Moonshine

It’s an Alaskan miracle!! I have seen the moon! That’s right. It has been so long since I’ve seen the moon or the stars that I forgot that I even missed them. It was probably three times the size that the moon usually is in Nebraska and looked as though it was perched on the peak of a mountain. It was magical how beautiful it was. The creative touch that God put into Alaska is unmistakable when you see things like that. Even one of my non-Christian co-workers commented that Alaska really is God’s country. I think of the verse in Romans that says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” That being said, it amazes me that so little people know about the gospel here. For all of Alaska’s beauty it is one of the most broken communities I have ever encountered in person. Depression and substance abuse, alcoholism and homelessness run rampant, and there are an astounding amount of people who have no idea who Jesus is. I was out sharing my faith on campus with a friend of mine, and we came upon this girl who confidently told us that she had no spiritual background, and she had never heard of who Jesus was before. That amazed me. Growing up in Omaha, and going to school in northeast Nebraska, everyone that I run into has gone to church their whole life, and as college students they are choosing whether or not to continue in that lifestyle of faith or not. It is amazing that people here may have not even heard the name Jesus before. They have no idea of the gift that he has given them, or the freedom that comes from believing in him.

  For those of you wondering how my job is going, I love it. I am working at the breakfast café in the nicest luxury hotel in Anchorage. That was an interesting experience at first, and I didn’t think I would like it. But God has blessed me with some crazy, awesome, passionate co-workers that I have grown to love. I am going to miss them when I leave, I am sad that I only got to work with them for a month and a half. My job has been challenging and through it I have learned what it actually feels like to be a servant. The interesting thing about the café is that most guests are high class older people on cruises. Which means they are entitled, often tired and cranky and always in a hurry. I have never worked a job where I have felt more demanded from and less appreciated than this one, and it is easy to start feeling entitled and think, I don’t deserve this! I am a person too! The employees at this hotel are often treated as a different class of people, and in my pride when I first started I was incredibly offended by that. But God showed me where that pride was in my heart and through this job God has taught me just how much humility is required to serve other people. Jesus was a servant, and he called us to do likewise. But that is hard, especially when we feel like we deserve better than that. Jesus knows what that feels like, he is God and here he is on earth washing his disciples’ feet! But Philippians 2:6-8 says, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death- even death on a cross!” As a Christian I say that I want to become more like Jesus in my life, and here God has given me a perfect opportunity to show how seriously I am willing to do that. Praise God.