Well hello all! It’s been crazy and I realize it’s also been since March. I am usually better about keeping you all up to date.
We headed back east in May to visit with our churches, touch base with friends and family – and, as it was a road trip, we spent the better part of May out of town. We squeezed some vacation time in while we were there and enjoyed the long break.
When we returned, we hit the ground running…. but only for about two weeks before illness took half of us out for half the summer. But after that, we hit the ground running! Summertime here isn’t usually any busier than other times of the year, although events sporadically through the season will make it feel that way. However, when we returned, there were several things up in the air about new construction which was possibly going to impact the school and library. This delayed much of Sharon’s summer work as ideas were tossed about. Computer problems in the library followed and all of the sudden it was the night before school. Orientation night and students were running around their classes, meeting new teachers and showing parents their specials. Sharon hooked up a new computer and installed the entire library software around kids coming in to say hi. It was tense, it was dramatic, but it worked and things levelled out fast after that first week. We also didn’t have any changes to library, so that was a blessing. No packing up books, or reassembling shelves on top of the normal summer schedule. We have wrapped up week 3 at Hilltop Christian School. Please pray for teachers and staff as we continue forward. We have a great group of kids and family that continue to show interest in what they’re children are discovering at our school (and parents who are from Christian homes whowant to volunteer and help out). Please also pray for staffing. We need support staff in the school as well as a permanent principal.
***If you know of someone who would be interested in applying, please reach out. Housing is available and the principal position can be as supported mission staff or potentially a paid position.
While library chaos eased and fell back into something normal, Steve was busy test-running another second Celebrate Recovery Meeting. This one was sparsely attended, with some weeks showing no interest at all. Six weeks passed with some new faces, but summer is a strange thing to gauge in our area. Steve will be starting another round at that same time and location on September 13th and running it through the fall. The possibilities of future meetings in other churches and offered at different times is appealing to the community and the CR volunteers, but settling on ideal schedules has proven to be difficult. Steve will also be involved with a Recovery event on September 17th in Gallup. Gallup is about 45 minutes from where we are “based,” and loosely considered local area. The event, Rally for Recovery, will offer Steve the opportunity to set up a table, advertise the group he hosts up in Window Rock and provide resources for faith-based recovery to the community. We hope to be able to pass out booklets and fliers that would provide basic steps and resources to help address a variety of addictions during this event.
The regular, Thursday night Celebrate Recovery meetings have continued steadily, have been well attended and provided access to healing through Christian recovery. Please pray for our regular meetings, the new test meetings and opportunities to start up another steady meeting in our immediate area of Window Rock. Pray for the Rally for Recovery event and that some of our local people could find useful and Christ-centered help for the struggles they’re facing.
The last month has seen much of our free time filled with storm damage. The severity of the monsoons have shattered records across the high desert. Flash flooding has impacted pretty much everyone we know, the campus roads have been washed out across several storms and the area around our house has been impacted by heavy water flow, mud slides, and (comparatively minimal) storm damage. We’ve spent a lot of time attempting to get trenches dug back out to draw water away, driveway leveled back out, fencing put up, just to be stopped by yet another storm. This hasn’t happened in a good fifty years, and despite drought needs we are praying it holds off another fifty before it does it again. It has, understandably, become exhausting to finish the day out only to go home and dig fresh mud out of fence post holes and fill rock back in to washed out driveways. A volunteer from southern arizona has been on campus all week helping out with the campus road damage as well, working for hours to get clogged drain pipes cleared and placed back under the roads. All of our campus roads are dirt and gravel, so as you can imagine, an unreasonable amount of water can cause damage very quickly. One of our classrooms flooded, leaving a huge amount of mud throughout the whole floor. While the class has taken some entertainment from this, textbooks were lost, a computer was water logged, and the carpet had several inches of mud sitting. It’s been a tiring month for everyone. The community as a whole has received much storm relief and assistance from the tribe and the state has cleared the roads regularly, so most of those impacted have some help or another.
Upcoming Prayer Needs and Information:
We have another Baby Clothing Exchange coming up at the end of September. The previous two were attended by several families and Sharon wants to establish this as a steady event every spring and fall. Families can donate clothes and take clothes through older toddler sizes as needed, easing financial concerns as kids so quickly burn through clothes. Please be in prayer that this event reaches those who need it most and impacts the community for the better.
There is a mission event the beginning of October which is usually “private” for staff and local churches to connect and grow annually. It coincides with the anniversary of the mission and school starting here in the Window Rock Area. This year, a harvest festival is being planned as an outreach event alongside of the regular annual gathering and they’re hoping for a big turnout. Please pray for those planning it, for Steve’s involvement with the event and that all goes well.
The annual Navajo Nation Parade and Fair is two weeks away. This will be the first time the fair has taken place since covid and the community is split as to the wisdom of having such a very large event in a small community at this time. Some are understandably frightened still, having been heavily impacted by covid. Many families lost more than a few loved ones and 20,000+people flooding the area has them on edge. Pray there isn’t illness spread at this event and the community would be able to relax in the aftermath.
Some Recent Photos
Click to expand the photos – I was having upload difficulties, so they are all thumbnails.
1. Library Bulletin Board for First Week Back
2. Community Bible Church, Pastor and one of our elders leading us in Navajo through In The Garden
3. Prayer and Dedication (an interfaith event along with traditional Navajo medicine men) over the Navajo Code Talkers Museum which will begin construction this coming spring. We were thrilled and humbled to attend part of this culturally and locally important event.
4. Our Third grade class brushing up on the difference between fiction and nonfiction
5. 6. and 7. Severe flooding (record breaking) has kept us very busy with cleanup and repairs campus wide. Area impacts were also severe and the town/county and city has been steadily cleaning it all up.
8. a post storm sunset, these are what Autumn sunsets look like up here in the high desert








We hope you all are well and enjoying the last of summer
Blessings,
Steve and Sharon