Interesting indeed Alex. I took my whole family to Barrow in summer (7-5-06) -- it was a blistering 35 degrees. Flew up from Fairbanks on one of several daily flights (there ARE no roads into Barrow) along with about 20 day visitors as well as a Federal Marshall escorting his prisoner back home. The dude had been convicted of beating his wife and had paid his time. Seems this sort of thing is very common; due, in part at least (they say) to the very long nights they have in winter up there. Makes people get severe cabin fever. And Etoh likely doesn’t help either. No sun for 63 days we were told.

We stayed overnight at “Top-of-the-World” -- the only hotel ON the arctic ocean (we were told) just to see what it was like NOT to see a sunset. Set the alarm for 2 AM and sure enough, sun well above the horizon. (Which makes one wonder; how does a devout SDA worship on the bible Sabbath if measured sundown to sundown?? -- answer? they pick an arbitrary time -- usually 6 pm -- and stick to it. Not sure if our information came from ultimate authority or not) My son, then 15, joined the “polar bear club” by swimming (head submerged mandatory) in the Arctic. Ice pack a mere 100 yards away -- having only begun retreating a couple weeks before. Was very pleasantly surprised to find the restaurants were VERY good there. Seems many from Southern California, especially Koreans, have migrated there -- away from the hustle and bustle.

Everyone on the plane (except the returning locals… 5 or 6 in number) took the excellent guided bus tour around Barrow. Our bus driver/tour guide was a local dude named Joe; educated in New Zealand (and spends most summers there -- NZ summers -- Barrows winters!), very articulate, basketball loving (had a killer jump shot! imagine learning a jump shot in the arctic! He even showed it off for us when showing us the town gym) and devout Christian. It became obvious immediately he was a person of faith. He told us that most of the town was Christian. Claimed that there were more churches in Barrow per person than anywhere else in the US. He told of his grandfather who was deeply religious; used to have divine visions while whale hunting of a dying savior figure. The local religion at the time was very open and searching he said. So when a missionary came early1900’s and told his grandfather about Jesus -- this man rejoiced and embraced the story whole. It was “very natural” according to Joe. Jesus, sin, redemption, a loving creator God all made good and logical sense to him. So he immediately converted as did a great many of the locals. This was per Joe -- our driver. At the show they put on at the local civic center featured as many Christian hymns (words which we of course knew by heart) as local fishing/hunging/surviving/adventure tunes. I asked him where the SDA church was and he immediately knew; said he knew “a few of them” (SDA’s) and he liked them. “Good people.” And he drove us by that very church in the video, stopped to let us out to take pictures! (the rest of the passengers seemed not to mind)

So yes; the SDA world body is pretty cool Alex. I’ve been to worship SDA style with Africans (Ethiopians) in huts (HUGE huts! -- well, they seemed huge as a kid) far far from what we call civilization; and my dad, inveterate SDA romantic, would drag us to church in whatever city we happened to be in the world when traveling if it was Sabbath. Our protests “but dad! we can’t understand a single word they are saying!” were met with a rather matter of fact “worship like you always do; God knows ALL these languages” that told me we were staying for the WHOLE service.

We had lost our dvd of adventist in the arctic so it was nice to find this site. Linda in one of person feature in the video and wanted to find another copy. While we no longer live in barrow, we still have fond memories.