Hey, it’s Mikaela!!

Hello! Thanks for coming! I wanted to take a bit of space here to let you know how I came to hear about Victory Bible Camp and Conference Center, and how it is that I found myself on a plane to Alaska for the first time in 2016.

Alaska?? How did you end up there?

Whenever someone asks me how I ended up in Alaska, I am reminded how much I owe all I have learned at camp the past 5 years to the work of the Lord in my life. It was through a friend’s cousin’s graduation party that her parents attended that they met someone whose daughter was on a work trip at this camp in Alaska that we came to first hear about VBC. Previously I had determined that I wanted to spend the summer between high school and college on mission somewhere, under the assumption that following summers I would take on jobs to pay tuition at school. When Maryanna (my lifelong friend) and I heard about the camp from her parents, I decided on the spot that I was going to go. We had talked about going to Alaska and this was our chance.

To make a long story short, I spent my senior year of high school unsure of my college plans, but certain that I would be going to camp for the summer. Even before I had applied, interviewed, or been accepted, I would tell people that I was going. God continued to prepare the way before me and placed me in a unique role where I was stretched beyond my limits and had no choice but to lean on the Lord for my daily strength. If you take the time to reach out, I would love to tell you of the faithfulness of God and how he continued to use VBC in my journey with him year after year.

Year after year I would leave camp in August assuming that God had different plans for my life moving forward and that I would not be returning to camp. But each year by God’s grace through scholarships, new school programs, leadership opportunities and other means, I have found myself landing in Alaska in June for the past 5 years. Often after pursuing other plans and summer opportunities I would find myself humbled by all I had to learn from the campers and staff that I met at VBC that year.

Back again.

While VBC certainly holds a special place in my heart, it is not because of the camp itself, the beautiful Alaska scenery, or even the memory of the lessons learned in that space that draws us back this summer. So why do we find ourselves 4,237 miles to a camp in AK this year? Before we got married in October 2020, Benjamin and I knew that we wanted to be available to serve God and follow his call on our lives. To quote the book of James “you believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder” (2:19). We want to live in faith and, even though we will fall short daily, we want to surrender our fears and worries to him and live like he reigns in our lives.

So…

This year, living in faith looks like leaving the life we are building here for two months to invest in the lives youth who come on short term trips.

This year, living in faith looks like leaving Benjamin’s new business in the hands of the Lord for two months.

This year, living in faith looks like working along old friends and those we have yet to meet to build the Kingdom here on earth.

This year, living in faith looks like taking steps to surrender our future to the Lord’s hands.

What does living in faith look like for you this year?

-Mikaela