So, let me tell you a little bit about the Navajo people to make this blog a little less confusing.
1. The Navajo Nation is comprised of 170,000 people, living in 4 states. New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
2. The vast majority of people are alcoholics, especially the men, who are non-existent in the home. We all know how that turns out.
3. The children are abused. At Bible school, we would give them hugs or rub/pat their backs, etc. to show good affection. Some of them would flinch or jerk if we moved too close or fast near them as a reaction to being hit I'm sure. Made us all so sad. At the end of the week, when they realized we wouldn't do that, they were all over us. Climbing in laps, getting hugs, etc. So sad.
4. Their is none or very poor dental care. Most people were missing teeth and the children had mouths full of silver.
5. The Navajo received 9$ billion dollars before Obama became president. They now receive 6$ billion and hate him for it. The money is given to the chief/tribal council and is dispersed how they see fit. That means, the chief lives in a mansion and flies around on his jet while the rest of the nation live in shacks.
6. The Navajo live in trailers or other poorly developed homes that could blow over if the wind blew hard enough. They're made up of plastic, wood, tires, any scrap material they can find. Most also have round homes called Hogans that most people use to live in. Three families use to live in them and they compare to the size of a dog house practically.
7. People live on welfare/food stamps/government funding so they don't work or don't want to work. If they do, they make the same amount of money they would get from the government, so why work at all?
8. People don't fix broken cars, they buy another car instead. So they're homes look like car parks.
9. 40-50% of the Navajo don't have electricity or water.
10. The suicide rate is extremely high. Within a 2 week period, 15 people had killed themselves. They have no hope for anything.
11. The rate of pregnancy is 70-80% of all high school senior girls. The more babies a family has, the more food stamps/welfare they receive.
12. The altitude is 7,000 feet. Needless to say, you need a lot of water. To add to that, you swell. BIG time. My feet looked like a pregnant woman's. When I got off the plane in Albuquerque, my chacos were tight. I loosened my shoes all week continuously. I'll talk about this more later.
So, on Tuesday, Bible School began! We waited in anticipation to see how many kiddos would show up. Well, to begin with, we had about 4 or 5 SUVS that people had rented like vans and tahoes. These kids can't get to the church usually because the family may have just one car or have some other reason, so, people go out and pick them up and take them home. And you have to realize, these kids live so far out on the reservation, it takes a good hour to pick everyone up and get back. So Bible school usually started at like 10am instead of 9am like it was suppose to. But anyway, we kept looking for the vans to get back to see how many we would have and we had arguments about what age each child was to see if we had more kids than the other groups haha. So it turns out on Tuesday we only had 14, which seems very low compared to last year when they had 50+. And we decided that since there were so few, we would have all elementary ages together instead of separate, which worked out great.
