No Feathers, Mission to the Navajo Nation
By Beth Fultz, Director of Christian Education
“Remember, the Navajo don’t have feathers!”, Melinda Benallie reminded me several times over Spring Break as we toured the locations for the Youth Mission Trip in July. The Navajo or Dine` (din-nay) Nation is not associated with feathers though they are closely associated with the Anasazi, Apaches, and Sioux. The Dine` were more aggressive people in history, Melinda’s story continued. Our scouting party experienced only kindness and gentleness from the Navajo people we met. No aggression, no feathers. In fact, I would say the people were submissive, patient, soft spoken and never asserted their opinion over another. The Dine` people were peaceful.
Though the journey was long to the northeastern corner of Arizona and southeastern corner of Utah, our small ensemble was rewarded by the majesty in the mountains and mesas, shining stars and rock formations. We met Melinda Benallie, Clerk of Session at Kayenta Presbyterian Church, back at her small home in Albuquerque. Melinda’s mother, Pastor Norma McCabe, was recovering from kidney and liver dysfunction and unable to meet us. Norma is over three Presbyterian Churches in the Navajo Nation and in close contact with another four.
As we traveled, the mesas popped out of the landscape, craggy and smooth, elevated and carved into great depth. The Navajo Nation surprises at Window Rock, the capital area of the Dine` Tribe. Window Rock is a hidden vista worth a long journey’s break. It’s huge and impressive.
Kayenta Presbyterian Church, about two hours from Window Rock, is tucked at the base of a hill in Kayenta, Arizona, a town and surrounding community of about 5,000 people. This will be our host church and where Pastor Norma McCabe lives with her soft spoken husband, Eddie. We’ve been asked to repair a wall in the white clapboard sanctuary, paint the large porch around the fellowship hall building, re-roof the hogan, and odd jobs around the property. We’ll reside there for a week.
Ojeto, Utah, (Oh–Jay–toh, You-ta) is a 45 minute drive north toward Monument Valley and west around the mesa. A small house and dirt yard serve as the church grounds. When we arrived in the early evening, it was filled with a host of kids playing baseball in the dirt. The church entry served as home base; and they had just broken a window somewhere hoping that Pastor Sarah and husband, Willie hadn’t noticed. Vacation Bible School will be here with an expected population of 35 – 40 kids daily, feeding them lunch, offering Bible Stories, baseball, volleyball, tie dyed shirts, other crafts and a daily movie projected onto a white sheet! This crew that I’ll be on will drive past one of Arizona and Utah’s biggest tourist attractions, Monument Valley. These incomparable rock formations have appeared in many a movie including “The Searchers” a 1950’s western, starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood.
Dennehotso (Din neh Ho tso), Arizona is back east about 25 miles from Kayenta. Darlene Blackwater met us there. Her parents donated the land and home for the Dennehotso Presbyterian Chapel. Darlene was hoping that we could fix the water line, broken since 1996, at the back of the ancient Quonset hut that served as the broken down church. A outhouse served the members when they gathered. We witnessed poor at it best. A house further into the property could serve as a manse, but was covered in graffiti, broken windows, needing roof repair, doors and a new water line. We have chosen to concentrate our efforts on the manse instead of the dilapidated Quonset hut.
Our goal is to help these three poor churches with repairs so our Navajo friends can continue a Presbyterian presence on the reservation – and play baseball on the church front porch in Ojeto. No windows broken though.
A hurried pace and schedules abandoned. Vistas magnificent. Laughter abundant. We came back peaceful and elated at the luck of the draw. No feathers and God was glorified.
Want to join this opportunity, July 18 – 26? We need many youth aged post 6th grade – 12th grade and plenty of sponsors to work, cook, sing, play, be amazed! We’ll be raising about $19,000 for this trip. Thank you to Tommy Wadley, Wendy Larmour, Pape and Madie Russell for going along on this journey and documenting our future visit.
Check out the vistas we’ll experience at:
http://semken.asu.edu/teaching/GeolHistSw.pdf