ALASKA
CONFERENCE // NEWS
CREATION CALLS FOR URGENCY
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fter spending nearly 40 years in the rural Arctic, I am more convinced every day that the Bible has it right. Isaiah, Chapter 51, says, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed” (ESV). We are living in a time with unprecedented changes in our world happening on a regular basis. While the debate over climate change and global
The formation of this “slump” on the Selawik River of northwest Alaska was due to the sudden melting of permafrost several years ago.
warming is heated, I’m not writing this article as argument for or against these issues. I simply want to tell you that what I see in the Artic underscores what I see in Scripture. The high Arctic is ground zero for observation of these phenomenal events the Bible talks about. Take for example what geologists call a “slump.” There’s a well documented slump on the Selawik River in northwest Alaska. This slump did not happen because of heavy rain but instead by the sudden melting of permafrost. A few years after it first appeared, the slump was even more pronounced.
to higher ground about 7 miles inland at the possible cost of $250 million or to stick it out on their ancestral lands, come what may. Selawik Arctic Mission Adventure volunteers Edna and Jose Estrella are making a difference in their community.
Fly over the Alaska tundra and you’ll see another now-common sign of our aging earth: a drained lake. This phenomena can occur overnight as if someone pulled the drain plug. A more threatening situation is the coastal erosion happening due to the reduction of ice cover during ferocious fall and winter storm surges. A number of coastal villages are threatened with imminent destruction. A good example of this is the village of Kivalina. This small village is perched on a barrier island between a coastal lagoon and the Arctic Ocean along Alaska’s west coast. As their island narrows, the villagers are divided on whether to move
After several years, the Selawik River slump is visibly more pronounced.
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march/april 2020
Coastal erosion is impacting villages across Alaska, similar to what is happening to the village of Kivalina.
What does this have to do with us as a church and our mission? Here in Alaska, these signs of our earth growing old