Is it sad that we kinda hoped less kids would come so it wouldn't be wild? We all were torn because we wanted more kids to witness to, but less to take care of haha. So Bible school ends every day at 12:30. And we give them breakfast and lunch. We heard stories from the adults helping with the older kids (middle and high school) about the students asking to take food home to their parents because they just knew they're mama would love it. So they would eat half their lunch and ask to take the rest home. It was only peanut butter and jelly. It was so sad. Needless to say, we gave those kids an extra lunch to go home with. And the little ones would save a sip of juice they had or the scraps of their sandwiches to take home. And what makes it even worse is that some of the teachers would tease the kids and say, "Are those M&Ms for me? I'm gonna take them!", obviously kidding, and they would hand the entire pack to them and say here you go. Or, when they got something like that, they would immediately start handing them out to all of the other kids so they would have some too. They all know what it's like to need, want, be hungry and have nothing. They don't want others to feel that way. Sad day :(
So on Monday we didn't have an afternoon activity to go chaperone on for the big kids. So we went out to eat at this restaurant called Earl's. It's in the "downtown" area of Gallup and is suppose to be great. I was not impressed at all. The food wasn't bad, but nothing like I was expecting. Bleh. But anyway, we stopped at this store beforehand and I got some moccassins! SO EXCITED! They're so pretty with little beads on them. Beautiful. Just beautiful. So we ate and went to the hotel and went to bed. I was in bed every night around 9 or 9:30. I was zonked. Getting up at 5:30am blows, just so you know. Anyway, Jennie and I met some SUPER nice ladies that worked at the hotel named Della and Eugina. Well we tried to witness to them/invite them to Bible school or anyone they knew or their kids, etc. So Eugina ended up having 2 kids who came to Bible school for 2 days and at the end, they accepted Christ! Praise Jesus hallelujah! We also invited Eugina to come if she wanted. We heard stories of many adults, parents, grandparents, etc. coming to Bible school to drop their kids off and they would stay and make crafts and eat lunch. They were so thrilled to do that so we offered for Eugina to come too. She ended up coming on Thursday afternoon to bowl with the kids. I know she had a good time :)
So on Wednesday we had about 16 kids at Bible school. We lost a few and gained a few. But most of the kids were the same ones all week. And I forgot to mention earlier that I was in charge of games. So I had a bunch of games planned that we had to do in the classroom because it was dangerous outside with wind, heat, and gravel. We had accidents already. So we played musical chairs, over/under, simon says, we did the "freeze" song. They had the best time playing those simple games. And of course the teachers had a big time too acting like big ol' kids. After Bible school officially ended on Tuesday, the big kids had an afternoon activity to go to the aquatic center. It's kind of like a YMCA. We later found out that it would probably be the only time that year that they would get to swim. And it had been a year for some of those kids since they had last swum at that place from VBS. Sad day. They had the biggest time. We also realized later that there is no water anywhere in New Mexico. There are no ponds, lakes, streams, etc. Nada. Zilch. So those kids were dying for a pool obviously.
Oh, Christin will be pleased to know that on Wednesday I grew some kahunas and decided to practice singing to see how it sounded in that little church. Well, amazingly, it sounded good. And I wasn't near as nervous and Eric and Jennie were in there the whole time! So I sung it twice and I definitely notice that I sound WAY better on the second time. I have to remember that from now on. So I decided on Wednesday that I'd sing at church on Thursday night.
That was about it for Wednesday. Jennie and myself took Eugina's children home that day too, Bryant and Orrianna. Let's just say their home had tired on the roof holding it up and barely four walls. So sad. So after that, Jennie and I decided to take a van to walmart and buy Eugina and her children food, toiletries and other essentials that they normally wouldn't get. We felt so great about that. We split the cost and filled up a huge tub, bin thing they had. Water, bread, ramen noodles, potatoes, juice, toilet paper, etc. Oh that's another thing, Walmart apparently is always out of white bread, water and ramen noodles because it's cheap and feeds a lot of people. We left it for her on Friday morning before we left. I'll come back to that in a minute.
We went out to eat at Cracker Barrel that night I believe. I talked to HOTT wolfpack boy: Jaime. 20. Wants to be a pastor. Yum. Wish I could have found more like him on that trip.
On Thursday it was our last day of Bible school and we had 16 little ones and 1 or 2 accept Christ! Yay! We had a great day. Me and Jennie also went bowling with the middle and high schoolers for their afternoon activities. We chaperoned again. Initially, the adults watched/helped the kids, but then we decided to bowl too haha. Let me just tell you, I beat Eric in 2 games! That is quite a feat I must say. Eric is like 6'1 and 215 lbs, big guy, Mr. All American, can sing, has 2 kids, good at everything, HANDSOME, and I beat him. I felt so proud. He called me the dress lady since I wore one almost every day. He also told me that was why I was so good at bowling haha.
Thursday was also when I was suppose to sing. I had the runs all day long. I'm not kidding. I don't think it helped that I had coffee and mini wheats for breakfast, but I was going all day here and there. That made me decide to wait to eat dinner too, which was pizza. I didn't think that would go over real well. It may come out one or both ends. TMI I know, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want. Anyway, I felt like my doom was coming all day long. I was dreading it. The time was coming closer and closer. So I practiced after bowling. Three times. And I have to admit, I felt much more confident than I ever had. If anyone was in the room, they all told me I sounded great. I was just worried that since I always sound better after I sing the first time, I wouldn't sound as good at the actual performance since it was time 1 again. Does that make sense? Anyway, I felt guilty about singing anyway, I was gonna chicken out earlier in the week and Angie said to me, "Cortney, you're singing for the glory of God. It doesn't matter what it sounds like." Great. Thanks Angie. You make me feel so good. So I'm assuming God wants to hear me sound like a dying cat?
Well we went to church and were waiting for people to come. I swear, people kept coming, kept coming, and kept coming! AH. I thought I was gonna pass out from the sight of everyone. I had to keep turning around to look so I wouldn't be so shocked when I got up there. Well it turned out to be around 50-60 people, MUCH higher than the 20 or so from Sunday. Well the time came and I walked up there and prayed HELP ME LORD, please don't let me forget the words or my voice to crack. I had worried about that. I also worried about looking like a deer in headlights while singing, even if I did sound okay. When I practiced at home, there were only 2 people in the room and I had to look at the floor with locked knees. SO nervous. So I made a conscious effort to look around and move my body some instead of being an ice cube up there. So, can I just tell you, I was somewhat amazed when I got to the chorus that my voice came out like that. No joke. I was like, "OMGOSH! I SOUND GOOD!" So Angie sat in the front row and cried the whole time. During a musical break, which was after the first chorus, she mouthed to me, "You are amazing." Her face the entire time was in shock haha. Made me feel good! I sang in front of the hott wolfpack boy too. Life is good. Everyone also knew how terrified I was since I'd never sung in front of people like that before and when they found that out, they were like, you're kidding me right? They also told me I looked like I was a professional up there. Someone told me I didn't just sound good, but I had stage presence. So no deer in headlights for Cortney. Anyway, I had like 4 people immediately turn around and tell me how great I had done. It was such a high. I was so glad I did it. It had been gnawing at me all week to do it or not. I knew if I hadn't, I would have regretted it so much and always wondered what would have happened. Praise Jesus for the help! Oh and I sang "Tanzania" by Alli Rogers. It's a song about two different cultures on different sides of the world who are different but both children of God and who will both live on ground that doesn't shake one day. It also mentions Chattanooga. Cool points for that. I'll post the lyrics at the end of this blog to make it massively longer.
So after the service, I had numerous people come and tell me how great I sounded. And to top off the night, we had a final mission trip meeting and Eric (our preacher) made a comment about how great I did and everyone cheered :D Now, to make this night even better, let me tell you about an awesome story. Someone had mentioned there was a box of boots we could buy/take. I was like, nah, I didn't need any boots. Well, I found out they were real Ugg boots. For. FREE. NO. JOKE. All of us ladies ran over there to see and sure enough there was a massive box full. We all got free Uggs! But that's not the crazy part. Apparently, the church/school we were at receives donations and stuff all the time. Well, a truck driver from Cleveland, TN comes out every year on his own, and gives them stuff. He got Ugg boots from window displays and such for free. So these boots have either never been worn or worn once by people who returned them. How cool is that?
