Listen to this tribute to Alaska's Lutheran history as I prepare to say goodbye to the wonderful 49th state with deep and unique Lutheran roots!
Listen to this tribute to Alaska's Lutheran history as I prepare to say goodbye to the wonderful 49th state with deep and unique Lutheran roots!
Welcome to the Lutheran History podcast. Today's episode is a special tribute episode. And we'll cover the history of Lutheranism in Alaska. This is based off a previous presentation I had given it several locations for various reasons. A few years ago, I'm deciding to give this as a podcast episode today, as a tribute to my time as a pastor here in Alaska for almost five years now, if you had listened to our last episode, you probably caught the note that my wife Molly and I have accepted our calls to serve a new congregation in Marathon, Wisconsin, or I should say it's new to us. With this, I want to take the opportunity to reflect upon not only my time here in Alaska, but also the history of Lutheranism in this rather special 49 State of the United States. Some of the things today, you may hear will surprise you. Well, this episode follows the pattern of other episodes where I have gone through some personal research and simply presented it. This episode is a little different, because it is not so much done out of primary research, although it does reflect that, but it's more of a synthesis of some of the interesting aspects of history of Lutheranism in Alaska. Now, this is based off of a PowerPoint presentation I had made, as I noted several years ago, therefore there are a lot of rich visual aids, and you will probably get a little bit more out of it if you watch it in video form. Now normally, I give a YouTube video for every podcast that I do, but only those who are at a certain tier on Patreon get to see these videos. But as a special treat for everyone, I am going to release this video as well on YouTube, you will be hearing exactly word for word what I am saying right now, along with the slides where you can see more of the visuals. You can go to the Lutheran History Channel on YouTube, subscribe and watch the videos there. You'll just be listening to this again, in this form if you switch right now, that being said, like to get into the history of Lutheranism in Alaska. As it turns out the year 2017. The year before I arrived here in Alaska, was a rather important year for anniversaries. As most Lutherans no 2017 was well celebrated and commemorated as the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran information, wherever in Alaska 2017 was also another rather special anniversary which was noted in some circles. It was the 150th anniversary of the Purchase of Alaska by the United States from the Russian Empire, which took place in 1867. At the 100th anniversary, a small group of Lutherans decided to put together a little history book concerning uncovering the history of Lutheranism in the state and the prior previous territory of Alaska is one editor noted, as Lutherans, we are proud to have a part in the history of Alaska. And we have been along with the spiritual, moral and ethical contributions that the Christian churches have made in her development, and quote. Now, it is interesting to note that in 1867, there weren't really many Lutherans at all in Alaska, but its history goes back more than a century before that time. In the year 1967. There were four mainline Protestant Lutheran denominations represented in Alaska, the Missouri Synod being one of them, and the other three being the church bodies that would form what is today the ELCA. As we'll see later, in this episode, the Wisconsin Senate would make its presence known just a few years later. Shin which we will consider for today is what form did Lutheranism take in the earliest stages of Alaska's development during this period of Russian Orthodoxy. In fact, Lutheranism was the only recognized and permitted religion apart from Russian Orthodoxy in Alaska during the Russian period, however, we will see that it was not exactly embraced by the higher ups in the system. Now normally, the pattern of the history of Lutheranism, and its spread throughout the United States and North America follows a pattern of Eastern development, heading west. This is the development that most of us history's cover, Colin colonialization on the East Coast, eventual establishment of the independent United States and the westward expansion that took place throughout most of the 1800s. However, with Alaska, the story is the exact opposite. The Russian explorers first arrived in the 1700s on the west coast of Alaska, and then headed east. This was following the development of several centuries. of Russian expanse expansion through Siberia eastward towards the Pacific Ocean. