When I first started my travels with LAMP, my trips were. . . well, trips. Like most people, I was a little nervous about flights, and more importantly, didn’t care for the feelings I had of leaving home. Please don’t read too much into this, but the first few times I traveled, it felt like I was away from home for a long time.

Now when I travel, two or three weeks doesn’t feel like much. The communities I serve in are like a second home! The roads I travel have become familiar, and I look forward to visiting people that I know in each of the communities. But hardly do these two places overlap. When I leave one community, I enter another one.

Recently, I became friends with a youth worker in the Hazelton area. Alex has been working for the Salvation Army for a few years now. We connected through a Gitsanimx language class that we are taking. He is in the BC classroom, while I take it at home through a computer video camera in the classroom.

Last summer, I discovered that Alex really didn’t have a support group other than the area youth ministers. So I invited him to be a part of a small group of directors of Christian education/ church workers, known as the Thunderkittens. There are seven in the group －one person in the San Diego area, another in North Carolina and the rest of us scattered around the northwest.

Just picture middle school aged boys and then imagine them as adults but still having a middle school sense of humor and you have the Thunderkittens. We meet twice a month to discuss books we read and podcasts that we listen to. The rest of the time we share and pray for one another.

Alex has been a great fit with the group, he even created our new logo for the Thunderkitten's t-shirt. Sorry t-shirts are for members and honorary members only.

Now, here is where my work and life back home overlap.

A few months ago, I shared with the LAMP staff about Alex and my desire for him to attend the LCMS NW District youth and family conference held every year in February. Before I could ask, permission was granted. I was excited for Alex to meet the rest of the Thunderkittens, in person, as well as the amazing group of people serving churches in the northwest.

So last week, Alex bridged my work with LAMP in northern BC with my home in Portland, Oregon. It was amazing to watch and listen as Alex shared firsthand his work with people in his home community of Gitamaxx. As Alex also shared about his struggles with depression, a close friend of mine shared for the first time his struggles with depression. Other youth workers were able to ask about working with First Nations people, and Alex was able to explain firsthand what works best. I look forward to these two separate parts of my life overlapping more. I also look forward to what God will do through Alex and my connection with ministry to First Nations people.

A couple of weeks later I was able to visit Alex and attend one of his youth programs. We also watched the final women's masters basketball game where one of his sisters played and the other was the manager. More about this trip in my next blog.