The students and teachers of the Sitka and Juneau schools embarked on a combined music performance and Native cultures trip to Ketchikan and Metlakatla April 18 through 25 via the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system. Charles Geary, Ketchikan Church pastor, and the Ketchikan Church family hosted the students. God blessed the trip with fantastic sunshine for the first several days, making the ferry trip around Southeastern Alaska a sheer delight!
On the ferry, Ruth Millard, Sitka teacher, transformed the ferry cafeteria into a music practice hall as the students practiced their hand chimes pieces. Many of the passengers stopped to say how much they liked the music.
The students performed Sabbath morning for church in Ketchikan. On Sunday, they ferried to Metlakatla to perform at the Duncan Memorial Church. The students returned to Ketchikan, and performed once more Monday afternoon at the Clover Pass Christian Church and School.
The trip also included visits to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, the Alaska Drydock and Shipyards, the Alaska Heritage Museum, a visit with internationally renowned Alaskan totem carver and artist Nathan Jackson, trips to Totem Bight and Saxman Village, and the Promec Air shop.
For Nickie Linder, Juneau teacher, it was a nostalgic trip, as it was a return to her home in Metlakatla after a 40-year absence. "As often as we may ache for our earthly homes, it cannot match the loneliness God feels as His arms hunger for us to be in our Heavenly home with Him!" remarked Linder in her Sabbath sermon. "It is my prayer for our students that they, too, will ache for their Heavenly Father, and make it their goal to join in that incomparable reunion soon to come!"
While traveling from Juneau to Ketchikan on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, Juneau and Sitka students turned the ferry cafeteria into a music practice hall.
