Editors' Note: A group from Kingsport, Tennessee, traveled to Togiak, Alaska, in March 2026 to bless the community. Read a first-hand account of the miracles they experienced!
When I first invited folks to go to Alaska in March for a mission trip, there wasn't much interest. Sean Mikel, mechanical engineer, and Amy Cote, college sophomore, expressed interest, and that led to a couple of Amy’s friends wanting to come along. With Abbi Sutton and Felicity Watson, college sophomores, and myself, I had a small group that could minister somewhere in Alaska.
I contacted Tobin Dodge, Arctic Mission Adventure director, and was given options of places to go, one of which was Togiak, Alaska. I'd been there in 2023. After praying, I decided this was the place for us to go. Vecous Waite, pastor, said he would look into options for us. God had some opportunities for us and several miracles, too.
Mission Logistics
We planned to fly out of Atlanta on March 12. Many of us drove to Atlanta from Tennessee, so we decided to spend the night before our flight at a hotel. After finding a hotel online and struggling to make a booking, I called the hotel for assistance. A pleasant lady said it would be no problem to get the rooms for that evening and park cars there. I told her we were going on a mission trip.
“Well,” she said, “I’m glad you called. I can get you a really good deal. How about $98 for the room with one person and $139 for the two double beds in the other room?”
“That would be marvelous!” I said. It was about $150 cheaper than what was online. “Thank you, God, for arranging the lower cost for us,” I prayed.
Pastor Vecous called me and said he talked to the public school principal. The K–12 school had 200 students, and he invited us to do some programs there. The principal also invited the college students to set up a table with information from their college. Pastor Vecous asked if we could plan some health talks and a church service. He also said the church kitchen needed cabinets and countertops.
We began planning. We would arrive on Friday and do the church service on Sabbath. During the week, we'd give health talks, remodel the kitchen and talk with students.
I contacted Rick Mauderer, school principal. He said he was a believer and was excited to have us come. He said there were drugs and alcohol in the village and the children needed to learn better coping skills. Since it was a public school, he did not want us to mention God a lot, but if the students asked about God, we could answer them. He said there was a lot of grief, anxiety and depression in the school and Togiak Village.
I called It Is Written and got 200 booklets, and I ordered hundreds of scripture cards. The college girls talked to the recruitment department at Southern Adventist University and got small items to give away. They also bought a sweatshirt, teddy bear and some other things to give away in raffles.
I tweaked NEWSTART health talks to better fit the village's lifestyle, as the village does not have access to lots of fruits and vegetables or sunshine in the winter. The school mentioned they could use a portable speaker system, so Sean spent hours trying to figure out how to get Amazon to deliver to Togiak. Sean was able to get microphones and other items shipped there, but we were going to have to bring the large speaker with us. Pastor Vecous measured and ordered countertops and cabinets to be brought over from Anchorage via airplane. The planning was going well.
A week before we left, Pastor Vecous asked if we could do VBS programs during the health talks. I called Ms. Chris, the kindergarten teacher at our church, and she compiled coloring sheets, story lines, songs and even some printed props.
I worked with Dr. Collete in Bethel, Alaska, two years ago. She emailed me and said her parents were in Togiak. She asked if we could take a couple of totes to her parents and she would send fresh fruit and vegetables with us.
Mission Travel Begins
Wednesday, March 11, soon arrived. We slept well at our hotel and flew out on Thursday, March 12. We arrived in Anchorage as the sun was setting and headed to the Alaska Conference office to spend the night there. On March 13, we headed to the airport with all our luggage. We checked five large suitcases, the two totes from Dr. Collete and our speaker box.
As we went through TSA, most of us made it through with no issues. Sean was last to come through, and they pulled him aside. Finally, Sean came over to us and explained that the drill was not allowed on the plane, despite the TSA website saying all the elements were fine to bring.
I told the team to stay put and pray as I tried to reason with the TSA agent. I explained we were going on a mission trip and needed the drill, but the agent insisted we could not take it on the plane. I decided to race back to the checked luggage desks and ask to check the drill.
At the check-in desk, there was a man looking down at a computer. He had no line, so I charged up to him and started spilling my story. He looked up and said he was just fixing the computer so he couldn't help me.
I ran to another desk with no line. I quickly told the lady my story. “Well, your luggage is long gone now. Let me see if I have a box here.” She turned around and said, “Wow! Here is a little box right here. Not sure where that came from. I don’t think it is big enough, but try it.”
