{"id":249260,"date":"2024-02-01T16:08:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samaritanspurse.org\/?p=249260"},"modified":"2025-01-17T11:13:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T16:13:23","slug":"warming-in-koyuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samaritanspurse.org\/es\/construction\/warming-in-koyuk\/","title":{"rendered":"Calentarse en Koyuk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n Warming<\/span>\r\n in<\/span>\r\n Koyuk<\/span>\r\n <\/h1>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n \r\n \"Duma\r\n \r\n \r\n \"Koyuk\r\n <\/header>\r\n
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Samaritan's Purse staff and volunteers built a church in the remote village of Koyuk over the summer of 2023. Explore village and church life in this special place up north in Alaska.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

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God'<\/span>s Country<\/h2>\r\n \r\n

Up north in Alaska, where the forests and the tundra can swallow two states the size of Texas, there sits a little village on the banks of the mighty Koyuk River. Here, on the near side of the Seward Peninsula, about 90 miles east of Nome as the crow flies, the river drains into Norton Bay, then into the sound of the same name, and eventually into the Bering Sea.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In this village, not quite 300 Native Alaskans carry on their subsistence lifestyle. That means living off the land and the water\u2014season by season\u2014and being thankful for the bounties they yield at the times set by the Creator. Duck eggs, smoked salmon, moose steaks, blueberries, cranberries, seal oil, and much more.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s not like it was 60 years ago, because now homes have electricity, running water, and many have large freezers. And there\u2019s even a local retailer in town with staples and delicacies from all over, including candy bars and frozen French fries.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Nevertheless, though times change, the Native Alaskans of Koyuk take pride in their culture\u2014most are from the Inupiat tribe\u2014and their choices and their setting. Most villagers still live off hunting and fishing and gathering from the earth. Though some people travel occasionally, Koyuk lies far off the road system and air transportation is, in general, prohibitively expensive. Nothing arrives here except by plane or by barge. Koyuk is where these people are planted and where they will succeed or fail. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Some parts of rural Alaska are stuck, knee-deep in an endless muddy, bog. Not Koyuk. The village is a beautiful place with trees and hills and rocks rising as a backdrop. You can walk down to the beach in minutes and watch where the fresh and saltwater mix, the river and its tributaries meeting the sea. Down there in the summer, you\u2019ll hear the guttural croakings of the ravens, the piercing cries of the sea gulls, and the melancholy trilling of the sandhill cranes. It is a land richly blessed with natural resources.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"My dad called it God\u2019s country,\" said Wallace \"Wally\" Otton, former mayor, airport manager, and decades-long resident. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Game is abundant and Koyuk is scenic, but the state of the village\u2019s only church building in 2022 was anything but pretty\u2014it was, in fact, near collapse. Faith comes by hearing the Gospel, and it\u2019s the church\u2014the people of God\u2014who proclaim this Good News to all ages. And, for gathering and preaching to occur in this special community, in this remote place, that means the church needs a warm, safe place to worship together. But there were not enough resources in the community to fix the dilapidated structure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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