Traced back to you.

A melody, lyrics and stop motion video from Greg Laswell that your Friday cannot go without.

Fashion Gone Fishing.

It’s true.  I have decided to trade a summer of wedges for a summer of waders.  On June 7th, with a one way ticket, I will be flying on an Alaska airline flight, taking full advantage of the original destination of this particular airline, and actually landing in Anchorage, Alaska.  Approximately 186 miles south of Anchorage and a puddle jumper away, is the Ninilchik Riverfront Lodge.  This is where you will find me slinging halibut, splitting salmon, and guarding against grizzlies.  Okay, I may have watched one too many episodes of The Deadliest Catch but I figured it was only appropriate given my summer whereabouts.

But really.  

June 7th is the day that one of my best friend’s Tamica (photo above from our road trip to the Tetons), and I set off to Ninilchik, Alaska for the summer.  Being in a season of life with time and resources to share, we were made aware of a number of volunteer needs a particular fishing camp had.  Following weeks of prayer,  conversation, and many God winks, it became rather evident that God was asking both of us (despite feeling rather un - qualified), to go.

It’s not rescuing girls from sex trafficking in Thailand, nor building water wells in Kenya, and it’s even wildly surprising considering that Tamica and I met in Los Angeles and have a background in the fashion industry, but it’s the Kingdom work that we believe God is beckoning us to join Him in right now.  The reminder that He calls the un - qualified.  That He relishes in willing hearts that choose to say yes even when the calling appears to be most radical (or radically strange)! (But I will share more of Tamica and I’s story in a blog post to come).

In addition to delighting the taste buds and experience of all the campers and volunteers through extraordinary food service and hospitality, we will be developing and hosting a weekly women’s Bible study for both those attending the camp and those a part of the local community.  We will be responsible for sharing the stories of the camp by writing, photographing, and overseeing the camp’s blog throughout the summer.

But even despite outlining the details of our volunteer responsibilities, God always seems to have a few more things up His sleeve.  The ones that come unannounced.  This being noted, Tamica and I have joyfully resolved to live solely by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and very much look forward to building relationships, serving, encouraging, and pouring out His love in everything we put our hands to.  And yes, this may include the wrangling of a Nemo weighing 120+ pounds (okay, well Nemo isn’t really a halibut, but you’re following). ;)

We know that we will most likely get eaten alive by mosquitoes.  We know that we may come back and intimidate some men with our newly developed ability to chop wood and gut fish - thus actually probably lessening our chances of finding a husband.  We know that we run the risk of looking like two blondes (no offense) on multiple occasions.  We know that we may try to make friends and take pictures with the moose before learning that they charge you like a car racing down the highway and are responsible for more deaths than the grizzlies (but honestly, we handled the bison in the Tetons, so really, what's there to fear?).  We know that we may go stir crazy and spend hours carving our names in the bark of the trees (let us know if you would like us to carve your name as well).  We know that when the sky lights up, it’s not a UFO flashing its high beams at us, but rather is the Northern Lights. 

But.  We also know this from Isaiah 55:8.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."  

And we know that for this summer, it means Alaska.

Whelp, there’s only one thing left to do (besides attempt to challenge this learning curve before us) - Bering Sea fishing licenses, here we come! :)

3 P.S’s.

1. We are taking all suggestions and bucket list requests.  A) If there is something you have always wanted to do or see in Alaska, but are not quite sure if you will get the opportunity, we would be happy to attempt/photograph/film it for you. B) Or, if there is something you have already done and seen in Alaska and think we should do the same, we would love to know!

2. With the lack of consistent internet and phone, we welcome, beckon, and encourage you to join us in the act of pen - paling and care packaging.  It would fill us with immense glee should we so happen to hear from our community back home.

