Day 2 in Alaska and the temperature is still…VERY COLD! We did not do a whole lot today because all of us still have homework and studying that we need to get done for next week. I know that there are a couple of guys who have stayed up until about midnight to finish some papers to turn them in on time.

After breakfast, the team had a devotional lead by Mr. Karnemaat. He gave us a little bit about his testimony and then talked about the power that we have. He defined power by having the ability to affect change. All the success that the Lord has given us, has given us power. He shared with us that people are constantly being watched by other people and we have the power to influence them without even seeing that person. Our attitudes on and off the court and what we say or do are ways that we can influence others.

It is really amazing to be in a different place. Yeah, Michigan has snow and can get very cold, but it is not like how it is here. All the trees are covered in frost and glisten in the sunlight. When traveling to and from the gym, we can look out the window and see houses, buildings, stores and then look out a different window on the other side of the van and see mountains in the distance. Since it is so cold, the air here is much more dry than in Michigan. In our rooms, we either have to boil water or hang up a damp cloth to put moisture in the air. A couple of people have woken up in the mornings with bloody noses from the dry air.

One would think that the cars here would be all torn up from rust or really bad roads, but that is not the case here and it is very wierd. When we first started driving on the roads, we could here the sound of little rocks or salt chips hitting the underside of our vehicles, but to my surprise they were not salt chips. Come to find out that the road comission here uses dirt on their roads, instead of salt. It is so cold here that the salt would not do any good. Yeah, it would melt the snow and ice that would be on the roads, but it is so cold that it would just freeze and create more ice.

Today, we are finishing more school work getting ready for finals.  We have our “Men of Integrity” meeting soon and then we will eat and head to the gym for our game at 5:30pm, Alaska time.  It has been a fun trip so far and we played well yesterday but we play another tough team today.  Later!