Today:

I love our team. Every last one of  'em. 

My knees and legs are smeared with craft paint and sidewalk chalk.

I have counted at least 10 freckles on my lips. Yes, on my lips. Chapstick pumped with SPF whatever does nothing.

The wind tortured our hair and eyes today with debris made up of who knows what.

Therefore dirt now resides in places I knew not it could exist.

(But!) Kids came to Totus Park.

Kids came to Adam's View Park.

Adults came to Bible study.

Takoda sat with me at dinner. We ate too much cake.

There was laughter. Most of it all day. Most of it loud. Most of it together.




I think the laughter outweighed the tears.

It's official: an update.

Friends,

          It’s been over a month since I arrived at the Granberry’s front porch here on the Yakama Reservation. Orientation has passed. Four teams from Alabama, Idaho, and Illinois have come and gone. Four houses have been either painted or roofed, or both. Hundreds of snacks have been eaten at Kid’s Club, many a craft put together, and 2 weeks worth of skits and songs have been produced under the big blue sky of eastern Washington to a crowd of Totus Park/Adam’s View kids. And the food, oh the food, that has been prepared and enjoyed by folks from all over these United States in Harrah Community Church and the White Swan Longhouse.

Needless to say an “official” update is horribly overdue! Thank you to those who have been urging me for an email…every one of your phone calls gone to voicemail, texts, emails, and facebook comments have been well-received and a huge encouragement these past few weeks. It is an understatement to say that it has been busy here...but that is no excuse. So, here I go...!

Except, I'm not sure where to start...my fingers itch to tap out a multitude of stories I could share in my brief time here. Which do I share? And which do I not?

Perhaps I could start with what it’s like on the first day of Kid’s Club in which we played with dozens of kids at Totus and Adam’s View Park...about little Dante who has stolen my heart as he quietly chalks the pavement:

Or darling Leah as she excitedly runs to Kid's Club as we pull up to the park in our vans. 

She looks quite serious here. But normally, the joy on her face as we pile out with chalk, bubbles, and hugs is breath taking.

Or, perhaps another story is in order. One centered on my primary job here on "the Rez" as food preparer and children’s ministry helper? Until last week I never thought I could be found elbow deep in dressing the elk meat sitting on the Granberry’s kitchen counter...pictured below, actually, is fellow intern Ruth and Mary G. herself.

 

 Or, hilariously messing up a cryptogram for kids at our Tuesday night Bible study...or unloading a car so packed with supplies even the guys at Costco thought we were crazy… 

No, I will not include a photo of said cryptogram. Don't have one. Grocery photos, on the other hand. Have them a plenty.

And of course, yet another facet to the work here with Sacred Road is the Yakama community itself. Two weekends ago the community celebrated "Treaty Days" in which the 1855 Yakama Treaty was commemorated. As the dancers and drummers gathered for the grand entry at the pow-wow I was struck with just how beautiful Yakama culture is despite the brokenness that has permeated this community. Case in point, the 1855 Treaty is celebrated..one would think that there is not much to celebrate, considering 11.5 million acres was ceded to the U.S. government. However, the Yakama ancestors are celebrated for what they were able to save for their future generations....this type of honor and respect is sadly fading from popular culture's view. It is my prayer that through Christ this Yakama community may continue to celebrate all that is beautiful in what their ancestors have passed along to them this day...Yakama culture is beautiful...Yakama culture counts:

Finally, I could continue to spend a great deal of time sharing stories on the smaller community on the Rez that is Sacred Road. Two weeks ago we celebrated with the Granberry family on their seven-year anniversary since moving to eastern Washington (this is their 8th summer). Seven years ago the Lord impressed upon Chris and Mary's hearts to move here with their four kiddos...seven years later the Lord has kept them safe, they have been welcomed into this community, and God continues to work within the hearts of the Yakama community. Needless to say, it's an incredible honor and blessing to be able to work alongside the Sacred Road staff, seeing and learning with them as we attempt to love our first neighbors well this summer!