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Russian Empire had expanded largely at the expense of Lutheran empires, in particular, the Empire of sweet and really the Swedish kingdom. But back in the 1600s and early 1700s, Sweden was a large empire, encompassing most of the Baltic Sea territories, including areas in Lutheran, Northern Germany. Throughout the 18th and 19th century, also saw the emigration of German Lutheran populations into Russia, establishing their own subculture within that empire in 1741, fetus baring, who you may have heard of simply through the term, the Bering Sea, a major geographical feature of the Alaska geography. He was the one who first led the official Russian exploratory mission in the Pacific Ocean, which would eventually discover parts of Alaska. Fetus bearing was not orthodox Russian, but instead a Lutheran Dane working in the Russian service. Fetus bearing did not survive his exploratory mission. One of the fellow Lutherans along on that journey, which we'll hear about, in just a second, noted in his diary that VITAS bearing was buried, quote, according to the custom of our church, you might say the first Christian Alaskan funeral was a Lutheran one. The man who noted this was Georg Vilhelm, stellar, he was the son of a Lutheran kantoor. And he had studied theology at the Wittenberg, University of reformation fame, before he switched his career tracks and studied medicine in the PYtest influenced hollow to Lutheran universities, if you've ever heard of one, he was the scientist, the educated gentleman who accompany bearing and he made several scientific contributions. Alaskans will recognize terms like stellar seal, or a stellar J. There was even a stellar sea man manatee. And I don't know if he named all these things after himself or because he was the first one to record them and share them with the broader Western world. Others simply named these things after him. But he, of course, was another Lutheran influence that is still seeing today in Alaska, if only through his name. And the year 7099, the Russian American company was founded by the Tsar Paul the first. This is similar to the Hudson Bay Company or the East India Company. It was a government connected business that meant to exploit the natural resources of this new colony of Russian America. In other words, Alaska. They are 1823. It's noted that the Finnish population made up over 20% of this company. The Finns also were traditionally a region that was inhabited and pretty much influenced thoroughly by Lutheranism. So not to say that every single Finnish person who stepped foot on Alaska was a pious and active Lutheran, but there was certainly the religious background, which he would have carried with him. It also turns out that many of the governors of Russian America, say known as Alaska, were Lutheran, partially because they were from this German or Finnish population that formed part of the Russian Empire. The first one was Ferdinand von Frankel, who was governor of Alaska from 1830 to 1835. This is, as far as we know more of a cultural Lutheranism as he did not have much interaction with Lutheranism, or at least, as it is noted in the history of Alaska. His face was not a big part of what is remembered. However, the second Lutheran governor of Alaska, which is in a Finnish name, so forgive my pronunciation. His name was Arvid Adolph at Tolan, he served as governor from 1838 to 1845. The third Lutheran governor, one of the last governors of Russia in America was Johann Hampus fru who yell again, finished pronunciation. Not sure if I got that right. But these latter two governors certainly had a much more interaction with their Lutheran faith in Alaska. The first Lutheran Church founded in Alaska was in Sitka at that time known as new Archangel, the capital or the headquarters of the Russian American company or then later on the official government. Control of a Russian American moved from west to east, first and Dutch what is known today known as Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands and moved to Kodiak and Kodiak Island and then it moved to its farther and eastern most place, a new Ark angel or Sitka, one of the on barren off Island, one of the major regions of the interchannel the inner passage of the islands, the Eastern southeastern part of Alaska. The sinker Lutheran church was organized at Margarita Etonians insistence, she was the wife of that second Russian Lutheran governor I had just mentioned, she personally recruited pastor, you know, Cygnus, again a name I'm not confident I'm pronouncing. It was a man who was well rounded he had studied zoology, medicine, and theology. Together. The Etonians and Cygnus sail from Helsinki, is the governor's party to Sitka on the ship named Nikolai. During this long voyage, Sydney has performed a wedding and baptized the governor's child. Now, according to some and I have not confirmed this, it is asserted that the Lutheran Church in Sitka was the first ever Protestant Church of any kind established on the entire Pacific Coast of North or South America. That's quite a bit of trivia, if you can believe it. This congregation was founded in the year 1839. As part of the Wisconsin Synod, I'm familiar with the history of Lutheranism in Wisconsin, and for most people, we think that we've been around for quite a long time. But it turns out the very first Lutheran congregation, formed in the state of Wisconsin in the Midwest during this period of German and other Lutheran immigrants, was also in the year 1839. So long story short, the history of Lutheranism in Alaska is just as old as many areas of the upper Midwest. Now, who knows igneous, this pastor served a large mix of Lutherans, some of them were finished