I put the drill in and it fit perfectly! She quickly started taping up the box and printed out a label for it. “This is not going to make it on your plane, but it will come on a later flight,” she said.
I said, “If God wants this drill in Togiak, it will get there!”
The lady looked up and smiled. “Sending this little box with a prayer,” she said as she put it in a container and pushed it down the conveyor belt. Was she an angel?
I rushed back through security, met my team on the other side, and ran to the gate. We were the last people to board and our flight left 10 minutes early.
The views from the airplane windows were spectacular on the 50-minute flight to Dillingham. When we landed and collected our checked luggage, there was no speaker box or drill box.
As I filled out paperwork for our missing items, a van pulled up to take us to Grant Aviation. We got in the van and I shared our plans to head to Togiak. The driver said that Togiak was fogged in and we wouldn't be headed there any time soon. The staff preparing for the flight echoed his sentiments when we arrived for our Togiak flight as well.
A few minutes later, the van driver exclaimed and motioned for Sean to come over to his computer. The camera showing Togiak airport showed clear skies, and they could start preparing the plane for our flight! Sean took a picture of the computer screen and showed it to us. We rejoiced!
Our little plane arrived, our luggage was loaded and we boarded. We enjoyed the amazing views of the mountains as we flew fairly low over them. After about 30 minutes, a little village appeared in a sea of white. It was Togiak.
We deplaned and met Pastor Vecous. When we talked on the phone, he said the church van was having problems and there was a van we could rent at the airport for $125 a day, so I decided to rent it. Pastor Vecous told Sean, “Good luck with the van. I just got it the few feet over here from that building.” Pastor Vecous and Hayzen, his foster son, went and got on a four-wheeler. The rest of us piled in the van, which seemed like it could fall apart at any moment. Sean turned it on and the gear shift flopped around uncontrollably. There was no way to tell what gear you were in. Sean found a gear, and we slowly followed Pastor Vecous to the church.
We told Pastor Vecous about the two missing boxes. “Well, hopefully they will come, but sometimes things disappear on the way out here.” The church had a nice sanctuary area, a kitchen and small dining area, and an area with a couple bedrooms and a small kitchen/living room where Pastor Vecous and his family lived. Pastor Vecous and Loretta, his wife, set up some privacy panels for us. We soon settled in, set up our sleeping arrangements and organized our gear before having supper and going for an evening walk.
We returned at only 7 p.m. but we were all tired. As I walked through the door, there was a large box and a tiny little box sitting on the table. I hollered and everyone came running in. There was the little box with the drill and the big box with the speaker. We all stood in awe of what God had done for us that day. We worshipped together and recounted the miracles of the day.
Together in Togiak
Sabbath morning, March 14, dawned with a beautiful sunrise. We had the morning to prepare for church. The locals arrived and Loretta had hot decaf coffee for them. We met folks as they came in. After church and Sabbath School, almost everyone stayed for lunch. After we ate and fellowshipped, we headed out in our van to see the town of Togiak for the rest of the day.
There were several things on our agenda on Sunday. After breakfast, we unpacked all the cabinets from their boxes. Sean measured where the cabinets would go and found the studs to support the cabinets. The girls took the boxes and decorated them for VBS, one being Daniel's home and another being the lion's den. At 1 p.m., the health talks and VBS started with a few people in attendance. Following the conclusion of the programs, Pastor Vecous said, “Now we need to try to get the church van going so we can return the other van."
After many adjustments, the church van started but would not back up. Our team chipped away at the snow and ice around the van and pushed. After much grunting, we finally got it free.
Pastor Vecous and Sean went to return the rental van. It had been two days and I was trying not to spend more than $250 on the rental van. When they spoke to the man who rented it out, he shared that the van was not used much and offered to only charge $100 for the time it was used — another miracle along the way. The money saved went to help children from Togiak go to camp in Dillingham.
School Outreach
Monday, March 16 dawned clear, cold and windy. The gals and I were going to leave around 10:15 a.m. to go to the school to set up and have lunch with the kids. Sean gave me the keys to the church van. “It’s running some, but you won’t get there fast. It overheats and then you will just stop,” he said.
The gals and I jumped in, and we were off. It was about 2.5 miles to the school. The van was already heated up, so it only made it around a couple of corners before coming to a halt. I turned it off, waited five minutes and then slowly took off again. When we arrived at the school, I made sure to pull into the parking lot in a way that we would not have to back up, and the gals and I hurried inside.
