Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Winter is coming!
Medical
Things are still going fairly well in the clinic. We are getting ready to change the prescription part of the computer program. We have seen some wrecks related to black ice in the area. One of the providers that has been here for 2 years will be leaving next month, so that will be a transition for the patients as well as the people at the clinic. We have hired 2 new lab assistants lately, but continue to need nurses!
Ministry
At the clinic, we have ordered the Saline Solution, a Christian conference on incorporating your faith into the practice of medicine. We continue to have prayer times for the clinic and patients on Wednesdays and Sundays. We have ordered Our Daily Bread to have for patients at the clinic, as well as Indian Life, a native Christian publication. Sue and the kids continue to be involved in AWANA. They have 50- 70 kids in the club. It is a mix of kids from Glennallen and some of the native villages in the area. Sue has a girl in her TNT group that comes from a broken home and just moved here. She told Sue that the only thing in her life that has stayed the same is AWANA. We see many disrupted families here related to drug and alcohol issues. As we get to know the area better, we hear more about the spiritual warfare that is taking place here.
Life
Sue was able to go in a plane ride while on the women's retreat. She got to go up with a a missionary bush pilot who is working to train pilots for missionary aviation in Russia. We went to the orthopedist and Sue has arthroscopic surgery scheduled for her knee at the end of the month. Russ' mom and sister will be coming to visit for a week in November and we are looking forward to that. Ansley is taking a painting class and seems to be enjoying it. Case is playing on the middle school basketball team. The season started last weekend at an Air Force base on Friday and Saturday. Sue, Bridger, and Ansley drove the 3 hours up to the games and saw the biggest bull moose that they had ever seen. Luke continues to enjoy Bible college. For you soccer fans, we have been able to play some indoor soccer in the college gym. We got our first real snow today! Hope to be able to cross country ski soon!
Prayer Requests
Please pray concerning the spiritual warfare in the area, especially as related to the outreach of the native churches, the families in the area, and our family as we reach out to those around us.
Please continue to pray that God would send mission minded nurses to work at the clinic, as well as the outreach of the clinic to those that come seeking medical care.
Please pray that things would go well with Sue's upcoming surgery.
Please continue to pray for good friends for the kids.
Things are still going fairly well in the clinic. We are getting ready to change the prescription part of the computer program. We have seen some wrecks related to black ice in the area. One of the providers that has been here for 2 years will be leaving next month, so that will be a transition for the patients as well as the people at the clinic. We have hired 2 new lab assistants lately, but continue to need nurses!
Ministry
At the clinic, we have ordered the Saline Solution, a Christian conference on incorporating your faith into the practice of medicine. We continue to have prayer times for the clinic and patients on Wednesdays and Sundays. We have ordered Our Daily Bread to have for patients at the clinic, as well as Indian Life, a native Christian publication. Sue and the kids continue to be involved in AWANA. They have 50- 70 kids in the club. It is a mix of kids from Glennallen and some of the native villages in the area. Sue has a girl in her TNT group that comes from a broken home and just moved here. She told Sue that the only thing in her life that has stayed the same is AWANA. We see many disrupted families here related to drug and alcohol issues. As we get to know the area better, we hear more about the spiritual warfare that is taking place here.
Life
Sue was able to go in a plane ride while on the women's retreat. She got to go up with a a missionary bush pilot who is working to train pilots for missionary aviation in Russia. We went to the orthopedist and Sue has arthroscopic surgery scheduled for her knee at the end of the month. Russ' mom and sister will be coming to visit for a week in November and we are looking forward to that. Ansley is taking a painting class and seems to be enjoying it. Case is playing on the middle school basketball team. The season started last weekend at an Air Force base on Friday and Saturday. Sue, Bridger, and Ansley drove the 3 hours up to the games and saw the biggest bull moose that they had ever seen. Luke continues to enjoy Bible college. For you soccer fans, we have been able to play some indoor soccer in the college gym. We got our first real snow today! Hope to be able to cross country ski soon!
Prayer Requests
Please pray concerning the spiritual warfare in the area, especially as related to the outreach of the native churches, the families in the area, and our family as we reach out to those around us.
Please continue to pray that God would send mission minded nurses to work at the clinic, as well as the outreach of the clinic to those that come seeking medical care.
Please pray that things would go well with Sue's upcoming surgery.
