The Problem with Beards

This is it. The last week of my summer internship with Sacred Road Ministries. It has been quite a ride, some things expected, some not. This week was a little different than the rest because I was leading a site with the youth of the community. we painted the home of a tribal elder and his wife named Slim and Sally. We also replaced 2 doors and built a wheelchair ramp for Sally. Leading a site with the youth is in many ways the same and in a few ways unique from leading a group of team members. Like the teams, the youth have to be directed as to what to paint and what not to paint, where to paint, proper technique, their work has to be checked, and they can occasionally be remiss in their duties. unlike the teams, the youth are not strangers in the community, this week they painted faster than the teams, and there is no way of knowing how many people will be on site from day to day. The fact we are able to have a site (actually two, but I never saw the other site) where the work is being done by the youth is an incredible example of how much work the Lord is doing on the rez. Having enough youth active in the ministry that we can have a work site where the labor is done almost exclusively by the teenagers of the community is a huge amount of growth over the last few years. talking with the people who have been around the longest, you hear that even four years ago, there were so few kids in the youth group the idea of them doing almost all the work on a site was laughable. There were only ten or twelve youth, and only four or five were engaged enough to want to be involved. This summer, the youth group has had over 80 kids involved in some way shape or form, and Tuesday night youth group usually have around 50 attendees. Over thirty youth have been on the work sites doing the labor. The goal for Sacred Road is to eventually have a church on the Yakama reservation that is run by the Yakama people. The Granberrys don't want to be here forever, there is a desire to work themselves out of a job by raising the leaders of the church from within the community. That starts with the kids and with youth group.

This week we had four work sites. Slim and Sally's house, where I was leading the youth group girls in a painting project and one team member with a construction background rebuilt a wheelchair ramp and helped Uncle Dave install two doors, the Site three houses down from mine where Sho was leading the team in repainting a home, there was a roofing site led by Justin and Beth, and the Youth group guys built a woodshed for a family under the tutelage of Drew and Taylor. The sites were all completed on time, and the biggest problems came in getting materials to the sites. (specifically cap shingles to the roofing site) and in the fact we had to re-cut the door frames on my site because the doors we ordered were an inch too wide. Everything came together beautifully in the end.

Oh, and the to address the title of this post: the problem with having a beard -at least a beard the length of mine- comes from the fact that we give a lot of piggy back rides to children at kids' club. The grip strength of a six-year-old boy with moderate Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and a mild case of Random Affection Disorder is amazing, and entirely sufficient to cause severe facial pain when applied to a beard.

Prayer requests this week: Smooth transitions for the interns as we head back to the life off the rez, prayer that we would have the words to tell others about the need that is here and the work being done, thanks for the work being done, prayer for the full time staff as they continue the Lord's work here on the rez, prayer that the Lord would continue to work powerfully here.

Beauty and Brokenness, Scars and Healing

Quite the week this week. There was a lot of stuff going on that stayed smothered until the very end and made this seem like an easy week for those not directly involved. Every Saturday night, though, we have what's called say-so, when we all get together and watch the videos of the previous week and spend time talking about what impacted us most. This week's say-so was the most powerful of the summer.

But first, work site updates. This week was crazy with how much we were trying to get done. we had a roof-over on the house of e tribal elder named Harrison, a roof-over and a carport to paint at the home of the tribe's coffin builder Ray, a bathroom to finish at Leslie's house, and exterior paint job at the Adams' home, two walls to frame at the Dempsen's, the youth working at the home of another elder named Iola and painting a couple rooms at the Adams' house, and a crew building decks at Camp Chaparral. Yes, 8 sites in a week, 6 for the team alone. I was on the roof-over at Harrison's home, and the crew Beth and I were leading absolutely flew. we were finished by 1:30 on Wednesday, quite a feat when the crew leaders are trying to slow the crew down so we can stay out in the community longer. The Adams' house was done by around lunchtime on Friday, Leslie's house was a one-and-a-half day job, the Dempsens' walls were done by the same crew as Leslie's floors, Ray's shop and carport took right up until the end of the workday on Friday, but they got finished. Iola's woodshed was completed Friday morning, and almost two cords of wood stacked by the end of the workday that afternoon. oh, I forgot to mention, there was a team in Warm Springs this week too. They painted the Early childhood learning center.
One of the most powerful things about the say-so was the effect kids' club had on people this week. as a bit of background, there are two separate locations where we hold kids' club. Totus Park in White Swan is the original location, and in the last couple years, the Sacred Road has started another in Adams View Park near Harrah. The people who have been working with Sacred road a long time have incredible relationships with the kids at Totus. They have been playing and talking with some of the kids there for five or six years, and seen kids who can barely toddle grow up. Because of the relative newness of the Adams View location, there are not those deep relationships (for the most part.) What this leads to is separation anxiety when someone moves, whether that someone is a kid or a staff member. Those most impactful stories this week came from the staff members who have historically worked at Totus, but this week were at Adams View. Stories of feeling ripped in two, because of how much they love the kids at both locations. Stories of realizing that they were trying to avoid getting really attached to the kids at one place because they felt they belonged at the other and failing because the kids were so desperate for love.
That desperation is what really breaks your heart. You see the kids that so need love, but are too afraid to get involved. They hang back at the edges of kids club and play a few games, but it will be a long time and take a lot of coaxing before they're able to trust.
prayer requests for this week: a sense of peace as we the interns prepare to go back into the rest of the world. After the next team week, we're done for the summer. Pray for the transition for the full time staff as well, as they go from a state of constant motion to relative solitude as the summer staff leaves. Pray for the kids at kids' club as the summer comes to an end and they face 9 months of limited contact with the 'Church People' they love to play with and who love to play with them. the ministry does not stop at the end of the summer, but the amount of work that can be done is so much less without the summer staff that it slows immensely.

