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Ellie Claus Featured in BRIO Magazine
ANCHORAGE, AK (January 29, 2004) - Ellie Claus, whose family has had a
longtime affiliation with First Covenant Church in Anchorage, Alaska, is
featured in the most recent edition of BRIO, a magazine targeted
to reach Christian girls.
The 17-year-old Claus told her story to Greg Asimakoupoulos, a Covenant
pastor who since last October has been serving as interim pastor of
DeerGrove Covenant Church in Palatine, Illinois. Claus said she has been
inspired as an athlete by her grandmother, Eleanor, a former member of
the Evangelical Covenant Church Executive Board. Eleanor is a marathoner
who prays for individuals with names from A to Z corresponding to each
mile of the 26.2 miles she runs.
One of the top junior sled dog racers in North America, Claus finished
first in the 2003 Junior Iditarod and has also won the regionally known
Junior Yukon Quest. In March, just following her 18th birthday, she will
be eligible for the first time to compete at the world renowned Iditarod
sled dog race, a 1,161-mile competition based in Anchorage and ending at
the Evangelical Covenant Church in Nome.
Claus is home schooled by her parents, Paul and Donna Claus. Her
parents, along with her grandparents, John and Eleanor, own and operate
Ultima Thule, a wilderness fly-in lodge located in the heart of the
Wrangell/St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the
United States.
Along with school and her sled dog training, Claus has a mind for
missions. She went to Ethiopia two years ago with the internationally
recognized organization Teen Missions, serving with 31 others as they
built a church building in Gambella. The group later traveled to Addis
Ababa, a city with a population similar to that of Chicago. Claus stated
In a March 14, 2002 article in this online Covenant news report, Claus
said the experience "touched my soul and opened my heart to so many new
things." (To read the 2002 article, visit the Covenant home page at
www.covchurch.org and select the archives link to search in the March
2002 folder.)
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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