Results
Results and testimonies from Last Frontier Ministries since we began
One of my most memorable testimonies was from when we first began ministry within the villages. I am a Alaska bush pilot, and one of the modes of transportation to get to the villages is my Last Frontier Ministries small Cessna 175 bush plane. Safety is of the utmost of importance at Last Frontier Ministries with the founders and with the staff members. So we have an unwritten rule that when flying if anybody feels uncomfortable, or has a check in their spirit about flying then we ground the plane and we either don’t go, or we drive to one of the villages that are accessible by road.
One cold, dark winter day it was around 20 below and we were getting the plane warmed up to fly to a village. It took us almost 2 hours to get the plane, ready to go. It has snow on the wings, ice on the windshield, and it was 20 below so we had to warm up the engine with a propane heater. When everything was said and done, we were getting ready to start the plane, and to fly to the village when one of our staff members had a check in his spirit about flying. I have to say, frustration set in as we just spent so much time getting the plane ready. So we transferred all of our equipment over to our suburban, and we made the five hour trip north to the village. The first part of the ride was very quiet as again the frustration of not being able to fly was real. Once we got to the village, we did a loop around the village, which is about a mile long by a half a mile wide to pray over the village, and to get ourselves ready for the week we had ahead of us. During this time of our ministry, we were blessed with using a former pastors house, who no longer lived in the village. However, it was 20 below outside, so it was 20 below inside as well. As we were building a fire in the woodstove and getting things moved into the house, we heard a knock at the door. When we open the door, there was a gentleman standing there, and he had tears running down his cheeks. We asked what was wrong, and he said that he was standing on a kitchen chair with a Wolf snare tied to one of the rafters, and he was getting ready to end his life when he looked out the window, and he saw our ministry suburban with our Last Frontier Ministries logo on the side, and he said he knew there was hope. We were able to pray for him, and encourage him, and to this day, and he still lives in the village.
In 2010 Last Frontier Ministries started doing a children’s discipleship program on Wednesday after school in the village of MINTO. Sam Kimmel had done an internship with a Ministry in New York that specializes in kids’ church. He used his experience during his internship and we adapted it to the village kids. The kids in the village started to come to where we would have between 15 and 20 kids ranging from diapers all the way through middle school attending the kids church every time we did it. On one particular day we were getting ready to take the kids home as it was too cold for the kids to walk, and one little kid grabbed a hold of Sam’s leg and said I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to go home I don’t want to go home. The next time we did kids church we were driving down the back road of the village and a bunch of little kids came up and started pounding on the door and asking can we have church? Can we have church? When are you going to do church? We can see a change in the kiddos hearts and lives and a passion starting to develop for Jesus in their heart. Over the years, we’ve seen many kids give their life to Jesus.
The first youth with a mission team that Last Frontier ministry hosted in the village of MINTO was an amazing Turning Point for Last Frontier Ministries. During why whims to month mission in MINTO, the students did a prayer walk around the village every day. During the prayer walk, they prayed over every single house, and had interactions with many of the people who lived in the village. They started doing weekly women’s, men’s, youth, and adult services at the church. They played a lot of basketball with the highschoolers, and they poured their hearts out to the village. During this time, three of the villagers surrendered their life to the Lord ship of Jesus Christ. It was radical transformation. In a village of 100 people that means 3% of the population gave their life to Christ, when they would hold services, there would be times where we would see 20 people come to church to worship God.
Patrick Smith
Patrick Smith, a.k.a. Smitty is a young native man that lives in the village of MINTO. Smitty had two amazing parents who loved the Lord. His father also Patrick Smith was diagnosed with cancer without a good prognosis. During his fight with cancer, Rob Graham, and Sam Kimmel became extremely close to Patrick after his passing LFM took special interest in helping guide Smitty through his teenage years and into adulthood. Smitty is now 24 years old, is in passionate for suit for now the Director of the first youth center that MINTO has ever had. His goal is to help lead young children through their child and adolescent stages of life and point them to Jesus.
MINTO Youth Center
Minto is a small village of between 101 120 native Alaska residence. In the village of MINTO they have a small school in which kids play basketball for their extracurricular activities. Currently right now there is no youth program through the church and unless, the students are playing basketball. There is not much for the students to do. Depression can often creep into young peoples lives, especially in Alaska and it’s even worse in the village. With long cold dark winters students often turn to unhealthy outlets. Patrick Smith, a young man in the village, had a goal and a dream to have a youth center that was centered around Christ. I Last Frontier Ministries helped Patrick Smith approach the tribal council in regards to the old tribal hall that had been abandoned for many years. He approached them and was able to get a 50 year lease on the nearly 2500 square-foot building.
We also wrote a grant to bed Co. doing business as MINTO financial for a grant to renovate the building and to be able to run it as a youth center. We were awarded a grant for $120,000 and through partnerships with Flashpoint missions, and Helping Hands Alaska, I Last Frontier Ministries was able to help Smitty bring this dream into a reality. This will be a safe place for the students to be able to come to. They will receive love and care along with practical things such as help with their homework and healthy outlets.