Well it has been a crazy couple of weeks. We went from the excitement of the Iditarod coming to a closed airport, city mandates, and an empty church building. One thing that is not empty though is the church. The church has LEFT THE BUILDING! We are still a community that is strong and spiritually healthy and need to use this crisis as an opportunity to grow in our faith and help others grow in theirs. Reports from around the world show many new people turning too Jesus and we will see this here in Nome.

     As I am sitting here at my kitchen table, the spot where I have had church meetings, met with the choir, had coffee with people on during Coffee with the Pastor, and other various social online gatherings, I am thinking about the sermon series we were in and the next sermon series that is starting, "Fearless: Imagine living life without fear". The interesting thing is that I planned these series last year. I am also pondering the best way for us to stay connected as a church body.
     
      I Know many have access to the internet, at the same time many do not. The Nome Elementary School called all the families this week to find out who had internet and found out that only about 50% of the families had access. This means that those of you reading this probably know someone who does not have internet.

      How do we move forward?

     For those that have internet: We have Zoom meetings set up throughout the week. You can find the complete list at nomecov.org.  Every Sunday we will be broadcasting our service on KICY and we will Facebook live on our Nome Covenant group page. Starting this Sunday, there will be a Bible study available on Facebook and the Website for family or personal reflection that is tied to the sermon.

      For everyone with and without internet: We have KICY service at 11am. If you do not have access to a radio, we have solar radios available. We are not encouraging gathering between households, but we are encouraging communication. I have spent the last few days making phone calls, reaching out to people, and it has been very well received. If everyone called a few people every day to check up on them, it would be amazing. Last but not least, 8pm every night is a time of church wide prayer. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing at the moment, even if it’s just a short prayer, join us. If we come together for that one moment, we are coming before God as a body.          Set your alarms for 8PM daily.
     
     a few logistical things:
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 The leadership team made the decision that instead of indefinitely closing, we would base           our closure on the school systems closure. Currently the schools are closed until May 1. If             things change, we will adapt, but just for peace of mind for everyone wondering, we put a           solid target on reopening.

Because the church building was used by Alaska Missions, with people from all over the    country, the Leadership team has decided that the building will be quarantined for 14 days  from the time they left. This means there will be no access to the church until April 6. I do want to note that the team thoroughly cleaned the building when they left, and they did a great job of social distancing from the locals while they were here under the circumstances that they were under.
 
      Remember, as Max Lucado said in his book Life is Tough, “You’ll get through this.  It won’t be painless, it won’t be quick. But God will use this mess for good.  In the meantime don’t be foolish or naive.  Don’t despair either.  With God’s help you will get through this.”

I Thess 3:16  “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.”

 Pastor Chad Benkert

     Happy Holidays. As we pass through Thanksgiving, with a thankful heart, we enter the season of advent. This is a season of hope, a season of joy, a season of peace, a season of love and a time to celebrate  the birth of Jesus. Although not all of us share these feelings, we can all start advent off with hope; Hope of the coming King. As holiday shopping takes away some of the peace and joy we feel or family issues leave us without hope or feeling unloved, we can still find these things through the power of the Holy Spirit.
       During the advent season, we will be doing a series called “Missing Pieces”. In it we will look at the lives of Mary, Joseph, Zachariah and Elizabeth, and the shepherds as real people that were living life just like we are. The first week Pastor James will help us look at Mary and the reality of being a “pregnant virgin”. Just imagine all the anxiety she must have been facing with all the voices in her life. We see how she finds Hope while being afraid.
     On week two we will then look at Joseph as he finds love while feeling betrayed. Put yourself in his shoes as he hears from his fiancé that she was pregnant by God. We will look at all the external factors in his life that drove him to doubt and question Mary’s fidelity. An angelic visit kept him from hiding Mary away and instead moving forward with the relationship. Through it all, he finds love through his beloved and from God and realizes that bigger things are at work. Imagine responding to betrayal with love… how would that change your Christmas season.
     On week three, I will be preaching on Zechariah and Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. Some of you may be thinking at this point,” hey, this is out of order for advent”. You’re right. This is a special sermon as we look at the coupe finding joy while feeling forgotten. The reason we are doing this out of order is that I will be gone for the first two weeks and I want to preach this sermon as this is a series, I started in 2016 and was the sermon I preached the day Kylie passed. It turns out that the sermon was for me and I didn’t even know it.
      Christmas Sunday we will look at the event from the eyes of the shepherds, from the eyes of the outcasts in those days. We will look at how they found peace even though they felt excluded and alone. For many the holidays are a great time of family renewal, for others it reminds them of how alone they feel. Just like the shepherds, they are not alone as God is always with us, pronouncing the good news of the savior being born through his angels and then through the shepherds.
       I hope you have a wonderful Holiday season and can find the things missing in your life. On behalf of Dana and myself, Happy Holidays and good tidings of comfort and joy that the Holy Spirit provides. We hope that through God, you can find the missing pieces of the advent season in your life.

Pastor Chad

After many hours of work we have a new website but we need you... 
​If you have any pictures, upcoming events, or information we need to share, send an email to us [email protected]. We will do our best to keep this updated so that any information you need will be current and all of our events and will be listed here. On this page you will get an occasional update from Pastor James on I on what is going on in the church. In the meantime, check out ur progress on the different pages of this site. 
​Pastor Chad