More from Zach & My trip…

It’s been over a week since Zach & I returned from our trip to New Mexico and Arizona.  It’s been a too busy of a week.

I am going to try to go back and recap, finally.

Started out early Saturday morning & driving over 2 hours to the airport.  Waiting at the airport for quite awhile after going through security… Zach bought a Monster drink that spent most of the $5 bill I gave him…

We flew to Phoenix, direct flight… Spent a short time in the warm weather, mostly just getting some lunch & then driving in the 3 large vans we rented for the week, to higher elevations.

I had never seen cactus like this before.  It was quite interesting to see how they grow in the wild.

As we drove to higher elevations the tall cactus changed to the small ones.

We went to the hotel & checked in.  I thought that if this was what “mission trips” were, I think I could handle it! :)

I was joking of course, but the hotel was very nice & I got to have a room to myself since the others traveling with us were either a couple or men traveling without their wives.  It was pretty nice the first couple nights, then we went to the next hotel and I got a little scared there. 

After spending some time in Prescott AZ, making some new friends, and going to church with them, went went hiking on Sunday after church.  Most of the kids chose to go up the mountain the hard way and most of the adults choose the easy way… Me… easy way… didn’t take my camera either too steep and that whole “easy” thing, yeah right whatever.  (but we blamed our breathlessness on the elevation)

I am waiting for pictures to be shared with me from the top from those who had small cameras and had them up there.

We had a dinner at a park with the Prescott church & then most of the kids played kick ball with the adults & some of us just talked and tried to keep warm in the high elevations with the sun going down & the wind picking up.

Monday morning, had us driving 4 hours into New Mexico.

Kids went a little stir crazy in the vans… (Zach & Ben)… played a lot of cards & games while we drove.

After checking into our hotel in Gallup, we went the last 45 minutes to the church we were going to be working with at the reservation.

The guys went to check out their work sites & we met with Fran, the pastor’s wife who was going to be working with us as we tried to run a 3 day Bible School for the kids in their area.

We had went on the trip with plans to be doing Bible School with 3 different age groups.  When we got to Prescott we found out it had changed & we were only going to be working with one age group.  When we got to the church we found out their plans had changed again. 

We knew we had to be flexible.  And I am pretty good at flexible.  It wasn’t too hard for me to be told we had to be flexible, but it was a stretch for even me. 

Our cultures are so different.  We came in with our all our plans & ideas and they had theirs.  I am sure that we stretched them just as much as they stretched us.  It was difficult at times to have the right “servant” heart when things were so chaotic, unorganized, & unknown.

As far as the Bible School went, we ended up seeing about 100 little head start children from the area.  Most of them came with their class, some parents & grandparents came along too.  We had 3 buses one day, 1 the 2nd day, and 3 more busses the last day.

The second day it was cold. It snowed.  We went to Walmart & bought more clothes (including all these beautiful knee socks!) & the guys were digging through the donated clothing for coats & hats…

We had set up “stations” for them to do different things, snack, craft, story, parachute game, bubbles, jelly bean pass.  Fran had some games to set up too, a ducky game, yo-yo playing, & Fran had lots of prizes & things to give out to the kids.  We brought each kid a t-shirt & a Bible Story book to take home with them.

We guessed that out of all of these kids about 10 of them had heard the name of Jesus before… now all of them have had the name of Jesus spoken to them & seeds have been planted.

It was tiring.  It didn’t feel like we made much of an impact while we were there.  God only knows.

In the afternoons we took food out into the community & offered to pray for the people.  We were split into 3 groups & each were hoping to visit at least 3 homes.

The first day we went with Rhoda out to the site.  We had a lot of fun getting to know Rhoda one on one & she was much more talkative in this smaller group.  I liked her a lot.

The first family we found home was an older couple.  They did not speak English, they began telling Rhoda something in Navajo & she translated telling us that she was so sorry to have brought us there, but she did not know.  This family had lost a granddaughter 2 days earlier who had been pregnant with twins.  All 3 of them had died.  They were so sad.  We wanted to pray for them & comfort them, we did & then we sang to them & cried with them. 

After we left, Rhoda told us that their grand daughter was her son’s age.  Eighteen.  No mention of a husband was made.

Rhoda told us how “she had had her children late in life, 22, her friends all had children at 16”

The second place we went to we walked in and the smell was more than I could take.  Rhoda translated that this lady “had guests, and it was not a good time for us to visit” (THANK YOU JESUS!!)  She had SO MANY cats in that house, they were everywhere in the little one room house.

Then we visited another lady who lived in a one room “Hogan” that was very neat & clean.  She also didn’t understand English & Rhoda translated, she was a sweet lady & let us take pictures with her.

 

The second afternoon we visited a few more elderly ladies.  On our way up the ramp to one of their homes we heard “baa-ing”.  And walked in to find that she had 20 sheep in the bedroom of her home…

It smelled, but not like the house with the cats in it!  We spent some time with this lady praying & singing.

The elderly seem to be quite receptive to the church sharing Jesus with them and coming to church.

The young people seem to be very lost, distant, and hurting.  Crime is high.  Unemployment is 60%.  Lots of poor people with not a lot of hope.

On our last day on the reservation we went out to the market area and took boxes of clothing that had been donated to this church to pass out.  People walked up and took the clothing that they needed & fran would announce that they were from church and they were welcome to come to church…

It was interesting. 

We walked along the market and bought a few “souvenirs”.

We said our good-byes to the ladies at the church & then headed back out to where the men had been working all week to pick them up & to see their finished work.

They had 3 different projects going on.

Adding a water line in the church building

By the time we left they had installed a sink for them in the kitchen, but the water was not turned on yet because they were waiting on the inspector to come… pray he does, sometimes it can be years before these things happen (really)

The second job was to put a new roof on the house next to the other house they were working on. 

 

This is the lady who’s house they put the roof on…

And they worked on this family’s house.  This is the son of the above lady.

They had a trailer with an add on & an roof on the top of both that they were living in…

The old house…

So they pulled this trailer out & there was already a roof there that was attached to the other part of the house & they replaced the trailer with a new addition…

Zach learned how to lay cement block, use power tools, put up walls, put up siding…

They worked hard…& ate hard…

The adults did too actually…

On the way back to Phoenix we all had to make a choice.  Travel the 8 hour way and see the Grand Canyon or travel the 5 hour way and go to Sedona.

I thought we would go to the Grand Canyon, since we’ve never been there.  But, when Zach heard that it was windy, cold, chance of snow in the Canyon & visibility might be limited, he chose Sedona.

I said I would go wherever there was room.  I went to Sedona.

It was so beautiful.  And warm.  And summery.

 

Zach made some good friends better & was a lot of fun (you know unless you found him annoying)

 

He even wore out his shoes…

And I took lots of pictures…

Pam

April???

It’s April?

Really?

How did we get here already?

My calendar is filling up fast. Searching for the pause button on my son’s last 9 weeks of high school, but looking so forward to his bright future all at the same time.

Breathe.

Returning from our mission trip and diving head first back into life.

Didn’t take the time to really reflect.

It took 2 days to download all the pictures to shutterfly.

Can’t really say that our experience with the Nava*jo people was “mountain top”. Their circumstances are pretty discouraging. Their lives are steeped in tradition, being put on worthless land, entitlement, hopelessness, crime, sin & poverty.

60% unemployment. Corruption in their tribal government. Confusion.

In the midst of it churches try to make a difference.

Giving things away to entice people to come in their doors and hear about Jesus…

For a t-shirt they will come…

We come along side for 3 days.

Two entirely different cultures working together.

I wonder if our ways are as foreign to them as theirs are to us?

We saw around 100 children from the head start program…

We told them about Jesus, gave them a Bible Story Book.

Praying it makes a difference to one.

I don’t know… I am having problems processing it all… wanting to not miss the things God wanted to teach me there in that place…

Prayers for the Nava*jo people.

Pam

So much to say… Spring Break 2010

Where do I start?

We got home at 7pm Saturday evening.

I’ve just been trying to shower my kids with my attention & hear all about their week here with Grandma & others.

We had our bathtub replaced while we were gone.  Along with some old copper pipes that were leaking.  And the wall in my girls closet that was damaged from the bathtub leaking.

This resulted in new flooring in the bathroom, new shelving in the girl’s closet & I am sure quite a lot of dry wall dust.

We didn’t see the dirt of it all, Mom, Lana, & Leah had the house all cleaned & the mess all put away before we got home! 

WOW!  We are blessed!!

When it comes to the trip Zach and I took… I don’t know where to start!  We were extremely busy, lots of work, lots of traveling in vans, lots of people, NOT a lot of down time.

I feel like I still need to process the trip in so many ways.  I have never been on a mission trip.  I saw so many things that were new & different to me.

Our group organizer/leader, Denny, sent an e-mail this morning with many of his own random thoughts from the trip… I am going to use his thoughts to organize mine… here we go…

Do you remember the game of duck/duck/goose at the Prescott church?

Our group spent the first weekend in Prescott, AZ.  We visited the church congregation there that is the same as ours.  Only our congregation has over 1000 people in it and theirs has about 30.

Wasn’t it neat to see our youth spend the time to be good examples to the Prescott youth?

The Prescott church we visited has 12 kids in it, all ages 10 & under.  Our kids had so much fun playing with them.  6 of those kids came over to the reservation with us.

The endless games of cards…in the vans.

We had 3 of these beauties, with a trailer behind one for all the luggage, we spent A LOT of hours in there this past week.  The kids (and a few of the adults!) played countless games of Euchre along the way.

Kick ball in Prescott.  I don’t think I have ever seen a ball kicked as far as Rodney could kick one.  Of course…Rodney is bionic.

I didn’t get in on the kickball game, didn’t have my camera around then either… hoping someone else did and I can add some pictures of that! 

Zach LOVED Rodney!  He worked on the jobsite with him most of the time and really was impressed by his work ethic.

I was so blessed by the example of the men on my son’s life this week.  Both of my sons.  They worked hard and made me so proud of them.

 

Hiking at the Dells in Prescott.  (Rodney, please find a different path next time….)

I didn’t lug my big camera to the top of this hike.  Others had small cameras up there that I hope to get some pictures from.  It was really amazing at the top!  There were 2 paths, the “hard way” and the “easy way”.  The “hard way” was a tad steep.  Most of us parents were glad we didn’t see where our children were climbing. 

Riding in the vans

Many, many miles and  hours.

Zach practicing for track by running from Walmart to the hotel.

Uhg. Uhg. Uhg.

This was our first night at the first hotel.  I was so embarrassed. Mad. Frustrated. Embarrassed!!!!

We were in Prescott.  We stopped at Walmart to get some cake for Hope, who was turning 16 that day.  Zach kept saying he was going to run back to the hotel, which he said was right across the street.

He did.

Alone.

No cell phone.

Hotel was NOT across street.

We get to the hotel and no Zach.

A van went out to look for him.

Found him.

No pictures.

Urhg.

The WONDERFUL breakfasts at the Holiday Inn!

Meeting Jerry and his family from Kansas.

Jerry was a visiting minister to Prescott.  He had no idea he was going to meet 36 people from Indiana

Burritos for lunch at church…are you kidding me? (thanks Norma)

These people fed us like royalty!!  I LOVED the fresh guacamole!!

Riding more in the vans.

Denny’s GPS trying to find a McDonalds.

Round and round we go… :)

The wonderful new friends we made between Prescott and Bluffton.  These will last us a lifetime.

The creepy halls of the Gallup Inn.

I stay alone in hotels.  I travel alone.  This place creeped me out the first night!  Thanks to Jim & Jenny for trading me rooms!!  And I am so glad I didn’t hear that fight in the hallway outside my door that last night!!  That was a miracle!!!  I would have been so freaked out!

$20 breakfasts. 

Don’t expect change from your kids when you hand them a $20!!  You should have seen Zach’s bill that last morning at Dennys!!!  All you can eat pancakes & a shake & I don’t know what else but I didn’t see change from that one!!

Riding some more in the vans.

The cute little Navajo children.

The way we were treated as royalty by the Prescott church.  The food was unbelievable.

Our ladies and young ladies, tending to the cute little Navajo children and showing them the love of Jesus and God.

We were not there to see this…but the jubilation on Jim and Brian’s face when they located the needle in the haystack.

We want you to run a water line from here to there.  But we don’t know where “here” is anymore because someone removed the marker… so you will have to dig until you find it again.  GOD WORKS MIRACLES AND THE WATER LINE CONNECTION IS FOUND!!

Snow on spring break.  Yes…I said snow.

We saw snow more than once on this trip!  Falling and on the ground.  High elevations bring weather that is not what we would have thought possible for that far south!

Disney song trivia in the vans.

Not in the van I was in! :)  Sorry I missed that! (Or maybe not!)

Tom N and Wayne having a very relaxing DAY to return a rental car (where did you guys REALLY go that day???)

Mark’s face when I offered his expertise to reroof the house.  I think he went cross-eyed.

The look on Pam’s face when she went into the cat house.

The debate was… which is worse?  having a house full of cats?  or a house full of sheep!?! 

