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Pastor Responds to 'Sub-Zero' Alaskan Call
By Craig Pinley
WHITE MOUNTAIN, AK (November 5, 2003) - A small Alaskan Covenant congregation
is thankful that one pastor heeded the call to the sub-zero climate of
northern Alaska.
Pastor James Fryer and his wife, Damaris, have settled into their new
parsonage at the Evangelical Covenant Church of White Mountain, Alaska,
after a harrowing experience involving one of their children this
summer. They have energized the congregation through a Wednesday night
prayer service, a teenage youth group meeting on Tuesday nights and a
Sunday afternoon children's Sunday school, among other things. The
church was officially incorporated in 1975, but was considered a mission
church in Alaska many years before.
Fryer was first contacted about the White Mountain senior pastor
position by Rodney Sawyer, Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska (ECCAK)
field director. Fryer has raised some funds, the Evangelical Covenant
Church (ECC) is helping to pay insurance costs and the local church has
raised funds to help the Fryers locate in White Mountain. For now, the
Fryers are grateful for their new congregation of 20 people and a God
who has provided for them most visibly during a stressful past few months.
"It's a very remote area, so it's not the most compelling place (for
some), but to me it was very exciting," said Fryer about his new
ministry. "I've had a heart for missions for a long time and I can be a
bit of a missionary and a pastor at the same time. We feel so welcome.
People are hungry for the scriptures and the church has given me a lot
of leeway (to do ministry). It has probably been the most difficult time
of our life and God has led our lives and answered our prayers. He is in
control of things and He hasn't abandoned us."
White Mountain is a predominantly Native American village of 220 people
located in a Western Alaska mountain area near the Bering Sea.
Geographically, it is closer to the North Pole and Russia than to a
metropolitan North American city - an important factor if the Fryers
were planning a pre-Christmas shopping trip to buy toys for their two
children. Actually, the Fryers (including Sophia and Joshua) will most
likely do their
Christmas shopping via the Internet because their village, like many
others, is only accessible by airplane. The village relies primarily on
subsistence living, especially fishing and hunting. White Mountain Mayor
Tom Gray has stated that White Mountain has not had a full-time pastor
in 16 years, said Sawyer.
Sawyer had openings for six ECCAK Covenant churches a year ago. "The
pool of pastors who feel called to Western Alaska was pretty minimal,"
he noted. One of that limited pool, however, was Fryer, who had earned
his Master of Divinity degree and was considering the mission field.
Following a phone interview, the Fryers agreed to meet with Sawyer and
his wife, Nancy, at the Fryer residence in Sheridan, Wyoming. The
meetings went well and the Fryers accepted the call to White Mountain
last spring after they visited the village for a candidating weekend.
"When you told most of them (potential candidates) of the Western Alaska
experience - very isolated, cold winters, a different culture - the list
narrowed," Sawyer recalled. He decided to change his strategy, telling
potential candidates instead "that if you were going to come to Western
Alaska it would take a strong call. There were some that it didn't even
phase and James (Fryer) was among them."
To be sure, there will be many struggles in White Mountain. But the
struggles the Fryers faced as they left Wyoming have provided a sense of
perspective. James and Damaris
were readying for their move to Alaska when they took their
four-year-old daughter, Sophia, for a routine medical checkup. Doctors
discovered a hole in Sophia's heart and told the parents they would have
to act quickly to avoid further complications. Sophia underwent
open-heart surgery in Los Angeles, near other family members, and the
Fryers headed to White Mountain in late August. They arrived in time to
minister to another family whose child needed open-heart surgery in
early September.
"When your daughter is on the waiting table for surgery you feel so
helpless," said Fryer. "It seemed nothing else mattered. Our house was
empty - all of our stuff was being sent to White Mountain - and God
exercised His providence over the course of months so
that we had to stand back and say, 'We believe God is in control.' And
as we submit to His sovereign guidance, He sets our plans even as we set
our plans."
Since arriving, the Fryers have learned a lot about the village and the
Covenant church, which has had a presence there for many years. Longtime
Covenant missionaries Ralph P. Hanson and Paul B.F. Carlson built a
church there in 1936 as part of a ministry effort that included a Sunday
school of 130. The village has had a ministry for children since the 1920s.
The Alaskan Native Service built an industrial boarding school at White
Mountain in 1928 and a children's home was opened in 1954 and operated
for many years with help from Covenanters Julius and Louise Matson, A.V.
and Dorothy Brodin, and Kenneth
Anderson, according to ECCAK records. The Fryers will fit in well given
that tradition - James has worked with troubled youth and Damaris worked
as a social worker - and they can help the village deal with teen
suicide and alcoholism, two issues that are prevalent
in the region.
Fryer has already been impressed by the faithfulness of the core group
at the church. Bee Jay Gray, Jack Brown, Ed Silcox, Lois McManus and
Peter Buck are among those who have continued to carry the message of
faith in Jesus Christ to others in the village. Peter
Egelak (an interpreter), Fank Moses, (song leader) and Lucy Lincoln
(Dorcas leader) are other leaders who have provided leadership both
inside and outside of the church.
White Mountain has welcomed the Fryers in a special way, too. A young
man from the village killed a moose for the family and others have given
goose and halibut, ensuring that the Fryers will have plenty of meat for
the winter. As for other staple foods, the
Fryers will be ordering out - via the Internet - and picking it up at
the post office via airmail.
"We're going to enjoy this time no matter how cold it gets," James Fryer
said as he compared California weather this summer with the regularly
sub-zero temperatures in White Mountain. I say, 'Bring it on.' The Lord
has blessed us. I'm so glad to have an agape wife to share ministry
with. And the children have adjusted - they seem excited to be here.
"We're excited to be part of this church," Fryer continued. "People
prayed together and sang together, even when they didn't have a pastor.
A faithful few have endured and I thank the Lord for them. I look
forward to worshiping with them and I anticipate great things happening.
I see God's hand upon this village."
To learn more about the work in White Mountain, call Fryer at
907-638-2213 or email the Fryer family at James.n.Damaris@juno.com.
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