Swedish or Germans, but all of them were working for at least connected to the Russian American company. Now, this was a period of Russian authoritarian authoritarianism. Of course, the Czar's always had some kind of absolute control, but they waxed and waned as far as they wanted to control literally everything. But as is still seen today was the current conflict with Russia. The sense of identity of being Russian and being Russian Orthodox were meant to be tied hand in hand. The bishop Johann van Amina Manav. Again, my pronunciation is tricky. The bishop of Russia in America forbade Cygnus to do any kind of mission work to evangelize anyone. In other words, Cygnus could only serve the needs of people who already weren't Lutheran. He could not possibly try to convert anyone else, especially someone who's supposed to be orthodox to the Lutheran faith, Russia at this time, at this trifecta of policies, orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality finish Lutheranism did not fit those molds at all. Second, signee has held his first service at least publicly on August 23 of the Year 1840. In the governor's palace. His sermons apparently many of which still survive, were often focused on the themes of justification and sanctification. He also focused on adult categorizes despite obstacles of illiteracy among many of the workers of the for the Russian American company. Although he had one church, and there's only ever one Lutheran congregation established in Russian America, Sydney has made long distant trips to visit Finnish Lutheran populations or other kinds of Lutherans throughout Russia in America sailed to Kodiak Island to the Aleutians even the Creoles and what is today, eastern Asia. The Sitka Lutheran Church saw its membership rise from 90 members in 1840 to 203 and 1844. initial plans to build a church building were blocked by Bishop innocent. However, in the year 1843, there was allowance to build a church and a site of worship near St. Michael's orthodox cathedral. in Sitka, there are some images available of new Archangel or Sitka where you can see the church however, it's very difficult to spot because they were forbidden to put a steeple or any kind of religious features on the outside to market as a church. It simply looks like a two storey building, right outside the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Lutheran isms presence was meant to be hidden and rather discreet. The original altarpiece, the painting that stood behind the altar is still available to be seen. Although it was a rather modest building, it was richly decorated on the inside, and it still contains Alaska's oldest Oregon. And I should say the current Sitka congregation that claims lineage to this congregation has it. The original structure unfortunately, is no longer standing. Near 1845, Pastor Cygnus, as well as the Lutheran governors at Hollins left Sitka. However, two more Lutheran pastors were serve in this period of Russian America Lutheranism. The first successor was gabrial Platinum. Rather than sailing on a ship from Helsinki, he traveled nine months on land from Finland through Siberia to Alaska in the year 1845. It took obviously most of the year just to get to Alaska. Gabrielle platinum is remembered for struggling as a preacher, especially in the German language. Remember, they had at least three distinct language groups, possibly more that he had to serve if you're serving the Lutheran population. Gabriel platinum also suffered because unlike Cygnus, he did not have a Lutheran Governor right down the street to support him in his endeavors. Yet, he's still made trips to Lutherans in the various outposts in the vast lands of Russia in America. Platinum left Alaska in 1853, after eight years of service, the final Lutheran pastor during the Russian American period is Georg Gustaf Vinter. He also had studied in Helsinki, and he arrived in Sitka in the year 1853, showing that there was more or less complete continuity for this brief Lutheran period in Russian America. His congregation whoever had unstable and seasonal membership is anyone who has lived in Alaska knows the seasons are quick and intense, and your whole life is adjusted around the seasons, especially for those working in collection of furs as the Russian American company was often preoccupied with, so his membership would radically alter from week to week, especially month to month. However, Vinter did enjoy the friendship and support of the third Lutheran governor of Alaska governor for who yelled he also delivered the funeral sermon for a later governor's wife, princess could Maksutov. Again, Russian pronunciation is difficult. He left Alaska the year 1865, just two years short of the time when America the United States would purchase Alaska. So what happened to Russian Americans last Lutherans? Turns out they were more or less a shepherd LIS flock. For various reasons. Russia sold Alaska to United States in 1867. There was already a two year vacancy in Sitka by that time, and now that the United States controlled the territory, it would not be filled from Finland, a Methodist preacher was allowed to use the Lutheran church structure during the early American period. Many inhabitants in Russian America, including the