Well, it’s been two and a half weeks now since we officially arrived in Alaska, and for me, Kenny, about a week and a half at work. So far, work has been amazing. A lot of what I have been doing is training. Training in the parts room and inventory. Learning how the billing, ordering, customer service and flight department works. Obviously I have a bunch to still learn, but I am learning fast I do believe. I am getting a little ahead of myself, let’s back up a bit and talk about our journey up.
Packing up the house was definitely a lesson in patience for me. Not to mention how it exposes a little of the hoarding tendencies that I didn’t know I had. What possesses me to keep small bits of cutoff wood from various projects I will never be able to tell. Once the house was packed into the moving truck, and we pull
ed out of the driveway, things started to get real for us. Not sure if it really was sinking in until we crossed the boarder into Canada.
The drive through the ALCAN (Alaskan/Canadian highway) was, for the most part, beautiful. The mountains and green forests along the way will hypnotize you with how vast and gorgeous they are. At times on the road you can forget that you are on the same planet as big cities and busy highways. You tend to lose yourself in God’s creation and marvel at how big our God is. To be honest, you will realize how small you actually are in comparison to driving amongst the shadows of giants.
The ALCAN itself is not the most fun road to travel with a 26 foot long moving truck with a trailer hauling a Jeep. There were ti
mes going up the mountains where the truck and trailer combo would only go about 20 MPH. Good thing the ALCAN is not a very busy highway and the traffic, if you can call it that, was fairly light. So, no honking, upset travelers behind me (not too often at least). Half of this World War II era built highway is not even paved. Gravel and pot holes littered almost the entire road, including the parts that did happen to have asphalt improvements. Jocelyn would travel ahead of our small caravan and radio back to us about upcoming holes or dips that might adversely affect the truck. We were fortunate enough to have a friend from MARC come to the lower 48 and travel back with us through Canada. Collier Hard and his mother, Candice, drove their truck towing a trailer of their own with some equipment and tools for MARC. We were very happy to have them along. Collier happens to be a very good mechanic and has traveled the ALCAN before. So, having the wisdom that he brings to the trip along was a blessing.
Mishaps along the way, unfortunately, did happen. For us, the Hancocks, we had a couple of flat tires on the U-haul trailer, but were very fortunate that both times happened to be while we were in a town capable of handlin
g such incidences. It could have happened while we were in the middle of nowhere. God’s blessing was on us when those things happened. U-haul was great to work with and had the tires fixed pretty fast. As for the Hard crew, they had a few more issues. An out of balance drive shaft on their truck put us behind by a few hours during one day of our journey, but once again, that was taken care of while we were in a place with amazing people and a great parts store who had what we needed. Time was the only thing we actually lost and in the grand scheme of things, we did not mind so much. It gave us longer to enjoy more of the beauty that surrounded us.
One evening along the way we were able to camp near a natural wonder in Canada, The Laird Hot Springs. We camped that night and in the morning the following day we ventured across the road to the Springs. What a wonderful escape from the road weariness! To sit in the springs after 4 days of fairly hard traveling, as far as the roads go, was an awesome reprieve. You don’t really know how tired you are until you get a chance to relax in a natural hot spring next to large mountains. I did not want to leave, but alas, Alaska was calling. Our next few days of travel was interesting to say the least. Tryin
g to book hotel rooms while on a road where there is no cell service is challenging. Especially during the time of year when most people who travel the ALCAN are heading back to the lower 48 and returning home. Most cabins and rooms to rent along the ALCAN only have about 10 to 20 rooms. And there aren’t many locations. So, most places were booked solid. Once
again, God’s grace and mercy on us was evident in that we did find places to stay. Most of the time it was the last room on the list and we were able to score it for a decent price. One place that we did find, but ended up NOT staying, was infested with bed bugs. Once again, we did NOT stay! We ended up driving another hour and a half to the next town and were blessed with an amazing room for all 6 of us. We were very thankful to have a nice bed for that evening, although after the previous experience none of us could stop itching (insert video clip of the heebee jeebies).
Six days after the beginning of our journey we arrived at the US boarder into Alaska and I have never been to relieved to be back on US soil. A small but powerful moment for Jocelyn and I, was when we crossed over into Alaska, Collier called across the radio and said, “Welcome Home.” That small statement meant the world to us in that moment. This journey that God has had us on for the last 5 years, was coming to fruition and the story of our mission commitment is just at its beginning.
As said earlier, I am in a season of learning my role in the mission at MARC. I have been working with other fantastic missionaries here in the parts and flight departments. As some of you can imagine, airplanes have a lot of parts. Our parts room at MARC is well stocked with the most common parts that aviators use to repair airplanes. That equates to us having a bunch of parts. Bits and pieces for airplanes that consist from bigger parts like tubes and tires, down to small parts like rivets, screws, bolts and
nuts. Not to mention parts for the electrical components of planes as well. I have been greatly impressed with the inventory that we carry and am excited to learn all I can from the wealth of knowledge that exists here at MARC.
In due time, I will transition into flight instruction once I have been brought up to standardization and have been trained on how to teach here in mountainous terrain. It is a different animal compared to Florida and the flatland of Minnesota. There are times where it feels as if the mountains are sucking your plane in. This is where the training and much needed instruction for me comes into play. MARC becomes a very busy place during the summer months.
As most of you know, if you have been following along with us, MARC during the summer uses the airplane as kind of a school bus of transport kids to and from kids camps throughout the state. Without the use of air travel, none of the interior villages would be able to get kids to camps to hear a Gospel message. MARC gladly, and with God’s continued blessing, safely and happily fly’s these kids at no cost to th
em. So, as you can imagine, the planes, which only carry 8 at a time, are running every week and for long hours a day. This summer MARC was able to transport more than 350 kids to and from various camps around Alaska.
Another thing MARC also does is host a grill day for the community of Soldotna (where we live), every Friday during the summer. We open up the hangar and put out tables and chairs and invite the community to come and have a meal with us. As an MARC missionary, we cook and serve food to the people in our community. This past summer MARC cooked and served more than 100 people every Friday fro
m May to August.
During the winter months our mission turns more to supply runs to the missionaries and pastors serving in the interior, who for the most part are not just pastors but also have to be a “jack of all trades,” kind of person. Most of those serving in the western and interior parts of Alaska, who are cut off from the rest of civilization so to speak, have to do almost all of the repairs to where they live and to the church that exists there. One example of this is the pastor in the town of McGrath, Alaska, who is currently in the middle of re-plumbing the church and pastoral house for a new boiler unit. I was able to go to our local plumbing store, in Soldotna, with another MARC staff member
and procure the plumbing supplies and fittings this pastor needed to install the new boiler unit. This pastor is having to do all the labor on his own. But, thankfully we have skilled members of MARC who are helping with this task. The town of McGrath is about an hours flight away from MARC to the northwest. There are many stories like this one that we at MARC are blessed to be a part of and are able to help with so that we can be a blessing to those we serve.
Currently at MARC, we have the most staff families that has ever existed in our history. In the last 3 years we have added 6 new families, and there will be one more family joining us in 2024. This will bring our current staff up to 20 families. This is very exiting news for MARC. With the addition of staff, and their families, MARC can accomplish more in the mission field
without having to sacrifice too many of the services to the local community when we send skilled labor missionaries into the bush. We can do more “Boots on the ground” style mission work to help those who are preaching the gospel to those in the interior.
We are so thankful, and humbled, at all the prayers and support we have received from all of you. I know that I have said this many time, but it is true to this day, that we could not have made it this far without each and every one of you. Even now, we cannot continue to do this mission without your help.
PRAYER REQUESTS, NEEDS, & PRAISES!!!
Renting long term in not financially sustainable in Alaska so we are searching for a home to purchase. Pray we find one that fits our family's need and at the right price.
We would love to have you and others partner with our family financially. We are currently at 90% of our monthly need for living in Alaska. You can find out more by clicking the “MARC: Hancock Family” button above.
Pray that Keira and Layla make good friends and grow in their faith.
Pray for safety in flight for all of our MARC pilots and crew.
Pray for the communities we are serving and the Gospel to be heard by open hearts.
We have found a church. The girls have made friends and we are getting plugged in to serve.
