Many Waters Mission

As we were all gathered around the large dining room table at Many Waters Mission, a middle-aged Navajo woman stood at the end with a pained expression on her face, as she addressed the small crowd. Directly next to her sat a young man who perpetually stared down toward the ground with a disturbingly distant and lifeless expression. The woman pleaded with us that we pray for the young man who was her son, for most days he said scarcely a word and remained disengaged while maintaining this troubled countenance. She went on to explain that she did not want to believe in “the witchcraft,” but she feared that he was under a curse. She admitted that she had taken him to the medicine man, which was the traditional Navajo tactic to break a curse, and she was being pressured by her family to bring him to the Native American Church, which is a cult that uses a natural hallucinogenic drug called peyote as part of its ritual worship. With increasing poignancy, she communicated that she came to the mission because she did not know where else to turn, and she begged us to help her and pray for her son.

Whatever was going on with the boy, there was no doubt that something was very wrong. The mother showed us a picture of him a couple of years ago, and we saw a normal engaged expression in his face, and looking at the person that sat before us it was as if all the life and the spark were gone. Lynn, one of the founders of the Mission, sat down next to the boy and took his hand, but he jerked away as if human touch was painful. Eventually, he let her grab his hand, and she prayed for him, and he talked a little, so the mother was somewhat encouraged.

Conversation ensued after the time of prayer was finished, and the mother again discussed her concern about witchcraft and evil spiritual forces. At this point, an older Navajo woman who until then had remained silent began to speak. She said the witchcraft is real, and she warned that if you don’t have Jesus in your heart it will not stop pursuing you, and it will find you. After she had spoken a few more words of advice to the younger woman, she then began to share her testimony.

Her name was Marie, and she had met Jesus when she was a young girl. She explained how she and her family had lived in a hogan in a desert canyon. Her father was a harsh man who often mistreated her, and one night to escape she wandered out in the desert alone. She stopped at the edge of the canyon, and in the darkness she saw a beam of light that appeared to come from something like a flashlight. As she began to follow the light, she was startled to find that when she reached the end of the canyon the light did not go straight, but it actually wrapped around the rock! She continued to follow this light, and it eventually led her to the home of some missionaries. Marie then told us about how they invited her in and began to tell her about Jesus, and she was moved by the Holy Spirit and believed. She prayed with the missionaries, and submitted her life to Christ.

She then recounted that she returned to the hogan excited about her new found hope, and she walked in to find her mother washing dishes. I was suddenly moved as this quiet, dignified older woman sitting before us recalled that she approached her mother and said, “I found truth, and his name is Jesus.” Her mother immediately scolded her and said that that is the “white man’s religion,” and she should never speak of it again. She told her that if her father found out he be very angry. Nonetheless, Marie refused to conceal her faith, but this was at price for her father indeed was angry and mistreated her.

As she continued growing up, both her father and her brother would beat her on occasion, and they were especially infuriated by her Christianity. Marie told us about how she continued to seek the Lord, and she would walk to church whenever she had a chance. However, she began to share with us that one day as she was sitting in church her father made a surprise appearance. He walked into the church building, grabbed her and threw her out onto the ground. He then took her Bible threw it back in the church and drug her away. It was heartbreaking to watch as this girl who was now an old woman sitting before us began to fight back tears. She told us of other experiences where she was forced to flee from her father or brother, but as she concluded she affirmed that she was still is serving the Lord, and she strives to do his will each day.

I stood for a moment reflecting on Marie’s testimony, and I glanced over at the mother and son standing there broken and hurting, and I felt keenly aware of the spiritual battle that rages on the Reservation. I was struck by the circumstances, pressures, and spiritual attack that so many of the Navajo Christians face. In Marie’s case, she was actually persecuted and shunned by her family for her faith. It is through the testimony of people like Marie that we catch glimpses of the presence of God in this world, and I left encouraged to trust God with my life, for the same God who sustained a young Navajo girl through such intense hardship is also my Father, and he sustains me.

Later that day, I had the opportunity to drive to the church near to where Marie grew up and meet her son who is now a pastor. In the brief time that I was able to chat with him, I was encouraged by his heart for his community and the world. He has actually travelled internationally, and he desires to lead members of his community to become involved in missions. Our hope is to recruit teams to come and serve alongside this church, and as we prepare for these mission trips, it is my prayer that the teams may build relationships in the community and be encouraged just as I have been by the testimony of their Navajo brothers and sisters.

- Josh G.

Find one of our upcoming youth mission trips.

