Some friendships come and go from our lives, while others last for a lifetime – no matter how much time and space lies between you. Justin and Lynsey Hostetter are two such friends and profound servants of Christ. Together with their three children – Evangeline, Norah, and Grady – they serve at Victory Bible Camp about 45 miles north of Palmer, Alaska. One of the common misconceptions about a camping ministry is that all the work happens during the summer camping season. That couldn’t be further from the truth, and for this article Lynsey Hostetter shared her most recent blog post to bring us up to speed with what Christ has been doing in their lives and their ministry at Victory:

 Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2015! We passed the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. We still don’t have direct sunlight shining into our house yet, but the days are growing slightly longer, and we look forward to the return of the sun over Tepee Ridge within the next few weeks.

It’s been a very snow-less winter for the rest of the state of Alaska, but we’ve maintained at least a dusting here at Victory. Right now we have a solid foot, which is meager by normal comparisons, but for this winter it’s a lot! Winters around here get very long, especially at this time of year, and I really struggle with missing the light. Fortunately, there are still beautiful skies to see even if the sun is absent. [Most notably on nights when the Aurora Borealis light up the sky with a rainbow heavenly fire].

For Christmas, Justin’s parents came up from Minnesota and his cousin Megan stuck around on break from her internship here. We had a fun Christmas enjoying family!

We are all eating gluten free now out of necessity, and we are taking Norah [the Hostetter’s second daughter] through some different elimination diets to try and help her eczema. It made the holiday cooking different because I had to rethink a lot of things. But we still managed sugar cookies!

Grady [the Hostetter’s son] says 20+ words now and seems to add new ones every day. He is his sisters’ most treasured possession and also their worst enemy! He keeps us all on our toes!

Life right now is not too rushed for us. We are preparing for it to get crazy, though, as soon as spring rolls around and Justin begins his job of promoting summer camps within lots of local churches, and also interviewing prospective summer staff. There is still a constant flow of guest groups through camp, and we pray we can be good witnesses to everyone we come in contact with! Here are some ways you can be praying right now:

• Please pray that God will work in the hearts of all who come this summer to work here. We don’t know yet who God intends to send us, but He does!
• There are several new families coming on to permanent staff, and we had to say goodbye to a longtime staff family who heeded God’s call elsewhere. Changes are good and important, but sometimes it’s hard to go with the flow! Pray for an easy settling in for new permanent staff and for travel mercies for the Scherrer family who are settling into their new home in the lower 48.
• Pray for Norah. Her eczema, which she has battled since she was a baby, has gotten exponentially worse in the last month or two.

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Our prayers are certainly with the Hostetters and the entire Victory family, and the staff here at Thrive Christian Press is very excited to see what Christ will do there in the year to come. Whatever it is, we know it will be truly amazing and all for his glory.

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Copyright © 2015 David Scott Fields II. All Rights Reserved.