Alaska Mission Team
from Borodino United Methodist Church
to Seward, Alaska
July 5-16, 2001

From the Inbox

From: Jim LeGro
Subject: Coming Home
Date: Sunday, July 15, 2001 11:19 AM

Dear Joyce,
It's Sunday morning in Alaska. About 7:00 o'clock and only a few people are up, but soon that will change. Within a couple of hours we will pack our vans and head north toward Anchorage. On Route 1 before Anchorage is a place called "Big Game Alaska" where injured bears and moose are nursed back to health before being released back into the wild. We are planning to stop.  The rest of the day will include eating a late lunch and checking in at the Continental counter at 6:30. If all goes well, we will be airborne by 7:30, sleep a little on the plane, and eventually we'll arrive in Syracuse about 8:40. If you come to meet us, look for thirteen blurry-eyed people, who are smiling as we remember ten good days in Alaska.

Jim LeGro

Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 06:51:38 -0800
From: Jim LeGro, c/o Duane B Chase 
Subject: Final Leg 

Dear Joyce,
It's Friday morning in Seward and we are on the final leg of our
"Mission Alaska" trip.  At 6:45 I am alone with my breakfast coffee and
Duane's computer.  The young people in our group are asleep, a God-given
gift to teenagers that I seem to have lost somewhere along the way.
Yesterday we drove to Homer (Alaska, that is), which is at the
northeast corner of the Kenai Peninsular and a four hour drive from
Seward.  It is only 30 minutes by air, but the highway is 165 miles long
and often crowded with RV's.  It rained most of the day.
We took a picnic lunch, but because of the rain it was eaten in
the basement of the Homer United Methodist Church.  After lunch we drove
by the Homer High School which was next door.  It was notable because it
looked more like the new Welch-Allyn Conference Center than Skaneateles
High School.  C.J. took a picture, if you are interested.
We spent a couple of hours on the Homer Spit, a sandy stretch of
land from which fishermen and women embark and on which tourists are
encouraged to visit many small specialty shops.  We were among the
visitors.
Return trip to Seward was somewhat noisier than the trek to
Homer.  Most of the teenagers slept going (again exhibiting their
God-given gift and frequent natural urge), but were somewhat stir-crazy
returning.  More rain.
Today we are finishing up a few tasks, and tomorrow we clean up
our residences before departing on Sunday morning.  We board our plane in
Anchorage at 7:30 Sunday evening and will arrive back in Syracuse on
Monday morning.
A special note to those who are picking us up:  Our flight is
Continental Flight #3141from Newark, New Jersey, and it scheduled to
arrive at 8:40 a.m.
Thanks for helping to make this trip possible.  It has been a
great experience!
Jim LeGro

Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 5:14 PM 
From: Jim LeGro, c/o Duane B Chase 
Subject: Lindsey 
To: jgreen@a-znet.com 

Dear Joyce,
I've got a few minutes before we go to "the earthquake," so I thought I would expound a bit on the gymnastic demonstration by Lindsey at the nursing home this morning. Wow! She is good! Five foot two inches of solid, flexible muscle and charm. Besides that, she has a quiet stage presence that commands attention and holds it. Not every person in the audience was able to express his or her
amazement and pleasure, but those who did were much impressed, and said so. They cheered with enthusiasm, then several requested her address so they could send their ongoing words of encouragement. Also they promised to watch her progress on television. All assured her that she will be on the 2004 Olympic team in Greece.

Except for her mother Mary, her brother Jared and James Plochocki, who goes to school in Marcellus, none in our group had seen her perform. It was fun to watch their appreciation and genuine pleasure. Then we came back to church and she helped fix lunch, and everybody forgot her temporary notoriety, a role she accepts with ease and drops immediately. Quite credit to her!

Now we're just hanging around waiting for 2:00 o'clock so we can go to the library for the "1964 Earthquake" documentary. I scheduled it to broaden our knowledge a bit, and when I announced it there were a few groans. Despite outward signs, however, anticipation seems high.

Jim LeGro

Wed, 11 Jul 2001 07:36:31 -0800
Dear Joyce, 
Yesterday started out low energy and unfocused.  Whether or not it was natural to have a day like this, I decided to try to bring us back into focus.  So I created a plan for the rest of the week and set
definite times for meals, especially breakfast, which dragged on forever yesterday.  My plans were met with a few comments, but mostly stone faces, as if say, "It's his job to try to organize us, but we certainly aren't going look interested.  Our jobs as teenagers is to look authority in the face, and look completely disinterested."  They did their jobs well.

