I sure hope you had a fun Valentine’s Day yesterday! We had a Valentine’s Day talent show and fundraiser at the church last night and had a great time.  There are a lot of really talented folks living out here at the end of the road in frozen Nikiski!  One brother and sister did an old routine made famous by Abbott and Costello, Lucille Ball and the Three Stooges called “And Slowly I Turned…”  If you want a good laugh, type that title into Google and you can watch it on YouTube.  What a hoot.  And, we were able to raise over $2000 to support a mission that works for refugees on the border of Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand. What a tragic thing is occurring there as the Karen people are being mercilessly persecuted.  

One bit of good news…the hours of daylight are getting noticeably longer, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race is due to begin in a few weeks and if you listen very, very closely, I think you can hear the king salmon making their turn out in the Pacific Ocean to head back here to Alaska to play!  Will this be the year that you venture out with us to fish for them? Actually, most of the fishing we do in the summer/fall is for silvers.  Last year was an incredible year with a bountiful crop of very large fish in the Kenai River!  Unfortunately, this is an even year (2010) meaning that it will be a big year for the pink salmon (humpies) to come into the river making it harder to catch the more desirable silvers.  In 2008, I think we caught probably 20 or more humpies for every one silver we landed.  It’s rough work unhooking all those fish…but, hey, someone has to do it.  Ha.

Good News About Adventures
I got an email a few weeks ago from the publisher of my book, Adventures of An Alaskan Preacher, letting me know that CBD (Christian Book Distributors) had decided to put my book in their hard copy print catalog.  This is a big deal.   The book has been in their website listings but you would have to be looking for it specifically in order to find it.  The print catalog reaches millions of people!  And, Westcott, the main distributor for Magnus Press (my publisher) is presenting my book to Family Christian Stores for them to carry in their over 300 stores!  Yehaw.  What a blessing all of that is!  And, along with that, Magnus Press has the third printing  of Adventures in the works!  I tell you, this whole book thing has turned out to be a blessing in so many ways!  I love getting letters from people all over the place who get my address from the website listed on the back of the book and write me to talk about the book, how it has impacted them, or just to tell me “their” Alaskan experience.

CFM Opportunities
I was able to be one of the presenters at a conference in Kenai two weeks ago called “Building stronger families during an economic downturn.”  The segment I presented was on the importance of having mutually shared values and how that helps with making decisions when times are tight.  The whole conference was a good experience and it was video recorded for use as a counseling tool.

I will be leaving in three days for Ketchikan, AK where I will be speaking this weekend for a men’s conference.  I always enjoy doing those type of things and being able to see men impacted by the Lord, helping them to be stronger leaders, better husbands, and men of God.  My old friend (he is younger than me), Paul Slenkamp lives in Ketchikan and has been the point person setting this up.  We actually have been talking about doing this in Ketchikan for several years but it is now finally coming to fruition.  I will be speaking five or six times including Sunday morning at the Assembly of God church which is sponsoring the event.  I sure would appreciate your prayers for safe travels, good health and the blessing of the Lord on the men who attend the sessions.  With my commitments to the church here in Nikiski and my counseling ministry in Kenai, it is more challenging to get away to minister in other cities so I am very grateful to the ministry team here for taking care of the things so I can do this.

About two days after I get home from Ketchikan, Marveen will need to head down to Colorado to help her step mom again.  This time she will be gone for five “long” weeks so please pray for her as well for safe travels and good health while she is gone.  Steamboat Springs has been in the news quite a bit this week as their Olympic athletes have been doing great at the Winter Games in Vancouver.  Incidentally, Steamboat Springs has produced more winter Olympic athletes than any other city in America.  Perhaps that is why they nicknamed the city, Ski-Town USA!  I tried skiing once years ago. Once was enough for me.  I got going down a hill behind the church in Homer and discovered that those bloomin’ things don’t have any brakes.  I wound up in a willow patch in a heap and decided to end my skiing career the same day it started.

CFM Finances
I want to again thank all of you who have been so supportive of our ministry over the years.  The 2010 contribution records have been sent out with much gratitude.  It has been your faithfulness that has enabled us to keep our office going and it was your support that enabled us to get the ball rolling and get the first printing of Adventures underway.  With the economy being what it is, I imagine your mailbox is like ours and gets dozens of requests for financial contributions from a myriad of worthy organizations. For those of you who have felt led to support CFM, thank you so much and God bless you in every way!