Poway’s Betty Kausch Spreads Faith, Love

Although Betty Kausch has lived in Poway for more than 50 years, she has spent many summers in Alaska. Since 1993, Kausch has traveled to Alaska every year, and sometimes more than once a year, to share her faith with others.

“We just want to raise up people that love the Lord,” said Kausch, who has resided in Poway since 1959. “It will go on well beyond my lifetime, I hope. And I’m praying that it will accomplish its purpose.”

Kausch has traveled with other organizations, but mostly with the Alaska Mission for Christ, a ministry headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska. Through the ministry, missionaries organize vacation bible schools, sports camps and hammer and nail projects in Alaskan villages.

The 86-year-old Powegian is often the storyteller or song teller at the vacation bible schools.

“I make it so the kids get a story out of it and understand the story in the bible,” she said. “And then we ask questions so that the story that they saw, the skit that they saw, comes to life in their life.”

Kausch said she has traveled to many different villages, sometimes for just a few days and other times for several weeks. Depending on the size of the village, she has traveled with as little as four volunteers and as many as 100 volunteers.

“We stay for as long as they want us,” she said.

The elders, she said, permit their visits beforehand, so the groups can stay in the schools. There are no hotels or inns, she said.

Kausch said the elders are excited for their visits because the youth have nothing to do except watch television when they’re not in school. There are no theaters or stores, she added.

“The kids get in trouble during the summertime,” Kausch said. “They have nothing to do. They want people to come in and do things for them.”

At times, she has also been welcomed into the villagers’ homes.

During one trip to the remote village of Red Devil, Alaska, Kausch and her small group stayed in an elder’s house for four days because the school was closed.

In the house, which she described as a bit larger than her living room, the family slept upstairs together in one big room.

“It’s so darn cold, so people don’t separate,” she said.

Kausch’s longest trip was along the Aleutian Islands. She and her group traveled to various islands to organize vacation bible schools. Because of a storm, however, they couldn’t return to Cold Bay, Alaska, one of the main commercial centers of the Alaska Peninsula, by airplane. Instead, they had to take the ferry.

Kausch explained that the ferry routinely stops at every other island on each trip and stops at the other islands on the way back. Therefore, her group had to take the ferry more than 1,000 miles.

“So we took it, and boy, were we seasick,” she said.

Kausch has frequented Pilot Station, Alaska, the most, which is a village of more than 500 people.

In addition to telling stories, she enjoys quilting with the women and doing arts and crafts with the children, she said. Kausch plans to travel to Pilot Station again in July.

The mission trips are costly, Kausch said, so volunteers fundraise months ahead of time. Fundraisers include jewelry and garage sales. She also asks her fellow church members to sponsor children, said Kausch, who attends Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Poway.

“We do anything we can so that our missionaries can go,” she said. “It’s just a way to support the team.”

Kausch, who has been a member of her church since she moved to Poway, has encouraged other church members to go on mission trips, too. So far, nine others from her home church have traveled to Alaska with her.

“That’s always been my dream—that my church has a team,” she said.

Although Kausch visits Alaska each year to tell other about Jesus, she also enjoys simply talking and sharing with others, she said.

“You don’t have to be a Christian,” Kausch said. “Anybody can be a missionary and just share the love in their heart.”