Then our focus was a "Whale Watch" dinner cruise, and that even elicited a few words of enthusiasm.  The weather was lousy.  Cool south wind (every wind is cool, and I guess we should be grateful it was from the south), and intermittent light rain.  It didn't look like the day for a cruise, but I were wrong.  The boat was full, and everyone was bundled in everything they brought to Alaska.  Sometimes people who wanted to be out on the deck even borrowed clothes from whomever would loan them, so the attire was a wild assortment of "anything that could keep you warm." 

Mary and several of our boys spent most of the first hour on the front deck, bearing the wind caused by the thrust of our boat's twin 4,000 horse power engines. Others went in and out for shorter periods, until we stopped periodically to view bald eagles, seals, whales and porpoises.  Along the
way we were served a meal of fresh salmon with brownies for dessert. Yum!  The longest stop was at the base of a glacier.  The base was two miles long and 300 feet high, and occasionally we were treated to a calving of icebergs.  But the most profound experience was that of the sounds it made.  Some were elongated creaks and others were sharp, loud cracks, not unlike the sound of a bat on a home run baseball.  We stood, watched and listened to it as if it were a living creature with wisdom to impart.  Perhaps it was.

It was after 9:00 when we returned to port.  The wind, rain and excitement of the trip had taken its toll.  The adults were all ready for bed, and the younger members of the group departed for the youth center, which is across the street from the church. It was a good day. 

This morning we are going finish up our work projects.  This afternoon we are going to a showing of a documentary on the 1964 earthquake and tidal wave that wiped out much of Seward.  If the weather clears a bit, groups of three will be taking plane rides this afternoon and evening.  
Tomorrow we are going to Homer, known for its concentration of artists.  Since it is a four hour trip each way in our vans (30 minutes by air), it will be a day of much riding.  I probably won't write
tomorrow morning, but I will be in touch again soon.
Jim LeGro

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 07:11:49 -0800 
From: Duane B Chase 
Subject: Snow 
To: jgreen@a-znet.com 

Our host, Duane Chase, arranged for a friend to give plane rides to our group.  Sometime between now and our departure on Sunday morning groups of three will fly over what we have been gawking at from earth. Last night Duane took me up in his small plane to show me where they will go.
I was impressed most by the awesomeness of snow.  There are splotches of snow on most of the mountains.  We can see that from the ground.  Some summers the warmth melts most of that snow, but this was not such a summer.  When we were aloft what impressed me was the massiveness of the snow fields.  Stretching for miles between mountains and filling valleys was snow that in places is 4,000 feet deep.  It is these snow fields that give birth to several glaciers in the area. 

We saw one of these glaciers up close last Friday on our trip from Anchorage.  On a short side trip off Route 9 we visited Exit Glacier, and will have many photos to share when we return.  Exit Glacier
was so named by early explorers who "exited" the snow fields over that glacier.  As they descended, they saw Resurrection Bay for the first time, and they gave it that name because it was Easter day.
We are alive and well, getting some good work done, and having experiences that will undoubted be remembered a lifetime.

Jim LeGro

Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 07:25:23 -0800 
From: Duane B Chase dbc338firstave@juno.com
Subject: Alaska 
To: jgreen@a-znet.com 

Dear Joyce,
It is early Monday morning in Seward. The sky is clear for the first time, and the mountains are brilliant shades of green and brown with splotches of snow in the morning sun. It is breathtaking. Our
plans for the day include work at the church and parsonage and the possibility of sightseeing plane rides.

Perhaps our most dramatic experience so far was the climb up Marathon Mountain by six of members. After working all morning on Saturday, at 2:00 in the afternoon Todd Fesko, Erik Eibert, Tim Chave, Kaitlyn Corona and Lindsey Bruck started to climb. C. J. Parsons joined them about a half hour later. 

Their plan was to climb three miles to the top and return for a planned cookout for dinner at 5:00. The plan seemed to make sense, because one man in the 4th of July "Marathon Run" had made the round trip in 45 minutes. 

At 5:00 others in our group gathered at the home of Duane and Karen Chase. Within a few minutes we were gathered around their dining room table eating beef and veggie burgers. A light rain was falling, so the plan for eating outside was scrapped in favor of inside comfort. But our comfort began to disappear the longer we waited for the climbers to return. From the dining room we could see the mountain, but the clouds were heavy and low, so only the road before the entrance to the climb and
a small portion of the mountain were visible. No one could see the climbers, and our imaginations offered little comfort. 

