Construction Team
by Gaye Pesnell
The American Indian Christian Mission has taken over a seemingly large project of rebuilding an Apache girls camp, originally built in 1940, that is on the reservation. The scope of the project includes completely tearing down 6-10 dilapidated cabins, rebuilding these cabins and also restoring other numerous buildings at the camp. The construction team, which had as its mission to help accomplish this, was able to tear down 4 cabins. The Blue Bus team was a big help for half of the day before they went to the reservation to minister to the young kids.
Highlights of the week would be the loving, joyful and helpful atmosphere of the construction team and the blue bus team as they worked together and showing a young girl age 8 or so how to use the Bible given to her by the Blue Bus team.
Blue Bus Team
by Jeff Knowles
I am proud of how the Bus Team stepped up to the challenge as each day presented new obstacles that were thrown at us! There was heavy rain each day (including a lot of hail one day), there was anti-freeze spewing out into the bus cab right after praying for protection, there were backed-up sewers on our restroom breaks, there were killer squirrels that had an appetite for backpacks PLUS once we picked up the Apache kids, there were short attention spans, hecklers, and distractions! BUT it was worth it to see how God was working in the lives of many of these children, who were coming from broken homes, as they responded to the Gospel; who have put or will put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! When we brought out Bibles and candy to give to the kids getting off of the bus, we were shocked when they were more interested in getting a Bible than getting the candy!
This was my first ever mission trip, and it was fulfilling to see the Lord use not just myself but my boys Caleb and Micah as well! Thank you to those who made it possible for Caleb, Micah and I to travel to Show-low for this mission trip! It was so gratifying to see the Lord use my boys to minister to the Apache reservation kids (sometimes older than them) with Christ-minded attitudes in small and big ways such as: handing out tracts, Bibles and candy to kids who they built relationships with, showing kids how to make rubber band bracelets, playing basketball with them, helping me out with the demonstrations during the Bible stories and assisting with demolition work on construction site (ie: nail pulling, plank removing, and bagging drywall).
I think that each Bus team volunteer saw how their own God-given skill set was used as part of the body of Christ: from Rusty Farrell’s love of baseball, to Adeline Trojacek painting nails, to Pastor Bruce who went out the last two days and apparently can play guitar, to Sarah Shipley teaching the others how to make rubber band bracelets, to Melanie Trojacek and her love for play dough, to Betty Hawkins pulling nails and giving back massages, to Sheila Zimmerman doing her flannel graph teaching, to Amanda Shipley who made the kids feel special when they came on board the bus, to Jeffrey Trojack who pro-actively did anything that was needed at any time, to Annie Trojacek and Megan Shields who discovered they weren’t afraid of scooping a ‘little’ poop and finally to Melissa Rose who didn’t even make it on the bus the first couple days because of breathing difficulties (from atmospheric conditions) that the Lord allowed her to be used in a mighty way in the kitchen to bake morale-boosting muffins, cookies and cake!
Thank you everyone for your prayers and financial support that made this mission trip a productive and successful one to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Camp Team
by Rusty Manning
On July 11th we left for Show Low, AZ with 19 people to run a camp for Junior High boys and girls coming from the nearby reservation. In all, we were able to minister to 11 girls and 15 boys over a four day period. One boy decided that he needed to go home after the first day and another went home sick at the end of the 3rd day. Even though this was technically a “Middle School” camp (with another church group coming in the following week to run a High School camp), several of our campers were in the 9th and 10th grades as well. We found ourselves in a challenging place fairly quickly. I am not certain if you can credit the culture of the Apache and Navajo or maybe it was just the collection of campers, but immediate obedience was not one of the virtues that was readily observed. Even the best behaved campers took a good bit of prodding to do even small tasks. The behavior seemed to be based more on apathy than belligerence, but made it difficult none the less. Fortunately, the team that went along demonstrated tremendous patience and Christ’s love for these young men and women. We had several “veterans” that we could look to for guidance (is this normal?), as well as many who were there for the first time. We had staff ranging from grandparents to those younger than some of the campers, consisting of family units as well as single individuals. All-in-all, it really made for a good mix of people who came to love on these campers. They all did a wonderful job with nearly always smiles on their faces. The boys seemed to have a lot of fun just hiding from us. They also enjoyed the activities that come with camp such as swimming, games and crafts as well as a little hiking and fishing at a not so-near-by lake.
The chapel time was led by our own Lee Coleman. His theme for the week was “Flipped,” and the focus was on living life turned around from what seems normal to the world. Again, challenges arose due to cooperation and participation, but adjustments were made and God moved in these times. During this time, we had three of our youth members lead the worship who prior to this camp had not had much experience in that area. However, they rose to the challenge, did an excellent job and led us all in great worship. One of the campers “Face-booked” me and said the worship songs were stuck in his head! These really are some good kids with tremendous potential.
In the end, relationships were established or deepened, and at least three campers prayed to receive Jesus as their savior! So, on the last day of camp, since all of our “professional” ministers were unavailable, Matt Prescott (on his third trip with these students) baptized the two who wanted to make a public demonstration of their trust in Christ in the camp pool. It was a touching time as we saw new family members added to our numbers.
Though things were difficult at times, we understood that we were involved in things that Satan stood to resist. Life on the reservation (the “Res”) can be tough. It was rewarding to be able to offer them a different environment for a while and hopefully a glimpse of what opportunity there is in living a life that has been “flipped” by Christ. Thanks for giving us all the opportunity to serve.
