We arrived!

It feels good to have arrived at our destination.  One problem   ---   we cannot get into our apartment yet.  The manager did not understand when we were planning to arrive, so our apartment will be available in a few days.  She does, however, have a sister who has a bed and breakfast and we are staying there for free.  But we don't get the breakfast with our free stay.  We saw our apartment but it is not ready yet.

We arrived in Fairbanks in time to attend a Bible study with a small Mennonite group.  Small in this case means that we were first timers at the gathering and there was another couple that was new this time and we four were about half of the group.  The group meets twice per month.

We went to a farmers' market this afternoon.  There were perhaps fifty vendors. We did not see any of the huge cabbages but there were very big radishes and kohlrabies.

Until this afternoon the sky here was overcast with smoke from forest fires.  We saw some smoke yesterday but then only saw smoke rising from individual fires.  Today the smoke filled the sky and we could not discern where the smoke was coming from, it was just here.

This picture shows burned trees on the hillside.

This is the Alaska Pipeline east of Fairbanks about 70 miles where it is beside the Alaska Highway.

This shows smoke at ground level from forest fires.  The near hill on the left was perhaps a tenth of a mile away and the distant hill was about a half mile.  There were places when the smoke was thick enough that it was somewhat hard to see to drive, but not dangerous.  The dry weather here has given rise to several wild fires around Fairbanks.  One woman who is often at the church meeting was not there today because she works as a forest fire fighter.

I have not heard how the fires around here started.  I would suppose some were of natural causes and others were started by people.  People do mess up.  Sometimes we do our best and things don't work as we had hoped because we are far from perfect.  There is the law of unintended results.  As we work for certain good things sometimes other unforeseen bad consequences result.  As long as we are people on the earth before going to heaven this will be common.  God did not give us the ability to see into the future.  We cannot know all the results of our good efforts.  That is good.  God was wise when He did not allow us to see into the future.  We rejoice that the problems of the past are behind us.  We cope with current problems by God's grace and the love and help of our friends.  But how would we deal with knowing all the problems of tomorrow and next week and next month and next year? That would be too much.  We assume problems will probably happen, but are spared any details.  We can, however, know that things will eventually turn out well for all who trust God.

Thanks for your interest in our travels.  I will try to have daily blogs for a week or so and then have a blog weekly.

I pray God will bless each of you abundantly.  May God especially bless those of you who believe there is no God.  May God's love so overwhelm you that you have no choice but to realize that God is behind all the blessings you receive.

Good bye for now.

Larry (and Elva)