Minto, Alaska, is home to about 180 people. While it’s situated less than 80 miles northwest of Fairbank as a bird flies, it takes nearly five hours to get there by car. As Christy McKerny of the Washington Post describes, accompanying the Rev. Bessie C. Titus on the drive to visit Minto’s new worship center was a breathtaking experience:
On the way to Minto, we went over some particulars. Some 180 people live in the village, said Bessie. Most who live there are descendants of Athabaskan Indians. The elders speak Athabaskan as well as English.
The journey to Minto climbs through mountain passes, along snowy ridges, through marshes, and past stubbly fields of stunted pine trees. About two hours out of Fairbanks, you turn off the highway and head for the hills on a gravel road for 40 minutes. Along the way, men can be seen unloading dogs from a vented truck and hitching them to a sled. Occasionally, Bessie would point out a trailhead or a hot spring.
Rolling into town, we passed the cemetery where Bessie’s parents are buried, the air strip, log cabins, and then the new Worship Center.
The worship center was built to satisfy the needs of the village residents, many of whom attended both village churches—the Episcopal Church in the morning, and the Assembly of God church in the evening. In an accompanying video, one resident explains that they are not interested in denominational boundaries (owing partly, she says, to their lack of access to education), but rather their relationship with Jesus Christ. But when the Assembly of God minister left, the worship center became the solution.
You can read the article and see the accompanying video here.