HOOPER BAY, AK (October 23, 2006) – A fire that ravaged much of this small town on August 4 was the reason a parishioner of First Covenant Church in Mason City, Iowa, was headed to the cold tundra of Alaska. But the warmth and goodwill that was experienced over a three-week period was well worth whatever inconvenience that Bill Bowen may have encountered.
Bowen was one of more than two dozen people involved in rebuilding the town of Hooper Bay after 14 homes, a store and the high school were destroyed last summer. In all, the group built five new homes for the village – population 1,100 – located in western Alaska on the Bering Sea. Bowen traveled to Alaska on September 14 and arrived home on October 10. His team worked from daylight (9 a.m.) until 7 p.m. six days each week, and the group invested an estimated 2,700 hours of volunteer labor during Bowen’s time in Alaska.
Bowen’s trip was made possible through support provided by the church and individuals. The group stayed in a tent camp furnished by the State of Alaska – meals were provided to both volunteers and workers from Nesser Construction Company.
Along with the exterior construction, new homes also will be furnished with the financial assistance of Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, which is organized by Franklin Graham. Samaritan’s Purse is best known in North America for Operation Shoebox, which sends Christmas presents and supplies to children throughout the world. The work of Samaritan’s Purse was supplemented by efforts made by Hooper Bay Covenant Church and its pastor, Grant Funk.
Hooper Bay isn’t your ordinary North American town. The average age of the townspeople is 17. Few of the residents have plumbing or water in their homes – a central well serves the town for laundry and shower needs.
The transportation situation is far more rugged than what people in other parts of the United States are accustomed to enjoying. There isn’t a paved road for 500 miles – the standard motor vehicles are ATVs and snow machines for most of the year.
The weather cooperated with the workers. September was unseasonably mild with temperatures in the 40s. The cold winds of winter were delayed until just before Bowen left Hooper Bay. Except for a harrowing prop plane ride out of town, Bowen said the weather didn’t affect the journey or the work.
“A lot of people ask why these people would live in such a remote area, why they wouldn’t live somewhere nicer,” Bowen said. “But this is where their people have lived their whole lives, and when they talk about their life and their hunting, they just glow.
“There’s a cloud over this town – there’s no industry that will come there – but the gospel is one of the few hopes that someone in this town can have,” Bowen continued. “Ministers are pretty limited in what they can preach. But when we were there, there were two dozen others coming into town that were living out the gospel, and we hope that seeds could be planted that could grow. It was worth the trip – and it’s worth another trip.”
For Bowen, one of the most rewarding experiences was working with a variety of like-minded Christian men that donated their time for God’s work. Relationships were built through devotions conducted by a volunteer each day following breakfast and, of course, the normal bantering that transpires when men work together on a meaningful project.
The experience in Alaska was just what Bowen had hoped to find. He had been part of a Sunday school class at First Covenant Church that challenged he and others to think more creatively about using their gifts to better the local community.
Bowen desired to put his construction and carpentry gifts to work by assisting others in a disaster relief project helping Hurricane Katrina victims. That changed, however, when pastor Tammy Swanson-Draheim suggested that Bowen consider taking his skills to Alaska. Bowen conferred with his wife, Barb, and they agreed that Hooper Bay was worth looking into further. He later sent an application to Pastor Funk and then to Samaritan’s Purse and was accepted.
“We were living with construction workers at their site, and they couldn’t believe we weren’t getting paid for our time,” Bowen said. “The individuals that lived in the bush working on extended construction projects were gone from their families for long periods and they were a rough bunch. But you could see their attitudes soften over the three weeks.”
Realizing that God was in charge of the project made the experience even more meaningful for Bowen. “We knew we couldn’t get this done without God’s help. There are currently two people that will be there for the entire project, which will extend into November. One other person besides me was there for three weeks, and others flowed in and out for a week a time. You get different talents in these people, and what was needed for the project always showed up. Overall, we got paid for our work, it just wasn’t monetarily.”
Fellowship time with the people of Hooper Bay also was enjoyable. Each Friday night, Bowen and his co-laborers ate with high school students as they celebrated the week’s work. Many high school students had been mentored by the volunteers in a program set up with the high school, Samaritan’s Purse and the Hooper Bay Covenant Church. The interaction with the teens was among Bowen’s highlights, although he didn’t think it would be so enjoyable at first.
“When we got there, we knew we would build five homes and have them enclosed for colder conditions within three weeks,” said Bowen, a secondary road worker for Cerro Gordo County in North Iowa. “When we got to Hooper Bay, it was explained to us that the kids weren’t in school. It had been decided that we would have students job shadow us for school credits. Twenty-five kids flowed back and forth through that program over three weeks and it’s still ongoing with plumbers, electricians and finish workers.
Bowen developed some teaching skills while in Alaska. “I was asked to teach an afternoon class called Carpentry 101, and I had close to 20 students there that afternoon, teaching them how to read a tape measure and learning different terminologies for wood.”
Taking time to teach slowed the construction, but will benefit the students and their communities in the future. “It’s more complicated to have to explain things when you’re working with inexperienced workers,” Bowen said. “And there was work that we did that wasn’t safe for kids to do because of the power tools or the fact that we didn’t allow them on the roofs.
“There were a number of kids that were very interested in the program and the ones who excelled in it will now be flown to Anchorage to visit a campus that specializes in carpentry and building trades,” Bowen said. “This experience working with us could lead to many kids being able to learn a skill that can lead to a meaningful profession.”
Now that he’s back in Mason City, Bowen hopes that his experience in Alaska will translate into meaningful work. Bowen read Ecclesiastes 2:24, which reminded him that life is more than earning a paycheck: “People can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This, too, I believe is from the hand of God.”
“I hope to be a part of future disaster relief programs,” Bowen said. “This was my fourth mission trip, but my first disaster relief trip, and the need was immediate. Winter was coming, and people needed a place to live.”
For Bowen, the timing was perfect. “It’s been neat to see how God worked in this. I had just enough vacation time to go, and all of the details and loose ends at my job were taken care of.”
Editor’s note: The accompanying photos originally appeared in online news coverage of the fire in early August and provide a sense of the intensity of the fire, as well as the relative isolation of this community. To read an early account of the fire, please see Hooper Bay Fire.
