Dear Friends and Relations,

Today we attended a wedding. We arrived at 10:00am, the time on the invitation, only to find a handful of people. Two women were setting out decorations on the tables and a couple of men sitting chatting. Jimmy, the grandpa, was raking up trash around the grounds. Days before, the prospective groom had built a really nice gazebo and today the unpainted structure was draped in red and white rose garlands and a throw rug on the floor. We were the only white attendees, but by now we are very used to that and don’t even notice.

We would find this wedding to be a mix of cultures. A traditional Navajo wedding would be held in a hogan and the couple would eat cornmeal mush out of a woven basket. The bride would wear a three-tiered white skirt and blouse and the groom white pants and shirt. Both would be heavily decorated with turquoise jewelry. Family would give advice about how the couple should act in the new marriage relationship. This wedding and reception, however, were to be held entirely outdoors and with the exception of gusting winds that threatened to destroy the decorations and swarms of man-eating gnats that threatened to destroy us, the wedding worked out beautifully.

At 11:00 the one we took to be the minister arrived and donned his officious-looking black robe. It turned out he is a judge rather than a minister. At 11:30 (only 1 1/1 hours past schedule) the procession began. With very soft, almost inaudible music playing in the background, the bride’s three young daughters and son walked up the white runner into the gazebo. Two carried bouquets, one a basket of rose petals she threw around, and the boy with a pillow with rings tacked on. The girls looked so cute in their white dresses and hair adorned with small red and white flowers, trying very hard not to wobble as they hobbled up the aisle on unaccustomed high heels. Then came the bride on her grandpa’s arm. Jimmy is our close neighbor and we’ve grown to love him. He is a scruffy, hard working man. When his cousin told him to get his hair cut for the wedding, he said, “No, I like it long.” I took Jimmy’s picture as he stood beside his pickup “getting ready”. He was putting on a cleaner-than-normal shirt which he would leave hanging out of his everyday blue jeans. With pride he showed me his turquoise bolo tie and bracelet that would accessorize his wedding garb. Off came the baseball cap and he was ready.

Jimmy walked his granddaughter up the aisle to the groom and sat down, having finished his part.

The judge warned us that we could expect at least a 2-hour ceremony because “it is too much work getting ready for a wedding only to have it done in fifteen minutes.” That was quite a while to be chewed on by gnats. He talked for 45 minutes about the civil laws of marriage–

1. it is illegal to have a same sex marriage (in Arizona)
2. it is illegal to get married while intoxicated
3. it is illegal to have more than one spouse at any given time

The couple exchanged vows and rings and then family members stood up and gave advice. My recollection is that all those giving advice were divorced/and or single with the exception of one aunt who was widowed. By this time three hours had gone by and the reception was still to come. Surely at the end of the day the family would feel deep satisfaction that all their hard work prior to the wedding had resulted in 4-5 hours of enjoyment.

ENOUGH OF THE WEDDING

This is summer vacation. All that means is that school is not in operation for three months. For Greg there is no vacation. During the springtime many asked Greg to fix their vehicles and he said he was busy teaching auto mechanics, “come back when school is out.” Well, come back they did. The other day he counted nine trucks needing his attention, and each owner thinking his vehicle the most critical to get worked on. And they just keep coming………… In the midst of this, both of our cars were down which meant Greg riding his bike to the shop and me walking where I needed to go. Greg’s servant heart never ceases to amaze me.

Soon we will have to make a decision about the coming school year, whether to drop high school or resume offering grades 9-12. We cannot go on offering the high school without additional teachers, and at this point there are a couple of interested teachers but no one who has definitely committed. John Bloom, our principal, wants to give the parents plenty of time to make different arrangements if high-schoolers need to go to the public school. Please pray for God’s wisdom.

Your love and prayers mean so much. Thanks.

Greg and Kathy

Dear Friends and Relatives,

I went hiking the other day with a visiting youth group. The destination was a waterfall that promised to be spectacular because of all the snow we’ve gotten. The two-mile path up to the waterfall crisscrossed a creek many times and soaked my shoes when I slipped on the rocks. The path ran through prickly shrubs and uneven ground. It pretty much all looked the same. So intent on watching our footing, it was easy to get off the trail and find ourselves at spots more difficult than necessary. I’m sure some questioned where exactly we were going and was it worth it? The waterfall really was beautiful cascading down the side of the mountain and where the moisture blew it formed these amazing icicles from the ground up.

I find daily life to be a lot like this trek into the waterfall. The tendency is great to focus on the walk, the temporal, the immediate concerns, the rocky places, the day to day sameness, and to feel a dullness creep over me. Where is this leading exactly, and is it worth it? Is anything going on of particular interest or significance? Is this really leading anywhere? That is my red flag to adjust my focus. It is necessary to look where you are walking (down) to maintain your footing but always with an eye on the goal, what’s ahead, the bigger picture of what is going on in the unseen world. Not so much what I’m doing, which seems pitifully small most of the time, my stumbling over rocks (as it were), but what God is doing and what lies ahead.

Matthew 22:23 says “The Kingdom of God is advancing forcefully.” Really? Even when it doesn’t look like it? So I ask God what He is up to among Navajos here in this community, and I find some encouragements. In quiet and undramatic ways God is working and His Kingdom is advancing. He is taking territory. Here are some examples:

T came one day to talk. He had lost his job and questioned God’s love. All his attempts to find work yielded nothing and now it was likely he’d lose his vehicle. He was very depressed. Several months later he returned full of joy. Because he had gotten a job? No, and there still was a real possibility his truck would be repossessed. But the difference in his outlook was that he was learning that He could trust God, no matter what. “Your prayers are working”, he told us.

A came. He and his wife were once excited about the Lord but have been lured away by the good things in this life. Now they are in trouble and he was broken and very ready to surrender himself to the Lord once again. His wife isn’t at that place yet and he fears for his marriage. But, he was back in relationship with the Lord.

AB came. Married to a man deeply into the peyote cult, she has remained true to the Lord.

Then there is B, also married to an unbeliever and raising three children virtually alone. She suffers greatly but is hanging onto the faithfulness of God.

N, a secret believer, recently stood up in church and professed to have trusted Christ a year ago.

R told us that he had lost his way but was now finding his way back to a walk with the Lord.

With much to discourage in our world today, God is working. His Kingdom is advancing. The enemy is being defeated. Is there something ahead that makes the trek worth it? Definitely, yes! And will it be worth it? Again, a resounding YES!

It is such an encouragement knowing there are people like you who care for us. “He will keep us strong to the end.” (I Cor. 1:8) through your prayers and we are very grateful. Thanks to each of you.

Greg and Kathy