MISSION NAVAJO 2009

We have arrived in Gallup, New Mexico. We will be here for a week as participants in “Navajo Mission 2009." This is a recurring mission trip sponsored by Lutheran Church of Hope, of West Des Moines, Iowa. We took three days travel to get here. We spend the nights using a hospitality ministry, started by the Mennonite Church, called “Mennonite Your Way.” This ministry is joined by non-Mennonite Christians as well. We have also had many overnight guests stay at our home. The first night we stayed in Norton Kansas, with a couple who had been at our house in August. It was very nice to link up again and share our experiences.

The second night we slept at a farm about 8 miles north of La Junta, Colorado. During this second nights stay we had our fill of melon, water - and other kinds. The host family grows melons for seed production and develops new hybrids for taste, color and other parameters, as wanted by growers and producers. The growing season was over and many ripe melons were left on the test field. We were invited to indulge, try as many varieties as we wanted, and we even took some with us on our continuing trip.

We were blessed with light traffic and beautiful weather all our travel days. One of the benefits of taking time is the ability to take secondary roads, like US routes. Usually these roads are well maintained, but carry much less traffic than the express-ways or interstate highways. Also we see more history and culture, going though some of the small towns. It takes a little more time to go the distance, so it pays to not be in a hurry...

On Sunday we had a church service with a local Navajo CRC in the open air, because they held their annual church pick-nick at a site away from their normal place of worship in Churchrock, NM.
There was a rich variety of food, including some fresh fry-bread, prepared over an open fire. It was a real nice worship experience, we even tried to sing in Navajo; at least we got the melody right.