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Post Title. 01/16/2012
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An Important Followup to our Christmas Letter... 01/16/2012
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_ New Year’s blessings to you!  This communication has a very specific purpose.  We are in need of folks who will stand with us in prayer, and, if the Lord should so lead, practical assistance!  Having so recently sent out our testimony to God’s faithfulness to this ministry over the course of its existence,  we find ourselves wrestling with sending out this follow-up which may seem to contradict the faith we desired to express in that communication…  We in no way want to imply that God is unable or unwilling to supply, nor that our faith in Him has wavered!  However, we also don’t want to let some kind of false pride keep us from letting you know the situation we find the ministry in and from asking for help from God’s people.  So, with no fear in our hearts that God will fail, and in humility, we relate that the ministry is facing an urgent need financially! 

As this winter was coming on and heating fuel was needed, we arranged for our fuel supplier to make a modest delivery to carry us through the initial weeks of cold weather.  We did this with complete confidence because we had every reason to expect a sizeable amount of funds were going to be arriving before the end of 2011.  God has given us favor with the fuel company repeatedly when faced with similar challenges in the past.  We always honestly share with them the financial picture of the moment and how and when we expect to have the resources to meet our obligation to them. We are thankful that God has poured out such abundant grace and has always enabled us to pay the ministry’s debts!

Here is the current reality…  In mid-December we were notified that the large gift we are due to receive (as part of a trust distribution) would not be coming for some (unspecified) months yet, its release having been delayed in the court system.  With all the severe temperatures so far this winter we have had to go to the fuel company more than once with a request for small deliveries of fuel on “credit”. Now we find ourselves stretched beyond our ability to pay everything due monthly in a timely and God-honoring manner. 

The specifics: We have delayed making the January mortgage payment (there is a 15 day grace period before a penalty charge is added), as we felt that paying the property insurance monthly premium and the power bill were priorities and essential to good stewardship over the property.  We also visited the fuel company and made a very small payment to show good faith and intentions.  They have continued to work with us, graciously awaiting payment of a debt that is mounting…  We have been praying for wisdom in how to steward the funds that do come in, while knowing that it would be disastrous to allow the power to be turned off or the ministry house to freeze up for lack of heat.  We keep the thermostat set very low (52 degrees) and the hot water heater turned off in the big house, except once a week for laundry and whenever we know we are having overnight guests or a group wanting to use it for a gathering . There was a family living in it in part of October and all of November; a large one-night gathering in December; and there will be a ladies’ retreat for a 3-day weekend next month.  We also personally pay a share of the power bill monthly, over and above our normal staff fees, and give love gifts to YWAM Fairbanks as we are able.

The conclusion:  So, we’ve prayed; we’ve given financially ourselves; we’ve stayed open to however God is presently asking us to allow the property to be used; and now we’re sharing the need!  We’ve done all we know to do and humbly acknowledge that God must do the rest!  Thus far, He’s always provided through His people (no money in a mouth of a fish yet, or oil supernaturally filling up the fuel tanks, though we would love to see that happen!) so that is why we share this need.

In asking ourselves why our prayers for these financial needs to be met aren’t yet answered, we were reminded of the story found in Daniel 10 about the warfare that is constantly taking place in the heavenly realms.  In verses 12-13, in particular, we read, “Then he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Daniel.  Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven.  I have come to answer your prayer.  But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way…’”  We know that Satan is seeking to undermine our recent testimony to God’s goodness and to cast doubt on the truthfulness and dependability of His Word, in which He says, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you.  He will be with you; He will neither fail nor abandon you.”  Deuteronomy 31:8

Would you pray with us for the speedy release of the trust distribution that this ministry is blessed to be in line for and desperately needing?!  If God leads you to do more, then His Name be doubly praised!  May He hear and answer your every prayer in His perfect way and time!

In His Grip!

Ken & Barb

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CHRISTMAS 2011 01/16/2012
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___“Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness” Psalm 65:11

In reflecting on the passing of yet another year, a particular phrase kept running through Barb’s mind.  That phrase was “No visible means of support”.  Day after day, the words echoed in her heart, until she had to conclude that it was time to share a particular testimony of God’s goodness to the ministry of YWAM Fairbanks.  A Christmas letter seems the perfect vehicle for doing just that!  So, herein is a bit of a recap of the establishment of and God’s provisions for His ministry, which we will entitle “No Visible Means of Support”…  No, surprise, eh? 

“No Visible Means of Support”...

