SEND of Alaska

The history of SEND North begins in 1936 when it was incorporated as Central Alaskan Missions by founder, Vincent Joy, in his home state of New Jersey.  In the spring of 1937, Vincent traveled to Copper Center, Alaska with his wife, Beckie, and their young son, Jim. Vince was an inspiring visionary and a tireless worker for the Kingdom. By the time of his death in 1966, well over 50 workers had joined CAM.His visions had been at least initially fulfilled in the successful establishment of Faith Hospital, Radio KCAM, and Alaska Bible College. Outreach efforts had touched about 20 communities. His approach was to “by all means reach some.” READ MORE on their website.

Tom Denlinger is the founder of LightShine Alaska and he and his wife, Ruth and son Alex served with SEND working at their base in Glennallen for three weeks in April of 1995.  Tom is thankful for Don & Millie Ressler who are career missionaries with SEND (pictured here). Don & Millie were supported by Tom’s home church and he was quite moved by their presentations throughout the 1970s.

In April of 1995, Tom installed siding on the admin building and began learning about ministry in Alaska that became a burning passion in him. They met many different people that inspired him to return. In 1996, Tom brought three men to work on a married student home at Alaska Bible College. You can see photos of that team HERE. That year, Tom met Mike Potts who was pastor at Copper Center Community Chapel. Tom and Mike talked vision for building a camp for the children and youth at Copper Center. Starting in 1998, he brought up a series of teams that built Strelna Lake Wilderness Bible Camp. You can see photos of that process HERE.

In 2000, Tom organized skilled labor teams to help build the homes of two SEND missionaries – Kim & Yvonne Heinbaugh and Mert & Jean Weaver. The team consisted of people from two churches in Pennsylvania.

Here are some photos from that year and some of the work that they did.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.