What a trip! We are thankful for the experience and thankful to have come safely home. Hope y’all enjoy seeing a little of what we experienced last week at Sacred Road on the Yakama Indian Reservation. This video is probably a more complete presentation of what we did. But, here’s my personal attempt. Love y’all.
We spent Saturday in Seattle exploring Pike Place Market, home to the original Starbucks, a gum wall, the “world’s best macaroni and cheese,” the freshest west coast seafood, and an endless number of delicious samples! Below is Caroline with our “Breadzel” and a thumbs up! (fun name, right?)
Megan, in the center, is responsible for a lot of these pictures! Thanks, Megan!
At one point this street musician had a guitar balanced on his chin, a harmonica to his mouth, another guitar in his arms, two hula hoops spinning around his waist and bells jingling on both his feet! It was crazy! He broke out in a hilarious rendition of “10 Little Monkeys Jumpin on the Bed” for this little boy.
Fresh, beautiful, inexpensive produce and flowers on every corner!
Karis (left), our co-intern, with two of our girls in front of the self-proclaimed “Grossest Tourist Destination in Seattle.”
We got to see Katie Tracy, our friend and the RUF Intern at UW.
Saturday afternoon, we made the three hour van ride east to the town of Yakima (bigger than Starkville!) for dinner and then on to the Reservation where we settled into our home for the week–Harrah Community Church. The drive was beautiful. My measly phone pictures don’t do it justice.
Our friend Zach took a nap.
Pitstop to look at the mountains.
Funny.
Look at this tumbleweed I found outside of the church. Huge! They were everywhere and blew across your path just like in Westerns!
Sunday was orientation day we learned a lot about the history of the Yakama nation–their beliefs, how they lived before they were forced off their land, the treaties that the US government made with them, the culminating results of years on the Res. This video shares a lot of stats on these results.
Monday through Friday we did construction from 9 to 3 and then went to Kid’s Club in Totus Park, a neighborhood in White Swan (a town on the Res).
This is Melissa. Melissa is holding a caulk gun. Melissa and this caulk gun were my closest companions throughout our construction time.
We worked with these guys (and 1 more. hey Mr. Harris!) in the new youth room in the new church building. It’s incredible that the church has come so far in the 10 years the pastor’s family has been there. They didn’t expect to have a real conversation with people in the community until around their 8th year…They are starting Sunday services on Easter! Praise the Lord.
Several of our construction groups chain-sawed, moved wood to the church, and chopped it for firewood. I (Caroline) got to use a chain saw for the first time! This is only a portion of the wood.
We also painted these swings to go under the deck at the new church.
This very patient group worked on another site constructing this playset for a couple of sweet boys in the community. It had somewhere around one million pieces:)
This team re-roofed the same family’s house.
Kelly spent most of his week with the guy to his left, Scott Miller. The two, along with a few others composed the self-proclaimed “groundlings.” They spent most of their time pulling weeds, weed-eating, and picking up LOTS of trash.
Beautiful lunch break. There’s Kelly’s densest pile to his left. (He was really proud of it)
It felt so good to burn those weeds after spending several days pulling them:) Damien, the little boy in the photo, would eagerly hop in and help us out for a few minutes before getting bored and running to the next group of people and offering them his services. We had to keep the fires very small because the constant wind could lead large flames to catch on surrounding grass.
Several nights throughout the week, Kelly led us in worship (did you know he’s been learning how to play the guitar??) with Megan on the violin and a couple of different girls leading vocally.
On our morning off we went on a little drive to White Pass looking for a place to sled. Did you know that sledding sites can get snowed in?? Apparently, they can. We found another spot. I slid down once sans sled with a girl. Kelly had a few good slides on a sled.
This is Kelly driving. Notice the snow wall to the right. Not something we’re used to down here in Miss-ssippi!
There were ski slopes by the Welcome Center we stopped at!
And a high hill that people threw snowballs from!
Sled, Kelly, sled!
One of the highlights of the week was Kid’s Club. Even though two of the days were rainy and cold, we spent three afternoons with the children who live in a neighborhood called Totus Park. We jumped rope, played four square, did crafts, blew bubbles, gave a lot of piggy-back rides, played kickball, ate snacks, sang songs and listened to a Bible story acted out by a few kids.
Someone made hats for the kids and handed them out one day while we were there.
This is Alan, one of the kids our team built the swing set for!
I told a four-year-old little boy that he was “an expert” at the craft we were making that day. He looked at me sternly for a moment and said, “No! I am not! I am 1/2 Indian!” I had to apologize and explain what an expert was:)
This sweet girl is Leah. She thought it was really cool that my middle name is Leah.
I told her about another Leah, from the Bible.
Joshua is the children’s minister at Sacred Road. He’s from Macon, GA! Pray for him as he works diligently with these children.
We had a full, full week. I’m still processing a lot. I know I won’t understand some of the things I heard and saw. I’m thankful for it all though.
Our whole team!
This whole team slept on the floor of the Seattle airport for three hours early last Saturday morning! We had to drive through Friday night to get to the airport in time to return the rented vans and catch our early flight.
Can you spot Kelly?
Thank you for your prayers! Please keep praying for the growing church there and the unreached nations. God is doing such wonderful things already, but He hears our prayers and answers them!
