We Have Arrived!by Mel Frecceiro | June 13, 2021 11:45 AM
Our mission team this week consists of two church groups, Battle Creek Friends Church and Holy Spirit Church. Both groups arrived on Friday, got a great night of sleep, and joined forces on Saturday.
After an early afternoon of shopping in downtown Anchorage, we moved over to one of our church partners for the week, Jewel Lake Church of the Nazarene, where we will lodge and attend Sunday morning church service.
Homeless Church Serviceby Mel Frecceiro | June 13, 2021 11:52 AM
The Battle Creek team attended an afternoon homeless church service at New Hope Church near downtown Anchorage. There was a special guest singer there, a young girl whose dream was to lead worship in Alaska.
Saturday Massby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:02 AM
One of our teams, Holy Spirit, went to mass at Saint Benedict Church Saturday night. Father Tom gave a great homily.
Sunday Morning Coffeeby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:04 AM
Sunday morning's first order of business was getting coffee. We stopped at one of Anchorage's many coffee hut drive-throughs and ordered drinks and pastries at the window. It was a fun experience, and a great way to start off the morning.
Potter's Marsh Boardwalkby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:05 AM
After coffee, our day just got better. We headed south to a beautiful boardwalk overlooking Potter's Marsh. There we were able to catch an up close glimpse of the Chugach Mountains as well as the local wildlife.
First Moose Sighting!by Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:07 AM
Speaking of seeing the wildlife... we saw our first moose of the week at Potter's Marsh! Talk about a postcard perfect spot for a moose photo. He seemed like he was aware of our presence, and did a territorial prance for us.
Battle Creek Friends Churchby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:09 AM
Group shot of the Battle Creek Friends Church half of our team!
Holy Spirit Churchby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:09 AM
And a group shot of the Holy Spirit Church half of our team!
Sunday Morning Worship Serviceby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:12 AM
And all that before the Sunday morning worship service at our Alaska host partner church, Jewel Lake Church of the Nazarene. It was a beautiful service, with powerful worship and a great sermon. A great way to start off our week!
Kids Ministry Planningby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:16 AM
We spend a portion of our Sunday afternoon planning for kids ministry this week. New Hope, a church we are partnering with this week, is hoping to have their very first Vacation Bible School. They have never held a VBS before, and they invited the 4 churches who use their building and facilities to bring their kids. Unsure of what the turnout of kids would be, we still gave our all to practice crafts, skits, dances and lessons. Both of our teams pulled together as one!
Kincaid Parkby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:24 AM
Sunday evening, we went to a local park called Kincaid, where many of our team members hiked, played ultimate frisbee, and enjoyed tossing around a ball. We also ate a picnic dinner and enjoyed s'mores over the grill. After all that, we had a nice time of worship and talked about the plan for the next day. We are looking forward to serving this week!
New Hope Compassionate Ministriesby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 11:30 AM
New Hope Compassionate Ministries is a nonprofit organization in Anchorage that helps to provide much needed relief to many Alaskans who need food and other basic needs met. Under normal circumstances, this room would be stocked from wall to wall, floor to ceiling with canned foods and fresh produce, and we as the volunteers would walk the clients through the "store" to help them shop with dignity for the food items they wish to take home to their families. This year, however, we have to bag up the food items and simply hand the food to clients as they swing by the church building. Still, we had a lot of fun working together and loving on the regular volunteers who were there to show our team how to help.
Gardeningby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:06 PM
There were numerous tasks to do inside and outside of New Hope, several of which included using our green thumbs. There is a community garden with individual beds that are rented out to people in the area as a way of raising funds for the ministry. We planted marigolds in hanging pots around the fence to brighten up the garden.
Green Thumbsby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:08 PM
Some more gardening to brighten up the flower beds at the front of the church! Here we planted some pansies and petunias.
Fresh Coatby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:10 PM
Several members of our team took to painting the walls inside the church, while a few of us worked on staining the steps outside. The railings proved to be a tedious project.
Out with the oldby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:13 PM
We removed an old cracked toilet from New Hope and replaced it with a new one. Teamwork!
Squeaky Cleanby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:18 PM
During the winters, Alaskans put down a layer of sand and gravel in the parking lots, even on the roads, instead of putting down salt which attracts hungry moose. It works fairly well, except it leaves our roads and parking lots looking quite dirty and grungy when the snow melts. So some of our team members jumped right into power washing. That worked out perfectly as we plan on using the parking lot for ministry this week
Moving the Party Outsideby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:24 PM
Speaking of the parking lot, that's exactly where we decided to host our VBS program. Some of our team members went from park to park, while the rest of our group started singing and making a bunch of fun noise to get the word out and stir up excitement about our kids ministry.
Our Skit Guysby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:28 PM
Two of our team members practiced a skit for the VBS Theme "Shipwrecked". They did a great job!
The Overlookby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:33 PM
We drove up to an area in the Chugach mountains where we got up close and personal with several peaks. It was a beautiful view of the Alaska Range as well as the city below. We took the opportunity to grab a quick group shot.
Say, "String Cheese!"by Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:34 PM
Got to get our silly on!
Beans Cafeby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:37 PM
Another one of the ministries we got to serve at this week is called Beans Cafe. It used to serve as a place where people could come to sit and heat hot food. Lately, however, they have had to shift the way they do things, and instead they prepare thousands of meals that go out straight out of their kitchen to different sites all around the city. We were excited to be one of the first teams of volunteers they welcomed back into the kitchen since the pandemic hit over a year ago.
Assembly Tableby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:39 PM
This photo was taken in the room that used to serve as the cafeteria when Beans fed people on site. Now it serves as a storage room. We organized and filled bags with food items to be handed out.
Here and Thereby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:40 PM
There's Paul, in and out of the freezer room and helping with various tasks around the kitchen.
Soup du jourby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:45 PM
In addition to shredding meat, slicing open beef packages, chopping onions and various other food prep tasks, several of us got to help with compiling ingredients into an impressively large vat of soup. Yum!
Bulk Food Wrappingby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:48 PM
This room is where all the wrapping magic happens. We filled these individual trays with the yummy fresh food from the kitchen, and then sent it down the belt to be wrapped and packaged up. Next it will go out all around the city to feed the masses at the shelters and other various sites. The kitchen can produce several thousand meals a day depending on the demand.
Packing Pantryby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:50 PM
Another cool place we got to serve this week was inside of an old Sam's Club building. The same people who run Bean's Cafe have rented some space in there where they pack up pantry boxes. These boxes are designed with the idea that they will each feed a family of 4. We filled over a thousand boxes in just a few short hours!
Evening Debriefby Mel Frecceiro | July 6, 2021 12:52 PM
We enjoyed getting to come together as one big team during certain evenings when we were able to pray together, worship, and share about our experiences from the day.
