We arrived in one (stiff!) piece yesterday in Globe, ready to work with Arizona Reservation Ministries (ARM). We went out on the "fun bus," which is what the kids call it, and had probably 40+ onboard for Bible lesson, games, crafts and snacks. Then we played with them on the playground, avoiding the myriad of glass shrapnel until sunset.
Today we began with a prayer journey, where Diana Lawrence, co-director of ARM, drove us through several of the rez neighborhoods, shared stories and gave us items to pray for. There are always tears in our eyes before we're finished because the situation is so difficult for us to wrap our heads around. And yet we know we need to hear it all, to enter into some level of understanding that we didn't have before, and to feel for a people's plight in a real and ongoing way.
After the prayers, four of the team left to work on a house being built with/for an Apache family. The rest of us found the rock pile on ARM's property. We spent the better part of the day moving rocks to fill giant baskets being set into a bridge. The bridge is being built to access the property across a culvert that fill during the rains. But the county is requiring that the bridge be built according to specs designed for a hundred-year flood that hasn't happened in...well, awhile. I'm telling you, if a nuclear holocaust hits, the cockroaches that we're told will survive will do so by being on this bridge, because it's not going anywhere!
We're tired tonite. Tired, sore and full of questions about circumstances that are so much greater than we can change. It's obvious the answers to needs around us here won't be solved by governments (ours or theirs), or better economics. The deeper issues sure seem to be spiritual, and if that's true, there's only one person who can make that difference. And I'm thankful He's working in ways that are going to produce change in lives. Not just theirs, but ours as well, as we continue to connect with life here.
Thanks for the prayers. Please lift us up tomorrow, as we are helping host a "Family Fun Day" in a local park. We're looking for 150-200 kids and adults to come and spend time laughing, sharing and finding a ray of hope in the midst of much struggle. We want to be difference-makers for people who mean so much to their Heavenly Father. Pray that we will be just that.
- Posted far too late at night because we ran all day.
Location:San Carlos Apache Reservation
1 comment:
The opportunity to join the KACC GO TEAM to the San Carlos Apache Reservation has so blessed me in ways that I cannot yet quite put words to. The ARM ministry is a united effort of believers committed to serving very broad needs in a complicated situation and by the grace of God have in a relatively short time been able to show Gods infinate love and grace to a beautiful people walking in century old sorrows. Your eyes can only be enlightened and your knowlege increased when you take in the full scope of the plight of these people. The majority of them are just children living in a world that requires them to be grown beyond their tender years. I witnessed poverty of a different kind then I had ever seen before. These people are set apart by the mysteries of deep tribal tradition and set in a back drop of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. But the broken lives and shattered dreams seem to blend in ever so quietly. Only if you take a moment to look into the eyes of one of these children or a pregnant teen or the strained face of a grandparent can you fully see the true story. And I wish I had a thousand hours to hear just one of their stories. The need for God here is staggering and I was enriched spiritually and emotionally to be just a small ..infinately small part of such a wonderful life giving ministry of Jesus Christ. I will hope and pray that more people will want to join a team and become a part of this life changing..ever evolving ministry of hope. Through your church and here at KACC we can make a difference with the help and love of God.
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