Wait what I have a blog?

Alright the secret is out, this clearly is not the most important thing on my to do list though the week, or month for that matter. However I still should probably start to do a better job for you all on this whole blog thing.

Things are going extremely well here in Alaska, and extremely busy as well!  The weeks literally seem to fly by and are full of new adventures every week.  I am finally to a point where I can say that I am quite a bit ahead of schedule for things that I need to do on office work, so I am able to work on other things through the day here, and get things done.  Ill try my best to run through a few things below and catch you all up on different things that have been keeping me away from this blog.

The most fun thing is my group that we recently started here called Sunday Night Life.  Its a group of birth through fifth graders, and their family all coming together for a night.  We eat dinner together, worship and then the parents lead their kids in a devotion.  The night is only about an hour and a half long but it is great to see parents leading their kids in a devotion and being the solid faith rock that they need to be for their kids.  I also send home devotions with them for the next month ahead so that they can continue faith growth outside of the church as well.

I have been hanging out quite a bit with my friends Trent and Shawna up here.  Trent was one of the first guys that I met up here, he works at the golf course that I play at alot.  He recently just moved his fiance Shawna up here about a month or so ago, and I usually see them a couple times a week, and some of their other friends as well.  Its nice to have some people around my age to hang out with, and friends outside of the church as well.

Our Children's church is just starting to work on our Christmas service that we will be putting on the week before Christmas which is really exciting. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the different things that I am in charge of here, I really have been insanely busy planning for these holidays.  So busy to the point that I think that it will be pretty slow for me in the next couple of weeks as far as things that I will have to work on during the day.  I normally have a couple meetings a week at night which allows me to leave the office early and go do what I need to get done for the day and be back at church at night.  I also got recruited to be on the hand bell crew here as well which is odd not having to blow a trumpet to make music.

I have been working out quite a bit, and now that I am actually back in shape I have targeted a half marathon in June which Im going to start training for soon up here.  It should be a pleasant fifty or sixty degrees about that time of the year so I wont have to worry about an 80 or 90 degree day which should be nice.  

In a couple of days mom and Kari are coming up here, which will be awesome to see them and show them everything that I have been talking about for the last five months or so.  The highs for the week are supposed to be about 15-20 so they should get a good taste of what the temp is starting to get like, its only getting colder.  The nice thing about the cold is that I think im starting to get used to it.  Last week I grilled out some chedderwurst and polish in jeans and a sweatshirt in about twenty degrees with no issue.  Dont worry I had a beer in hand as well, s it was super Wisconsin.

Hearing the news of Great grandmothers passing was difficult this past week, but I know that God's will was certainly done in her life, and that she was a beacon of light for those in darkness around her. I will never forget all the kit kats that she gave to me, and helped me become the pudgy gradeschooler that I was.  Seriously though a great woman, and a huge part of my life for years, and now she is off to a far better place than we  can even imagine right now.

Overall I'm still having a blast up here, and I know that right now, more than ever this is where God wants me to be.  Ill be back home in January for those who have not heard yet for a multitude of school things, and also to see family and friends.  I will be back from January 26th to February 4th.  Were planning a family get together in Chicago from February 2nd-3rd. My mom is working on details for that so if you have any questions I suppose call her or me and we can let you know what we know.  I think we are just going to rent some rooms at a hotel all together so that its easier for me to try to see everyone rather than trying to travel all over the country in like a four day time span.

Thank you for all your continued support and prayers it is greatly appreciated! The pictures below are from a plane ride that one of our church members took me on, one of the most ridiculous things I have ever done, these are just a few of the pictures, Ill have more when I come back for sure.

Gods blessings 

Alaskan snow princess update: None

Snow: About 5 inches 

This is an old missle site from the cold war, thought Kyle/Uncle Kev would get a kick out of this

McKinley in the distance

Rally Day Week Madness

That's right rally day week madness. It sounds foolish, like I only took one English class when I was at school, oh wait I did only take one English class at school but regardless that is the one phrase I could use to describe this past week.

