A small town of about 15,000 located some 40 miles north of Anchorage. If you take away the surrounding snow-capped mountains, it's as if you're in a small town in the Midwestern United States. It's the cheapest place to own a home in the state, but there is a sales tax. The vibe of the town and people is rather sleazy; most of the population are blue-collar in their living conditions and mentality. Many spacious homes with potential to be nice and well-kept have appliances outside and cars propped up on concrete blocks. Drug deals and manufacturing are commonplace, especially methamphetamine. A good quarter of the population or more work on the North Slope and many others commute to Anchorage to work.
church hurt is where you experience a degree of distance, pain, or judgement from your church community. Essentially, you are just unable to “find your place”. This is prevalent in the Christian community, but can be extended to other religions.
Now that I am an adult I am beginning to heal from the church hurt that was inflicted on me as a child.
when you're holding up your phone and making faces at it, as though you are taking a selfie, but you're really taking a picture of the person across from you or the wall or anything else that seems interesting but you don't want to be caught dead taking a picture of.
This action is often made more convincing by wiggling the eyebrows or opening the mouth, to pretend you're trying to get a Snapchat filter to work.