Dear NDI Partner,

I have just gotten back home after two weeks of ministry and work in Alaska.  I was invited to go there with my brother, Ed.  As many of you know, we started in ministry together at the YMCA in Burlington over 40 years ago.  From there NDI was ultimately born.

After Ed left the YMCA, he went with the Billy Graham Association for a couple of decades.  Then he was asked by Mrs. Ruth Graham to meet her son, Franklin, who was both new in the Lord and new in ministry.  Because of some of Ed’s earlier struggles spiritually and academically, Mrs. Graham felt he could be an encouragement to Franklin.  They soon became good friends and partners in ministry.  As a result, Ed played a formative role in the early days of Samaritan’s Purse (SP) – while his wife Becky helped Franklin organize World Medical Mission (WMM).  She has been with Franklin longer than any other employee – over 30 years.  During that time she has facilitated the sending of over 5,500 doctors to mission medical facilities around the world!

Even though Ed “retired” from SP a number of years ago, he has remained active in behalf of both SP and NDI.  Because of Franklin’s expansive ministries in Alaska, he asked Ed to go there for much of the summer to be the “Chaplain” for the SP Staff and Summer Work Teams.  Since I had some un-expected flex time due to the death of a dear friend, Ed and Franklin invited me to go there with him.  So the last two weeks is the most time Ed and I have had together in our adult life – for which I am VERY thankful!  Since we started in ministry together at the YMCA and early days of NDI, it was so special to co-minister together again – especially in a place like Alaska!

Even though I have had the privilege of traveling over much of the world, I had never been to Alaska – except to change planes in Anchorage on my way to Asia.  So it was a joy to visit our 50th State on her “50th Anniversary” as a State (Alaska officially became a State on January 3, 1959).

Alaska advertises herself as “The Last Frontier.”  It is a vast State with incredible diversity and beauty in people and topography.  While Alaska is bigger than our next 3 largest States of Texas, California and Montana combined, it is sparsely occupied by less than a million people.  And because of the rugged landscape and severe winters, many of the isolated native people groups live in some of the worst poverty you will find anywhere in the world.

It is because of the great spiritual and physical needs in Alaska that Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse are so active there.  Even though I was in Alaska for just two weeks, I only got to see the “tip of the ice berg” of the vast SP work taking place from the cities to remote Eskimo villages.  While I was there, I was primarily focused at their “Base Camp” in the City of Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula – which is one of the most visited places in Alaska for fishing and hunting.

So I hope that the following pictures will be a blessing and encouragement to you – just as the trip was for me…

View Slideshow

Alaska Photos

In His Faithful Love,