An Intern on a Hot Asphalt Roof

There is a book by an author named Lemony Snicket called 'A Series of Unfortunate events.' This last training week has a couple days which could accurately be described by this title. on Tuesday  the 26th, I severely sprained my ankle while playing a game called steal the bacon with the youth group. On Wednesday, Justin and Taylor dove for the same Frisbee, after a ride to the ER and a couple hours, we ended up with Justin having 3 stitches over his eye, a nose broken in four places, and a concussion. Taylor got six staples in the back of his head. This left Justin and I out of action the next day, and I on light duty for the next two days. Justin then was barred from the roof for the upcoming team week. Essentially, the two of us were unable to help prepare for the upcoming team week, and we were down one  roofing intern (My ankle healed enough to work on the roof by Monday.) So, one of the major prayer requests this week is continued healing (we all seem to be recovering well.)
The Projects this week included a roofing project at the Dempsens' home on their home and on the clubhouse where they run an after-school program for kids in the community. At the same time, we were continuing a painting project there at the Dempsens'. The other crews were working at the house of a single mother on a roof-and-paint, and the youth group from the community was working on a shed at the Yarbroughs'. it was a long, hot week, but we ended up finishing the shed right on time, having only half an hour of work left on another, and finishing all but some cosmetic work at the third site.
Kids club went well this week too. Wednesday was the fourth of July, and kids' club is canceled every fourth of July for two reasons: one: very few people come. Two: we become targets for bottle rockets. Instead, we took the team to Toppenish to watch the fireworks display. Friday we had water games due to the heat (mid nineties.) Jesse and I both ended up utterly soaked. It was fun and entertaining and the kids laughed incredibly hard. It was great to see them laugh. They can be so somber when they show up.
There has been a focus this week on the family aspects of the teams. The teams that came this week included a group from Kentucky, a group from Covenant Presbyterian in Issaquah, and a group from True Light in Seattle, a mainly Asian church. On the night of the fourth, we were also joined by a number of the youth from the community. So, we had about 1/3 white, 1/3 Asian, and 1/3 Native Americans. We had some confused looks from people driving by when they saw a group of people that mixed all together playing, laughing, and watching the fireworks. The pastor from Kentucky put it well, I think, when he brought up the  passage about every nation coming together to worship the Lord. he called the fellowship this week a little foretaste of what heaven may be like.
Prayer requests: Healing for Justin, Taylor and I, Health and safety as temperatures soar this coming week (100+ the next 5 days), and passion for Christ that is seen by the community.