Please continue to pray for good friends for the kids.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Late September Update
MEDICAL
Things are going fairly well at the clinic. We are getting more patients lately and have been getting some good feedback on having new stable providers. Russ' picture of Jesus helping to guide the doctor has been hung near the patient's rooms. We have gotten copies of the physician's life reference ( a New Testament with scriptural answers to different life questions) to place in the patient areas. Dr Parker showed Russ this at Riverview about a year ago. Russ has had many routine visits, but also had 2 auto accidents involving moose, flown women out in preterm labor, and we even had a grizzly attack. In that case, the patient was flown directly from the scene by a helicopter. Our team of nurses and providers is getting used to working together, and overall it is going well. The tourists have pretty much all gone home, so now we are seeing mostly local people ( local meaning within a 2-3 hour radius).
MINISTRY
We continue to work on reaching out through the medical clinic, as above. Russ has had the opportunity to pray with patients in the ED, some of which were not Christians, but still appreciated the prayers. AWANA is starting at the local church. They have the AWANA circle in the basement with a pole in the circle! It is padded. Hopefully Russ won't have to treat any concussions! Sue will be working with TNT girls, Luke and Bridger with TNT boys, Case with games, and Ansley with Cubbies. Russ will probably help out, but as he is frequently on call for the clinic, is not going to be a full time leader at this point. This weekend Sue is at a women's retreat for the local church at a camp that I think is similar to Camp Bethel. I told her to take a good sleeping bag since it is now in the 20s at night!
LIFE
2 weeks ago, Sue's parents and Jessi, our neice from Tennessee, were able to come for a visit. We had a good time together and were able to take them to Seward as well as Valdez to see the sights and the wildlife. We also went fishing, but only Russ and Case caught the artic grayling we were fishing for. Sue's dad did multiple repairs around the house, and Sue's mom had us all eating too much, as usual! The last night before they left, we had an Alaska game night with salmon that we had caught and a moose roast that had been given to us. We really enjoyed the time with all of them, it was a real blessing for them to be here. Case has decided to try and play for the middle school basketball team and has had 1 practice so far. Right now they play 4 weekends, 3 of them away. Because of the distances, they leave on Friday, stay in the school where they play, and come back on Saturday. The last weekend is in Cordova, which is a 2 hour drive followed by an 8 hour boat trip! We're getting used to this, as we don't know that many people yet and this is all very different for us! We're planning on trying it out for a week and gathering more information before we make a final decision.
PRAYER REQUESTS
We need nurses at the clinic as well as a lab tech! We are already short and may have more leave after the 1st of the year. Please pray that God will send mission minded nurses who would like to work in a rural area in Alaska.
For the clinic in general, for encouragement. The clinic has been through many challenges over the last few years and it has been discouraging and tiring at times. Please pray for encouragement and continued vision for reaching the lost through the medical ministry here.
The AWANA Ministry at Glennallen Community Chapel
God's leading on what ministries/opportunities he would have our family be involved in during our time here.
Sue's knee- it is getting better and she is off crutches. However it is still clicking and bothering her at times.
Thanks for all of the prayers, it means so much to know that many people are praying for us!
Things are going fairly well at the clinic. We are getting more patients lately and have been getting some good feedback on having new stable providers. Russ' picture of Jesus helping to guide the doctor has been hung near the patient's rooms. We have gotten copies of the physician's life reference ( a New Testament with scriptural answers to different life questions) to place in the patient areas. Dr Parker showed Russ this at Riverview about a year ago. Russ has had many routine visits, but also had 2 auto accidents involving moose, flown women out in preterm labor, and we even had a grizzly attack. In that case, the patient was flown directly from the scene by a helicopter. Our team of nurses and providers is getting used to working together, and overall it is going well. The tourists have pretty much all gone home, so now we are seeing mostly local people ( local meaning within a 2-3 hour radius).
MINISTRY
We continue to work on reaching out through the medical clinic, as above. Russ has had the opportunity to pray with patients in the ED, some of which were not Christians, but still appreciated the prayers. AWANA is starting at the local church. They have the AWANA circle in the basement with a pole in the circle! It is padded. Hopefully Russ won't have to treat any concussions! Sue will be working with TNT girls, Luke and Bridger with TNT boys, Case with games, and Ansley with Cubbies. Russ will probably help out, but as he is frequently on call for the clinic, is not going to be a full time leader at this point. This weekend Sue is at a women's retreat for the local church at a camp that I think is similar to Camp Bethel. I told her to take a good sleeping bag since it is now in the 20s at night!
