Tell Your Story Alaska

Craig is nestled in the maze of islands on Alaska's Panhandle - a truly stunning area. Craig is most notably a fishing and sawmill village, but definitely a place worth visiting.

Crooked Creek was a summer fish camp for Yup'ik and Ingalik peoples until gold was discovered and this was one of many villages that sprung up to support the mines.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Father Marc Dunaway serves at St. John's Orthodox Church in Eagle River, AK and is a part of the Lausanne Orthodox Initiative which is an effort to bring Evangelicals and Orthodox believers together to better understand their similarities and differences. We discuss some of those differences, why Orthodoxy is growing in Alaska, how Evangelicals and Orthodox believers can learn from one another, what should we make of the iconography in the Orthodox Church, and according to Orthodoxy ecclesiology, can people be saved outside the Orthodox Church? My last question for Marc was "What is the gospel?" Listen to hear how he answers that question and much more is covered in this intriguing episode! I am grateful for Father Marc's insight into these so we can better understand one another!

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Council went from wilderness to a booming town of 15,000 people then down to a tiny population in just a few years thanks to the flurry of gold prospectors at the end of the 19th century. Council is considered a "ghost town" today, but is it?

Covenant Life seems to be connected to a religious movement called "The Move" or often referred to as "The Farm" which is a religious group with several communities throughout Alaska. This village is centered around a church and the religious values of "The Move."

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Rob was a pastors kid who rebelled but found his way back to faith. Then a beautiful woman, out walking her dog, changed his life forever: a real beauty and the beast story. Rob spent many years leading trips through Teen Mania in Central and South America, but ultimately he was led back to his childhood home in Healy, AK. Rob runs the YWAM Denali base and Last Frontier Ministries out of Healy, AK and has developed a deep love for the village of Minto, AK. Rob's passion for discipleship is obvious and infectious.

Check out YWAM Denali:

https://ywam.org/location/ywam-denali/b-2595

Check out Last Frontier Ministries:

Website: https://lastfrontierministries.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lastfrontierministries

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Who are the Moravians? We dive into the origin story and how a few courageous men started a movement that would ripple around the world and into Alaska.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

An Ahtna boy was walking in the woods when he heard singing. He followed the voice which led him to dig up a large chunk of copper out of the ground and the boy became a wealthy man. Copper became a useful resource for the Ahtna people in this area known as Copper Valley. Mining in the first few decades of the 20th century cause villages in this area to pop up and Copperville is one.

The area around Cordova was likely a fish camp for the Eyak people, a mix of Aleut, Athabascan, and Tlingit. In 1790, Spanish Explorer Fidalgo made land claims for Spain in the area and named this spot "Cordova." His claims didn't stick, but the name did. When copper was discovered in the area, a man named Michael Heney built a railroad to serve the exports for the mining operations. He became known as "The man who built Cordova." Today, Cordova is sustained by the fishing and tourism industries and is a really nice place to visit.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

They were the first to introduce Christianity to Alaska. How did they do? They were effective, compassionate, and dedicated to sharing the gospel with Native Alaskans. The Russian fur traders may have had insincere motives in bringing in the Russian Orthodox missionaries, but it seems the missionaries themselves came for the sake of the gospel. Many of the Orthodox and Native beliefs were already in alignment and the Native people quickly considered themselves Russian Orthodox. Father Herman is the most famous of the Bishops known as a defender of native people and with a simple humility that laid the foundation for the early years of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Alaska. Many changes happened when the United States purchased Alaska and the Protestants moved in which is critical for understanding the history of the church in Alaska.

I also review the theological distinctions of the Eastern Orthodox Church as compared to the Catholic Church in it's historical context.

Alaska has quite the mixed bag of denominations and good place to start is to understand them. Today, we seek to understand the Russian/Eastern Orthodox Church in Alaska!

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

EPISODE 100! I didn't realize it was 100 until after I finished recording this. Thank you everyone who has followed the show for 100 episodes!

The area of Cooper Landing was home to the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, or Dena'ina Indians in the pre-contact era. Some of their semi-subterranean dwellings are still visible in the area. A Russian Engineer found a bit of gold in the area, not a big find, but just enough to spark gold prospectors to seek riches later on which is the reason for Cooper Landing existing today. The village is a cozy nook in the woods along the river. It's nostalgia and natural beauty make it a desireable place to visit.

Copper Center is most known for the nearby Kennecott Mines where one of the largest copper deposits in the world was discovered in 1900. However, the native people who dwelt here before knew about this deposit, and they included copper in their vast trade network with tribes across Alaska. The Copper Center Lodge was the centerpiece of Copper Center since the late 1800s and considered "one of the last of it's kind" until it burned down in 2012. Vince Joy, the founder of Central Alaska Mission (later became SEND North), started his work in Copper Center founding the "Chapel on the Hill," a church building that's still there today.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Get a broad overview of the Episcopal Church in Alaska. This is the first of a series on the denominations of Alaska so we can get to know our state one denomination at a time. A brief history and distinct characteristics of the Episcopal Church are identified in this episode.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Coldfoot got it's name from gold prospectors traveling their way up the tundra and got "cold feet" and turned around. It became a lively stop for gold miners, but as soon as the gold dried up, so did the town. It was abandoned until the Alaska Pipeline construction project in the 1970s made Coldfoot a base of operations. Today, Coldfoot functions as a truck stop for travelers heading north along the Dalton Highway.

College is host the the University of Alaska at Fairbanks which has shaped what the town of College has become today. UAF is considered one of the premier institutions for Arctic studies as they host a wide range of scientific studies of the Arctic including dinosaur bone digs in Alaska!

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield