Missionaries: Tom and Becky Hansen - Anchorage, Alaska

Tom and Becky Hansen grew up in Issaquah, Washington where they attended high school together. After college, Tom became the Director of Young Life in Issaquah. He spent much time raising up leaders from the local high schools as well as college students.

Tom and Becky became members of Pine Lake Covenant Church in Sammamish and were involved in the life of the church. It was during these years that God called them to go to Alaska to build a fledgling Young Life ministry where Tom is serving as the Regional Director.

They settled in Anchorage where they raised their three children; Bethany, Katelyn and Mitchell.

History of our Partnership
These are some of Alaska’s challenges, and imagine what the leadership of Young Life has to deal with in order to reach these youth.

ALASKA CHALLENGES

  • Alaska is 1400 miles north-south; 2400 miles east-west. Most towns/villages are accessible only by boat or plane; most have population of less than 2,000.
  • Cost of ministry is high: cost of travel, cost of living, cost of camp. An “area visit” often requires a $300-500 plane ticket. YL camp transportation alone can be $500-1000. Many YL areas raise $20,000-40,000/yr just to get kids to camp.
  • Vast majority of under-resourced communities in the lower-48 have well-resourced communities surrounding them. Alaska’s are surrounded by wilderness; isolation is the norm.
  • Most Alaska areas are part-time staff or volunteer areas. The Regional office functions like a satellite area office: regional time & money.
  • The “Alaska spirit” includes a huge reticence to commitments of any kind: committee, $ pledges, volunteer leadership. Trust and loyalty take a long time to build.
  • Most YL regions bring in $75,000+ from staffed areas’ service charge. Alaska has relatively few areas that will ever self-support full-time staff. Service charge income will likely always be relatively low.
  • Start-up grant money helped start the Alaska Region six years ago. It is mostly gone while the ministry with kids/leaders has grown. Other funding has not sufficiently “filled the gap” yet. Alaska is still largely funded by outside support.
  • Alaska is hugely multi-cultural !! In Anchorage, over 93 languages are spoken in the school district…just

ALASKA NATIVE Ministry…

Yupik & Inupiaq Eskimo, Aleut, Athabaskan, Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian. All seven major Alaska Native groups in Alaska are involved in YL.
Many Native kids are the most responsive to the gospel. They also tend to have the deepest wounds and internalized “failure maps”. Yet they are hungry for the hope that Jesus’ embodies.

…and LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

  • We’ve begun a major initiative to provide focused discipleship & ministry training for 18-24 year old Alaska Native men/women.
  • Five years from now we will see a strong cadre of Alaska Native young people as volunteer leaders, Student Staff, Interns, and – we pray – Teacher Staff and Area Directors !!

HIGHLIGHTS 2007-2008

  • CLUB MINISTRIES: YL in 4 schools in Anchorage; 16 schools and 9 communities spread 1000 miles north-south across Alaska. Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Galena, Nenana, Sitka, Petersburg, Craig & Klawock, Also a touch of YL in Kodiak.
  • RESIDENTIAL HIGH SCHOOL CLUBS: Three YL ministries at residential high schools with Alaska Native kids from over 150 Alaskan villages.
  • CAMPS: 300+ kids from Alaska traveled with their leaders to a week of Young Life camp this summer, average cost: $1200/kid.
  • KIDS and JESUS: This past year alone, hundreds of kids in Alaska have both seen and heard the gospel come to life in their lives through their YL leaders !!

For more information on Young Life Alaska CLICK HERE.