The Beginning

In the fall of 1997 God brought Ken and Barb Wallace and an outstanding team of ten other committed pioneers from various countries (mostly Scandinavia) to launch the first YWAM ministry in the heart of Alaska.  The story of how God put that group together is too long to relate here.  Suffice to say that He did it in an awesome and “suddenly” fashion after the vision for birthing YWAM in the northernmost state had been carried by Ken and Barb for nearly five years! 

Upon arriving in Fairbanks the first pressing need was for a place to settle into.  Several short-term solutions were opened to the team by ministries in town who had guest housing available.  After a couple of weeks of everyone being crowded together into first one single apartment and then another, more permanent lodging was found in North Pole at Beaver Lake Resort, where we remained until 2002. 

The Beaver Lake apartment complex, owned at that time by David Ainley, a brother in the Lord, was truly an answer to prayer!  As many know, every YWAMer is an unpaid volunteer, dependent upon God and His people for financial support.

On established YWAM “bases” with their own property/housing YWAMers live communally, paying a small staff fee in exchange for their room and board.  Taking into account our staff’s limited financial resources, Mr. Ainley generously made several apartments available to us at a discounted rate for the next few years, thus sowing significantly into the ministry’s beginnings. In addition, we were able to “lease” (for next to nothing) space i.e., classroom, kitchen and dining areas…in first one nearby church and then in the local Assembly of God for conducting all of our “group” activities.  Along the way, others in the community and beyond helped out through financial gifts and donations of needed equipment for getting an office going. Yearly Discipleship schools were held, NIKO was launched, and Native ministry outreach initiated as relationships began to be built in Athabascan communities of the Interior.  God so obviously was giving us favor and moving on hearts to partner with us, prayerfully and materially, in the vision!

A Growing Longing

As blessed and fruitful as we were becoming, still, a desire began building within our hearts to acquire a permanent home base for the ministry.  We began searching all over the Interior and even beyond for the place God might have for  YWAM Alaska (at that time we were calling ourselves that because there were no other YWAM ministries yet in existence in the state.  All glory to God, He has raised up two additional YWAM ministry locations in the intervening years since!)

As Y2K approached we wondered if our desire was possibly just a fleshly one and about to become irrelevant!  So, we simply laid it before the Lord, asking Him to show us clearly what His will was in the matter.  Within days He answered that prayer through the arrival of a substantial and totally unexpected financial gift designated for the purchase of a home for YWAM.  Even more mind-boggling was the fact that we had no idea who may have shared our need with the non-profit foundation which sent it!  For a good number of years afterward, yearly gifts of varying proportions arrived to aid the ministry with property development and outreach.  All these years laterwe still do not know how we were chosen for this ongoing blessing, other than through the hand of our faithful Heavenly Father moving on the hearts of strangers to supply the ministry’s needs!

Since God had confirmed that He wanted us to have a home for YWAM, our search continued for a suitable place.  We jokingly have said that we looked at everything from pits to palaces, willing to settle into whatever He enabled us to purchase.  But, honestly, it was no joke!  We were willing but you should have seen some of those places! J  As the next few years went by, having “put the word out” that we were hoping to find a property we could occupy and use for discipling, we saw additional gifts begin to come, designated for that purpose.  God, through His generous and obedient people, was building a nest egg toward eventual purchase!

Our Father’s House

Finally, in late 2001, with a small, 2-student DTS underway and about six of us still on staff, we heard about a place for sale on 7 acres on Chena Hot Springs Rd., about 15 minutes NE of Fairbanks.  As a few of us were being shown the place we had one of those “Aha!” moments. We just knew this was where God would be planting us!   After consulting with our board regarding what kind of offer to make and then having our offer accepted, we were still a bit shy of the total needed for the down payment.  Once again, our Heavenly Father moved on the heart of a benefactor to give us an interest-free loan for the remainder of the down payment, and He gave us favor with the bank to give us a mortgage.  February 2, 2002 we moved into Our Father’s House!

It’s important for you to know, at this stage of our story, that the ministry’s monthly financial flow was far from substantial and was even somewhat erratic.  If we recall, we had only one regular monthly financial donor and our monthly staff fees coming in.  At the time of purchase, all we were completely sure of is that we would be paying no more out in monthly loan repayments than we had been in rent monthly.  They say “ignorance is bliss”, which was definitely true in our case!  We certainly realized that we were stepping out in faith, but not in how great a measure that was soon going to prove true…

Within six months of taking on a mortgage and the associated financial obligations (insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc.) of owning a property the ministry’s predictable monthly income shrunk drastically as most of our staff chose to depart. But this story isn’t about the relational bumps in the road that brought us to that point.  Instead, it is about God’s unfailing faithfulness through thick and thin!

