newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — It was nearly a decade ago that Lillian Klepp, a Christian from Wisconsin, heard a speaker talk about the plight of the widows and orphans in Sudan, victims of a civil war that disrupted the lives of millions.

She asked herself afterward, “What can I do?”

Her son, Lance, said she had what some would call a dream and some would call a vision.

“God told her to ‘Sell all you have and give it to the poor,’” said Lance, who is in Fairbanks to speak about the school and orphanage that his parents founded in Sudan in 2001. The Klepps are building a second orphanage and have to turn away many children because the problem is severe. They care for more than 120 orphans and teach almost 400 students at their school.

His father, Dennis, a contractor who renovated homes and built cabins, provided the construction expertise in Sudan while his mother, who had been a children’s pastor and school administrator, knew what to do to start a school.

The connection with Fairbanks is through Bruce and Joann Carter, who live in Healy, may be the southernmost members of the Door of Hope Church in Fairbanks, said pastor Alan Corrick.

“Joann has a history of going to the most dangerous places in the world to help out in humanitarian kinds of things,” Corrick said.

While helping others in Sudan, she learned of the Klepps and the work of their organization, “Harvesters Reaching the Nations,” and the connection with Alaska was established.

Corrick said Bruce and Joann are the sort of Alaskans who know how to do almost anything, having acquired numerous skills while living in a rural area, which makes them ideal volunteers.

Bruce said he was impressed with the students he met at the orphanage and school.

“It’s just amazing to me to see the job that Harvesters is doing there,” Bruce said.

Lance traveled to Alaska to visit the Carters and plans to speak at the Door of Hope Church tonight at 6:30 p.m. He also will speak at Schaible Auditorium on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

He will show a short DVD about the work in Sudan and the need for more people to get involved. The public is invited to attend and learn more.

“We’re looking for people to come help, not just money, but prayer support, medical teams, teaching teams, building teams,” said Lance, 31.

He left Wisconsin to join his parents four years ago and finds it so rewarding he expects to make it his life’s work.

As his mother says on their DVD, “The need is so great, and life is so short.”

For more information, go to www.hrtn.org.

•••

MISSING: For 30 years, the flagpole has been a fixture on Capital Street outside the home of Jeanette Evans.

Her late husband, Toby, an Air Force veteran, put it there when the family moved to Aurora from Island Homes.

About a week ago, someone ripped off the steel flagpole and the American flag on it.

Evans said she has no idea why anyone would take her flag and flagpole, but she’d like to get it back, for sentimental reasons, as it was so important to her husband.

If you have seen a wayward flag and pole, call her at 452-5330.

•••

SOLD OUT: Garrison Keillor’s presentation Tuesday in Fairbanks, the opening event of the Fairbanks Concert Association season, is sold out.

•••

IMAGINE THIS: The North Star Imagination Library is hosting a 5-K Run for Reading next Sunday. The race begins and ends at Pioneer Park at noon.

Registration is $5 for children 12 and under, $15 for adults or $25 for a family. The first 100 registrants will receive a T-shirt.

Registration is available on www.northstarimaginationlibrary.org or on race day.

•••

ABANDONED DOGS: Anne-Line Rochet, who wrote a letter to the editor about the abandoned dogs at the Farmers Loop transfer site, said the animals are shy and many people may not have seen them, but they appear to be starving. She said, “I can't possibly be the only one to have seen them and approached at least one of them. I know in these difficult times, a lot of people will regard this as a bleedingheart story and so be it — it is. At this point, I’d be willing to pay somebody who has skills to catch recalcitrant stray animals. With the life they have experienced, no doubt they are distrustful of people.”

•••

CASHING IN: Since 1982, the state has distributed $17.2 billion through the Permanent Fund Dividend program. Some people have used it for basic living expenses. Others have used it for high living or put it into savings.

Those who have collected all 27 dividends have received more than $30,000, according to the governor’s office.

Bank accounts will swell by hundreds of millions of dollars on Friday, as more than 493,000 dividend recipients chose to have the money directly deposited. The rest of the 610,000 recipients are supposed to have checks in the mail by Sept. 30.

With the energy rebate, the total will be $3,269 per person.