Principal Rick greeted us and showed us a table at the edge of the lunchroom that we could use. We quickly got things set up. The children were a little shy at first, but some of the braver kids came up to the table. When they went back with a sticker, magnet or booklet, the other kids at the table would decide they wanted something at the table. The gals greeted the students, talked with them and invited them to VBS.
Principal Rick told me that most of the children did not come from stable homes. A few weeks before we arrived, someone had been killed in a “moonshine deal gone bad." The school was on lockdown for a few hours until they found the killer. Eighty of the students had missed more than 30 days of school and “the parents just don’t care." There were a lot more children in grades K–6, and then the numbers decreased significantly. “Most of these kids will just fish for a living, and they don’t see the need to stay in school. A lot of parents did not finish high school. Every couple of years, we have a student go to college. About half of the ones that go to college actually make it at college.”
He reiterated the depression, anxiety, alcohol and violence problems in the village. The current mayor was trying to stop the drugs and alcohol. “We used to have three to five overdose deaths/suicide deaths a year at the school. With the new mayor and fewer drugs, we have not had any overdose deaths or suicide deaths at the school in the last two years," he shared.
Principal Rick also said in the past year, 27 students at the school had been put in foster care. They were usually removed from the village for a time but then were put back in the same homes. “What heartbreak these students have seen and endured," I thought to myself.
We left the school in time to eat and get ready for the evening health talk and VBS. Sean and Pastor Vecous had spent the day working on the countertops and cabinets in the kitchen.
Evening Programs
A few adults came for the evening health talk. I did a modified NEWSTART talk with them. At one point, we were talking about stress. “Does hate weaken your body?” a man asked. I recognized him from church, and he had shared with Sean that his niece had been murdered.
“Yes," I said, "it does." I gave an example of a time I had forgiven someone even though it was hard. “God will help you forgive. You will be free.” I told him. Tears glistened in his eyes. “I want to forgive,” he said through tears.
About 25–30 children came for VBS and the gals did David and Goliath stories and skits with them, songs, coloring sheets, snacks and more.
At worship that evening, we prayed for the man who wanted to forgive the murderer. We prayed God would give him strength and peace. After intense interactions with the children, we also debriefed, discussed how to do things the next day and prayed for interactions that had occurred that day and would occur the next day.
Roadside Miracle
On Tuesday, March 17, we woke up with the wind howling. We got ready to head to the school with all our layers on. We knew to leave early to have time for our “overheating” stops in the church van.
Sean said the van needed a new thermostat, but there were no parts stores for vehicles and no mechanics in Togiak. After about a mile of going 5–10 miles per hour, the needle on the thermostat would go from 0 to 260. Warnings would flash and then the van would stop. Even with a foot on the gas, nothing happened. As the warnings flashed, we would try to pull off the road a bit and turn the van off for five minutes to cool down.
On our way to the school, I was letting the van cool down when a bulldozer with a plow came zooming around the corner on our side of the road. He kept coming towards us, quite sure we would move. “Go,” hollered Abbi. I knew there was no way the van was going to go, but I prayed out loud and turned the key. It started and I pushed the gas.
We miraculously started going, even with the thermostat at 260 and the warnings flashing. We made it around the bulldozer and I thanked God as I pulled over by a snowbank. To my horror, I saw the bulldozer backing up with beepers blaring. I did not know if he could see me and he was coming straight back at us. I realized he probably thought we were long gone.
I pushed the gas again and we miraculously started moving. The hill was coming up. I prayed out loud, “Lord, help us!” I kept praying. With the thermostat at 260, we made it up the hill, across the top and coasted down the hill to the school. Just as we pulled in and I got the van turned around to park, the van “died” as we coasted into the spot. We all thanked God. It was another miracle.
Making Friends
Tuesday and Wednesday, we interacted with the students at the school. They became much more friendly after the first day of shyness. The booklets, stickers, magnets and hundreds of Bible verse cards zoomed off the table each day. We would leave a selection when we left so the shyer students could come by and get materials if they wanted.
One girl shared, “I put the scripture cards by my bed and read them before I went to sleep last night. It helped me sleep better.” Some of the little kids would go back to their lunch table and try to read the scripture cards. They were always happy if one of us came up and helped them read the scripture cards they had selected.
Lots of the little kids wanted the booklets, even though I had thought this would be more for the older students, but we encouraged the younger students to take the booklets if they wanted. Maybe a parent, relative or other person in their house would see the booklets and read them. Maybe this was how we could get hope to the adults in Togiak. What an incredible door God opened for us!
