Christmas in Washington

Here are some photos especially for Holly in Perth. We spent Christmas with the Quicks at Sun Mountain Lodge in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Also some pictures in Seattle.

St. Augustine Volcanoe

St. Augustine is showing a little more activity recently. You can see the steam and smoke plume in this satellite photo. In 1976 it left a coating of tan ash over all the snow. The colors seemed like sunrise or sunset outside. Maybe someday i will find an old photo to add to this.
Here is a link to a live webcam that is set up near Homer. You can see the Homer spit if you are familiar with the Kenai Peninsula. Nikiski where we live is near the top middle of the photo.

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger

This is a clever little book about what it would be like to have dinner with Jesus. It only took a few nights the read thru 100 pages. Here is the website with discussion questions.
Below is a little synopsis of the story.

What Would You Discuss. . .
Over Dinner with Jesus?

That’s the dilemma facing cynical but successful businessman Nick Cominsky when he accepts an invitation to join Jesus of Nazareth for dinner at a local restaurant. Nick is convinced that his friends at work are pulling a prank. But the man sitting across from him appears to be quite serious, introducing Himself as “Jesus. My family called me Yeshua.”

Nick accepts his dinner companion’s suggestion to suspend his disbelief and “proceed as if I am Jesus.” What follows is a fascinating conversation that covers family relationships, world religions, and the afterlife, among other topics. Along the way, Nick confronts his own unfulfilled longings, spiritual uncertainties, and anger with God and he begins to wonder if the man across from him holds the answers to his deepest questions.

Merry Christmas 2005

Dear Family and Friends, MERRY CHRISTMAS 2005

Lois Ann has finished all of the cards and paper and she has been telling me to get busy and finish this annual letter. Tonight kids hockey practice was cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather and also Wednesday bible study was cancelled because the rain has turned the backroads into ice rinks. So we have some free time tonight.

We are thankful once again for another very good year. It started out looking like my job would be ending about now because of a lack of gas to run the ammonia and urea plants. Now they are getting gas supplied for a year at a time from many companies, and recently they announced they are looking for partners to possibly build a coal gasification plant to supply feedstock to us and generate electricity for the peninsula and Anchorage. I worked tons of overtime this year just in case the job was ending.

Lois Ann even worked this summer with some friends in the office of Ocean Beauty, a local wild salmon processing plant. (Wild Salmon are better than farmed salmon.) She had a lot of fun. Now she is back at the elementary school as a secretary again.

Heidi and John Quick came up to Alaska for the summer. John finished college with some online courses as well as both of them working. It was nice to have them around. Johns dad Chuck was able to come up for about a week near the end of summer and we showed him part of Alaska. In August we went to Minnesota and Iowa for a little over a week. It was a quick but fun trip. John is on staff with Young Life and Heidi is working at a Montessori school and helps with Young Life.

Christoffer was up in Anchorage helping to electrify Elmendorf Air Base for the first half of the year. He joined us on some hikes and golfing several times. Recently he worked for a month in Kotzebue up in NW Alaska, had a couple of days off, and worked for 6 straight weeks at Pogo Mine east of Fairbanks and Delta Junction. He was here for a week at Thanksgiving time. Now he is back at Pogo until we go together to visit Heidi and John for Christmas.

Holly was here for a little over half the year. Lois and Holly went to see Heidi and John in Seattle in the spring. In August she went to live in Perth, Australia. She is working in a coffee shop that is run by YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She is happy and enjoying summer very much. Also Amy her cousin just arrived there about a week ago.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. God Bless You

The Stynsbergs

PS. Please see photos and leave some comments on the blogs:

www.marksalaska.blogspot.com and www.theeroundrobin.blogspot.com