For ease and assurance of delivery, you can send packages via UPS or FedEx to the following address:

Knepper’s Alaska Fish Camp
16560 Brody Street
Ninilchik, AK 99639

For love notes and letters, you can send them to the following address:

Knepper’s Alaska Fish Camp
℅ Chelsey Taylor and/or Tamica Sloan
PO Box 39556
Ninilchik, AK 99639

3. Finally, we ask you to rally around us with prayer.  Prayer for our time in Alaska - that it is fruitful and spirit led.  Safety is also important (especially to our mothers).  Which, please also be praying for them as we can only imagine what they really think about their two daughters moving to Alaska for the summer. ;)

Catalyst

On Friday, I went to a city - wide prayer and worship night for young professionals, called Catalyst.  To see a downtown warehouse full of abandoned hearts for Christ, was slightly overwhelming (in the best possible way).  I'm not going to pretend that it's not sometimes easier for my heart to call So Cal home, but I'm also not going to pretend that standing in that warehouse didn't immediately serve as a reminder to me that Seattle is currently where I am.  And though the gift of being "present" has been void of my life at times, I'm thankful that the worst of me is succeeded by the best of God.  The evening closed with the reading of 1 Corinthians 13 from The Message version.  I had never heard it before but listened with new ears this time around - and for the sake of documenting it, you now also have the opportunity to read it as well.  (Wink, wink). 


¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. 

   Love never gives up. 
   Love cares more for others than for self. 
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. 
   Love doesn't strut, 
   Doesn't have a swelled head, 
   Doesn't force itself on others, 
   Isn't always "me first," 
   Doesn't fly off the handle, 
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, 
   Doesn't revel when others grovel, 
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 
   Puts up with anything, 
   Trusts God always, 
   Always looks for the best, 
   Never looks back, 
   But keeps going to the end.

 ^8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

 ¹¹When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

 ¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

 ¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Seeing the Shore

I recently read a story out of Randy Alcorn's book, Heaven.

In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California.  She'd already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways.  The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her.  Still, she swam for fifteen hours.  When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her she was close and that she could make it.  Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out.  It wasn't until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than a half a mile away.  At a news conference the next day she said, "All I could see was the fog.  I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."


"All I could see was the fog.  I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."

My mind immediately trotted off to Scripture found in Habakkuk 2:1 - 4.

"I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the Lord will say to me and how he will answer my complaint.  Then the Lord said to me, 'Write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else.  But these things I plan won't happen right away.  Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.  If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.  It will not be delayed.'"

Sometimes we can physically climb up into a watchtower, above our circumstances.  Sometimes it's a matter of trusting the One who is guiding us, that the shore is near,  because let's be honest, we don't always have the luxury of seeing the shore.

My favorite part of the story of Habakkuk is that it was only four verses in (or better yet, only four complaints in) that God stopped Habakkuk in verse 5 and said, "Watch and be astounded at what I will do!  For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it."

There's a lot of fog in my life.  A lot of fog in the lives around me.  But as Spring begins to join us, I am reminded that "there is a season for everything."  And the fog will clear.

As you wait. (Or maybe as I wait).

It's taking me quite some time to really flush out all the thoughts for my next blog post, but in an effort to not lose momentum (like I've done many other times when trying to maintain a blog), I'm going to go the easy route (yes, again, and for the sake of holding you over) and share some good beats for this Monday afternoon.  And let's be honest, for you Seattlites, I would be a fool to skip acknowledgment that it's not just a Monday afternoon, but a sunny, windows down kind of Monday here in Seattle.

Whatever kind of inspiration you need to finish your Monday (or maybe even just start your Monday), playing these on repeat should help do the trick.  If nothing else, you know what I'm doing to kickstart some of the things I need to checky check off the to do list.  OR.  Who knows, maybe I'm in denial and playing songs that remind me of summer, over and over again, will convince the sun to stay.  And if we all do it?  Welp, power in numbers baby, power in numbers.

Deep Sea Diver: In Black & White from Sound on the Sound on Vimeo.