By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Snow-capped mountains rise behind the Anchorage Church of Christ as the sun sets after 9 p.m. on a chilly April night.
The peaks reflect the beauty of Alaska’s largest city, where an estimated 1,500 moose share the natural surroundings with nearly 300,000 human residents.
Inside the church building this past weekend, Robert Kuenning, longtime minister for the Valley Church of Christ in Wasilla, north of Anchorage, gazed into the eyes of about 350 Christians and beheld a different kind of beauty.
Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.”
“Beautiful are the feet, but also beautiful are the faces,” Kuenning told the crowd that gathered from throughout Alaska, a vast state one-fifth the total geographic size of the Lower 48 states.
“And to see the love and the unity and the connection in this room is real beauty,” added Kuenning, who has worked with the Valley church for 26 years. “I will try not to get choked up here.”
But he had to pause to regain his composure, noting that the COVID-19 pandemichad kept Alaska’s scattered-but-interconnected faithful apart for three years.
Here in the Last Frontier, hundreds of miles and — in some cases — rugged terrain accessible only by boat or plane separate many of Alaska’s 27 Churches of Christ.
This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Featured image via Shutterstock
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