Flexibility

This week was a lesson in flexibility. One of the unofficial mottos of Sacred Road Ministries is "Semper Gumbi" (Always flexible.) Monday I and one other intern were sick with a stomach bug that's been going around, so there was a mad scramble to replace us by pulling interns off sites where there was more than one leader. it was a bit hectic, and I was restless all day wanting to be out helping, but my stomach consistently reminded me that I should be laying down, not riding around the rez and runnning construction sites.
Luckily, it was just a 24-hour bug. Tuesday I went to be the thirs leader on a site that needed a little more help. I ran a paint crew until lunch, then helped roof after lunch (there are a lot of projects where we both roof and paint a home.) It was a bit entertaining to watch a 16-year-old girl with a 16 ounce hammer try and drive nails as fast as I can with a 24 ounce framing hammer. (Tap taptaptaptaptap vs. tap BAM.) The goal was to have the roof dried in (meaning fully tar papered) by the end of the day. we did it, but only just. we finished at 2:25, using leftover scraps of felt paper to cover the last 22 feet of the ridge. But we got it done.
I ran a paint crew on Wednesday and put a full second coat on the house my team painted two weeks ago. we actually did a little more than that as well, we started priming the trim color areas, so my expectations were exceeded and the day was a success, despite a lack of focus after the lunch break.
Thursday. field trip day for the teams. I ended up escorting two of the leaders around town as they ran errands while the rest of the team (and the rest of the interns) floated down the Yakima river or wandered through a cave. It wasn't all bad, I bought some bacon (that was breakfast on Sunday) so the house could have some for the first time this summer. for 5 men between the ages of 19 and 22 to go without bacon for a month... well, I bought 3 pounds and there was none left after breakfast. Bacon is an important food group for yound males.
After the errand-running, we had kid's club. we had been having it all week, today I was on the kickball daimond. In 90-degree heat. It was quite the contras the next day when it was 75 and I spent the daying playing with hot wheels with the littler kids. I drank a lot more water Thursday than Friday.
Friday night and Saturday morning were goodbye times. We finished all of the projects for the week (one roof was right down to the wire, but it got finished.) adn teh teams are off to their respective hometowns.
We were really out in the community this week. The site where we were both painting and roofing was a house owned by a tribal member, another site (we were just painting this one this week) was the workshop of the tribe's coffin builder. Talk about someone known by the community around us. Because of the low life expectancy here on the reservation, almost everyone knows Ray. Sad, yes, but true.Something to make you think. Traditionally, cutting one's hair is a sign of mourning, and the mourning period for a close friend or family member is one year. At any given time, there is probably someone within earshot who is currently in mourning.
Prayer requests for the next couple weeks: health and rest for the interns, continued good work by the teams, praise for another week free of major injury, prayer for my ankle (I sprained it during youth group Tuesday night.)

Also, Pictures available here: Flickr, Facebook

Sacred Road, Entry 2

     You know those times when you realize you've forgotten something you should have been doind for an extended period of time? This is one of those times for me. I've just finished with the first team week, and taken no pictures. I'm sure some will be on facebook before long, but still, it's a little embarrassing to forget something like that. I suppose I should be used to it by now. I've never been good about remembering to take pictures. I shall make a note to be sure and take some the next team week.
     As it is the day after the team has left, a recap of the week's work done is due. in 4 days of work and one field trip day, we had two days when rain made it impossible for the painters to paint, yet we still managed to first-coat a house. the roofing crew had only one day when they couldn't work, and they stripped and re-roofed over 3000 square feet of asphalt shingled roof on a building purchased by the ministry last year for conversion to a church house. The third crew had the task of tearing down and cleaning up the debris of an approximately 2000 square foot shed. It was done. It took all 4 days of work plus a couple hours the morning of the field trip, but it was done.
     The physical labor in construction (or destruction, as may be the case) is a huge part of the work week here, and can be physically exhausting, but the part of the week that takes the most out of you is kids' club. An hour and a half of giving piggyback rides, playing tag, pushing kids on the swingset, and helping them cross the monkey bars, then 20 minutes of snacktime, a Bible story (acted out by the kids under the direction of an intern) and a couple songs before walkinng to kids home or loading them on to the van for the ride back to their house. Physically, it is tiring Emotionally, at is simultaneously exhausting and incredibly refeshing and incredibly sad. there are far to many stories of kids that were engaged at kids' club one day and gone the next. Talking to the permanent staff members, you hear the stories of bright, promising children. Enthusiastic or maybe just reaching the point where they can let down their armor a little who never come back. Some have died. Many have moved. some are scared by the fact they are opening up. for whatever reason, we lose them. The hope for these kids is they will someday seek out 'church people' (I'll explain) later in their life when they are in a hard spot, remembering the love that the teams and staff of Sacred Road had for the as children.
     I've just used a phrase with negative connotations in much of today's world. 'Church people' is, as often as not, seen as a near-epithet. The Christian church has become an institution people are immediately suspect of; there is a long history of reasons for this, and one can hardly fault people for being suspicious of our motives. After all, 'church people' are weird. There is a dafference here on the reservation though. The work done by Sacred Road has drawn children -and their parents and older siblings- twoards, rather than away from the church. When the teams show up for kids' club the first week, you can hear the yells of the little kids: "The church people are here! the church people are here!" It's a challenge to us as members of the church, too. When was the last time we were so excited about the church we would literally run to be a part of it? Of course context is important, and these kids are excited because here come perhaps the only big people willing to play with them. Wait, stop. Go back and read that again. The only adults willing to play with them. These kids are in a bad spot, and the church is for them a place of relief. They find joy with the Church people as we reach out to them. Sacred Road iis living out the command to care for the poor and the orphan. There is an excitement about the church here, and the work the Lord is doing, even in tragedy, and amazing to behold.


