Hiking in Alaska

Pam and I are having a great time in Alaska. I'm learning a lot in my internship and she really likes working at the local Starbucks.

During our first week here we had some time to go hiking. On the Sunday before our hike we went to church and I got to talking with some local hikers. I told them I planned on doing a short, 6 mile round tripper to a backcountry campsite. They quickly convinced me to do a 26 mile hike over Crow Pass. I figured it might be our only chance to get into the Alaska backcountry so we could give it a shot.

Some of the trail highlights included seeing a mother and baby mountain goat, viewing a massive glacier from Crow Pass and camping at a beautiful site near Eagle River. The tough parts of the hike came when we had to traverse a steep snowy patch in the trail (photo 12) and a harrowing ford of Eagle River. The river was waist high, freezing cold and about 150 feet wide. It was exciting, but very tiring.

Click the image below to enjoy some pictures of our hike!

American Idol

Last night I was flipping through the channels and came across "In Touch" with Charles Stanley. I like Stanley's preaching so I checked it out, only to find that the pulpit was occupied by David Barton. The usual backdrop behind the preacher (a map of the world) was covered by an enormous American flag.

In my worship class we had a heated discussion about this very topic. Should an American flag be raised at the front of church? Should we hold a special service on 4th of July weekend in honor of our nation? How much patriotism should we show during worship?

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the United States. I know and love our history and I'm proud to be an American. That being said, I am offended that a 40 foot-long American flag covered the map of the world at First Baptist Church. Doesn't the Bible constantly warn against pride and trusting in earthly power? Shouldn't we, as Christians, consider our American citizenship less important than our identity in Christ?

The typical rebuttal to my outrage would tell me to listen to David Barton's words. He "preached" (and I use the term loosely) about how the United States was founded by Christian men who had a goal to create a Christian nation. He said we need to protect our Christian heritage by electing Christian people "whether it's the local dog-catcher or the President." I'm not against electing Christian people, but there is an implication that if only the United States could have a really Christian President then we would be ok. These people (although they would never admit it) are all about trusting our power as a nation and our human leadership over the leadership of Christ over our personal lives. It's far too easy to project our national problems onto a corrupt political system instead of taking personal responsibility for things like racism, corruption, environmental concerns or social injustice.

All this leads to my distaste of promoting patriotism during worship services. When the focus of an entire Sunday morning service is on the United States, we are worshiping something, and it's not God. That makes God angry, so it should make Christians angry too.

To The Last Frontier!

Today Pam and I will leave on our journey to Alaska. We'll be in Naperville for a couple days with my family and then we fly out to Anchorage on the evening of July 4. We will return from our trip on August 14.

We plan to do some sightseeing the first week we're in Alaska because my internship doesn't actually start until July 9. The event I most look forward to is a very quick backpacking trip into the Chugach State Forest. I'll take my camera and post some pics to this blog.

In case I haven't told you yet, I'll be an intern at Trinity Christian Reformed Church in Anchorage for six weeks. They want to get more involved with the surrounding immigrant and Native American communities so I'll be planning and implementing some strategies that would make this happen. I'll also be helping with VBS and their youth program. Meanwhile, will work at Starbucks, as well as lending a hand with church stuff when she gets the chance.

We have been excited about the internship since I was assigned to it in March so we're ready to get started!

A Baptist Who Loves Calvin?

Check out what Pastor John Piper has to say about the impact and beliefs of John Calvin.