Lutheran Lutheran population chose to leave rather than to become US citizens. In a rather divisive vote, the congregation decided to sell the church's movable property, or to even send it all the way back to Europe. The original structure was torn down in the year eight. That ends our section on the history of Lutheranism in Russia in America. The next question we will ask is How was Lutheranism reestablished in the territory and later the state of Alaska? Anyone who has studied Lutheran history in America knows there's a quite a wide variety of Lutheran synod's and groups, some in fellowship, some outside of fellowship, some merge and some split. It's still difficult today, to even get a handle on all the ones that currently exist, much less to track, the history of all the Senate's throughout Lutheranism. So long history in the United States, by I have listed here, the different Lutheran denominations that have had a presence in Alaska. We already noted the Lutheran Church of Finland officially had its presence in Russian America. The Lutheran Church of Sweden also sent missionaries during this later American period. In the past, you saw the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. There are Weejun and Evangelical Lutheran churches, the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and Lutheran missionary societies Incorporated. Today, we still have five different Lutheran groups having some kind of presence in Alaska. We have the Lutheran church, Missouri Senate, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Senate, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the church of Lutheran confession, and the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America. The first who came to take over, or at least to reestablish Lutheranism in Alaska, while it was still a territory was the Swedish Lutheran Church. The Church of Sweden officially had 10 missionaries in Alaska in 1890s. And if you know your rough outline of Alaskan or at least American history, this is kind of the time of those later, gold rushes of the Yukon, and others. They are at 96 Pastor Samuel moanin, who also happen to be finished was but he was from Michigan. He visited Sitka Douglas in Juneau, and he noted there were many Scandinavian immigrants. In fact, if you go around my area that Kenai Peninsula you'll find some of the earliest cabins, which are still standing from the 1890s, early 1900s are owned by Scandinavians. Apparently the climate did not faze them at all. And they found many ways to make a living. Yet an established church was not something that came about for various reasons. But in 1896, this pastor started to get the ground running. In the year 1900, the Augustana Senate, which is a former Swedish immigrant church group in America, they decided to send a pastor Lindell to Alaska to assess the needs of the people here. They also later sent pastor Holmberg and he spent nine months toiling in Douglas Holmberg rented a hall in which he held services every other Sunday, as well as every other Sunday afternoon, in the evenings and afternoon, the squalid conditions, he noted the squalid conditions and the desperate need for religious leadership. Oberg warns his board that if they did not provide Douglass with a permanent missionary, that Swedish and American Methodist churches will take all the people so Swedish lay pastor from Seattle, Johann Levine was assigned and ordained by the Augustana Senate. Already 63 years old, he raised money for and then personally helped build the church structure. He served Lutheran Swedes, Finns, Norwegians, Danes, Germans, and those who consider themselves to be nothing more than Americans. And Latinos seven another pastor came through place Levine, this won't pastor named for mana and attempted to organize separate congregations based on linguistic lines just to keep things straight. But the transient population patterns hindered his efforts. This will be a pattern that still exists to this day, from the days of Cygnus and his seasonal workers at Russian America to this seasonal work of gold mining and fishing and other things that formata noted. And even till today, people are transient. They come and go from Alaska quite often, they move about the seasons greatly affect their lives and patterns. The year 1917 The Treadwell mine disaster created such a mass exodus, the Augustana sets perish and lost the majority of its membership, and the congregation sadly collapsed. Almost the opposite end what oh, it is today the state of Alaska, another mission opportunity took place. Between the year 1892 and 1900, the US government operated the teller ranger station 65 miles northwest of Nome, Alaska, the government decided to hire lapse minority ethnic group who are experts with reindeer, originally from Norway. They wanted to train the local Native population how to profitably use and run a reindeer farm. That our Legion Lutheran Senate's Reverend Tala Brevik began serving the ranger station because the lapse would have been Lutheran already. On August 1 1894. He served as their pastor and teacher, but also missionary to the Eskimos, also known as the Inupiaq. Pastor Brevik traveled between villages by dog team along the beach and often performed services and