Oh, Jennie and I tried to take our tub'o food to Eugina on Thursday night. Well, we went down to the lobby and started talking to a lady at the front desk. She was like, you're leaving that for Eugina right? And we started talking and she was eyeing that tub of stuff and saying stuff like how great those honey buns, chips, etc. looked. I was thinking, how sad is this? Everyone is dying for food here. Just basics to live on. Well we decided Eugina may not have any food left by the time she got the tub, so we decided to take it another time. We took it Friday morning and left it with a note. And she called Jennie and said she got it and thanks. So praise Jesus for that. Hope that family enjoys it. On Friday, everyone on the trip split up to go different places. So, me, Jennie, and her son Daniel took a van to Santa Fe. It's about 45 minutes from Albuquerque. The scenery was beautiful. We decided Santa Fe was the Gatlinburg of New Mexico. It was all shops and such. But everything was made of adobe bricks, so cool. So expensive. And can I just tell you how convicted and awful I felt for being there at all? I saw people walking by holding their Starbucks, wearing their hats, dressed nicely, etc. I just kept thinking, you have no idea. You have no earthly idea what's 3 hours down the road. It hurt my heart so much. It hurt even more to realize that I was one of those people. Buying crap I didn't need at whim because it was "cool" or "pretty" and throwing money away here and there when there were people I had met that lived in shacks. Those Navajo homes made the slums of Chattanooga look like palaces. No joke. Makes me rethink everything I have and what I should be doing with my life to help others. Such an eye opener. I've never seen poverty like this trip.
So we went to see the Miraculous Staircase. I'm not gonna go into the super long story about it, you can google it. But it was cool. Jesus may have been there working :) We also went to see the Georgia O'Keefe museum. Boring. Jennie loves her and wanted to go so badly, so she bought my ticket actually, which was good, because it was very disappointing for $10. After that, we headed back to Albuquerque to the hotel. Early to bed, early to rise. 10pm to 4am to be exact. Woah 4am came early. We also had a long day of flying before us. 2 hour flight from Albuquerque to Dallas. 2 hour flight from Dallas to Nashville. 2 hour drive from Nashville to Chattanooga. So I came home and packed again and went to bed, got up and went to Destin! Here I am now! So I'll have more to blog after this trip. Nothing near as exciting as New Mexico I'm sure.
I do have to say though that I left a piece of my heart in New Mexico with those Navajo people and how awful they are treated. I'm glad the church goes every year. I definitely wanna go back. So here's my last super cool Jesus story. God was at work. There are a lot of rocks behind the church. We went and climbed on them. Well a man lives back there and came to the church and cussed everyone out, drunk, saying to get off his land. Well some people had not been up there yet and were gonna go one night after dinner. They were obviously stopped from going for safety. Well, Eric decided to go on a drive through the reservation, way back in there, to show people. Earlier in the week, he had met a family at the gas station and witnessed to them. Well, he had no clue where they lived at all. When they were driving way back on the res, they saw the family they had met at the gas station. Here's what's wild: They said, We've been waiting for you. We knew you were coming. They accepted Christ right there and then. If that man hadn't come down and cussed everyone out, our group would have gone climbing instead of driving and not met those people. SO amazing.
God has a plan. We have to remember that.
"Tanzania" by Alli Rogers
It’s eight hours later in Tanzania.
When Jen lays down
Mary’s just opening her eyes.
Her child’s feet land on the ground
and dirt scatters,
And she feels left out in the open,
always left out in the open.
She says, “son, wear my shoes to school today”.
He turns and smiles and walks away,
and she thinks to herself…
Someday I will wake
where the earth is clean and safe.
My children have a place to play,
not here in Tanzania.
And someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.
It’s eight hours earlier in Chattanooga.
Mary sits down and Jen’s just put the coffee on.
Katie Couric is talking news and fashion,
and Jen feels pushed into a corner,
always pushed into a corner, she says
“Baby I know what girls at school are like”.
And her daughter rides off on her bike,
and Jen thinks to herself…
Someday I will wake
where my children get a break,
And there are chances that they’ll take,
not here in Chattanooga.
Someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.
Well it’s hard to be mother,
and it’s hard to be a woman,
and it’s hard to live in Africa sometimes.
It’s hard to be mother,
and it’s hard to be a woman,
and it’s hard to live in America sometimes.
But someday I will wake
in a body that won’t break,
On ground that doesn’t shake, not here.
And someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.
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