Blessings of Summer ~ 2025
“I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:1-2
Today we can not help praising God. He has been so good to us, and we want to share in our praise!
It has been an unexpected joy to serve in leadership! We have been blessed to witness God at work - as He continued working in and through the lives of missionaries who have served in Alaska for decades, as He called others to come and meet the huge need and opportunities for missionaries in Alaska, and in and through us as we served!
On August 5, at our annual conference, Steve completed the year-long plan to transfer leadership to the new Field Director, Mark Overbeek. Our Executive Director and his wife planned a wonderful time affirming what God has done, blessing us, and then Steve had a time to share his final thoughts to the Field. The time concluded with a time of prayer for us - NOT retiring, but taking a short Sabbatical. The Field blessed us further with an unexpected and generous donation to help us on our Sabbatical! The added blessing was having some of our Alaska family, and Southern Lakes EFC attend that evening!
Steve passed the proverbial baton on to Mark. Mark and Heather will be fabulous for the Field and we look forward to supporting them and providing any assistance needed!
As you can see in the picture….every year at Conference we are reminded of the ways God has blessed our ministries. When we first arrived back in Alaska (2013) the staff Conference photo needed much less space. While numbers are not everything, being able to extend the ministries and respond to missionary requests has been exciting. There are so many opportunities to serve in church planting and there remain locations asking for help that we simply cannot meet all the requests….YET. We look forward to seeing how God will meet these needs!
We have also been so encouraged and blessed with “our” two ministry teams who served well this summer. Faith Church, Loveland, CO, and Southern Lakes Evangelical Free Church, Elkhorn, WI. Ministry teams do more than just work! They DID accomplish tasks supporting our Field campus and Resource Center. They supported InterAct through their generous contributions, encouraged missionaries, listened to our stories, prayed with us, met and encouraged many of our other missionaries and supported and helped them, and were a huge personal blessing to us! THANK YOU for your ministry to us and to InterAct Ministries!
As we head off on a Sabbatical, it will include visiting many of you - our churches, support team, and family! We have already had to make a few changes to our plans so the “part two” will be driving our truck, camper and trailer BACK to Alaska in the Spring. Some of you will be visited on that second round! The next adventure begins…today!
Serving in Partnership with You in Alaska!
Steve & Jill