In the nearly 10 years since we first moved onto the land there have been several DTS’s held; NIKO camps run; numerous visiting ministry teams hosted; a few individuals’ needing short-term housing served; substantial property development undertaken and accomplished; times with and without support staff; times of abasement and times of abounding; times of clarity of purpose and times of confusion and questioning our validity as a ministry; times of hopefulness and times of almost complete despair.  Times when our flesh wanted to quit…

Those of you closest to us are familiar with many of the details.  You know that God seems to have us in a holding pattern or a period of dormancy for which we have wondered if there will ever be an end in sight…  We currently have no staff, no organized programs, little income AND YET…GOD CONTINUES TO SUPPLY!  In fact, GOD HAS SUPPLIED, MONTH BY MONTH, YEAR BY YEAR, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY!  We may wonder why.  For now, we may not see with certainty the plans He has for this place of His.  But, we have come to the conclusion that He does have plans!  Our part is simply to remain good stewards of that which He has entrusted into our care, preserving it and developing it for those He will be bringing forth to carry the ministry into the future.

People, this place is a MIRACLE!  It came into being and it still exists because God, and God alone, is the Provider and Sustainer of that which He birthed!  Programs haven’t done it, and no cleverness for fundraising on our part can be claimed.  All glory, honor, and praise are due only to Him for any good which has come or will come forth from this ministry!  Yes!  He crowns the year with His goodness, as the Scriptures declare!  We had always thought of that as His crowning the conclusion of each year with His goodness…  Now, we wish to proclaim, in this season in which we celebrate His Son’s birth, which opened the way for our salvation, that He crowns each day of each year with His goodness.  His goodness knows no limit!  It has been and continues to be our experience, and we pray that it may be yours, as well, in these increasingly troubled times!  May He truly show Himself be your all in all this Christmas and to the end of your days!

Merry Christmas and many, many blessings for 2012!


 
            
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NIKO Wilderness Leadership Training! 06/26/2011
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NIKO Wilderness Leadership Training will once again be offered this August 2011.  Please visit our Training page and the link there to learn more about this challenging opportunity!

Dates:  August 1-5, 2011
Cost: $200  (A $50 deposit is required to hold your place.  Balance is due before camp commences!)
Where:  Participants will gather on August 1, 2011 at the YWAM Fairbanks facility at 1832 Chena Hot Springs Rd. (Mile 5.1)
Starting Time: To be announced!
For more information, or to request an application please telephone the YWAM Fairbanks office 907-488-2088 and ask for Barb, or send an e-mail to the attention of either:

Robin Rader  
 robinjrader@gmail.com    
Barb Wallace 
 ywam@alaska.net   ywamfairbanks@ywamfairbanks.com    
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Blessing Potlatch 04/13/2009
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On Saturday evening, March 21, 2009 many local Fairbanks ministries came together in the Monroe Catholic High School gym to put on a "Blessing Potlatch" for Athabascan village elders and other leaders in town for an annual business meeting.  Envisioned and spearheaded by Rita Pierce, an Athabascan herself, the idea was to not only provide a great meal, but for each ministry to "adopt" one or more villages  in commitment to pray for the chiefs, elders, and others in leadership.

We, as YWAM had volunteered to make 25 gallons of potato salad for the event!  Below are some of the photos of that "fun" undertaking!

 


Josh Rychener chopping the twenty-five pounds of potatoes into bite-sized pieces!  And still smiling!  What a guy!  Thanks, Josh!  (We DID give him a little help!)


 

 

 

Lois...One of a number of folks recruited to help with the potato salad assembly line!




 

 

 

And Laura--another welcome volunteer!




 

 

Ken covering the potato salad with foil for transport to the potlatch venue.




BLESSING POTLATCH PHOTOS

 

 

 




 

 

Steve Weis, of the local Arctic Fire King's Kids GO Network, and Josh serving moose soup to potlatch guests.


 

 

At potlatches young people traditionally serve all the older folks. Here, Emily Koenig, of Arctic Fire King's Kids, serves Rita Pierce, event organizer.


Potlatch emcee, Pastor Marvin Carroll, (at left) listens as elder, Neal Charlie, of Minto, speaks to the potlatch guests.


