
On the eighth of May we attended the senior dinner at Kiana high school and on the ninth of May we had graduation, I was asked to do opening remarks at the graduation. I tried to encourage the graduates that this graduation was not the end of anything but the start of new opportunities, I also prayed for the graduates, their families, and the community.
You know how hard it is getting to be to mention God or Jesus or pray in public places but I just felt like doing what I believed was right. So far, there has not been any backlash that I know about.
On May 10, I noticed the mosquitoes were starting to hatch out, that's one good reason that we're glad we have short summers. LOL
Also on the May 10, I went back to Anchorage for the Alaska Baptist Convention executive board meeting. It is an honor to get to serve on the executive board.
The first WOM meeting was on May 29th. The women began a Prayer Shawl ministry, praying for the recipient as they knit. They also studied about a missionary couple in Thailand and prayed for them and the work. They ended the meeting deciding to meet every Friday night at 7:00 p.m. Lemon Bars were served for dessert, that Alexis made.
Kiana Friends Church and the Kiana Baptist Mission have started gathering at 7 p.m. Wednesdays for intercessory prayer time. We are getting quite a list together of the community and surrounding area, which want to break the bonds to alcohol and other substance abuse. Maybe we can put this list on our website sometime in the near future so you could also pray for our list.
Thinking about prayer, please pray for Noorvik there has been VBS this first week of June and also having two funerals one for a young man that committed suicide and another for 1 1/2-year-old boy that drowned in a big puddle. They need our prayers!
Also please pray for Zackary and Jennifer Greer, a young couple from Texas coming to work along side of Kim and I this summer, they should be here from June 18 until September 18.
We will be having a new bunch of kids to go to the Native Youth Camp in Wasilla this summer that have never been before, and some older ones to continue training there in their leadership abilities.
The air fare alone will cost $600 per person. The opportunities for training and growth are unlimited and there are always some younger ones that have never been out of the Village. I can't help but remember the statement from a young person one time when she said, “Do you mean there are Wal-Marts in other places besides Alaska”, we are opening their eyes to the Lord and investing in their futures.
Please pray about how the Lord may lead you in helping with this travel expense, if you feel the Lord leading you to help in this endeavor please send us an e-mail of your commitment to kjpie@inutek.net You may make your check out to: Kiana Baptist Mission and designate for Native Youth Camp. Our address is Kiana Baptist Mission or John and Kim Piepmeier at P.O. Box 145 Kiana AK 99749.
Please pray that I can get someone to help me make a plan for working on our drain lines and the material that I will need ordered.
Please pray for Pastor John Forrester and family, John's mother passed away.
Please pray for Kobuk, Shungnak, Ambler, Kiana, Noorvik, Kotzebue and any other Village in the Northwest Arctic Borough that the Baptist will be ministering in the summer and around Alaska.
Please pray that the Lord will continue to give Kim and I the health, wisdom, strength, finances to continue serving the Lord in the Northwest Borough of Alaska.
Please pray for the Lords will to be done in our children's lives and their families.
John Jr. and Shellie, Mikey.
Sarah and Wes, Hannah, Abbi, Leela, Seth, plus we've just found out that there is a baby on the way
Jana and Greg, Kylie, Kaycie, Gregory and Jana Is due any day now.
Jesse and Tish, Shelby, Haley, Austin, Katelynn, Haileigh, Damon.
We have opened up a trust fund, “John and Kim Piepmeier Kiana Baptist Mission Trust Fund”. We are doing this so that the work will continue here in Kiana, even after we are gone. If anyone would like to donate to this fund, you can send checks to the Alaska Baptist Convention 1750 O'Malley Road Anchorage Alaska 99507.
Please pray for our friend, Ted.
Thank you to those who have partnered with us to help pay utilities
Thank to those who purchased our VBS material
Thank you to those who sent VBS snacks
Thank you to all of you that have helped with providing needs from the "Ways You Can Help" page.
Thank you to the many who have sent us letters, cards, and e-mails,
supplies, Wal -Mart gift cards, and love gifts along with their prayers.
Thank you to the ones who continue to support us and pray for us
God is Good! All the Time!
