Caleb

Why Caleb Is Smiling

Fast Facts
 

• Seventeen of the 20 highest peaks in the United States are in Alaska. Denali (formerly called McKinley), the highest peak in North America, is 20,320 ft (6,190 m) above sea level. Denali, the Native Alaskan name for the peak, means “The Great One.”
• The Aleut word alyeska, or aláxsxaq, meaning “great land,” gives Alaska its name.
• Indigenous people including the Aleuts, Athabascans, Haida, Inuit, Tlingit, and Yupik still live in Alaska.
• Big mammals that can be found in Alaska include black bears, caribou, moose, musk oxen, and the world’s largest brown bear, the Kodiak, as well as polar bears, beluga whales, and walruses found on the coast.
• The coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States was in northern Alaska in 1971, when it dropped to -80ºF (-62ºC).

By Andrew McChesney

Caleb decided to lead a short worship in his cabin at Camp Polaris in Alaska. It was the second day of camp, and the six boys under his watch as camp counselor were tired after a full day of activities.

Before Caleb could start, one of the boys fell asleep. He was suffering from withdrawal symptoms from chewing tobacco. A number of Alaska Native children at the Seventh-day Adventist summer camp are addicted to chewing tobacco, and they suffer from nicotine withdrawal during the first few days of camp.

As the boy slept, Caleb lit a fire in the cabin’s small furnace. Although it was summertime, Alaskan nights got chilly.

Although the other five boys were tired, they didn’t want to go to bed yet. “Can we come over by the fire?” one boy asked.

Caleb invited the boys over for worship. He started worship with a question.

“Who is God to you?” he asked.

The boys took turns answering.

“He is the Savior,” said one.

“He is in heaven,” said another.

“He is fiercely faithful,” said a third. “Fiercely Faithful” was the camp theme for that year.

Then it was Caleb’s turn to tell the boys who God was to him.

“God is loving with all the best characteristics,” he said. “He is generous, very forgiving, merciful, and peaceful.”

One boy exclaimed, “That’s a lot of big words, man!”

Caleb smiled.

“God is like a best friend who is always there for you and even better than that,” he said.

The boys silently pondered the idea of an always-present best friend for a moment. It was unusual for the boys to be quiet.

The boy who had been impressed with the big words spoke again.

“Have you ever seen an angel?” he said.

Without waiting for an answer, he exclaimed, “I have!”

Then he told an incredible story about an angel with shiny wings. It sounded like he was making up the story as he told it.

Caleb smiled.

“Angels are pretty neat,” he said.

He was glad to see that the boys wanted to talk about spiritual things. The whole purpose of Camp Polaris was to share Jesus’ love with Alaska Native children.

After worship, the five boys played a lively game of hide-and-seek. The boy who was going to seek stepped out onto the porch. The other boys hid in the cabin. Two slid under bunk beds; another stood behind his coat, which was hanging on the wall; and the last sat in a crack between his bunk bed and the wall and pulled his sleeping bag over his head.

After playing hide-and-seek for about 45 minutes, the boys went to bed. Most fell asleep quickly. But one was terribly homesick.

“I’m homesick,” he told Caleb. “I don’t go to sleep when I’m homesick.”

“You don’t need to go to sleep right now,” Caleb said. “But I need you to lay down.”

He lay down and eventually fell asleep.

Caleb also lay down. As he drifted off to sleep, he remembered how the boys had showed an interest in God and wanted to talk about spiritual things during worship. He smiled. God was at work in the hearts of the boys.

Thank you for a previous Thirteenth Sabbath Offering that helped Camp Polaris receive new cabins and real toilets and showers. Caleb and the boys in his cabin are grateful to those who contributed to that offering in 2015. You can help spread the gospel in Alaska again with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, which will help open a center of influence in Bethel. Thank you for planning a generous offering on December 28.