Churches in Alaska do missions among unreached

I feel like being at the ’end of the earth’, when I am visiting churches in Alaska. It can be up to minus 63 degrees Celcius on a winter day and below zero in June. One wonders who would want to become a missionary among the Tanana people and the Inuits in Alaska, or why not among the Koryaks and Chukchi people on the Russian side of the sea?

Only 80 kilometers separate Alaska and Russia across the Bering Strait – that’s about the same distance as from Helsinki to Tallinn, or from England to France over the Channel. Several of the ethnic groups on both sides of the sea have strong historical ties with each other. Some are even related …

I was invited to preach at a mission conference for young people in North Pole – it sounds really exotic – and also to visit Slavic churches around Alaska. The challenge was to encourage the Christians to pray for the unreached people groups north from the arctic circle. There I heard that American churches had already sent out teams with young people together with the Slavic congregations in Anchorage and Delta Junction to Kotzebue in the northwestern part of the state.

The goal is to reach the Inuit people with the gospel. The Christians want to finish the Great Commission of the Lord, so that the hindrances of Jesu`s second coming could be removed!

As early as 1885, the missionary Sheldon Jackson came to mean a lot for the people groups of Alaska. The minorities risked extinction as ethnic groups, because of poverty, sicknesses and alchoholism. With support from churches and private donors Jackson decided to solve some of the problems by preaching the gospel and transporting reindeer from Russian Far East and Siberia to Alaska.

He wanted to provide the local inhabitants with help for self-support. The reindeer gave milk, meat, skins, and leather to the suffering people. It was extremely important for the survival of the ethnic tribes. Some sources are still stressing the importance of his efforts to save some of the nations in the north.  

Sami people and churches from Sweden and Finland were engaged to teach the Inuit about reindeer husbandry. By the end of the 1800s, Jackson had transported 1 280 reindeer over the sea from Russia and established more than 100 congregations in Alaska and Colorado together with his team. A great success, which is also mentioned at the famous exhibition at the University of Fairbanks, where the history of the peoples of Alaska is documented.

Now the youth from the churches in Alaska want to reach the unreached peoples on both the Russian and American side of Bering Strait.

Vanessa Kulikovskiy is one of the young members who has spent time for missions among the unreached people groups. She is a member of the Word of Life Church in Delta Junction and was 16 when she came to Christ. During the missionary trips to the north and in her home Church she often sings glory to God and plays the piano.

• My first mission trip was to Ukraine with my parents to help the local Church in camp ministry. When I saw how dedicated the people in Ukraine were, I wanted to do the same and I got a desire to give more time for the Lord.

• I studied at a Bible school in Sacramento, California for three months. It changed my way of thinking. Then I understood that you do not need to travel to Africa or Asia to work for missions. Even though I did not want to leave California, I moved to Alaska with my parents.. Later on I came to the conclusion that God leads to every stop on the way of life, Vanessa continues.

• The Lord called me to a mission trip to Kotzebue in northwestern part of Alaska, 526 miles and 1,5 hours flight from my hometown, Vanessa finishes.

Kotzebue has about 3000 inhabitants. Many of them are Inuits. They are getting their resources for their living by fishing and herding caribou which is closely related to reindeer. Inuit people live in Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Greenland. Globaly there are approximately 150 000 Inuits; 65 000 in Canada, 35 000 in Alaska, 50 000 in Greenland and a smaller population in Siberia.  

In Kotzebue there is a mission house, where groups can stay and use Friends Church for evangelical services. The prayer house is called White Church on a Hill, which the youths from Delta and Anchorage have used for concerts and outreaches. Usualy missionaries and teams are working up to four months at a time.

Vanessa is planning to travel back again with other young people this year for the mission in Kotzebue. Even though there have been obstacles and real needs of spiritual warfare, healings and miracles have happened. It gives hope for the future. The people need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ!

The war in Ukraine has not been able to prevent the wind of revival in the Slavic churches of United States. Congregations have already been established among some of the minority groups, even in Alaska. God´s word reaches the ends of the earth and the prophecies of the Scriptures are becoming fulfilled.

Please continue to pray for this important work, so that the message of the Kingdom can be spread out even over the Bering Strait to the forgotten people groups  of Russia. Prayer is changing the world dramatically! The actions have already started in Alaska – by Slavic and English speaking churches and their younger generation. It can become the key to a spiritual brake through in the arctic areas.

Rauli Lehtonen, Jeus4Eurasia