Teaching the Faith in Pilot Station and Marshall, Alaska
OCMC Board Member Betty Slanta joined an OCMC Mission Team to Alaska that helped teach the youth from Pilot Station and Marshall about the Faith and living a life in Christ.
OCMC- Betty Yanowsky Slanta – August 2015
The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) had a great need for mission team members for the youth camp in Pilot Station, Alaska; I heard a calling to participate in this capacity for my second-ever mission trip.
We were part of a youth teaching trip in July 2015, serving the youth of Pilot Station and Marshall, in the southwestern Alaska wilderness. We camped under the stars along the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, on the Atchuelinguk River (Ecuilnguq in the Yup’ik language, which means “clear water”). The river is a tributary of the Yukon River. God gave us good weather, in the upper 60s during the day and the 40s at night, and no rain!
Our mission team of four assisted with the Ss. Yakov and Vladimir Summer Camp, which is always held the week of July 26 (St. Yakov’s feast day on the Julian calendar used by churches under the Orthodox Church in America within the Diocese of Alaska).
There were 55 youth and 14 adults, including four of us mission team members, on the youth teaching wilderness camping trip. We incorporated lessons about the Church, the Faith, living as an Orthodox Christian, arts and crafts, and music. The children, ages four through college age, learned about bullying, which could lead to depression and suicide, about rules for living, and developed their own “Yu’pik Maximums for Living”, based on the late Fr. Thomas Hopko’s “55 Maxims for Life as an Orthodox Christian”.
After receiving an orientation on life in Alaska and on missions, we attended a two-year Trisagion (Memorial) service for a woman in the village. Afterwards, lunch was served, consisting of Alaskan ice cream- salmon berries (which look like giant raspberries, only orange), blueberries and salmon in Crisco- as well as moose and moose nose soup and beluga whale, in addition to rice, dried salmon (a staple in some Alaskan villages), and freshly-picked blueberries.
Not all children attend church, so we emphasized church attendance in our lessons. We developed different arts and crafts to go along with lessons. For a lesson on icons, a team member drew a six-panel Transfiguration icon. Each child had the opportunity to color different sections of the icon, which was then put together, and is now mounted in the vestibule of the church.
Another team member told the story of Zacchaeus, and introduced the song “Zacchaeus was a wee man”. The Zacchaeus story of Christ always forgiving our sins was especially touching to many of the older children and the mothers who accompanied their small children for the session. Next, a timeline presentation of the Church was developed, laying out major events in history, e.g. Pentecost and 988 AD Baptism of Russia. Another lesson was finding verses in the Bible. After a brief overview, we felt confident the students could succeed in finding the verses. They were given several to look up, and the first group to find the verse and read it aloud was offered a Rice Krispy Treat.
We taught about Orthodox saints, mounted icons, made stained glass crosses from construction paper, crayon shavings, and wax paper, we created bead and icon pins, and fashioned beaded icon bracelets and necklaces, which were a big hit in the village. Our team members led a parade, singing, “When the Saints Go Marching In” while the children gleefully marched with their icons.
Our tour of the local parish in Pilot Station, Transfiguration of Our Lord, took us to the church cemetery, where we viewed the location and cupola of the old church from the early 1900’s. Orthodox Church history credits St. Yakov (Jacob) Netsvetov for sailing up and down the Yukon River, communing Orthodox Christian faithful along the way.
We heard about the many customs and traditions of the Yu’pik people when walking outside. Fr Stephen called our attention to loons (birds) calling in the late evening air, meaning that cold weather was soon coming. There was a Yu’pik Dance on Saturday evening which also served as a practice for the Potlash festival (a dance competition between Yu’pik Eskimo villages). The festival is held every February. Young people dance in honor of those after whom they are named.
After the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning, we readied our packs for the wilderness camping experience with the youth of the village. An afternoon push-off was planned, but finally at 6:00 pm, the skiffs (motor boat large enough for about 12) set sail for the Saints Yakov and Vladimir Wilderness Camp. Children as young as four and five years old waved good-bye to their mothers, which seemed alright for them to camp alone because, as the Matushka put it, “everyone knows each other and their children.”
After a scenic 45-minute boat ride, passing coastal marshland, charcoal ash-colored cliffs, and coastline of aging birch and fir trees, we arrived at the camp atop a grassy clearance dotted by more birch and fir trees and weathered cabins.
After reaching camp and with lots of daylight left (sunset was 11:25 pm, with twilight well after the next morning), water was fetched from an underground spring and driftwood logs hauled from their sandy riverside graveyards and repurposed for firewood. Our mission team counted off groups of children and untangled a “human chain” icebreaker game. We next divided the children into younger and older groups (ten and below; 11 and up) discussing the Church (ecclesiastical), “the people as the bride of Christ”, read books on saints who led exemplary lives, discussed confession, described the Orthodox church building, and had the children design and draw their own church building.
Our mission team taught lessons and answered questions from the 3×5 cards on anything the children wanted to know about; one especially poignant question related to the “difference between God and the devil”. Other lessons were on how to stay committed to Christ, the value of confession, regular church attendance, and one team member’s personal story of how the church members helped her after the loss of her husband.
Following morning prayers on our last day at camp, a team member gave a homily on bullying at school, which seemed to resonate with several children. As clean up progressed, another team member strummed on the guitar around the slowly dying embers of the campfire. Our wilderness adventure in honor of Saints Yakov and Vladimir was ending; through their prayers, our camping experience was safe and full of joyful excitement.