This past Sunday we had our big fall kick off of all the events and different things going on at Our Redeemer, and my week leading up to it was insane.  The week started off pretty easy with my classic day off on Monday, followed by a Tuesday morning round of golf with one of the members of the church here, and where I put up my worst score of the year. Like were talking about Uncle Joel kind of numbers here.  Anyways so then Late Tuesday night we had "a storm unlike one I have ever seen in my twenty seven years here" as Chuck told me the day after.  We had wind gusts of up to 130 MPH for six hours straight here.  I started the storm off outside enjoying it with a cigar and nice seat in my lawn chair.  Soon enough though I ended up heading inside due to the fact that the trees were parallel with the ground, and starting to snap.

To make a long story short, I didnt have power at my house until late Thursday night, so just over two full days without power.  We got power down at the church after not having it for about a day and a half so I was able to go back to work on Thursday.  I had plenty of work to do still so I ended up working three twelve hour days in a row which was pretty killer but everything got done in plenty of time, and the Bears destroyed the Colts on Sunday so it all turned out to be just fine.  I certainly was happy though to see my day off this Monday. Most certainly I earned that day off this past week.


I'm in the process of attempting to implement a few new ministries here at Our Redeemer so Rally day was a big opportunity to have my grand unveiling of the ministries, and I will continue to talk them up in the next month or so until each one has their big kick off.

This past weekend we also started construction on our new playground that we received here at Our Redeemer for all of our little guys to play on.  Saturday was the first big day day of construction and after a full day of work we got much of the base work done.  The soil here, well really isn't soil, its more like a mixture of rocks, boulders, and a bit of dirt is quite fun to try to dig through.  That has been one of the biggest difficulties since starting this project is trying to sort through all the dirt to just be able to lay the holes. We are over halfway done with construction thus far through the help of many awesome volunteers and we should have it completely done in a weeks time or so hopefully.

In addition to Rally Day this past weekend we started Children's Church which is our version of Sunday school up here.  This is the first model of Sunday school that I have ever used like this so it has taken some time to adjust to it, but I am excited to learn more about it, and learn a new way to doing ministry to kids that age.

Tomorrow is the huge Bears Packers game, So I will be heading up to a local restaurant with a couple buddies I have met up here from a church just north or me, who also work at the golf course that I play at quite often.  I have a church meeting at seven our time however so I am hoping that the game will be in the Bears hands by the third quarter so that I dont miss anything too big.  It would be far to sweet to watch the packers lose more games then they did last season in the first two weeks of the season, but I know that traveling up to Green Bay is going to be rough especially since the 49ers angered them a bit last week.

Apart from that life continues on rolling up here, the week to week preparation is going to get easier as I adjust to it, but there is quite a bit more to do now that we are no longer in the summer months here.  But it is nice to feel busy quite a bit more often, rather than sitting at my computer wondering what I should do.

I pray for you all at home often, and miss you quite a bit


Alaskan Snow Princess Update: None

Bears: 1-0

Cubs: Hopeless

In Christ,


Ryan

My upstairs neighbors (Chuck and Terri) Dog Jorge

"Sleeping Lady" Can you see her?

Pretty cool view of the inlet from up in a tree I climbed on a hike

"The three kings" Foraker, Hunter, McKinley 

Moose Choppin and Backpack Blessing

Hello all,

I think that this is probably a quicker response to the blog maybe even just did my last one in two weeks?  Anyways things are flying by here in alaska, it amazes me to realize that I am almost a quarter of the way through my internship already, which seems unreal.  The last couple weeks, just like every other week here seems to fly right by.

Biggest news here in Alaska is that it is Moose hunting season here, so most people are out doing that.  I however am not an Alaskan resident so attempting to go hunting would cost me quite a bit of money, apart from the fact that I have never shot a gun in my life, I think that probably has a bigger influence on the fact that I am not moose hunting right now.  I have however chopped up some moose here already.