At 7:00 we still were waiting. Our nervous energy mounted. We had to do something, so Duane and I walked a quarter mile to the treacherous looking "Marathon Run" entrance. From that perspective it appeared to me that the first 500 feet were a 30 degree incline of loose rocks of varying sizes that descended to a solid rock slide at 45 degrees which was wet with rain and appeared to be slippery. We could see no one, and Duane's calls were responded to only by echoes. My nervousness changed to anxiety. We counted our options as we walked back to Duane's house. They were really only two: Climb or wait. Karen and Mary Bruck met us half way, and together we walked back to the entrance, known as "the shoot." 

Sharing our anxiety brought little relief. By that time it was 7:30, five and one half hours after they left.
Duane said, "I've been on the path many times, and there is an easier way down than the way they went up. I'm going to go up to meet them." I wished there was something I could do besides waiting and worrying. There wasn't. Worrying out loud with Mary and Karen helped only a little.

Ten minutes later we heard voices. One was Duane's. There were others, and my anxiety dissipated a bit. Then we heard Duane's voice say, "All six are with me, and they are all right." What a relief!
It took another fifteen minutes before we saw them walking down the road toward Duane's house. They were very tired and very muddy, and exhaustion was on every face and in each sagging body, but they were alive! 

They were too muddy to eat inside, so Duane's sister, Diane, who was visiting from Liverpool, served meals to the climbers as they sat in various postures of fatigue on a dripping deck. By that time it was 9:00 o'clock and still light. Actually I haven't seen any darkness yet. The rest of our group had gathered at church to reflect on our part of this ordeal, while the climbers found places to shower off the mud. 

A few sore muscles complained, but climbers and non climbers greeted Sunday morning with gratitude. At 11:00 we gathered with members of the Seward United Methodist Church and guests from several states, including one family from Rome, NY, one from Kansas, one from South
Carolina, and another from Illinois for worship, followed by a pot luck lunch. The company was warm, and the food was delicious.

Do we have plans for any more climbing? Yes we do. At the luncheon we met a woman who placed second in the women's division of the "Marathon Run", and she let our climbers know that they had climbed the path classified "for experts," and she volunteered to guide us on a less demanding climb. Most of our climbers and one or two others said, "Let's go."

Jim LeGro

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Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2001 08:16:32 -0800 
From: Duane B Chase dbc338firstave@juno.com
Subject: Alaska 
To: jgreen@a-znet.com 

Dear Joyce,
Our group from Borodino has arrived safely in Alaska. On Thursday morning we gathered at Syracuse airport at 8:00 a.m. and were airborne by 9:00. Our first stop was Newark, NJ, where we waited for 6 tedious hours. Most were creative in using their spare time for at least 4 of those hours, but the last two were surrounded with increasing impatience. All this was followed by 1 and 1/2 hours of sitting on the approach to the runway, waiting for other traffic to clear away.  It was a hard lesson in patience.

7 hours and about 3 meals later, we arrived in Anchorage. It was 9:45 in the evening Alaska time, but our systems were feeling the effects of having been "on the road" for about 13 hours. No one was exactly surly, but patience was in short supply; Bill Porter had a contact in Anchorage who put us in touch with the director of student residences at the Pacific Anchorage University, where we were able to find very nice overnight accommodations at a reasonable price. Actually this overnight was paid for by profits from the sale of flares, so those who helped to sell and those who purchased flares are much appreciated.

It never got dark all night, so our natural urges were to stay up, but our bodies finally gave in, and everyone was in bed by 1:00 a.m. or so. Then, since first morning light was a perpetual experience, we started waking up about 5:00 a.m. It was not a great night's rest, but we were somewhat refreshed.

By 9:00 o'clock we had wedged ourselves and all our luggage into two Dodge Grand Caravans, and we departed for Seward; a trip of about 125 miles. We were immediately surrounded by lavish scenery, including many snow decorated mountains dramatizing lush green valleys and lower slope. 
Mid afternoon we passed a sign for "Exit Glacier," toward which we impulsively turned. What a great treat! We spent the next couple of hours climbing over and around one of the world's most accessible glaciers. Wow!

After arriving in Seward and being greeted by Rev. Duane Chase, who is from Camillus and went into the ministry and the mission field after flying bombers in to Laos during the Vietnam War. Then we went shopping for meal preparations, we fixed and ate dinner, found our places to spend the night, and began to think about the work projects that will take our talents and energies tomorrow.
We sincerely hope that our families and friends in Borodino are surviving our absence. We continue to appreciate your support during our times of fundraising, and your prayers as we have moved into our great journey.

Much love to you all from Seward, Alaska. Final note: It has been cloudy and somewhat rainy since our arrival, but by this afternoon it was about 60 with very brief periods of clearing. I'll be back in
touch early next week.

Jim LeGro

Alaska Mission Team

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