know if you've ever watched the movie Balto or one of the other movies like that you can get a feel for the area where he was in. A Lutheran mission was constructed at the present site in 1900. And the village became known as teller mission. The mission was given 100 reindeer and a five year loan from the government. Already by the year 1906. The government's role had largely diminished and the mission itself became the dominant central feature of the settlement. Julie Brevig, the wife of Pastor Brevik established the teller orphanage where she worked as a nurse and a teacher, born at 96. Dabney, Alaska. Brevik was the first American Lutheran, born in Alaska, at least according to Psalm she was described by having an old head on young shoulders. Her knowledge of the Inuit language allowed her to translate Bible truths in a way that anyone can understand being bilingual or maybe even trilingual and she grew up among the local people. Sadly, Julie Brevik, and two children died and were buried at that mission during a pandemic. She quote, rests in the land of the people whom she loved so much for whom she died there in 1918, Spanish flu or that influenza virus killed 72 out of 80 residents in a five day period, something truly devastating. Nevertheless, the mission continued with the help of many ordained and lay missionaries. Various preaching stations were established across the Seward Peninsula. Now it's often said that a picture says 1000 words. And if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll see these pictures come to life. So, I ran across a collection from the ELC archives called the Helen frost collection. She was a lay missionary who served for many years in Alaska and she took a lot of interesting photos. While I will describe what I see, you may want to just check the pictures out yourself. Helen Frost was born in 1896 and Iowa, the daughter of a Norwegian Lutheran pastor. She arrived in Nome in 1926. And she conducted mission work for the Inupiaq people for 35 years, over a period from 1926 to 1965. And she worked with her what was then known as the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. During World War Two Frost was one of the few non Native Alaskans who stayed at the teller Brevig mission. She had performed many functions. She had baptisms, confirmations and marriages. She worked as a cook, the nurse, she was the postmaster storekeeper teacher, radio operator, marriage counselor, and choir and orchestra director. She took on a lot of responsibility, and some might say a lot of authority. It was unusual for the time, and even for today, she dies at a rather old age in Carlsbad, California, in 1986. During the 40s, may, perhaps the 50s she went on a tour through various Lutheran churches that she saw in Alaska, and these early color photos still stand out as showing wonderful aspects of the history of Lutheranism in Alaska. She took photos of the Brevig mission and tell her she took a picture of various pastors and help her standing outside a building with the name Lutheran mission painted broadly on the outside. She has a photo of a woman named Bertha steadier. And as it turns out, I ran into a native Alaskan woman in Anchorage several years ago, who remembered that she was named Bertha after this woman, the one who had baptized her. Many of the buildings at these missions were made out of wood, but others especially during and after World War Two are made out of Quonset huts, a feature of the Alaskan frontier and early settlement days. They often had church group activities outside in the snow is one photo from 1949 attack. Now there is still no highway you can take to this part of Alaska on the Seward Peninsula, you often have to take a ship or was more often in later days and still is today you would fly. Although they were out in as much of a wilderness as you could possibly find in Alaska, the pastors and the people still dressed rather formally for everyday work and worship. There's a mission today at Shishmaref Islands, which you can still see fact this Lutheran congregation is still the center point. Creation 1945 anchorage started to see some more activity, another church was built there. Fairbanks also saw churches being established. In Seward, the old Methodist Church was purchased in 1945. Although the Scandinavian immigrants began worshiping already in 1917, as they were visited from a pastor, or by a pastor from Juneau, this former Methodist and now former Lutheran Church and Seward, it's one of my favorite places to stop and Seward is today converted into a coffee shop. Yet the original church architecture is still visible, and is a feature of that structure. Now I'll tell you a little bit more about the history of Lutheranism in my area. Now, for those of you who have not been to Alaska or have not lived here is maybe hard to fathom, that people who are still live to the state can remember building their own log cabins by hand and living in them, clearing the land to raise the crop, as homesteaders people who are given or at least offered at a very affordable price, free land from the government, as long as they live there for a certain period of time, and establish some kind of permanent residence there. This goes back to the 1862 1862 