The Indigenous Alaskan Yup’ik people have 30 terms to describe the color of snow. When Father Stan Jaszek began ministering to them, he only knew one of the terms: white.

Jaszek, a Polish-born priest and lifelong missionary, has lived in Alaska for 20 years. He has ministered for the last 15 years to the Yup’ik people, who have inhabited the far western edge of Alaska along the Bering Sea for more than 10,000 years. The region is a low-line tundra intermixed with bodies of water—from small streams and lakes to the massive Yukon River. Because of the landscape, no roads go in or out of the communities. The area is only accessible by boat, plane, or snowmobile, depending on the time of year. In the snowy winter, the temperatures reach far below zero.

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