New Year Off to Good Start for ACC

SOLDOTNA, AK (September 11, 2004) - Three years ago, Alaska Christian College (ACC) was little more than a telephone line and hundreds of requested prayers for assistance from Evangelical Covenant churches.

Those prayers have been answered in a variety of ways and ACC's founder and president Keith Hamilton isn't the only one who is relieved that help arrived. This year's class – the fourth at the still new school – includes 36 students.

Hamilton and new director of admissions and financial aid Scott Pitsch are excited about the way in which God has been moving in the lives of students. The way God moved a large number of Covenanters to assist with mission projects at ACC has allowed the school to ready the campus for the increased number of young adults.

Before serving ACC, Hamilton was a longtime Covenant youth pastor who served in Rocklin, California's Community Covenant Church and at the Arvada (Colorado) Covenant Church. He was originally called by the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska (ECCAK) as a missionary in the fall of 2000 and spent nine months traveling to Covenant churches seeking funding for the new school.

Hamilton moved to Soldotna June 4, 2001, and has worked the phone lines and piled on the frequent flier miles as the school was built (literally) from the ground up. With its one-year Bible college program and an ENCORE program for those desiring to stay at ACC a second year, the school has ministered to well over 100 young adults, most coming from small villages throughout Alaska.

The college has come a long way from its "bare bones" summer three years ago. And it has been a dream come true for ECCAK, which had already served youth for years through the work of a faithful ministry called Covenant Youth of Alaska. "The campus had no furniture, no books, no utensils, no chairs and no tables," said Hamilton in recalling June 2001. "We had one phone line with a splitter that Mark Hill (previous director of admissions/professor) and I used to share. That's how it all began."

Early on, Hamilton's previous youth ministry service – a major reason previous ECCAK field director Paul Wilson and its regional board chose him to start ACC - paid big dividends. Hamilton asked his former church in Colorado to send a work team to Alaska and nearly two dozen volunteered to serve in a mission project. A team from Community Covenant Church in Shawnee, Kansas, sent two teams totaling more than 30 people. A Covenant church plant in Castle Oaks, Colorado, brought 25 volunteers to Alaska.

Later, a friend from Hamilton's youth ministry days, Greg West, brought a youth team of 25 from Clairemont Covenant Church in San Diego. Three of the students who worked on the campus during that time eventually attended school at ACC. "Two of them had never seen snow fall from the sky before," said Hamilton as he recalled that group. But Hamilton's passion and persistence aren't the only factors explaining how ACC got off the ground - and the school's president is quick to point that out. He noted that young and old alike have blessed ACC during its four years of existence.

Shortly after school started in the fall of 2001, a mission team from Moose Lake, Minnesota, helped the school open the campus, finishing work on classrooms and building beds for a dormitory. An 82-year-old retired contractor from Arvada Covenant, Bob Bode, stayed for much of the fall to help finish three cabins for male students to move into. And a retired couple from Clear Lake, Washington, Bob and Phyllis Michelson, also assisted with final preparations after spending the summer there.

Hamilton also mentioned parishioners from Community Covenant Church in Eagle River, Alaska, who were helpful with electrical work, among other things. The work of many was rewarded as a total of 29 students from 11 ethnic groups enrolled for classes in the fall of 2001.

By year two (which had 20 graduates), much had changed on the physical property of the college as 155 people from 11 work teams had served during the summer. Their work included a duplex to house students and a maintenance building. Grant monies from the Vancouver, Washington-based Murdock Foundation has helped finance construction of a dormitory and dining hall (still in process) and the barrage of mission teams continue to help Hamilton and ACC with the labor – a total of 135,000 volunteer hours this summer, he estimates. The help seems likely to continue as the longer periods of sunlight and recreational possibilities make Alaska an attractive summer mission option.

"I was gone nine weeks in a row in the fall of 2001 recruiting work teams," said Hamilton about how he initially recruited churches to help with construction efforts. "We had just started school and I needed to raise funds to finish the cabins. We got more teams because of that, but now the trips perpetuate themselves. Arvada Covenant and Community Covenant have been here every summer for four years and two-thirds of the churches are repeat customers.

"We joke that we are the 'fishin mission' because people can work all day and do things at night," Hamilton continued. "We have a glacier day cruise out of Seward and a day trip to Homer and hikes to glaciers and museums and art galleries. There are a lot of things to do here and after people work all day they go out at night and have fun."

Another reason ACC has enjoyed success in its efforts to secure help from Covenant churches is the assistance the school provides in coordinating projects and teams. Alan and Sharon Finifrock from Lakeview Covenant Church in Duluth, Minnesota, and Glen and Millie Mehrkens from First Covenant Church in Red Wing, Minnesota, were responsible for making sure the recent work teams had a good experience. Having led more than 40 mission trips, Hamilton has experienced the benefits of organized hosts.

"A lot of times you go on a mission trip and the pastor says 'hi' and they're gone the rest of the time," said Hamilton. "We've got coordinators that stay with them and we (ACC staff) are on campus most of the time in the summer. I've been a mission team leader my whole life and I know what it's like to not have things prepared by my hosts. I'm on the other end of the barrel and I know we have to take care of our visitors."

"We try to match one team with another each week, although that's not always possible," Hamilton continued. "But we have a big gathering room so they can spend time in morning or evening devotions. And usually a team from a church will have a technical person or a logistics person to coordinate things. Thirty is about our maximum for a week, but we had about 15 teams from the end of May until the end of August."

To learn more about ACC, its past construction projects and future mission trip opportunities, call Hamilton at 907-260-7422 or visit the school's website at www.akcc.org.

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