homesteaders Act signed by President Abraham Lincoln, is how much of the western frontier was settled as grants for land were given to those who could live there and develop it. The last homesteads were in fact given out in Alaska, in the middle of the 1900s and that is how some of these communities were formed. And still as they exist today is based off the foundation so that homesteader period. The first Lutheran Church in my area that was permanently established, was in Soldotna. It was originally part of the ALC now part of the ELCA they had gotten Good location at a place called the y where the two main roads diverged. The families that formed that congregation first met in a hardware store in 1961. logs and planks are their first pews used for worship. And first pastors from Anchorage and Seward serve these Lutheran fans. The first structure was built in the form of the cross and erected in 1962. At this why, at one of the most important intersections of the peninsula, the population grew from around 700 People in 1860 to 7000 people by 1967, an amazing boom in growth. As one historian noted, Christ Church serves not suburbia America, but the growing edge the last frontier with its homesteaders oilman, construction men fishermen and those who serve them. Christ Lutheran is the first ALC Mission Church and Alaska since its statehood. Historian Oh also noted a quote about 95% of the community is housed in mobile homes and a solid church is part of the answer to give permanency and security to people opening a new country to make it their home. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod quickly followed the year 1961 In the town of Kenai not too far away. Other families began meeting in Dearing's general merchandise store, and then at the small town library. 1967 the first Resident pastor arrived in a person which was completed in November and June 1 1969 Start with an earth Lutheran congregation dedicated their sanctuary, which still stands and is active to this day. 1967 As I noted as the 100th anniversary of the Purchase of Alaska, United States, there were 24 established congregations representing for Lutheran bodies. As I noted that Wisconsin Synod was not one of those bodies that the very next year, the Wisconsin Synod began its presence in Alaska. And this is not meant to be a detailed account of all the history of all the congregations in Alaska. I'll use several examples from this mission growth to illustrate what it looked like to establish Lutheranism in the last frontier in the early years and days of statehood. At this time, the late 60s, the Wisconsin Senate's home and intermissions, were going through a bit of a reassessment and readjustment. For almost 100 years the Wisconsin Senate had played a game which I like to call Hungry Hungry Hippos for the millions of German Lutheran immigrants who are coming. Basically, although there was a lot of hard work establishing new congregations in new areas, there was a steady flow of new member potential from these immigrant groups. And over time, the Wisconsin Senate had established an attitude of letting the larger Missouri Senate do it, then more people, more resources and a broader geographic presence. They were going to stab stablished new congregations new areas, miners will let their big sister handle the work. However, in 1960, after many years of difficulty that Wisconsin Synod saw that it needed to break off its official fellowship with the Missouri Senate, and no longer could they look to them to be a co worker in the harvest field. Nevertheless, despite this attitude of having the Missouri Senate do a lot of the work that Wisconsin senate did not hold off on establishing missions and congregations outside the Midwest. Already in 1917, a Pacific Northwest district was established after several years of mission work in the state of Washington. However, the Wisconsin Senate's first missionary journey to Alaska took place on October 31. Reformation Day 1967 When two pastors flew to Anchorage and Fairbanks to meet with lay members of their Senate, who had already reached out to the Senate's Mission Board. It was noted that establishing the church in the last frontier would be challenging is one of the pastors noted, quote, because of the severe climate and rugged terrain, the high cost of living, the unfavorable employment situation, the loneliness of the long winters, most people don't stay in Alaska very long. We have found that many of the names put on our list the prospect list during the last year had already moved. We do feel obligated to the people who belong to our Synod here, but it'll probably take a good deal of study on the part of our mission boards before we can decide on how we can best serve them. According to one pastor, already after this exploratory visit, things really started to move. In December of 1967. Pastor named Dave Zito moved from his former Collin Montana and was installed as the first pastor at Faith Lutheran church in the city of Anchorage. According to most people who have run into this history pastors eat Lok and deservedly be called the father of the Wisconsin Senate in Alaska and as own initiative in a entered founding all eight wells congregations in Alaska. And he initiated a very