Cohoe, Alaska sits in a region used for seasonal fishing and hunting by pre-contact Dena'ina people until a wave of Scandanavians arrived in the 1800s. Victor Holms from Finland is credited with building the first cabin on the site, a cabin you can still visit today.

Cold Bay is surrounded by interesting archeological sites that give us hints about the people who lived there long before the Russians arrived. When WWII hit Alaska, Cold Bay became the site of Fort Randall, an air base and the longest runway in Alaska at the time. After the war, the base shut down, but a small community and the long runway remains being used as a refueling station for flights heading out to the Aleutian Island Chain.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

After many months of being away, I am dusting off my microphone. Brief updates, synopsis of the Typhoon Halong disaster in Western Alaska, and winter podcast plans.

Disaster Relief Links:

Job and Bethany Hale in Napakiak:

www.forgetmenot-ministries.com 

Arctic Barnabas Ministries-- type "Aviation Fuel Up" to donate for Aviation Fuel:

https://tinyurl.com/fuelabm2025

To support Send North's Western response please include "Western Alaska Flooding" in the gift notes section:https://www.send.org/give/projects/crisis-response-fund

Click to donate to the maintenance projects on my ministry plane-select "Billy and Erika Tjernlund" in the menu.

www.cmcmissions.org/donate

SEND North has a long history in Alaska and Canada going back to 1936 when visionary Vincent Joy founded it as Central Alaska Missions and eventually became SEND. Jim Stamberg is the current area director, and Barry Rempel is the former area director, and together we discussed the origins of SEND North, how it changed over the years, and many of the current issues faced today.

Is Alaska reached, unreached, or misreached? How do you work in unity with so many denominations working in one state? How does the complex history of missions in Alaska affect efforts today? What should church look like in a village? What are the keys to longevity in village living? Do you need to know how to operate a chainsaw and hunt game to serve here?

Check out the SEND website at:

Send.org

Watch the Project Caribou video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLW0A_gUSGE

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

A new one-year Bible school program is launching this Fall at Northstar Bible Camp near Willow, AK. Father-son duo Mark and Luke share their passion to see young Christians gain a solid foundation of faith in the most beautiful place in the world. The program will be 28 classes on New and Old Testament Surveys, Introduction to the Bible, Spiritual Disciplines, Creation Science, Systematic Theology, Apologetics, Global Missions, and Practical Christian Living. Mark and Luke are passionate about moving from head to heart in this Academic year of Bible School in Alaska.

Check out and apply on their website:

nsbs.life

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Clark's Point is located on a spit. What's a spit? I'll tell ya. Named after John Clark who managed a large cannery which today is a huge abandoned facility. Lake Clark is also named after him. Clark's Point is constantly threatened by erosion and was even moved to higher grown in the 1980s. Like many villages, the Russian Orthodox Church was the first church to have a presence in the area, but today, St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic Church is the prominent church in the village.

Coffman Cove is nestled on Prince of Wales Island on the panhandle of Alaska. It's unclear whether it is named after Navy man Lt Dewitt Coffman or logging man Robert F. Coffman. Who knows? There's some interesting archeology at Coffman Cove and the largest mapped cave in Alaska!

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Circle Hot Springs was a booming resort until it shut down in 2002. Now the resort is abandoned but apparently a few people still live there.

Clam Gulch sits on a tall bluff along the Kenai Pininnsula where clamming enthusiasts reduced the population of clams so much that it had to be shut down to save the clams. Today, Clam Gulch may be a worthy stop on your drive to Homer on the Sterling Highway for some mountain and volcano views across the water.

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Chuloonawick is an abandonded Yup'ik fish camp and there's nothing there! So why is it a registered village? because there's a desire to preserve the heritage of the native people in any way they can.

Circle is a gold rush town making it's hey-day in the late 19th century. When the gold rush simmered down the town declined to just 91 residents today mostly of Athabascan native people. Why is it called Circle? because they thought it was on the Arctic Circle, but they were off by 50 miles!

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Chitina was originally a thriving Athabascan village until the outside world brought in disease and conflict and the population was decimated. It later became the commerical center for the famous Kennecott Mines. Since the mines closed in 1938, the village has become more of a historical landmark but is still home to over 100 residents.

Chuathbaluk was orignally a native summer fish camp and became what it is today when a man name Sam Philips settled there and many followed after him. The Russian Orthodox church played a key role in the village culture and history.

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TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

Chiniak is located on a little corner on the beautiful Kodiak Island. It may be small, but has had national attention that made it's way to the White House. It hosts a SuperDARN, a radar system that studies phenomena in our atmosphere, one of 35 in the world. Early explorers noticed this spot as a native village, but today it's almost all white. Not sure what happened there.

Chistochina is on the Tok Cutoff Highway and at the confluence of the Chistochina and Copper Rivers. It was originally an Ahtna Athabascan fish camp, then a stop for weary travelers seeking gold, and finally a small village of just 60 residents. We discuss the naming of the nearby Mount Stanford which in the Ahtna Athabaskan named "Kelt'aeni" means "The one who controls the weather" and I compare Athabaskan spirituality to the biblical worldview, just for fun.

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield

There are three Chigniks in Alaska all within a few miles from each other. They are, however, three distinct villages: Chignik, Chignik Lagoon, and Chignik Lake. This area was originally occupied by Kanaigmuit Ekimos and there are some archeological remains. When the Russians arrived they intermarried with the Kanaigmuit and became known as Koniags and half the native population was wiped out by disease.

The only church for these villages is St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and I spent a little time discussing who St. Nicholas was and whether Protestants should be content with only an Orthodox church in a village or should they try to plant a Protestant church.

Contact the show at [email protected]

TYSA Logo was created by Evan Van Kirk

Music was created by Isaac Bedingfield