People, Places and Fish

We were looking for someplace to fish on the Kenai River and stumbled upon a road that said Morgan’s landing. We never completed our mission of looking for the landing but found an outside chapel service conducted by the Jubilee Baptist Church. They don’t have a church building but the foundation is poured. They had built a pavilion and tarps surrounding three sides. There were moose tracks on the cement floor as soon after the concrete was finished a moose and her calf came over the check it out.

They had a little flower garden and hanging baskets full of petunias. The service started at 2 pm which was a good thing since the weather was still cool here and we all had blankets wrapped around us. There isn’t a stained glass window that could project the beauty with the mountains in the background listening to an older preacher preach a warm message.

After the service we were invited over to Allen and Rosa’s for dinner. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping over a wonderful dinner. We soon learned they were half owners of a fishing charters business in Seward. It was a long boat ride as we found ourselves in the Gulf of Alaska fishing for Ling Cod. It’s the scariest prehistoric fish you ever seen. But it tastes better than Lobster. There were six of us onboard and we caught two cod and eleven halibut. We pooled the whole catch and ended up with 25 lbs of frozen packs of fish.

We had halibut the next night for dinner. Yummy!

The boat captain and Doug really hit if off. They are both mentally challenged Vietnam Vets. It’s amazing who God puts in our path. His boats name is Visitation. He ministers the gospel message on his boat. Before this he was known as the Bird Man. He was known throughout Alaska and the United States. He had about 20 exotic birds. He gave the gospel message using his birds. The birds had Bible character names. Like all things in life they are a season as he found himself allergic to bird dander. It broke his heart to let go of his birds and his ministry.

We were invited back down to Seward by the Resurrection Bay Baptist Church for the 4th of July. The town was celebrating their Mountain Run Marathon which brought in about 40,000 people. This run is in its 80th year. It is a challenge to athletes to run up 3,022 feet and back down again in the shortest amount of time. The church was selling pulled pork sandwiches at this event to raise money for their youth group’s camp fund and to pass out tracts.

They had also had invited Pastor Roach the Independent Baptist Church from Anchorage and his Vietnam Vette Corvette. The purpose of his ministry is to thank all Vietnam veterans, a memorial to those who died in the September 11 attack on America, and to introduce people to the God salvation message.

The car was in the parade and then a draw to give people the Gospel of John and Romans. 3,000 booklets were given out, even to a state trouper stopped by afterwards because he liked Corvettes.

Again Doug had an instant connection with Pastor Roach since he too was served in Vietnam. They both use a tool to reach others for Christ, Pastor Roach the Corvette and Doug and his popcorn.

The best part of the day was when Doug gave his testimony to some very young evangelists from Texas. They were doing a documentary asking people in the crowd if they knew they were going to heaven. Doug told them by accepting and acknowledging that Jesus died on the cross for their sins.

Tomorrow we’ll be going down to Homer for another fishing charter with Peggy and Gary from our home church. It will be good to see folks from home.

Fish Count To Date:

Sockeye 15
Halibut 3
King Salmon 3
Rock Bass 2