Our church has a food pantry, and we are considered a not for profit organization so we get thrown into a pot of not for profit food pantry's and other organizations in the Anchorage area for highway moose  kills.  A couple of weeks ago we received a call early in the morning that someone had hit a moose on the highway so there was one that was dropped off at our Church back door and we had a moose chopping party (there are picture below, or on my facebook page).  The moose that we got appeared to be massive to myself, but apparently it was a "small kill".  Regardless by the time we cut all the fat, or most of the fat, and ground up all the moose we filled almost 3/4 of a deep freezer full of moose which should keep our food pantry stocked for a bit at least.

We have been gearing up for the year ahead in the last couple of weeks as well.  Its amazing how far ahead I have to plan to make sure that everything stays on task, and that we know what is going on in the future.  I am already looking forward to planning through February if you dont include the national youth gathering, if you count that then I am already planning up to the last week of my internship.  We have rally day coming up on September 9th which is just our big fall kick off sunday informing everyone at church all the different things that they could be involved in at church.

School has started here in Anchorage and we did a "blessing of the backpacks" event at our church.  We had a short prayer in the service and then we had a little cross keychain that the kids could put on their backpacks for school.  The majority of kids brought their backpacks into church that day to kind of add to the Sunday as well.  We ended up handing out around twenty crosses to kids anywhere from preschool to Freshman in college.

I am slowly but surely starting to make friends here, it is a slow and daunting task.   One of my fellow classmates who is also on internship has a friend who teaches in Anchorage who I have met up with a couple of times.  She has been here for a year so she knows the area pretty well.  Due to the fact that she is a female everyone in the church who heard about her thinks I'm dating her, which is fine Im just happy to have someone to hang out with who is actually my age.  I have met a couple other guys who work at a golf course and are right at my age as well their pretty cool, havnt done a whole lot with them yet, but were trying to figure out a time to meet up, should be cool to get in with them now that football season is starting up.  I could use some guys to sit down and watch a few games with.  I also have really connected with one family here who has three kids as well.  Obviously as I said in the last post its hard to meet up with them since they are often busy!

One of the coolest things I have done so far was go kayaking with one of our members.  It was somewhat hard to get used to but overall super cool.  I am thinking that it may be anew hobby for me, and it kinda made me want to go out and get a kayak right after

Apart from all that things in Alaska continue to move on, right now the Alaska state fair is going on, which pales in comparison to the size of the Wisconsin state fair.  The animal barn at the Alaska State Fair had about two hundred animals, the size of maybe half of the Wisconsin cow barn.  Still the food was good, and there are actually a fair amount of bigger bands that actually will come out to Alaska.

That pretty much wraps it all up for as much as I can think of!

Hope all is well back in Illinois and Wisconsin

Alaska Snow Princess Update: None

Combination of rain and a sunset 

Hiking a trail in back of my house with the dogs

Kayaking Eklutna Lake

July

Hello all, sorry this took so long to write this, but the first part of this past month I was very lazy and just didnt post, and then the last two weeks here actually have been pretty busy so that is why I have not been able to post.  This new blog is just going to be a quick overview over the last month or so and what you all have missed out on due to my laziness.

After VBS things really slowed down immensely for me here at Our Redeemer. After VBS was over and the past DCE intern left I had minimal things to work on and I was just really excited to head back home for my week with family and friends at the wedding I attended.  Summers here are extremely slow, and apart from Sunday services there are not too many things that have immediate attention needed.  The majority of the time that I spent in the office was spent planning ahead to events in August and really just getting into the daily grind of what a church worker is all about.

Going home was so much fun, I was able to see many people from both the Speckman and Strehlow side of the family which was really cool because I dont know when I will be able to see them all next.  Also it was Kari's 21st birthday so I was able to take her out a couple of nights and help her to celebrate that event the right way!  One of the best part of the trip home though was going to the wedding Kevin Thomson and Jordan Scifers!  It was so great to be a part of their wedding and to see all of my friends there too. This was the first wedding that I have ever stood in so that was a new experience for me as well.  Im sure many of you saw the pictures on Facebook of my date, Michelle, no she is not my girlfriend we have been really good friends ever since early in grade school so she came along as a friend.  I wasnt able to see her at all when I was in Milwaukee so she drove down for the wedding and we had a blast together, and all my friends liked her alot too! Overall the wedding was a blast and seeing people my own age was refreshing to say the least.