LIFE
2 weeks ago, Sue's parents and Jessi, our neice from Tennessee, were able to come for a visit. We had a good time together and were able to take them to Seward as well as Valdez to see the sights and the wildlife. We also went fishing, but only Russ and Case caught the artic grayling we were fishing for. Sue's dad did multiple repairs around the house, and Sue's mom had us all eating too much, as usual! The last night before they left, we had an Alaska game night with salmon that we had caught and a moose roast that had been given to us. We really enjoyed the time with all of them, it was a real blessing for them to be here. Case has decided to try and play for the middle school basketball team and has had 1 practice so far. Right now they play 4 weekends, 3 of them away. Because of the distances, they leave on Friday, stay in the school where they play, and come back on Saturday. The last weekend is in Cordova, which is a 2 hour drive followed by an 8 hour boat trip! We're getting used to this, as we don't know that many people yet and this is all very different for us! We're planning on trying it out for a week and gathering more information before we make a final decision.
PRAYER REQUESTS
We need nurses at the clinic as well as a lab tech! We are already short and may have more leave after the 1st of the year. Please pray that God will send mission minded nurses who would like to work in a rural area in Alaska.
For the clinic in general, for encouragement. The clinic has been through many challenges over the last few years and it has been discouraging and tiring at times. Please pray for encouragement and continued vision for reaching the lost through the medical ministry here.
The AWANA Ministry at Glennallen Community Chapel
God's leading on what ministries/opportunities he would have our family be involved in during our time here.
Sue's knee- it is getting better and she is off crutches. However it is still clicking and bothering her at times.
Thanks for all of the prayers, it means so much to know that many people are praying for us!
September Pictures
Everybody keeps telling us to post more pictures, so I tried to put more on this time. We have some from Seward, AK and I'll try to add those soon.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Sites from the shore and the air
Medical- Work at the clinic has been fairly busy. There are many administrative tasks to take care of that have not been done recently. Our new PA and nurse practitioner are starting to see patients and doing well. Continue to pray for nurses. We just got a new graduate from Biola University in CA, but could really use another experienced nurse.
Missions- We are starting to work on more organized outreach in the clinic. We have a chaplain who does a devotion over the intercom each morning for staff and patients. Russ has been talking with him about other outreach possibilites. We have started a weekly devotion and time to pray for our patients who request prayer, which is similar to what Russ did in Pearisburg. Luke has started to volunteer to help the IT specialist at the clinic and at the local Christian radio station. Sue continues to be involved in the ladies Bible study and the kids are really enjoying the youth group at church.
Life- School has started! The kids are actually studying Alaska history, which is required here.
Luke is taking 3 classes at Alaska Bible college- Old Testament Survey, Speech, and Principles
of Bible Study. Sue is actually taking the last class with Luke and both are enjoying it. Last weekend we went to Anchorage to shop and run some errands. We were able to stay with the Caseys, who are missionaries with SEND. Mr Casey is a pilot who flies missionaries to remote villages. We had planned to stay into Monday, and then realized that Luke needed to be back for classes. We're still getting used to college! Mr Casey was giving a flying lesson on Sunday and set it up so that they could take Luke back to Glennallen. He was lucky and got to see the trip from the air. The picture is from their backyard. I've never seen a canal that had floatplanes instead of boats in the backyard! We went to church with the Caseys and the kids walked home from church with them. They got to see a floatplane take off from the lake on the way home.
After church we headed south out of Anchorage to see some sites. We went down to an inlet named Turnagain Arm. We were able to see some Beluga whales in the inlet. We also were able to see the bore tide. If the tide is high enough, when it comes in it will travel up the inlet in a wave 3-6 feet high. The first picture is a picture of this wave moving up the inlet. People were out surfing the wave and kite boarding on it. The kite boarding looked really fun!
On Monday we finished our errands, and our shopping, loaded up the trailer and headed home. Russ is working this weekend, so we are having a quiet weekend at home. Sue's knee is slowly getting better, thanks for all of the prayers!
The Meltons
A Fish Story
This is my rainbow trout that I caught a couple of weeks ago! Its 16in. long! We haven't cooked it yet, but I'm hoping to soon! I was soooooooooooooo excited to catch it! I was the only one to catch one. We were in the canoe not catching much. We had been out there for a couple of hours and hadn't caught anything! Most of the time we'd been catching lily pads. And then all of a sudden I felt a big pull on my line! It jumped completely out of the water twice! When it got to the boat dad grabbed the line and right as he did the end of the rod snapped! Not the line the end of the rod SNAPPED! Dad had just enough hold on the line to throw it into the boat. It was jumping all over the place! Dad was holding the fish down with his legs! It was a very exciting day for me!
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