When I was in Teller, I attended the semi-annual Lutheran Church conference. The conference is a gathering of Lutheran congregations across the Seward Peninsula. The 2008 Fall Conference was hosted in Teller.

Part of the conference was dedicated to groups of people getting up and singing. The lady in the reddish (mauve? magenta? dark fuschia?) shirt is the math teacher in Shishmaref. She sang some hymns in Inupiaq. It was very cool. She was accompanied by the pastor from Brevig Mission. In addition to being cool enough to play the guitar, he also sang the songs in Inupiaq (what a guy!).

The math teacher convinced me to sing a few hymns with her and her mom. We sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" and "Come Thou Fount." It was scary.

My favorite part of our songs was when this little guy (the offspring of the woman in the above picture singing Inupiaq songs) spilled his sippy cup of water all over the floor. I had no idea that the volume of sippy cups is deceivingly large.

I spent some of the time looking for familiar hymns in the Lutheran hymn books.

One of my all time favorites...

One of the first songs I sang in a stake choir. (Shout out to Sister Hunt who was the director! Shout out to Teira who was her daughter and my classmate at Cannon Middle School!)

One of my favorites from a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD.

Two ones I knew on one page! Bonus!

Some songs I also recognized from hours of road trips with my grandparents.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa...

my musical horizons were broadened because of you...

Thanks also to Celine Dion for her rendition of this song that seems to get trapped in my head.

I also spent some of the time looking at songs I wish I knew. Like the above song.

And this one...

This is the conference theme verse translated into Inupiaq. Cool, huh?

Attending and singing in an Inupiaq Lutheran Conference. Another one of the many things I never considered doing before moving to Alaska...