Since I have come back from Milwaukee things have actually picked up quite a bit.  I have had my first youth event, and we are in full fledged planning for the next year ahead with Sunday school, youth events, and everything else.  My official title here is director of family ministry so I am doing everything under the sun at Our Redeemer, not just youth ministry, which is actually what I would prefer so it is a good fit.  It still amazes me how much I feel as though I fit into this church and community so quickly.  The work that I am doing I love, and I feel as though God has placed me here for great reasons, many of which I have not seen yet.

I have been looking forward to the National Youth Gathering since I left New Orleans last year and now we are getting to the point where I can actually start to look forward to it for real.  Planning for the National Youth Gathering (NYG) has really started to take off for me this week, and information for our group already starts to be due early September so I need to be getting everything ready for that.  Im really looking forward to the group that we have going and being in the role that I will be in for that event.  All of the Alaska churches some what plan to stick together at NYG which simplifies planning, and is really helpful to myself in my first year on internship, and this being the first group that I have ever taken to a NYG by myself as well.

Apart from that life is good here in Alaska, I continue to build relationships with people here, and meet new people.  I actually met one of my classmates good friends from grade school who teaches at the local Lutheran grade school which was alot of fun.  I have been golfing a ton, and I am meeting quite a few people through that, as well as opening ministry opportunities with many of the people that I meet out on the course as well.  My goal is to get down to a single digit handicap by the end of the summer, currently I am resting at a 12.5 handicap thanks to my trusty app that I have on my Ipad.  I am golfing well, and continue to run alot and actually feel like I am getting back in shape from the end of senior year/my lost battle with 14 steps.

I hope all is well with everyone at home in Illinois and Wisconsin!

Alaskan Snow Princess update: None

Adam and Kyla on the right, are two of my best friends in the DCE program (engaged to be married), and two of my best friends in general, and my date Michelle in the yellow

The groom, and his groomspeople at the reception 

VBS & 4th of July

7/5/12

Well my first VBS is officially completed as a DCE!  We had a great turnout all week long and it really was a huge opportunity for us to reach out to the community around us.  We averaged anywhere from fifty to fifty five kids every day through the week which was awesome!  When you consider that we have about seventy to eighty people at church through the summer it becomes evident how much of an outreach opportunity this really is to bring in new families into the church.

Our theme for VBS this year was Amazing Wonders in Aviation, it was  a program by Lifeway.  It was essentially supposed to be an airplane hanger in the church sanctuary and we were traveling around the world to different sights and learning about God's power over everything.  The kids seemed to really get everything that we were teaching them which was really encouraging to see.  We had an AMC (Alaska Mission for Christ) group with us to help us with VBS from Illinois which was extremely helpful.  One of the men in the group was actually the dad of another DCE intern in my program who is half a class ahead of me so it was another Lutheran small world connection, but still very interesting.  The group was only eight people but they really helped out a lot in addition to the volunteers that Kristi (the former intern) had put together.

The week concluded on Friday with a huge carnival that all our kids and their families were invited to.  We grilled out hot dog's, and brat's (not beer brats) and had a bunch of other food.  We also had a group come in and do face painting and made cotton candy for the kid's.  Essentially we got the kid's all sugered up right in front of their parents and then sent them home to go crazy.

The old intern left this past Monday morning and she will be greatly missed.  She helped me so much in figuring out just what I had to do on a day-to-day basis but i suppose it was going to be my turn to take over at some point so now is as good of a time as any. 

On July 3rd at midnight (technically July 4th) I went to fireworks at a local park.  They wait til that late so you can actually still see them.  It was still light out, but there was cloud cover so there wasnt any direct sunlight to ruin the show.

For the 4th of July we had a big BBQ out in front of the church for the church members and for anyone who happened to be in the area for the parade.  The parade goes literally right in front of our church so we were able to attract quite a few people.  I was responsible for putting together crafts for all the kids to do in the time waiting for the parade to get out in front of the church.  We also had to set up our BBQ which consisted of massive coolers, I certainly got my workout for the day carrying those things. 