unique practice that saw success of using vicars, which are third year seminary students on a full interview as the man on the ground, at times, many miles away from where he was at an anchorage to do the intense and personal ministry that he cannot accomplish, simply from visits made from Anchorage. One group of people who had been part of the Missouri Senate congregation in this area, were rather pleased with their first two pastors, but one of the pastors turned out to be according to one quiet liberal, and he had, quote, disenchanted many members with his unbiblical practices. And quote, over time, several these families left the Missouri Synod church to worship on their own according to their own consciences, and their own interpretation of the word of God. What took place was a group of Wisconsin Synod families or at least those who are sympathetic to them began gathering to worship in 1978. And Pastor Zillow flew down from faith and Anchorage to lead worship. He came on a twin twin engine otter plane and he continued to meet regularly with his fans. He led the members of this Kenai Soldotna wells group to see that evangelism was the heart of the church, as the Easter message to them, introduced a foreword summary of the congregation's purpose. Come, see, go tell. He said, quote, as you meditate and these commands, you will discover God's plan for reaching a lost world with the gospel. Hear the message of salvation and the missionary challenge beautifully combined. It is the believers duty to run the good news and tell others following the pattern that he had successfully employed already, in Eagle River, Sitka and South Anchorage, pastors eat low thought that receiving an official exploratory mission status for the P and w the Pacific Northwest district of the Senate would be the next step in establishing the congregation in the Kenai area. However, his first attempts at acquiring this official exploratory mission status are unsuccessful. This left him a bit disappointed it undeterred, Pastor Zito made a request of the Pacific Northwest district president for one or two vicars for this local group in Soldotna, and Kenai. While the district President believed that a full time mission developer would be the preferable option for Kenai Soldotna. The Senate at this time lacked the resources and that made the use of a vicar the most pragmatic solution to this mission problem. Now having a vicar who was an avid ordained pastor, nor has he completed his studies came along with some cons. He had a lack of experience, he was rather unprepared to start with a full workload right away in the beginning, and having a new vicar each year would only offer a lack of continuity for the local congregation. However, there is still some positives to having a vicar, a young guy who is eager to get out into the mission field after years of study, but often be full of enthusiasm for the work and the task in front of him. He would come with fresh ideas and methods which are often needed to get a mission congregation off and running. And as often as they were single with no other attachments, they had, quote, little else to do but work and the first vicar who came to the Kenai Soldotna area for the Wisconsin Synod mission was vicar Paul impish, in accordance with Zelos requests he was assigned on in May 1979, to this local congregation. In July he arrived in Kenai and will be the congregation's first full time worker. He would be supported by pastors eat low, but at a distance, he would largely be on his own for day to day tasks. Zelos philosophy was this quote, the more experience he has as a vicar, the better suture ministry will be. Now this is part of the primary research I got to do for this project as I did the history of my own congregation. I got to hear from the speaker and others and he gave me a wonderful little anecdote which I'll share with you now. He said quote, it was not my idea to go fishing in Kenai first, I had driven up the alkane highway and had been sleeping in my car. I wanted to get settled. Capacitor Zillow kept a flatbed fishing boat at the marina on the Kenai. He is the one who insisted I sleep in my car and other night and go fishing. He said I had to get my priorities straight. I caught about a 15 pound can a 15 pound king salmon that day. But all I wanted to do is get started. The fishing thing was, quote, When and Alaska do as Alaskans do unquote. Now we get pretty good at it before my 15 months are over. You could always have guaranteed fish. I would go fishing at 3am Catch my limit by 5am. It's To live a full day church work and quote he also shared quote, there's also a long story about visiting prospects and having needing them to come out and pull my car down their drive before it fell off the cliff. The drive was built on, again home rich and experience, but financially poor. He noted that they did not have the vicar stipend adjusted for the increased cost of living in Alaska, and he often had to pay for his own flights. Now pastor Zilla was primarily involved with the faith congregation in Anchorage, and that led figure Amish Learn by Doing he said, quote, We really didn't see all that much of each other. I would sleep over at their house the night before Sunday, I would preach