Welcome to Interior Alaska. This is where the temperatures are so cold even the sun seems to play tricks on the eyes. Notice how the sun appears twice on the horizon. This is called a Sun Dog. There is another picture below which is a better example of this phenomenon which results when temperatures dip to their current level of -50 F. A fog can also be seen in the picture above. It is called an ice fog. The skies can be clear at times but almost zero visibility on the ground.
Meet the Children's Rosary from Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks, Alaska. Their first meeting was December 4th 2015.
They brave the cold weather to meet on the First and Third Friday of every month at 11:30 AM local time (3:30 PM ET). They will be meeting today and they have a humble invitation:
Please Join Us in Prayer
They will be adding their light of prayer in the dark and cold expanse of interior Alaska. The group can be seen as a blue flashing light on our new View from Heaven map when they are meeting today. Pull the map just a bit to the right so you can see all of Alaska. The schedule of meetings is present next to the map and provides all the meeting times of groups today in your local time zone. Click the button "Join in prayer" on our website and you can add your light to the map and also be unified in prayer with the children in Alaska and others also joining together in prayer. The children have been asked to pray for those unifying prayers with them. So when you join them in prayer, they are praying for you! It is also very exciting for the children to see others around the world praying with them as they meet in their prayer group.
The photo to the right of Immaculate Conception Church was taken at 9:30 AM local time on December 19th: the shortest day of the year. Notice how little light they have during this time of year. Sunrise was at 11:10 AM and sunset 2:30 PM. There is also several hours of twilight.
One of the group leaders shares:
"We only had about a foot of snow on the ground that had accumulated between October through early December and before the additional two feet we recently received. You might like the view of Mary with the snow on her shoulders. Although it is difficult to see, the stained glass window on the right shows an image depicting how the church was dragged by horses across a frozen river to its current location around 1919 (with the long cold winters and arctic temperatures at times, ice can be 40+ inches thick here by April)."
The little church looks so welcoming with the lights warmly glowing from inside. The children through their prayers are like a little light in the darkness as well.
The Children's Rosary group in Fairbanks would like to share some of the highlights of living so far north! This past week one of the members sent us a picture from his driveway. An incredible view of the Northern Lights.
The daytime temperature the past few days has been around -50 F. Night time lows have dipped to -60 F. The group has been sharing some interesting phenomena that occur at these low temperatures. We have been learning a lot.
At temperatures this low if one takes a cup with hot water and throws it into the air it can go straight into a cloud of snow before hitting the ground. See a recent example of this from the National Weather Service in Fairbanks on January 18th HERE. My kids found this very cool.
Another Example of the Sun Dog phenomenon is pictured below. The sun is only really in the center of the picture.
If you want to brave these frigid temperatures the children share there are some exciting events coming up:
http://www.yukonquest.com/ 1,000 mile dog sled race between here and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. Competition is 14 days away.
http://www.icealaska.com/en/ The International Ice
Carving competition (they recently suffered a fire). Ice slides and ice playground is also open the month of March.
Other Posts You May Enjoy
How to Start a Children's Rosary
Avenue of Grace
The Skies in Alaska are Filled with the Voices of Children Praying
The View from Heaven map is a simple way we have chosen to display prayers being said around the world. It allows a single soul to begin praying and join in prayer with Children's Rosary groups praying or other individual people praying. Sometimes the View from Heaven is dark. A person clicks on the button and begins to pray. They are but one light. But that one light transforms the whole view of the world. Immediately a person looking at the image is drawn to that region of the world where there is one person or family praying. One does not need 1,000 lights to transform the View from Heaven. It takes only one. It is a joy to see more lights but even just one is sufficient to bring joy to another person visiting the site. It was our one missing light in Hartford that brought the email inquiring as to where it had gone. It is an encouraging thought to contemplate. Last night when our family began to pray we added our light. We saw Houston flashing but we had a surprise there was another light in the Virginia region. We did not know who it was but we were grateful to unify prayers with them. We have included a screen shot of the map last night with our three lights visible. Consider visiting our site and adding your light. If you find the map dark, add your light. Trust that it will make a difference to another soul. We will look for it.
