“The Elim parsonage (accompanying photo) is a cobbled mess where people, who were not plumbers or electricians, did the best they could with what they had,” says Rodney Sawyer, regional field director for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska. There is only one exit. In the event of a fire, a second door is unusable because of the four-foot drop-off where the outside decking has rotted away.
Sawyer hopes that situation will change soon when members of Northwest Covenant Church in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, arrive at the end of the month to do extensive renovations. The trip is the first in what Sawyer hopes will be a pilot project to help renovate parsonages and do mission work among villagers in the Alaskan bush – remote and impoverished areas with no roads leading in or out.
Sawyer officially classifies the parsonages as “substandard,” but his descriptions of the buildings suggest that his description is a generous one. “The parsonage in Scammon Bay has a rotting foundation and needs some attention very soon, or part of the house will virtually split off,” Sawyer says, adding that the drain freezes every winter. Other parsonages have leaky roofs, windows that are rotting, poor insulation, and furnishings dating to the 1970s that are ripped and torn. One of the villages has no running water.
“Living in Western Alaska is like going back in time,” Sawyer says. “It is more of a subsistence living style where one must live off the land.” Adding to the difficult conditions for pastors and their congregations, Sawyer says, are the high rates of suicide, abuse, drug addiction and alcoholism among the general population they are called to serve. Unemployment is at least 70 percent in many of the villages, he notes.
The Northwest church group, which also will operate a Vacation Bible School and participate in other ministry activities, will be a welcome sight, Sawyer says. “Having work teams can be a great encouragement to the local pastors and churches.”
As part of the pilot program, Northwest’s pastor, Joel Delp, and ECCAK are working with two other organizations, Arctic Barnabas Ministries (ABM) and Mission Aviation Repair Center (MARC), to administer the renovation project and fly in the workers.
“Doing construction work in the bush is difficult because there are no roads going in or out,” Delp says. Mistakes at the construction sites or forgetting to bring certain items could mean a project doesn’t get completed, Delp observes.
ABM is helping with planning and coordination aspects of the project, while MARC is flying in the equipment.
Delp says the church considered a mission trip to Ecuador or Africa. However, following a presentation last fall that outlined the needs of bush pastors, the congregation knew where it wanted to go.
Six members of Northwest Covenant will leave July 29 and return August 7.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