there. That was when pastors ILA would review my bi weekly sermon, never commented on them. Pastor's ego had me type up the model constitution, which was served grace. Note from vicar image to pastor Zillow shows how challenging and yet joyful ministry was it Grace's early months. In this letter, he said, quote, The attendance last Sunday wasn't really encouraging. But hopefully this Sunday will be better. I'm a little concern that so and so haven't been coming lately, and I think I'll stop out to visit besides only having 12 in church. We also had no heat in the furnace at the church, as the furnace of the church is on the blink. Also, the ceiling in my apartment sprang a leak this week, and I'm presently living in two apartments. If you'd like to come and visit, I now have an extra bed concluded. That is the condensed news from Kenai this week. Though I haven't stressed them here, joys have outweighed the concerns. The next vicar who served for roughly a year was the vicar, Nathan Radke. He said quote, I rather enjoyed those commuter flights to Anchorage every other Saturday and Sunday, only once we were vertical, when we should have been horizontal. He also said in the year I served grace, the membership grew steadily. The ladies group was formed, the Senate granted the first Resident minister to Grace and I returned to the seminary with a wonderful year full of vicar experiences. So they did receive their first full time pastor in the year 1988. Just 10 years after the first worship service, Grace had 83 souls. Already in April 1989, talks had began about expanding the two year old church structure known as a weft unit. This was a plan that the Wisconsin Senate had to grow missions quickly to have a blueprint of a very small worship space that could easily be added to other additions being tacked on. And this weft unit is still kind of the original heart of the larger campus we have today. March 26, in the year 2000, a new development took place at this congregation, snow had to be cleared for a quote unquote, groundbreaking ceremony. Though it was rather frosty at that time. In June builders for Christ, a group of volunteer workers within the Wisconsin Senate, came for five weeks to erect and close up a new sanctuary. And then, in April 2001, there was a new addition the school was added to the congregation. In August 2001, Grace Lutheran School opened its doors with 21 students. This year, Grace Lutheran School has 95 Students ministry that has been greatly expanded in the past 20 years. So perhaps it's bad preparation on my part, but I don't really have a conclusion. I simply share the story a summary of Lutheranism and Alaska showing various aspects of different groups of people who have been here for well over 150 years serving the various congregations and populations in this great and large state. With its many experiences and vastness still left unfilled in many ways you're watching online, you can see some of the resources I compiled, including a map showing the location of current congregations, at least as of the year 2019. In Alaska, and their preaching stations. I'll also show you briefly some of the resources and references that are used for this project. And with that, we're at the end of our presentation on the Brief Overview and Summary of the history of Lutheranism and Alaska certainly didn't cover everyone or everything or every place. Alaska, after all is a very large space. And personally, this was a wonderful place for myself and my family to live and to serve. Not only serving with God's people, but also to be in a wonderful part where you can still see God's creation. If you'd like to visit Alaska someday, I certainly hope you get the chance. And while you'll certainly have a lot to look at, whether it be the nature aspects which there's a great abundance of it both land and sea and in the air. Perhaps you'll be attracted to some history aspects like the Gold Rush era, or World War two sites that hopefully Now you've got a little bit of a feeling for where you can get some Lutheran history as well. Perhaps you go to Sitka and see the site of the first Lutheran congregation, maybe you go to Seward and have some coffee in the halls of a place, or Lutherans once gathered to worship. Maybe it'll make it all the way to Nome and visit rather dense, Lutheran populated area of the state. Whatever you do, I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and you'll find some way to support us if you liked it. Whether you share this episode with someone who may find it interesting. You share it on social media, give us a wonderful review, wherever you're listening to this podcast, or maybe you're watching it now on YouTube. If he really wanted to give us a little more support, always appreciate that. On patreon.com, you can become one of our patrons. If you'd like to watching this video form, consider joining one of those tiers where you can watch our other videos online. But that being said, we're at the end of our season three of the Lutheran History podcast as I decided last summer I'll be taking the summer off. We already have an excellent episode lined up for us in September. We hope you all have a great time and always keep Lutheran history in the back of your mind.