Hey Everyone! Brady here. It is now Wednesday night here in Sutton. With things winding down for the night I can say that we are a tired but a happy team. It’s interesting when you sit down and think about what makes a good team. The easiest example to think of is a football team. You need players for offense, defense and special teams. If a Linebacker tries to player receiver they might be successful for a short period of time they will never be as successful as they could be player the position their given skill-set fits. My personal favorite example of this is watching a Kicker try to run down the field and make the tackle. Let’s be honest, 98% of the time this is going to end in complete humiliation or injury. Gold star for courage though! With both of these examples the team as a whole suffers. However, if every player stays true to their assignments the team will have the best chance to succeed. That’s what wins games.

Now to make the transition from sports to our team on the ground in Alaska. One on the most exciting things to me on this trip thus far is watching the students start gravitating to things they are good at. They are starting to realize that each one of us has a specific skill set that God has given us that we bring to our team’s table. Some are great being in front of a large group while some do better in small groups. Some students can walk right up to someone new and connect instantly while some might need the whole week to connect with one student. Some are good at building fires while some are good at acting out random skits on the fly. Each student is on this trip and has a role to fill. It’s amazing to sit here and say this team of middle school students get that. This understanding hasn’t come easily at all times but they truly get it!

Thanks for listening to me ramble a bit. Wednesday has been a great day. We had the privilege of hearing about native Alaskan culture from a wonder lady named Pat (I couldn’t tell you her real name if I tried so I apologize for that). After that we packed up lunch and picked up local students from a program that the Sutton Library puts on and we headed to Victory Bible Camp tucked up in the mountains on a beautiful lake. You guessed it, that’s where students (some crazy leaders as well, yes I do group myself in with the crazy ones because I swam too) braved the chilled waters of the mountain lake while occasionally sliding down an Iceberg….that’s right an ICEBERG! Well okay, it was inflatable but when we tell the stories of sliding down an iceberg in Alaska we’ll conveniently forget to mention that part. Then to end the night we hit up the local DQ and then had a wonderful campfire to warm us up from our day.

Thanks for reading! Things are well here and much love is sent back home. We miss you all but that goes without saying. A huge thank you to all who wrote letters to us!!! They have been a shot in the arm some days when it’s need the most. Now check out a few pictures below. I will warn you, the picture of the lake doesn’t show the true beauty of this place…. not even close.

– Brady Parks