The Warren Family
December 2025 -January 2026
Greetings in the Name of the Lord,
December was a continuation of our furlough, going to churches in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and
Florida, before hitting the road to the Northwest for a 5,000-mile trip through Canada to Alaska. I was blessed to
preach at churches in Texas, New Mexico and Oregon before crossing into Canada. Christmas Eve was spent
touring the Grand Canyon for the family, while I was sick with the stomach bug. We spent Christmas Day driving to
Oregon. All the churches we went to while on furlough were an enormous blessing and encouragement to us. We
thank God for each of you.
We had originally planned on the whole family driving through Canada to get back to Alaska but felt led of
the Lord for Rebecca and the two smaller children to fly back to Alaska from Seattle, Washington, and wait for
Jubal and me in Anchorage, on the road system. After dropping them off at the airport in Seattle, on December 31,
Jubal and I continued to the Canadian border and crossed it later the same day. I figured on three days to get
through Canada, driving 12 and a half hours each day…three days later, we arrived in Alaska as planned, but
through some of the worst weather I’ve ever driven through in my life. It got so cold, that records set in the 1940’s
were broken in Canada, and it was 54 degrees below zero when we pulled into Alaska, after 3 days of an average of
18 hours per day of driving due to slowing down well below the speed limit because of ice on the roads, snow drifts,
high winds, etcetera. Our heater core clogged, so we drove for 3 days in below zero weather with one window down
to keep our breath from frosting on the inside of the windshield, which would prevent me from seeing the road.
Jubal and I were so bundled up, you would think we were driving a snowmachine, rather than a pickup truck. The
mechanic shops in Canada were backlogged due to the extreme cold causing many breakdowns, no parts shop
had our part, nor could we work on the truck in -54 weather without getting frostbite anyway, so we just carried on
to Alaska. We made it with no frostbite by God’s grace. Thanks so much for your prayers for our safety. Rebecca
and the children had an uneventful flight to Anchorage, for which I am thankful.
Upon arriving in Alaska, I preached at two churches in the Fairbanks area and then headed the last few
hundred miles south to reunite with the rest of the family. A Brother in Fairbanks backflushed our heater core in the
heated garage of Bible Baptist Church of Fairbanks, a temporary fix, but at least it allowed the heat to get going
again for the time being, and thank God, it had warmed up to around 0, which felt like a heat wave after -54.
Rebecca and the kids flew home to Saint Mary’s January 7th, and arrived to find frozen water pipes, with our
fuel oil stoves snuffed out by high winds, evidently sometime the day before they got back. I had stayed over on the
road system, trying to get my back pain sorted out for a week before I flew out. I wound up getting stuck on the road system after wrapping doctor visits, due to harsh weather setting in, and it was mid-January before I arrived in Saint Mary’s, with Rebecca and Jubal struggling with frozen pipes and oil stoves malfunctioning the whole while. Thank God for one of the members of our church, who came over and helped with the plumbing and heat before I got back. As I write this letter, the 26th of January, I finally got the last plumbing problem fixed today, the parts finally flown in today. Praise God to be done with that, please pray for the fuel oil stoves to get fixed soon.
After many years of faithful service, the Pastor who headed up Missions to America’s Juvenile Delinquents,
Brother David Wood, retired, and as we were the last missionary that they received funds for, we have joined
another mission board. We are grateful for the 16 years of help they gave us, and there was not one dollar
mishandled by them during all that time. Thank you to Faith Baptist Church of Pell City, Alabama, Brother and
Sister Wood, and their daughter, Miss Leah.
Fundamental Baptist Home Missions is now our mission board. I have known its director, Brother Chip
Stowe, for many years, having met him on deputation to come to Alaska, and trust him and the other fine folks
there to oversee our support, keeping our finances above reproach. They do not take any money out of our support
to fund the mission board. We request that all support from here on out be sent to them. Their mailing address is
Fundamental Baptist Home Missions P .O. Box 1510, Bessemer City, NC 28016. Please make our support
checks out to “Fundamental Baptist Home Missions” , put “Israel Warren” in the “for” space.
At of the writing of this letter, with our furlough at an end, we have raised $77,600 towards our house and
are incredibly grateful to all who have contributed towards this need. We still have $152,400 to raise of $230,000
total, so pray the Lord meets this need. I do not want to leave Saint Mary’s for a while to raise more funds, as there
is much spiritual work to do. The necessity of a larger building was brought home to me at the first Sunday service
after my return: we had so many people that we only had three empty chairs in the church. Please pray we can get
the house built in 2027 so we can move out of the church building, enabling us to enlarge the auditorium.
I am now scheduling work crews for building the house in 2027, there was a lot of interest while in the
Lower 48. If any churches still have men that want to come, please give me a holler.
In Christ,
Israel J. Warren
Psalms 34:6
Contact Info
The Warrens Cell: 907-438-6446
Email: north2sitka@gmail.com
Mailing Address: PO Box 143 Saint Mary’s, AK 99658
Sending Church
Ind. Bap. Church of Anchorage, 1801 E. 68th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99507 Phone: 907-562-3004
Support Address
Faith Baptist Church c/o M.A.J.D. (include missionary’s name in note on check) PO Box 329 Cropwell, AL 35054
Phone: 205-365-3165
NOTE: Please send any personal correspondence, such as cards and letters, directly to our PO Box. Thank you!