Ultimately, this first month has been a crash course in what it means to live in community...what it means to live in the Yakama community as a white, female Christian...what it means to live within the close (and becoming closer still) community of believers in Sacred Road...and what it means to live in a community just 3 hours east of my hometown though culturally I'm a stranger in my home state.

Some of you may be familiar with Jean Vanier's From Brokenness to Community (I know a few of you St. Louis friends had to read it for a certain class last semester ;). "Community is a wonderful place," he writes, "it is life-giving; but it is also a place of pain because it is a place of truth and of growth--the revelation of our pride, our fears, and our brokenness." I remember reading this last semester...I knew this last semester. But it hasn't truly resonated with me until this summer. Each community I find myself in, whether it's the specific community of food prep and children's ministry or the broader Yakama community, has it's joys, it's tears, and it's laughs. Daily I'm reminded of God's amazing grace in my life and in the lives of those around me...and yet I also see the terrible brokenness and darkness in my own life and in this reservation community.

More later as the weeks grow long. Blessings, dear reader(s?).

 

One of the many attempts to make Winney giggle. Success!

Musings of an intern...

"All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this forever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end." - Peter and Wendy

In quiet moments I've been reading J.M. Barrie's collection on the illusive Pan...in-between prepping meals for nearly 80+ people, collecting crafts for Kid's Club, chalking cement with Totus kids, scratching the bellies of Daisy, Peanut, Cooper, Bobo, and Sweetie, and soaking in these uncharacteristically wet eastern Washington days. All in a day's work.

It has always been a rather saddening opening quote, but since coming to "the Rez" it is even more so. Deep down I have thought of Peter as rather selfish demanding forever-youth in Neverland and dragging the Lost Boys and the Darlings into a world based upon his fear and loathing of grown-ups.. For all intents and purposes I'm one of those grown-ups...and from where I'm standing, adulthood isn't half bad.

But, from Peter's (and to a certain extent Barrie's) perspective adulthood means death. While the Mrs. Darlings of this world desire for sweet delight in their little Wendys, Peter's desire for youth is rooted in his fear for the bitter death of growing up. The root to Peter's fear and hatred of grown-ups is never explicitly given, though I can make a few educated guesses. But, whatever his reasons are, they are quite evenly countered with his second-greatest desire...for a mother. This contradictory mentality is what plagues his nightmares most...to live in freedom but under the loving shadow of a mother. Stuck in this juxtaposition, it is impossible for Peter to grow-up in any manner that is healthy...he needs a mother to survive. Only with a mother can he continue to thrive as the Pan.

Here on the reservation we're surrounded by many Peter's...hurting children begotten by hurting adults and circumstances. Many children without mothers...or fathers...or even a daily hot meal. For a few hours each day we can attempt to fill the void with showing love through bubbles and chalk...a hug...losing at tetherball...or simply "just being." We can be that "mother" they so desperately need. But in truth, that won't be enough. For many here, two really is the beginning of the end.

It's a sobering fact which cannot be avoided. But a comforting, countering fact is this: there is a "mother" to be had for these children. In the end, Peter gets a mother. She's not a conventional mother by any means, but a mother nevertheless. And Peter can continue to be the Pan. (On that note, I'm not quite sure how I feel about that...sometimes I wonder what a grown-up Peter would be like...hm...) Just as Peter can soar through the Neverland sky, so these kids, if only for a few hours on a blustery afternoon, can thrive through their unconventional mothers here on the Rez...their mothers teach Tuesday night Bibles study, blow soapy bubbles in the wind, play kickball, and share snacks...or simply hold them in their slumber on the chalked Totus cement.

And then there is yet another mother...the most unconventional of all: the love of a creating and sacrificial God. We, children and adults alike, can cling to scripture (Isaiah 58 comes to mind) and the promises of the Lord. Ultimately, he alone will feed these children with the love and heritage they need...he alone may be the only "mother" they receive...but it will be enough. It must be enough. Without this love I fear these children may never grow up...

In the short time I've been on the Yakama Reservation with Sacred Road I've been given a glimpse of how the Lord is loving on the naughty Peters...and the sweet Wendys. His goodness and grace are known, even in the most sorrowful of times...and that fact trumps them all...

 

"Mother" Morgan