From July 1-10, 2025, a team of our high school students and leaders are flying to Nome, Alaska for a Mission Trip to serve the ministries of KICY Christian Radio Station, which is owned and operated by the Evangelical Covenant Church there in Nome. As we get closer and closer, we want to share more details about our team and the trip, as well as information on our final fundraising efforts and ways that you can support us!

KICY radio station provides Christ centered music and programming that not only reaches beyond Nome to all the villages in western Alaska, but it also sends its signal to broadcast overnight into the Russian far east. While one purpose of the trip is to learn all about this unique and impactful ministry, our primary tasks will be to help them with their current project to revitalize and update their staff housing and studio building. From what we are being told at this time, much of our work will be in the final stages of painting and finishing the project. To learn more about KICY radio and about this project, you can visit KICY.org.

The team will be leaving on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, and returning on Thursday, July 10, 2025. Since KICY has a limited capacity for hosting guest groups, our small group consists of 10 team members: six students (Adrienne S., Betsy K., Carter R., Jordan Q., Rachel B., and Renea P.) and 4 adult leaders (Pastor Chuck, Beth Simpson, Darci Church, and Victor Quesada).

For this trip, our team while focus on APPRENTICESHIP, which is one of the Five Distinctives for The Grove’s Rule of Life. So our theme for the week is simply Jesus’s call to “Follow Me”, as found throughout the Gospels. Our modern, western society spends billions each year to teach leadership skills; valuing being a Leader rather than a Follower. Schools, sports organizations and other programs for children and students teach how to “lead well”, while we just assume that “following” comes naturally and needs no instruction or time to learn how to do it well. And yet, Jesus calls us over and over to FOLLOW, and we wonder why we struggle to know how! Thus, our focus for our trip and our daily devotional times will be on learning what it means to APPRENTICE ourselves to Jesus and learn how to follow his leading well!

As we prepare for this incredible journey together, we plan to spend time training our group on how to serve well, including “practice” opportunities to paint and do the kind of work we’ll be doing for KICY. This way, we can provide the best help and quality of work that we can during this one week we are able to serve. 

Over the next few months, we hope you will consider supporting our students and leaders on this team! More than anything, we hope you will pray for the students and leaders, and all the details and logistics surrounding the trip. We also hope you will consider helping us through our final fundraising efforts in March and April! Here are the two upcoming fundraising opportunities you can participate in: