At 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 18, the town of Utqiagvik, Alaska, entered an annual period known as “Polar Night.” The sun dipped below the horizon and will stay below the horizon for 66 consecutive days, leaving the residents of the northernmost town in the United States living in darkness for that entire time. What’s it like to live in darkness 24 hours a day for over two months? Hannah Towey, a reporter for Business Insider, found out. She recently spoke to some of the residents of Utqiagvik.

Myron McCumber and his wife, Susan, run Latitude 71, a 12-room bed and breakfast in Utqiagvik, Alaska. Their guests range from Brazilian tourists chasing the northern lights to local oil rig workers.... Without the sun, temperatures drop substantially. Utqiagvik is below freezing for 160 days out of the year. While tourists plan visits around the cosmic phenomena, the locals of Utqiagvik continue their daily lives, Myron said — just without the sun. "It's dark when you come home at lunch," he described. "You turn your headlights on at noon to drive home... that would be a little different for most people....”

Year-round, running a business in Utqiagvik comes with its own set of challenges. Namely, food. “It’s $14 for a gallon of milk,” Myron told Insider. “A box of Tide laundry pods is like $98. A case of water that you get from Walmart for $6 — here it’s $48.” In order to afford meals for hotel guests, the McCumbers travel four to five times a year to Anchorage, where groceries are slightly cheaper. The hauls are then stored in Latitude 71’s six freezers and two refrigerators. “We bring in 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of food....” 

The residents of Utqiagvik live in physical darkness for one-sixth of each year. Though life is hard, they know light will return late in the next January. The people of the first- century land of Israel lived in spiritual darkness all year round. Yet many of them hoped light would return. Eight hundred years earlier, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he (God) brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” (Isaiah 9:1 – 2 ESV)

What was the light Isaiah described? It was the “Advent,” a word that described the “arrival” of the Messiah, the one who would come to save Israel and the world from its sin. Jesus Christ spent most of his earthly ministry teaching and healing people in the region of Galilee, a land of darkness, an area with a reputation for knowing little about God, a culture much like most of our modern world. Yet Jesus brought light and life, making possible a path to salvation. Join us this Sunday at 9:00 a.m. as we begin to unpack his first arrival in our brand new Christmas series, “Advent.” I hope to see you.

Pastor Kevin