Riverside has partnered with Terry and Teresa Allen, pastors of Elim Covenant Church in Elim, Alaska, to help them meet the physical and spiritual needs of their rural Alaska community.
The Allens recently visited Riverside and shared about what they are doing in Alaska. The Allens minister to an Alaskan village of 320 people in the Alaskan bush, where the unemployment rate can reach 80% and most villagers live off the land, hunting and farming for their food. There are no roads for 300 miles and temperatures dip to 40 degrees below 0. In the Summer it is light for an average of 22 hours a day and in the Winter it is only light for an average of 4 hours a day.
CNN recently published an article (In Rural Alaska Villages, Families Struggle To Survive) detailing the economic effects on rural Alaska. The article notes that Alaskan villagers are paying up to $1500 in heating bills each month and $400 per week in groceries. Some families are running out of food and others only eat one meal per day.
Riverside recently shipped boxes of fabric and hygiene products to Elim. Other projects are being planned as we work to overcome the logistics of getting basic necessities to rural Alaska.