I am late getting this newsletter out again, there has been so many actual winter storms and mental and physical storms that I put a newsletter on the back burner. So, this newsletter will cover 3 months.
Praise God, he is in control of all and worthy of our praise!
We have had so many winter storms in January, February and March. Temperatures have not been above zero very often the lowest temperature in the first week of February I recorded 55 below. I would say we have more snow this winter too, about 8 foot of snow around the house, the wind has really blown the snow around. I don't know about this global warming stuff, we have had more snow and longer cold spells this winter than in any of the past nine winters that we have been here. When I say cold spells I mean 40 below or colder. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Today, Thursday March 26 it did warm up quite a bit sunny skies and seven above, our nights are still falling below zero.
With all the cold weather we have had very little problems with our plumbing and drain lines so a big thank you goes out to Ash Baptist Church in Texas for bringing a team up last summer and working on our needs.
The only problem we've had this winter is with the bathtub drain but I was able to take care of that pretty easily. We have had a little trouble with the kitchen sink water lines trying to freeze up but we usually have a little problem with the water lines to the kitchen sink, they run along the floor on an outside wall when they go under the kitchen cabinets and it is the north wall also.
We also had a little trouble with what I call a teenage bull Moose he seems to like to hang out around the Baptist. One day I was going towards town on the trail that leaves from the church on my snow go when I saw the Moose run between the house and the church going the opposite way, so I backed up my snow go and drove to the other side of the house and he ran back between the house and the church to the other side, we did this a couple of times before he finally decided he would go on down the trail towards town. Then a couple of days later Alexis and a friend of hers were going outside when they saw the Moose and of course Moka saw Moose too and darted out the door after it, the Moose became agitated and decided to chase Moka and she became frightened and decided she better go home she ran right up onto the porch and by this time Kim was out there yelling for Moka and thought the Moose was going to come right up on the deck with her. Alexis armed herself with the push broom and was ready to fight the Moose off. I was taking a nap and missed all the fun. LOL Well I'm not finished yet just the other day I was walking up to where I park my snow go and in the Honda shed the Moose had gone in and laid down and when I came walking up crunching in the snow the Moose jumped up and come running out of the shed turned towards me but then changed his mind and ran the other way I was just an arms length away from it, when we told the story to some other people they said just the day before when they come over they saw the Moose run out of the Honda shed also. I can see where it's been laying down I guess it thinks it's found a good safe place to rest. It has been coming back and laying in the Honda shed almost every day. I think it might end up in my deep-freeze. Maybe if I roped it a good Texan like Zack might be able to break it and use it for transportation. LOL.
Our little Moose is still come around, Kim says our deep-freeze is calling. I think we should try to make a pet out of him.
God must be getting ready to do great things in this region, because Satan sure has been working hard to try to discourage us, we have had three attempted suicides this winter, a young woman, one man, and one teenage boy who are recovering, praise the Lord. I had a active part in the recovery of the teenage boy it was on a night when we were having a winter storm and the medevac plane could not fly. There were many of us working trying to revive the teenager and after five hours he started showing some signs of recovery and the medevac plane was finally able to come and get him about 10 AM the next day.
We had a couple of our saints passed away in January that we have a praise service for, the pastor at the friends church and I always work together at all the funerals.
We have had three people from Kiana freeze to death in winter storms this winter. Two young men together in their 20s traveling to Kotzebue from Kiana got trapped in a winter storm and lost they were found frozen four days later and a week later a woman in her 30s from Kiana in Kotzebue got lost walking from house to house in a storm and froze to death.
All of these deaths are taking a toll on all of us and I was just up until 3 AM with a man and his family that just found out about his wife's passing away in the Native hospital in Anchorage.
So we will be having another funeral this week.
Please pray for all the families that lost loved ones recently and so many of them with young children, pray that God will help them in days and years to come.
Kim has had some medical issues for the last few months and is not finished yet, she had to travel to Anchorage and Kotzebue to try to get these issues solved. Alexis and I joined her in Anchorage for a few days because I had the executive board meetings. After her doctors appointments in January we thought everything would be good for a while but not long a bridge that she had put in last February 2008 was still bothering her and had caused one of the teeth on the bridge to abscess. She was told that it needed a root canal, so when she got back from Texas and finished her second round of antibiotics she returned to Anchorage to have that taken care of and found out that tooth could not be saved and had to be pulled. After returning from Anchorage she developed thrush mouth and went to the clinic here in Kiana to get medicine for that and found out that she was diabetic, as I write this newsletter she has still not received diabetic Medicine. Kim will be 55 in July if she doesn't fall apart by them. LOL
While we were in Anchorage we also attended the evangelism conference and had a great time of Fellowship.
We know God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
She is getting everything worked out and trying to learn how to live with diabetes.
Kim and I will both be going to Anchorage at different times in April to see doctors Kim will be having a follow up with her dentist and GYN Dr. I will be having a EGD test because of getting choked off then and having a cough my Dr. has ordered this test.
Praise the Lord! We have two new members to our family, shortly after we returned home from Anchorage Kim went to Texas to be with our daughter Sarah as she gave birth to our 15th grandchild Mary Jean Denise Smothermon Kim likes the Denise part because that is her middle name and while she was there Kim added to our family a little Chihuahua, we named her Jippie because I said I sure got jipped on that dog per pound. LOL I won't tell Kim that having the little dog around and watching her bounce around the room and watching her and Moka played together so well brings joy to my heart. I don't want to tell Kim that because I call her my little rat that I got jipped on.
I have been having trouble with my four wheelers my newest one had the timing chain partially break and slipped a couple of teeth, I am going to have to take the motor out and ship it in for repair. And my older four Wheeler the motor seized, so I am without a four Wheeler right now. Life gets a little harder without a four Wheeler but right now I can still use the snowmobile.
I am guessing $4000-$5000 to get both of them going again. If anyone wanted to help to differ the cost of these repairs it would be greatly appreciated. It is warm enough to drive our four Wheeler right now which would save on gas. The four Wheeler is better on gas than the snowmobile. I definitely need to get the four Wheeler running before the snow melts.
The First of February brought around my 54th birthday, I made it another year. I spent my birthday in bed sick but on the bright side I got plenty of rest. Zackary celebrated his birthday on February 9 we had a birthday dinner together that I didn't feel like eating, you know I'm sick when I don't feel like eating. LOL
We had our Valentine parties and all had a great time, thanks to all that helped with Valentine candy.
Alexis had a great time in Barrow on spring break visiting her family she is back with us and in school again, she got an award today for being on the honor roll, she has been on the honor roll for the past three quarters that she's been with us.
Updates on my sister Jackie she is still undergoing treatment for her lymphoma she still is having ups and downs, and my brother Jerry is undergoing chemo for his lung cancer they both know the Lord and say God's will is sufficient for them.
Please pray for:
the wisdom to serve God
for our families that we are so far away from
John and Kim in Kiana
Zach and Jennifer in Kiana and there pregnancy, they just found out it's a boy
John, Terri in Kotzebue
Paul and Glenda in Ambler
Brian and Debbie in Shungnak
Luke and Sarah in Kobuk
please pray for our physical, mental, financial and spiritual welfare
Love in Christ,
John and Kim
