.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

AKLAVIK - It was a trip to Lithuania in Eastern Europe that sparked Larry Noland to devote his life to becoming a pastor.

"We were in Missouri at the time and our church made the trip over to be with a missionary to see what they were doing," he said. "God called me into the ministry there so I went off to college in Florida.

Pastor Larry Noland has been serving the Aklavik community for two years, having moved from Jacksonville, Florida to the Great White North. - photo courtesy of Larry Noland

"The way God had called the missionary over there to go to a remote place - spoke to me. God was taking care of them and it showed me if he would take care of that family he would take care of mine."

After his experience in Lithuania he returned home to the U.S. and headed off to Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida, to become a pastor.

A pastor for almost seven years now, Noland has been in Aklavik for two years working at the Aklavik Baptist Church, where he speaks the words and wisdom of the Bible to his parish.

For Noland, a husband and father of three, Thursdays can be quite busy preparing for the weekly service held that evening.

"It's a preparation day for me," he said. "I spend my day getting things ready for the night."

Before they moved here, Noland said they made a few trips up to check out the area. He said there wasn't much surprise regarding what they found when they visited the region.

"We knew kind of what to expect," he said. "The cold and weather-related things were a bit tough to adjust to."

The natural beauty of the region and the people are what make his time here great.

"It's a friendly community and we enjoy getting to know the people here and spending time with them.

"It's a beautiful place. The mountains from here are incredible. You can't get a view like this anywhere else. We love the outdoors and being able to go out and be on the land with the people here."

Learning the culture and way of life of the aboriginal population in the Delta is something he has found exciting and interesting. He had the chance to go out to a camp with his daughter through a school program last year where they got to learn about aboriginal culture.

"We got to see how to trap and how they live off the land," he said. "We really enjoyed that. Getting to spend time with others out there and seeing how they use every resource they have available to them to accomplish what they need to was a great experience."

Noland's oldest son, Cory, is attending Trinity Baptist College with plans to follow in his fathers' footsteps and become a pastor.

"We're really excited," he said, when Cory decided to study to become a pastor. "He wasn't quite sure when he went down. He really likes it up here and it's a definite possibility he may come back to work."

As for Noland, he has no plans to leave Aklavik any time soon. "We're here indefinitely."