Specific prayer requests this week: My health (I picked up a cold somewhere.) the safety of the Sacred Road staff as we recover from one team week and prepare for another. Rest. Joy. Safety for the Kid's club kids in the off week. Thanks for the work done and the relationships developed over the last week. Safe travels for the people traveling on our free day (Monday) this week.


Blessings in Christ,
Thomas

Orientation

My Timing is off. I thought the schedule would be a bit more regimented than what it is, and I would actually have the full Monday of every off week for personal time (blog writing, sleep, talking with Kaylee, all those things that make life more pleasant.) No such luck. I am a 24-7 on-call intern, and my actual free time will be brief and scattered. Generally. I have been able to piece together a post during my few free moments, though. It's posted below.

     Now I've been here for almost a week. The days are starting to get a slight routine to them. I wake up at 6:30, do my daily devotional, write about my experiences from the day before, and then have breakfast with the rest of the guys (and Jessica.) I make breakfast some days, coffee most days, help clean up some days, help set out lunch supplies some days... all the morning duties are divied up amongst the rsidents of the house.
     Speaking of the residents, I'll introduce you.Justin is a 22-year-old engineering student from Mississippi and is rooming with Sho, who is quiet, but has been here a lot and knows the permanent staff already. Taylor is my roommate, he's a 19-year-old cowboy from Ellensburg who trains horses for a living; he has a very large family (7 brothers, 3 sisters.) Joshua is the member of the permanent staff who lives here full time. he is a quarter Hopi and runs the Sacred Road children's ministry. Robert and Jessica are a married couple (about two and a half years into their marriage) who live here on the training weeks and running the Warm Springs prioject during the Team weeks; Jessica has been here before, but this is Robert's first time to the Reservation. Then there's Uncle Dave; He's a sixty-something guy who has been active in mission work for many, many years, having worked in Siberia and Mongolia, among other places. He is one of two immediate supervisors of the summer interns, second in command only to Chris (The Sacred Road Director.)
     Every morning, one person makes breakfast, two people clean up, one person sets out the lunch supplies, and one person cleans up after lunch has been made. then we all head out to whatever training session or prep work we have for the day. lunch is at noon or so, and after lunch we do whatever else is on the docket. Usually more prep work.
     The place we are staying is a 7000-plus square foot house, built as a private residence. It was forclosed on by the bank and the ministry was able to purchase it for a very, very low price. The eventual plan is to take out almost all of the interior walls and convert it into a church, but for right now it is still a house and the male interns get a terrific place to stay and don't have to go anywhere after the end of the youth group activities with the native kids.
     And finally, we have reached the part that is most important. The people of the Yakama Reservation. This is going to be far more than what I thought it would be. My job is far more than just a project supervisor for the roofing projects, I am a minister of the Lord to the people, and my job is therefor much more difficult than I first thought. The adults I have met have been few so far, and involved with the church, so there is less of a barrier there to interaction. The kids are a different case. Most of them have been involved with the youth group for a while and some of them are very involved in the leadership of it. Still, the other kids can get rowdy. They've been well behaved when they have been here, but there was one fistfight on the bus on the way here and some of the stories are downright scary.
     I suppose the personalities of the kids are to be expected. They've grown up having to fend for themselves, and the way they do that is to charm the people bigger than they are and dominate the people smaller than they are. They don't have a safe place in their lives, so they can never let themselves be 'just kids.' School is a violent and unpleasant place and home (if they have one) might be worse than school. Sacred Road is trying to change that. it's amazing the difference that we can see even after just an evening at the church. There is a structure here with benevolent authority figures, it is a place where they can let their guard down for a couple hours. The kids who got into a fistfight on the bus had to go home, and they have to wait a couple weeks before they come back, but there were kids there who were coming back after an incident like that and they were calm. Rules were followed, something that doesn't often happen here. Sacred Road's work, even beyond the mercy missions construction projects, is giving the people something they haven't had for a very long time: respect.


Prayer requests for the coming days: preparation for the first team week, strength as leaders in times of controversy, safety, and memory for the things we are learning during the last days of orientation.

Thanks and blessings in Christ,
Thomas

Sacred Road, Part Two

I'm in.Cue the excited dancing.

And frantic support letter writing.

The Internship starts May 23rd. I'll try and write about my experiences every other week (the weeks I'm leading a group will be 80-90 hour work weeks, so please, cut me a little slack.)

That's it for now. Except that I've finished the application to Covenant Theological Seminary as well. Now I wait for the response to THAT. Seems like I've been doing a lot of waiting lately. It's probably good for me. It'll help me develop my patience.

Ciao.