I received an email from a mission pastor in Tennessee today. "Hi, Scott! We’re praying for you and GraceWorks during these challenging days. Any specific requests we can lift up today?"  These are certainly CHALLENGING DAYS!  We've got to look out for each other and pray for each other during these uncertain and sometimes frightening times.  All of us are wrestling with, "What now?" The news has been mostly troubling the last few days. 
    First, we must remember that God is in control. None of this surprises Him!  He is still working.  We need to continue to pray for wisdom and discernment.  Some of the decisions we must make are in our hands; and some are out of our hands.  As Christians, we go forward in Faith, not Fear. 
    Our GraceWorks Alaska staff wants you to know that we will be here in Alaska this summer prepared to serve your mission team.   We are already planning changes in order to better protect the health of our missionary guests and will detail those in later correspondence.  We have no plans now to change any ministry programs this summer.  The kids and the youth in the parks will still be there this summer with perhaps the most receptive hearts we have ever seen
     Our summer mission teams, our summer volunteer staff and our GraceWorks friends all have questions concerning this Summer 2020 GraceWorks Campaign.  Our summer teams are 2 1/2 months to 4 1/2 months off still.  We encourage teams and summer staff that, if possible, it is too early to make big decisions about changes.  The airlines WILL work with you. A lot can happen in the next few months.  It probably will get worse before it gets better.  But when will we turn the corner? God knows only.   Right now we exercise wisdom, we listen and obey what our leaders tell us to do, we proceed with due diligence, we pray and trust God, and we do not panic. 
    We are certainly in uncharted territory and things are changing daily.  Our commitment to you is to post weekly updates on our GraceWorks Alaska Facebook page and also our graceworksak.com  home page.  
    And in answer to my friend from Tennessee who emailed today asking what to pray for?  Pray that we might have wisdom to make wise decisions, that we might function out of Faith and not fear, and that we keep our eye on the ball -- which is loving and honoring God and continuing to share the amazing message of Christ -- who is the true and only HOPE for the world.
Scott  Kirby  GraceWorks Alaska

C.S. Lewis on the Coronavirus.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/cs-lewis-coronavirus