After the parade we had an attempt at  a softball game, which basically turned into batting practice and shagging balls between our secretary and a couple of other guys a few years older then me for a couple hours.  It was the closest thing that I have had to an athletic opportunity with other people  since I got here so it felt pretty good. 

After the game I was invited over to dinner at one of our members house for a fish fry.  The food was good, and the company was awesome.  The couple, Jason and Lauren are extremely cool, fairly close to my age and have three kids who were at VBS last week so I knew them a little bit.

Animal sightings since my last post:
       - Moose as I was turning into the mall in anchorage five feet in front of my car
       - Another moose sighting during our softball game, He came right to the edge of theforest             and was watching us play softball for about five minutes and then continued eating afterwords (IT WAS AWESOME)

Alaskan snow princess update: None

Volunteers for VBS 

 Our Moose friend watching us play softball

Install Service

First Ten Days!

6/25/2012

Okay first post so here we go hopefully I can figure this out and I'm going to try my best to update this at least once a week for you all. 

The trip out to Alaska was awesome, it didn't at all feel like I was traveling all day long.  When I came into Anchorage Pastor Steve picked me up and after we got all my bags we went out to dinner at a diner just down the road from the airport.  I ended up only bringing two bags out to Alaska at first due to the fact that the cost of bags past two bags was an extra $100 a bag.  So as of right now I do not have my golf clubs out here, I'm trying my best to cope without them.  Believe it or not there are actually quite a few different golf courses up here that I will be able to use once I actually get my clubs up here.

I am now getting into my second week here which is VBS! The first week was a lot of paper work, getting email contacts into my computer, and setting up my new email. (which is Strehlowr@gmail.com if anyone didnt get it)  Sunday was an outdoor service for fathers day which was a good opportunity to meet quite a few people.  The nice thing was that I didnt have anything to do in the afternoon and Monday is always my day off so I had essentially a day and a half off almost as soon as I got in. 

On my first day off the past intern, who is still up here helping me adjust to everything, took me to Matanuska Glacier which was just a massive block of ice that you could hike all over.  It was about an hour drive north to the area where it was, and the pictures were just awesome!  Pastor had taken me to a few different nature areas earlier in the week when I got in but Kristi (the old intern) pulled over quite a few times so that we could take pictures. I'm still getting used to this whole taking pictures of things deal, but I'm trying my best to keep you all informed. The pictures do not give justice to the beauty of God's creation all around us all the time here though.  To walk out of my apartment and see the inlet and Denali and Mount McKinley is just insane, and there are mountain spans all around me as well.

My apartment is awesome about twice as big as last years, with three less people living in it which is what I keep telling everyone.  I almost dont know what to do with all the extra space.  I am living with a host family, Chuck and Terri, and their dog Jorge, there is also a cat but I never see her and dont know her name either.  Eventually once I move out of their place they are going to use their downstairs apartment to open a bed and breakfast so everything is remodeled and the apartment has everything that I need. 

The majority of the first week was simply getting ready for VBS, so I made quite a few trips into Anchorage to get different supplies and I am figuring out how to get around very easily.  It also helps that there are only five major highways in Alaska and I only encounter about two of them where I am so it is extremely difficult to get lost.  I received a car from a member in the congregation, its a 2002 red Ford Taurus Station wagon, its awesome lots of space to put stuff, and even an extra seat in the back to hold a total of seven people.

My second Sunday we had my Installment service and also the installment for all the VBS volunteers.  It was followed up by a potluck where I met more people in the congregation and they had a gift card basket for me.  I should have at least my first two months of groceries paid for and also I got a few other gift cards to help me splurge a little bit without having too much of an impact on my wallet.

That pretty much covers everything so far, as much as I can remember at least.

Ill put some pictures below so you can see some of the stuff that I have done, otherwise on my facebook are all my pictures that I have so far

No Alaskan snow Princess so far


God's blessing's to all thank you for all the prayers and thoughts I'm trying my best to keep up with emails and everything but stuff is a bit crazy now so sorry if it takes awhile to get back to you


Ryan