August 2023
“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23
We are so thankful for God’s faithfulness, compassion, and lovingkindness. He has blessed us this summer. I (Jill) had just finished LEaD, teaching my class at Alaska Bible College, and was finishing up our InterAct Conference details when.....I came down with Shingles on my face and eyelid. It was....quite the experience. God graciously timed it when I had some downtime and time to hide my face from others. It was a bit frightening! And, I was well enough to actually attend our Conference, although my full recovery took until August.
Victory Bible Camp was where all the InterAct Alaska staff, and some from Yukon, gathered for our annual Conference the last week of May/first part of June. It is always exciting to reconnect, hear updates from each missionary, be renewed through solid biblical teaching, and fellowship together. Oh, and then there are the other times when we simply have fun together! It was a great time and we are so thankful for all those that helped make it possible this year.
A few days later we welcomed our summer intern, Jordan. Since we had only one intern, Steve shouldered most of the pre-placement training and connecting time with him. Jordan had an unusual experience, spending time in both Ruby and Pedro Bay. It was great to have him, and he was thankful to have satisfied his cross-cultural internship for Toccoa Falls!
Steve was thankful to have completed quite a few village trips. He has enjoyed connecting with our staff and just spending time hearing about their ministries, praying together, and helping them set their goals for the next period of ministry time. In between all of these, we have enjoyed the blessings of multiple ministry work teams helping at the Lazy Mountain Campus. Our Campus leadership, Toby and Cherie Curtis, supervised and assisted with the majority of them. We enjoyed spending our time with some dear friends from Faith Church, Loveland, Colorado. All in all, it was a productive and exciting summer.
Faith Church
Unexpected this summer was when I received multiple Facebook messages from some of our Canadian friends informing us that the people that had purchased our house at Chilanko Forks had put it up for sale. After a few tears, I talked with a dear friend. She informed me that on July 1 the Tsi Deldel community has purchased the home, through a partnership, to be used to care for families, youth, and children from the community. All of you that helped us build that house- we want you to join with us in rejoicing how you helped build that so it would be used to bless the community...and God continues using it for just that very thing. We are so excited for the community.
Our previous house in the Chilcotin.
God has continued demonstrating His kindness to us. I (Jill) passed
my MA counseling written exam in July, take the oral exam this
week, and have begun working on the final project- a thesis.
We are finally able to plan a time in IL and WI to visit our friends, support team, and churches. We will be in the midwest from Sep 19-Nov 5, and are working on our schedule. We covet your prayers as we plan and look forward to our time there. (Check out our website for more details as we finalize them... https://steveandjillhorsman.wixsite.com/horsmans-alaska
As August concludes, we look forward to rejoicing on another of God’s blessings at the wedding of our grandson, Josiah, and new “granddaughter,” Annalene.
Thank YOU so much for your continued faithfulness. We are surely blessed by amazing friends.
Serving in Partnership with You in Alaska!
Steve & Jill