North to Alaska

Sunday, October 21, 2012

October Pictures

Rafting on the Copper River

Black bear looking for salmon at Valdez

The Rolens and the kids in front of the Pinneo cabin

Sue and her first fly fishing catch, a 16 inch grayling

Ansley and a friend holding a trophy for winning the tournament at Cordova

Alot has happened since our last blog. We've all been home to Virginia and now Luke is at Liberty University in Lynchburg. We returned to Alaska in mid-August and plan to stay until next summer. After we got back, Shahn and Juanita Wilburn, our pastor and his wife, came to visit. Then we had a visit from Jeff and Susan Rolen from Camp Bethel in Wise, VA. We had a great time with both sets of visitors. They were a great encouragement. It was pretty cool and rainy the whole time, but they made the most of it. Susan Rolen is the niece of Dr. Pinneo, who was a missionary doctor here for years. We actually live right across from the cabin that he built to live in here.

The kids are back in school, Sue is still teaching them at home. Bridger is taking a class at the local community college. Ansley is playing basketball for the local middle school so she is traveling most every weekend. Last weekend Sue and Ansley took a 2 hour bus ride and then a 5 hour ferry ride to play a game. Case is playing alot of basketball; he plays for the high school this year and his season starts in November. Luke seems to be really enjoying his time at Liberty, which is a blessing. Hopefully he will get his walking cast off next week. It dropped below zero last night, and we're waiting to get enough snow to go out and play in it.

AWANA has started back at church and we're in full swing. Ansley is helping with Cubbies, Russ is the game leader with Case is his assistant. Sue and Bridger are working with TNT and both have been teaching in the council times. Russ has enjoyed being back in AWANA and getting to know the kids. He has alot of good memories of AWANA back at Riverview and we have seen AWANA make a great impact on many kids, including our own. Sue and the kids continue to help out with a church in Chistochina, a village about an hour from here. They go up about once a month to teach Sunday school for the children, most of whom are natives.

It's been busy in the clinic since we've been back. Russ has continued to make house calls and we have had quite a few hospice patients lately. House calls and home visits by the nurses have been a great opportunity for ministry to families in the area. We've also had a quite a few emergencies since we returned, which can be stressful at times since we are so far away from other medical facilities. I'm thankful that God is faithful and there to help us in the hard times. In the past month we have been giving patients cards for them to write their prayer requests. Russ leads a devotion weekly where we pray for our patients and the nurses get together each morning to pray for these requests. We are also considering finding a medical missions clinic in another country that we can partner with and potentially send staff to help out short term if needed. It's been exciting to see the missions focus of the clinic continue to grow as we seek to be a light for Christ in the valley.

Prayer requests-
Pray for the clinic as we continue to seek God's direction for ministry here in the future. We face many challenges with the continual changes in medicine in our country.

Pray for future direction for our family as we continue to seek God's direction for us over the next year.

Pray for the personnel needs of the clinic, including a doctor, nurses, a physical therapist and a lab technician. Russ will be traveling to a medical mission conference in Lousiville, KY in November to recruit more help.

Pray for AWANA at Glennallen Community Chapel as we seek to reach children for Christ and teach them His Word. Also pray for the church at Chistochina and their outreach in that area.

Pray for Luke at Liberty, that he would continue to do well in his new surroundings.

We so much appreciate all of your prayers and support. Cross Road Medical Center is beginning a newsletter that can be sent by email. If you are interested, let us know and we will have them send it to you.

The Meltons

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Summer is here, I think

It's the middle of July and it's been a busy, but cool summer. We've accused people here of not quite telling the truth when they told us about the great summers here. Apparently, this is the coolest summer they have had lately and the one with the most mosquitoes!

We've enjoyed getting to see many people from home over the last 2 months. We started in June with a visit from Sam Steele, one of Luke and Bridger's good friends from home. We had a great week with him; got to go visit an old mining ghost town and made his hands go numb from the cold when we went fishing for salmon in the rain. After Sam left, a mission team from Riverview Baptist, our home church, came to help. They had team of 23, who worked to replace a leaking roof and put new windows on the nurses dorm here. They also did some interior remodeling on the church in Gulkana village and placed a roof over a storage area there. The women also helped by cleaning the church, serving a luncheon for the native elders, and helping organize records for summer missionaries. A few from the team worked with children's ministries in a couple of the villages. We even had a nurse on the team that was able to help us with some of the regulations that we have to meet at the clinic. Overall it was a great week together and a great encouragement to our family.

In July, Russ' family came for a visit and we were able to go down to the Kenai Peninsula to explore. Some of us, including Russ' mom, went on a boat tour and got very seasick! The boys also got to go fishing for halibut and everyone got their limit of 2 fish. We were able to visit Homer and got 2 sunny days there. It is a beautiful place with a bay surrounded by snow capped mountains.

In between, life has continued on here. Russ has continued work in the medical clinic which has picked up some with the tourists that abound in the summer. We continue to also minister to the natives in the area as well. Yesterday, we actually had a visit from the governor of Alaska who toured our facility. The team from Riverview brought some Christian literature that we are able to distribute in the clinic. With funds from last year's VBS at Riverview, we were able to buy a DVD copy of The Saline Solution, a series made to help you incorporate your faith into a medical practice. We have been going through this with the staff at the clinic. We have been excited to see the mission aspect of the clinic continue to grow. Sue and the kids have been involved in an outreach to children and teens in a village about 2 hours from here. There is no established church in the village, but the missionaries have continued to work there, particularly with the children. Sue and the kids have been helping to do a VBS type program with the kids and some members of the mission team were also able to participate during their time here.