 

 

 

 



Left to right: Ida Ross, of Wings of Healing in Ester, AK; Ken Wallace, of YWAM Fairbanks; and another very lovely Athabascan elder.


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Wallace’s Praise & Progress Report – Prayer Requests 04/01/2009
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Spring Greetings from still snowy Fairbanks!!  It’s time once again to bring you up-to-speed on the events in our lives and the recent “goings-on” here at YWAM Fairbanks.  

Many of you know, from an e-mail sent out in mid-January, that we were praying about a trip to see our son and his family in Montana and also praying about trying to acquire a newer vehicle.  We asked for your feedback about the wisdom of our plans and not only got positive feedback but also some wonderful financial help toward travel expenses and the truck purchase. You and the Lord know who you are, and we have asked for His huge blessings in your lives as you’ve allowed yourselves to be used by Him to provide for those needs! 


Before flying out one-way to Montana on January 26th the Lord brought a certain Scripture to our remembrance: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 Looking back, we see that the Lord so faithfully fulfilled this promise for every step of what turned out to be a seven-week journey!!  He is SO good!

 

Grandpa Ken and grandson, Jordan, greatly enjoyed each other.  Two-year olds are very "interactive" and entertaining to be around!




 


 





Grandma Barb and grandson Jordan, in front of the 2002 Ford crewcab God enabled the Wallaces to purchase right there in Montana!


 



 



We enjoyed a heartwarming visit with dear YWAM friends and ministry directors from Lutsk, Ukraine where we took our last DTS students for ministry outreach in 2006.  James and Valya just “happened” to be, not only in Montana, but in Missoula--exactly when we were!


 

 

 

 



In the vehicle ahead, friends, Geoff & Milja Clarke of Mackenzie, lead the way on to Ft. St. John, BC where we all spent a very full weekend attending two ministry events and, quite unexpectedly, networking for future ministry together.  It proved to be one of those God-arranged delays in what is normally a very hasty trip back up the Alaska Highway to home!


 

 

 



 


YWAM Borealis, a work being pioneered by Geoff & Milja Clarke, had a display table at the Ft. St. John Missions Fest.


 





Ken enjoying the fellowship of longtime friend, Geoff Clarke, YWAM Borealis director.



Shown below are two photos taken of presenters at the Rising Above Conference we were privileged to attend in Ft. St. John.  Rather than try to describe the impacting experience we had at this gathering, we would strongly encourage you to visit the ministry's website  for yourself at the following URL: http://www.risingabove.ca

 






 




Howard Jolly, of the Cree Nation and a Rising Above board member and pastor, shares on the topic “Embracing Your Identity”.



 

 

 

 



Supported by a friend, Gary, (seen in the background)  Selma Poulin, an Oji-Cree from Ontario and the VP of Rising Above, shares her heart-rending testimony as a survivor of Residential School abuses.


God was good to also give us a few very special but completely unexpected encounters with old friends while in the Ft. St. John vicinity, as you can see from the photos below...

 

 

 


 





One surprise reunion that awaited us at Rising Above was with an old friend and YWAM pal, Alan Apsassin, also of the Cree Nation.  God can be so FUN!!



 



 






Sidney & Linda, our dear friends who hosted us for one month of our first DTS outreach to Israel back in 2004, now live in Tumbler Ridge, BC--only two hours south of Ft. St. John—another unexpected and blessed, though brief, reunion!



As we reflect back on the last several months we marvel at how God saw to it that we were precisely where we needed to be, over and over, during our seven weeks away from home.  Not only did we get a much-desired, LENGTHY (for a change) visit with our loved ones, but we also were blessed by so many opportunities for re-connecting with ministry friends with whom we share a deep-heart connection and similar ministry goals.  We don’t want to fail to mention an overnight stay in Kamiah, Idaho during which our dear friends, Volkhard and Marianne Graf (YWAM Kamiah directors) and their new staff couple, Mark and Michaela Garrison, ministered refreshment to our battle-weary hearts.  Thank you, dear ones!  It meant so much!

Another significant encounter in Ft. St. John was with Errol Martens of Kelowna, BC, who is the YWAM Greenland director.  We have know Errol for many years and even thought, back in the summer of 1996, that God might have us spend some time serving YWAM Greenland.  Though it was not to be, our hearts are knit with Errol’s to see indigenous peoples of the north rise up and find their destiny in God.  So, it was with great joy and interest that we heard from Errol at the Missions Fest about the success of a ministry called “Pain of the Heart”.  With the assistance of Clair and Clara Schnupp, the Mennonite couple who developed this counseling approach, Errol has seen freedom from long-held bondages arise and take hold in the lives of Greenlanders and others.