After lunch at the church, we headed back to the school for the after-school program. Sean came with us. During lunchtime, the gals invited the children to the after-school program. Around 30 students stayed after school. We prayed earnestly as to how best to use this time with the students. The gals played games and then turned the game into a “learning time." The girls would play with the students and then ask questions that led into deep conversations about learning, praying, suicide and drugs. The gals would encourage students to make wise choices, even when it was hard to say no to alcohol and drugs.
One day, I asked if a group would like to have a discussion in a calmer atmosphere. Six students came out to join me in the hall. We started by talking about some of their favorite things and then turned to more serious discussions. I told them about my dear friend, John, who was a pilot of little planes like they had and who had died in a plane crash. I asked how many of them had a friend die in a plane crash. Two of the children raised their hands.
I told them about my friend, David, who had committed suicide and asked if any of them had a friend die by suicide. All six hands went up. It was a reminder that all the students in the school had a friend or knew someone who had died by suicide. We talked about what we can do when sad things happen and how we can talk to an adult if a friend “wants to die." I was thankful some of them mentioned the scripture cards and talking to a friend as things to do when life is tough.
For one activity, the gals had all the students and adults sit in a circle. We would trade places if the answer to a question applied to us. There were “easy” ones such as, “Trade places if your favorite color is green" or "Trade places if you like salmon for lunch." But then some serious questions would be put in and discussed afterward. One question I especially remember was, “Trade places if you are lonely." Many of the students got up to trade places. The gals tried to encourage them to be friends with each other and be there for each other during hard times.
For another activity, students wrote on paper something they were afraid of. Most of the answers were very similar: afraid of losing a friend or family member. The gals asked the students to write on one paper what made them sad and, on another paper, what made them happy. Again, many of the responses were similar. What made them sad was feeling alone. What made them happy was having a friend.
One boy wanted to be a missionary. None of us will forget what he wrote on his paper and gave to Sean: “I get happy with you guys and I want to learn more about Lord Christ.” This was the most incredible miracle of the whole trip. Even though we were in a public school and could not “talk” about God, they allowed college students from a Christian school and Christian adults to come hang out with the students and give out Christian books and scripture cards. The students “saw God” in us, and lives were changing before our eyes. This was a miracle we will never forget!
Project Wrap-up
While the gals and I were at the school for lunch, Sean and Pastor Vecous were busy at the church. They got all the cabinets up on Monday and Tuesday. The gals and I vacuumed out the cabinets and put up shelves. On Wednesday, the countertops were installed. We washed them off and set the microwave and other things back on them. The kitchen had been transformed, and it looked marvelous!
The last afternoon at the school, Sean brought the large speaker. While we were in Togiak, the microphones and other equipment had arrived at the post office that Sean had shipped to through Amazon. He made sure everything was working. Sean presented Principal Rick with the speaker and accessories. Principal Rick was beaming. When I got home, I sent him an email thanking him for inviting us to the school. He responded, “Thank you all for coming! You were a blessing! And thank you for the gift of a speaker system for the school! We used it this weekend and will use it again this week when we have our awards assembly!”
On Thursday, March 19, we were ready to go as the sun rose around 8:30 a.m. The weather had been clear the whole time we were there, although the high temperatures for the day had decreased each day and the winds seemed to increase. We bundled up and headed to the airport. We loaded our stuff on the plane and told Pastor Vecous goodbye. After we were all seated and our pilot helped us all get strapped in, we were off. The wind was blowing hard as we took off, and our little plane turned to the right as the wind hit it from the side.
We arrived safely in Dillingham to clear skies, and soon we were back in Anchorage. The weather is very unpredictable in Togiak and Dillingham, so I had arranged flights on Thursday and hoped to be at least out by Saturday so the gals could be back for college on Monday. With the clear weather, we arrived back in Anchorage and were able to go dog sledding and see a glacier. We spent some time with the Bermudez family, who used to go to Kingsport Church, and also saw moose and the northern lights before heading home. When we arrived home, people were mowing grass, leaves on the trees were popping out and dogwoods were blooming — quite the contrast from where we had been a few hours earlier!
As I was thinking about the trip, I thought of all the encounters we had and the miracles that happened along the way. We all need Jesus. The folks in Togiak, Alaska, need Jesus and the folks in Tennessee need Jesus.
