DREW WILLIAMS

Local Ministry: We have been doing ministry in the Native Village of Scammon Bay since August of 2014. We serve in the local Scammon Bay Evangelical Covenant Church alongside Pastor Jason Stromstad. We do two regular youth group nights a week for junior high and high school students. Holly also runs a children's Sunday School as well as plays piano for Sunday service. 

We also operate a woodshop creative space for students to come and learn traditional Alaska Native tool making and art as well as to try their hand at woodworking. We use largely local materials, recycling older tools and using local wood we go and gather ourselves. Students have the opportunity to sell the things they make to help fundraise for themselves to go to Bible Camp and retreats throughout the year.

We often talk about ministry in the village as “life on call,” where we have our regular programs, but we are also just available to respond to people where they are at. It is relational ministry at its finest and on any given day my tasks might include preaching, plumbing, counseling, crisis intervention, cooking, janitorial, travel agent, bouncer, cheerleader, tutor, listener: a lot of what can be summed up in what many young people call me, “Uncle Drew.”

Statewide Ministry: Parallel to our local work in Scammon Bay we also work with youth leaders and communities throughout the state. I serve as our youth conference coach for the Alaska Conference where I have the privilege of connecting with pastors and lay leaders in our Covenant communities to talk through the world of youth ministry with people. This can be everything from ministry ideas to helping youth leaders navigate delicate situations, to helping people orient when they are new. I truly love this part of my ministry and the wide vision it gives me for what God is doing throughout the state.

We also help out every summer with Covenant Bible Camp, CYAK’s flagship program for kids, youth, and young adults. Bible Camp resides just outside of the village of Unalakleet in the Norton Sound region. For the past few years I have served as the on-site director for Bible Camp doing much of the boots on the ground coordinating, planning, and managing of Bible Camp. Bible Camp is a team effort, and it is a wild and wonderful team to be a part of. Camp has a long history with individuals and villages in Western Alaska and it continues to serve young people and families as it has for over 40 years.

We also do regional events and retreats throughout the state, travelling to different village sites and partnering with them to put on events for kids, as well as do crisis response when needed. We also participate in ‘Unite,’ a triennial event that is put on by the denomination that has us fly kids out of state to meet with other high school students from all over the denomination.

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I (Drew) grew up in the Seattle area and met Holly at North Park University in Chicago. Post college we lived in the Kansas City area, where Holly is from, for 2 years before hearing God’s call to head north to Alaska. We have been living and working in the Native Village of Scammon Bay for 11 years now.

Holly is a secondary teacher at our local school which provides good overlap between her work at the school and mine at the church. We have a fantastic relationship with our local school and we do much to support what each other are doing. 
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In September 2023 we welcomed our daughter Zoe (Yup’ik name: Cikuyaq) and we are excited to raise her in our little native village we have come to call home. Our community is so supportive of us as a family as well as what we are doing and it is a joy and pleasure to serve that community.
Contact Us

Our E-mail is:
[email protected]
Our mailing address is:
Drew Williams
PO Box 18
Scammon Bay, AK 99662
To do all the things we would like to within a given year we need roughly $5,000 in monthly giving. This amount allows us to run all our current programs, provides additional support for youth workers in the state, covers expensive travel costs, and provides a living wage for our family.

Living and working in rural Alaska can be 50% to 100% more expensive than many places in the U.S., particularly in the areas of food and transportation. For example, a container of baby formula cost $63, when most places in the lower 48 the price is closer to $40. The cost of a round trip to Anchorage is almost $1000 per person.
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God continues to to great things in Alaska, but we need your help to do all that we believe God is calling us to do. The figures below represent all the finances that have come in since August 2024, which includes both monthly and one-time giving. Our financial year will reset at the end of July 2025.

THANK YOU!