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There are a variety of characters at the hostel that I'm staying in. What surprised me is the amount of people who are here to live. Looking for jobs. Working at restaurants or in construction.

I just watched a very heavy, older guy, named Gus, leave all bundled up with suitcase in hand to walk down the snow covered street to the bus stop so he could move to a hostel closer to downtown Anchorage.

I talked with him some on my first night here. Deeply religious - loves Billy Graham. He asked me what I do for a living and after finding out that I work for a church - played two of his favorite worship songs - one by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. He wanted me to guess what the songs were. He quickly told me that his one hang up about the United Methodist Church is baptism. "It shouldn't just be a sprinkling. Jesus set the standard and we should do it just like God's standard." We had a short conversation about faith and trusting God versus what people think they can do for their faith... What struck me is how sure he was that what I had to say is wrong.

But this morning before he left - he wished me well at my new church in Lebanon, TN. He quoted Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it".

He's hoping to find a job here in Anchorage.

I just said a prayer for him.