That brings us to an opportunity immediately on the horizon for us as YWAM leaders who also want to become more equipped and effective in our ministry to hurting people. 

YWAM NALC

Three weeks from now, on April 20-24, in Estes Park, Colorado we will be attending YWAM’s North American Leadership Conference, as well as our once-yearly gathering of NW District leaders.  While the NALC is held every other year, we have not managed to attend one for a long time now (maybe 8 years?).  The challenges presented by geographical distance, costs of going, and local obligations have seemed to always prohibit our participation, even though we recognized it would be of value. These gatherings are so important for helping us to renew our sense of “connection” with the very vast YWAM world out there.  They provide opportunity for increasingly essential networking, refreshing fellowship, and refiring of both local and worldwide ministry vision.  The smaller gathering of our NW district YWAM co-laborers serves much the same purpose.  We have the chance to get to know one another and our various ministries more intimately and, then, to pray for and encourage each other.

We were excited to learn that Clair and Clara Schnupp (though not YWAMers, themselves), along with Errol Martens, will be at the NALC to present a challenge to YWAM North America to adopt the “Pain of the Heart” training as part of our discipleship efforts. In fact, we had already been talking about trying to get this training for ourselves in the near future!  We are sensing there are new things ahead for us as a couple and for YWAM Fairbanks and want to be ready to step into whatever it is that God has for us yet to do!  Please be praying with us for greater clarity to come as we attend this conference and meet the Schnupps!  We'd also appreciate your prayers for God's financial supply for our NALC fees and upcoming travel expenses!


Thanks for plowing through this lengthy report and for just “being there” to enrich our lives with your friendship and love!




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New Office Construction Continues... 12/18/2008
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Upon the arrival of our new staff family last July, whom we moved into what was then our office, work began on contruction of a new, "trapper-style", log office.


Former office--now serving its original purpose as a two-bedroom staff house for the Rychener family.


A dear Christian brother, Charlie Bohart, brought his backhoe over and donated his time to dig the foundation!


Mission Builder, Mike Stenberg, from California, spent a month with us and was a big help to Ken in getting the foundation ready for the logs.


In August we had the awesome help of a team of adults and teens from a church in Missouri.  They peeled and toted logs, helped lay them up, and helped us get the roof on--all in one week!


Work had halted for a bit as funds ran dry, but a generous love gift to install a heat source put us back on course to continue the finish work on the interior, even as winter set in in earnest!


Lord willing, we look forward to moving into our new office quarters in the springtime!  A huge thanks to all who have contributed their labors, finances, and prayers to get us this far!

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Alaska Village Ministry 12/18/2008
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On December 3rd-5th the Wallaces and the Rycheners traveled to Minto to offer two nights of teaching to the church. Minto, an Athabascan village of several hundred, is located about a three hours drive from Fairbanks. 

YWAM Fairbanks began establishing relationships in Minto as early as 1999, when one of our Norwegian staff members--Arne Jortveit--began living  there part-time.  Arne then spent 4-5 years as a fulltime resident of Minto, occasionally joined for a season by other short-term YWAM staff.  While there Arne's focus was "friendship evangelism" and, in light of such, just served, loved on, prayed with, played with and worked alongside the village residents.  Arne's legacy of love is evident as the Minto folks express how much they miss him and ask when he might return!  (IRS regulations forced Arne to return home to Scandinavia a few years back, where an unexpected blessing awaited...a BRIDE!)


Janelle Rychener poses in front of a pretty sunrise over Minto Flats.


Janelle and Josh Rychener, YWAM Fairbanks staff, teach on godly communication between couples as Minto folks, Josh and Vera Weiser, listen.


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Dedicated to the Lord! 11/13/2008
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Sensing that the ministry of YWAM Fairbanks is emerging from a long season of transistion, we felt it was important to re-dedicate the property to the Lord.  Therefore, four of us spent an hour this afternoon walking the perimeter of the property, praying and making declarations at the northern, eastern, southern, and western points. "Stakes" attached to trees at each corner offered a summary statement from which our prayers and declarations for the future sprang forth.  How awesome it is to know that our words have spiritual power to positively affect the environment in which we live!  Proverbs 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..."


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