The cats smelled worse to me!!

The neat site of Jenny and Joy talking about Jesus as the kids colored and ate their snack.

Ben Fr getting nasty with a crowbar and ripping nails from the roof, like nobody’s business.

Riding in the vans playing mafia.

I missed that one too!  Kids were very good at entertaining themselves in the many many van rides we had each day.

The sopapillas at El Sombreros…these things were whoppers.  I think Tom and Josiah each at an entire one.  I think they deserve a medal of honor for this.

I can’t wait to get someone’s pictures of these!!  They were quite something and I left my camera in the van that night!  Zach only ate 1/2 of his.

Brooke and Jessica ordering a PORK CHOP at El Sombreros.   What were you girls thinking????

The guitar singing on Wednesday night.

How hard the students worked.

More Dutch Blitz to unwind in the evenings.

Sardines, crushed crackers, and silly string…ouch.

The tricks the kids played on each other in their rooms.

The Pizza Party.  When Kyle left the serving table…I think he had 7 pieces of pizza on his plate on the first trip….where does it all go?

Dan Cargill’s tool trailer!!  Wow…what would we have done without Dan’s leadership and his tools.

Cute little Navajo boys with ponytails.

"

“What’s her name?”

“uh… HE said HIS name is Matthew”

“oh”

More riding in the vans.

Our time of sharing on Thursday night.

A pyramid that almost crushed Hannah, Jenae and Brooke.

Shelly and Pam’s tshirts.  Please ask them to wear these sometime.

Gee… seems the ONLY picture I have of Shelly & I in these shirts are blurry… oh there’s a story there… mostly just Shelly leading me astray! :)

Our young men who have a propensity to scrape their faces on bottom of pools.  What do you call that game again?

“What did you do to your face Ben (or Seth or Jason)?”

“Oh, I got in a fight with a prairie dog”

NOT!

Purdue got beat.

The group hug our young ladies gave to Stan and Dan to say goodbye.

Getting up REALLY early to make our Saturday flight.  Denny…what were you thinking?

Shane growing some whiskers.

“Man…that’s legit”.

Never guess who said that last quote enough to make it a common phrase!!

Zach & I at Sedona…

Pam

What we are doing this spring break…

We’ve been pretty blessed (and spoiled) by getting to go to Florida for spring break for a lot of years in a row…

SEE FLORIDA POSTS HERE

Our church sponsors many mission trips/work teams that travel to various countries and help the people there.

The Senior class from church, has a tradition of going as a group on a mission trip during spring break.  James is going with them.  My dad is going along with James on that trip.

So…  That leaves the rest of us at home. Right?

My sister Lana, who normally goes with us, to Florida with her family (and now her husband), is due with a baby in a month.  They aren’t going to Florida.

My mom is not going to travel to Florida on her own without my dad.

So, no Florida Vacation for us this Spring Break.

Then an opportunity came up for High School students at church and parents to go on a different missions trip. 

This trip is a bit lower key than the one that James and Grandpa are going on.  (like we are sleeping in hotels & eating meals out & not leaving the country!)

Zach and I are going on this trip!

We are leaving Early Saturday morning & traveling to the airport.

Flying to Arizona.

Driving in 3 large vans from the airport to the hotel.

Spending the weekend in Arizona with some people there that go to the same church we do.

Then traveling on Monday to New Mexico.

In New Mexico we will be spending some time with the Navajo people. 

The men & boys will be doing some construction work.  One of the projects will be to put running water in a church there.

The ladies & girls are going to be hosting a 3 day Bible School for the kids there.

Then on Friday we will travel back to the airport via some sights like THE GRAND CANYON!! 

Then fly back home on Saturday.

I am the official photog of our trip.

James is the official photog for his trip.

There will be lots of pictures once we return!  (not taking the laptop, so I don’t believe you will hear from me while I am gone, outside of perhaps some Tweets, if there is cell phone reception)

Oh… and the other 4 kids?

Leah is going to an indoor water park one day.

They are going with friends 2 days.

They are staying with my mom for the bulk of the time.

Grandma is taking the grandsons to a local hotel one night, and the granddaughters another.

My sister is keeping our 2 dogs & helping with  the kids when my mom needs her to.

So… that’s where we will be. 

It will be different.

We won’t be all together.

We will be doing things we’ve never done.

We will be seeing things we’ve never seen.

It will be good.

I hope.

Pray for us all will you!?!

Pam