Mission Churches

First Baptist Church has four mission churches at present long the Kobuk River, which is east of Kotzebue.

All four of our mission pastors are Mission Service Corp missionaries. That means they must raise their own support. Each mission church gets $500 per month support through the Alaska Baptist Convention. As you can see, this is not much. That support also decreases $100 per month each year. Because of the high cost of living up here, it is getting harder and harder to maintain these mission churches. All four mission churches have struggles each year. Sometimes heating oil is hard to get in the village in the winter. The power can go out for days at a time. When this happens they must heat with wood which is also hard to get. The temperatures can reach minus 60 in the winter. Pipes and sewer lines often freeze up and burst. There are no roads going to any of the villages and that makes life much harder and everything much more expensive. For any of our pastors to get out from the village to Anchorage for medical needs or buying supplies, it will cost over $800 per person, just in airline tickets. So you can see it is hard to minister up here. Please keep these guys in prayer and if God leads you to help, follow His leading.