Our Travel Itinerary 7/13/04

A few of you have asked us about our Itinerary during our brief trip to the lower 48.. Happy to oblige. Thanks for praying!

July 16 - Depart Anchorage AK 1:30 AM
Arrive Atlanta 4:06 PM
Travel south to Ocilla Ga to spend time with my mom.
July 17 - travel with Mom to Orlando Florida
July 18 - Share at a church in Central Florida
July 19 - back to South Georgia. Sharing at a breakfast meeting
July 20 -23 - time with family and partners in Ocilla Georgia
July 23 - Travel to Kingsport TN for Grace Brethren Conference (Meetings all week)
July 30 - Travel back to Atlanta
July 30 - Depart Atlanta 5 30 pm
July 31 - Arrive Atlanta 12:11 AM

Not long enough, huh? Well, we take it one bite at a time!

By the way, July 31 marks the end of a three month focus on fund raising, albeit most of it here in Alaska this time around. We have been with ABM for 3 1/2 years now, discovering our financial and prayer partners along the way. We are still only at 55% of what we are expected to raise in support. We will need to make some important decisions come August. The Lord has called us into this ministry in bush Alaska, so we are not worried about that! But we will need to make some change in the "how" I guess.

Once again, I ask you to consider the part you pray/play in our ministry. I know I am preaching to the choir, so to speak. But we need additional funds if we are going to keep going. The board would like us to get to 60% by August 1st, so we can at least be at full salary, without any benefits. That 60% will also include $6000 a year for additional fund raising! It costs a lot to travel!

There Or In The Air!

Gary Harris

Cassie in Port Alsworth 7/7/04

Kris and I would appreciate your prayers for our daughter Cassie, as she ministers on staff at Tanalian Bible Camp in Port Alsworth, Alaska, Alaska for the next 4 weeks. As you know, Cassie is our "missionary boomerang" that we send out in the summer and she comes back before school starts in the fall. We need to uphold her in prayer as she works very closely with kids from the Bristol Bay area.

We have once again had to do some revamping of our e-mail list. Maybe you were getting our updates and stopped and are now getting them again? Sorry about that.

Kris and I will be traveling to Georgia, Florida and Tennessee the last two weeks of July. On that last week, we will be attending a conference of our our church fellowship, the Fellowship of Grace brethren churches (www.fgbc.org). A letter went out a few weeks back from two GBC Churches here in Alaska, introducing us and ABM to the rest of the churches. We will be at the conference to begin a more concerted effort on our part to raise up partnership for us and our ministry form Outside Alaska. We really like the local support, but the costs for our ministry are great and we need to branch out more. Pray for this effort.

I went on an overnight hike with my pastor and his brother-in-law a couple of weeks back. We hiked 26 miles from Girdwood to Eagle River on a trail called Crow Pass, part of the Historic Iditarod Trail. Glaciers, a snow slide we needed to cross, a river crossing in fast, cold water, and beautiful surrounding.

At one point I got ahead of the other two. I decided to wait for them to catch up, and they never came. So, I dropped my pack and doubled back, wondering what was going on. I traveled all the way back to the last place I could actually recall them being behind me, and nothing. So I went back to my pack.

On the way, I noticed (for the first time) that the trail had been diverted, and I had gone off on the OLD trail. They had come to that same point and went on the NEW trail. By now we had been separated about an hour or so. I pictured them hurrying to catch up to me, while I was actually behind them doing the same. I eventually caught up to them (ever "trot" with a 35 lb pack on your back, for 30 minutes?). I was pretty wiped out.

We laughed about it and them moved on.

Later, ALL THREE of us did the same thing. We missed a marker on the trail - dead tree branches placed over a trail to signify, "No. Don’t go this way." We ended up in some flooded area and decided to double back, and noticed our mistake.

So remember, don’t do it alone. And also remember, sometimes even your friends may fail you. But Christ will never fail you, and his Love for you is unchanging.

God bless you

Gary Harris