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