Our next big focus is getting Luke ready for college. He will be starting at Liberty in August. He wants to major in computer science and he's had some great experience here volunteering with the computer specialists at the clinic and the local Christian radio station. Sue and the kids will be traveling to Virginia on July 27 and Russ will follow in mid August. The plan is to get Luke settled in college and return to Alaska in mid-August. We had originally planned to have a doctor come this winter, but unfortunately that has fallen through. We continue to pray for God's direction and a doctor to come in the next year to serve in the ministry here.

Prayer Requests
Praises for the time with mission team, for their safety, the work that they accomplished, and their encouragement to our family

The continued outreach to the native villages, particularly the children and teens, many of whom have to overcome difficult challenges.

For a physician to respond to the need to serve here at Cross Road in the next year.

For safety for our family on our trip, and that Luke's transition to college will go smoothly for him and the rest of the family. We are very thankful for our family and friends in the area, who have volunteered to help however possible.

A good verse that I ran across during a trying time at work-
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who take refuge in him.
Nahum 1:7

The Meltons

July Pictures

Russ' Family at Exit Glacier

The Mission Team From Riverview

A Float at our 4th of July Parade with a Fish Wheel

Halibut Fishing

Sam and Bridger at a Glacier

A Humpback Whale jumping out of the water

Sam and the Melton kids

Flying to a remote location to do a medical clinic

Saturday, May 5, 2012

April Pictures

Pictures of Sophie and Ansley

Playing softball on frozen Lake Louise
Ansley's team won!

Girdwood Alaska got 700 inches of snow, this was the snow piled up on each side of the sidewalk

The Manns with us in Valdez

Laurie and Ellowyn here for Sue's Birthday

The Light is Coming Back- May 2012

Hi Everyone, sorry that we skipped April, it was a busy March and April. Here is the update.

Medical- We continue to be fairly busy at the clinic. We have had many emergencies lately and actually flew 6 people to Anchorage in 1 week. Russ had a medical student from Washington come to work with us for a month. She said she had a great time and learned alot, and we enjoyed having her as part of the team. We have continued to be in contact with Datcha, a doctor in training in Michigan. She is very interested in working here and plans to work with us in June. She is has a heart for missions, and has to work in an underserved area in the US. We hope that she can come long term sometime this winter. We recently had a miraculous recovery of one of our seriously ill patients. From my standpoint, it was nothing less than a miracle, and we pray that it continues to bring glory to God in our community.

Ministry- AWANA is wrapping up for the year. We have our awards ceremony next week. Luke and Bridger served as coaches for the TNT boys and went with them to the First Annual AWANA Bush Olympics 3 hours away. The AWANA kids had a good time, as they had never been to AWANA games before. Sue and all of our kids have all been involved as leaders and it has been a good learning experience for them. Sue has joined a ladies craft group weekly at a church in one of the native villages. They like her to bring her bread for supper. She is learning to do native beadwork and it has been a good opportunity to get to know some of the native women in the area. Rodney and Heather Mann, as well as their children, came to see us around Easter. It was a great encouragement to us to see them, and we had a great visit. They also served as a scout team for the construction team from Riverview Baptist that is coming in June. The team will be replacing a roof and windows of the nurses dorm and doing some remodeling of a native church in Gulkana village. Rodney and Heather were able to look over the arrangements for the team and meet with people here at the clinic as well as the pastor at Gulkana. Everyone here is very excited to have the team coming to help out, and it will be a big help to the clinic here and to the local native church.

Life -We started off with a bang in March. Russ had an medical meeting outside of Anchorage and we used the time as a vacation for our family. We were planning on going to Fairbanks to see the ice sculpting world championship but ended up staying in Anchorage for car repairs! We stayed with the Caseys, a missionary couple who were wonderful to us during our time there. We also had to make a big decision at the end of March. As most of you know, our original plan was to return to Virginia in July. The clinic has asked us to stay for another year. The plan is to stay and have another physician, hopefully Datcha, come to continue the medical ministry here. It was not an easy decision, as we have missed our friends and family, as well as activities like soccer back at home. After much prayer, discussion and tears as a family, we have decided to stay until next spring. Even though it was a hard choice, we feel like God has given us a continued opportunity to serve him in the ministry here in the Copper River Valley. Luke still plans to attend Liberty University in VA in the fall, and that will be hard (particularly on Sue!). We hope that we can get everyone home for a visit in August and get Luke settled in college. We had some great surprises in April. When the Manns came to visit, they brought Sophie Steele, one of Ansley's best friends with them! Just last week, Russ had Laurie Steele, one of Sue's best friends, fly up for Sue's birthday. Ellowyn, Sophie's sister and another of Ansley's great friends, came along. So we had some great reunions with friends over the last month that have been a great encouragement.

Prayer Requests
For the continued outreach with the love of Christ of the Cross Road Medical Clinic, to the people in our area, as well as to the people who come to visit us short term. Some of them have never seen a faith based medical clinic. We are also starting to have an influx of tourists and the clinic should get busier.

For Sue's continued relationships with the native women at Gulkana village.

For the personnel needs of the clinic, including a physician for the future, our new nurses and our need for a physical therapist.

For the construction team from Riverview Baptist, as we continue to make plans for their trip. For safe travel, a productive week, and good weather to work while they are here.

For our whole family, that we would grow in our love and knowledge of the Lord during our our time here, and be used for His purposes here. For encouragement when we miss home.