Sounds like Sitka

Sitka, June 6-8, 2008: Guest preaching at Sitka Lutheran Church, Sitka, Alaska.

(Where's Sitka? Soggy Southeast Alaska...check out the google map below)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=sitka,+ak&ie=UTF8&ll=58.631217,-135.351562&spn=20.581038,54.140625&z=4

Church stuff: One Lutheran church, two services, one sermon, zero albs worn, 10 people at the first service.

Fun stuff: One kayak trip in killer waves, 5 cruise ships docked in Sitka Sound, 3 mile hike around Beaver Lake, one handsome cello player at the summer music fest, 3 (at least) fantastic coffee shops.

I went to Sitka on an offhand remark. Pastor Jim Drury (who serves there) and I were joking that I should come down and be the guest preacher for him.

Suddenly, I was on an airplane. I guess he wasn't kidding.

Then a young woman at church (Lindsey) asked if she could buy her own ticket and tag along. Why not? So we set out for Sitka.

Sitka holds about 9,000 people, living on the Baranov Island, which is otherwise almost all forested. The island boasts a bunch of brown bears in its temperate rainforest climate. Sitka is (of course) only accessible by boat or plane. It's surrounded by mountains with stripes of snow, hills of evergreen forests and dotted with rainforest foliage like ferns. It's lovely.

The first day (June 6), we arrived and had lunch at the airport's restaurant, the Nugget. Not bad for airport food. Also, the Nugget has famous pies, to die for. And I don't even like pie. We stayed in the apartment next to Pastor Jim's house. The apartment is used in the summers for the volunteers at the church (more on this later).

Lindsey and I hiked around Beaver Lake that afternoon and had dinner at the sushi place in town. That evening, we attened opening night of the Sitka Summer Music Festival. Who knew? World-class chamber musicians flock to Sitka for weeks in June to play a variety of small ensembles and solos. They tour places like Moscow, San Francisco, New York and.... Sitka. We heard three amazing pieces by Beethoven, Lizst and Dvorak. The cello, esp. in the Dvorak, melted my heart.

Saturday (June 7) we attended the Parish Life Committee meeting. We heard about various summer activities at the church and community. I presented (and we had great discussion) about young adults and how to be more welcoming as a church to them and just evangelism in general. There were also issues disuccsed around Pastor Jim's upcoming departure (he's taking a call in August in Utah...unbeknownst to me when we first planned this pulpit exchange).

Later that day, Lindsey and I took a 2-hour kayak in the sound in the roughest waters I've seen from the kayak seat and did some shopping. That night, parishioners from Sitka Lutheran had us over for dinner. Our hosts were 41-year Sitka residents and wowed us with stories of life on the island and working for the cruise ships that dock here all summer. Tourist pour from these ships like so many droplets from a waterfall and flood the town's little shops and galleries. It's a great boon to the economy, but leaves people economically struggling in the winter. A couple years ago, the towns pulp mill closed. Last year, the private college Sheldon Jackson folded. Townsfolk wonder what this means for their futures.

Sunday saw two services at Sitka Lutheran, one at 8:30 am with very few people and one at 11 am with the "regulars" and several folks from the cruise ships. I had brought my stole and when I asked Pr. Jim if I could borrow and extra alb, he laughed at me. But I wore my collar shirt, as did he.

Preaching a sermon to a congregation you don't know is like writing a love letter to a stranger. (I told the congregation this). Still, I pressed on. It was interesting to gaze at their faces and see (though somewhat buried) the shock and grief of Pastor Jim's leaving. They've only known a few weeks.

In my sermon I talked about interruptions...as the place God uses to get inside of us and transform us and heal us for the next thing. May it be so for the people of Sitka.

Enough! Next post, I'll tell you about the volunteer program at Sitka Lutheran.