Find one of our upcoming Mission trips:

Christian Missions: This week, the epidemic that had the world holding its breath affected Pearlington in a most unusual way. With the Swine Flu virus sweeping across Costa Rica, First United Methodist Church out of LaGrange, Georgia changed their travel plans at the last minute, leaving behind the Caribbean Islands for hurricane relief work in the heart of the South. They met up with a YoungLife group out of Illinois and Main Street United Methodist from North Carolina at Pearlington to help finish up the last projects of the summer.

Since it was the second to last week of the summer, the Experience Mission staff was thrilled to have the extra help.  Even though work has flown by each week, there were still several key jobs to be finished before both the Bennett’s and Nick could move into their respective houses.  Because of this, one of the most exciting parts of this week was the amount of quality work that got completed throughout the city. From cranking out electrical projects to demolishing houses, teams tore through any and all tasks they were given. The Bennett’s saw their massive porch cover finished, kitchen tiles and electrical installed and Nick’s crew finished roofing, siding and decking. All the while, other smaller groups finished up incredibly crucial jobs at the O’Neal’s, the Crepeau’s, the Ackers, the Vince’s and the Vincent’s.

However, it wasn’t the work ethic that stood out on these youth mission trip teams, but their willingness to do anything and everything to help those in need. These teams left a fantastic impression on every family that they worked with this week. The community adored the servant’s hearts that they worked with, and many went out of their way to thank the volunteers over and over again. The week was a huge success, and Team Pearlington is praying for one final great week to wrap up all of their projects and end the year with a bang. And if God needs to use Swine Flu again to make that happen, then we are all for it.

*This summer wraps up 3 years of rebuilding in Pearlington, MS. The town is 85% rebuilt! Stay tuned for our new Hurricane relief locations, and check out other locations that we serve in, at New Orleans mission trips.

Christian Mission Trips: Team Pearlington reporting again from the heart of the south where our short term mission trip teams continue to take huge strides in the post-Katrina rebuilding effort. This week, First United Methodist Church of Dallas and Roseville Christian Church made significant progress on five different worksites, while making a lasting impression on the community.

The Bennett house continues to take shape before our eyes. Where only six weeks ago there was only interior framing, there is now beautiful hardwood flooring, an enormous front deck with a split staircase and porch cover, and exquisite interior tiling. However, perhaps the most stunning of all the work at the house so far is the brilliant orange and pink stripes that make up Miranda Bennett’s room. The Summer Staff is thrilled with the progress that has been made on this house, and we are pushing hard to finish it in our two remaining weeks in Pearlington.

The other “top-to-bottom” project that we have been working hard to finish this summer is Nick Narvaes’ house. This week, the team at this site put up siding, finished the deck and handrails, built a hip roof and nearly finished shingling. Nick’s vision is finally starting to come to life thanks to the hard work of this summer’s teams.

This week, we also had a youth mission trips team at Phillip Willis’ house, painting a shed, building porch covers, planting a row of shrubs and staining two decks. Mr. Willis works at Stennis Space Center, where he helps manufacture a variety of important parts for integral weather watching systems. He was deeply grateful for all of the love and support that the teams were providing for the community and for him.

This group also started working with Joe Vincent and his daughter, Jessica. The Vincents are a passionate family who haven’t let personal tragedy bring down their commendable character. The team that worked with the Vincents helped by completely demolishing the interior of Jessica’s home, which hadn’t been restored since the floodwaters nearly completely destroyed her home in 2005. The Vincents are excited about working with future teams because of the efforts poured forth this week.

Along with all of this, teams spent time all over town putting the finishing touches on several work projects that were started last week. From finishing a porch cover at Billy Raines’ house to painting at Joe Vince’s house to staining a deck for Tommy Joe and his mom, this group made a huge impact on the community of Pearlington this week. We were sad to see them leave, but we have faith that the final two weeks of work down here will be just as amazing and productive as this one.

With Love,

Team Pearlington

*Note: Check out Experience Mission’s website at mission trips for information about upcoming Summer 2010 mission trips.

Navajo Mission Trips: It is so beautiful to see what a little bit of love and compassion can do in the lives of children. As the children from the community of Toko’i got off the large white van at the church on the first day of Kid’s Club, nothing but silence filled the air. It was apparent to see how uncomfortable and reclusive all the children had become in their current situation. We began individually introducing ourselves and one-on-one inviting the kids to join in on a little game called duck-duck-goose. Before we knew it all the children were in the circle and smiles were sneaking across their faces when they thought no one was looking.

After the warm up game, we moved on to a more intense game known as Red Rover.  It was amazing what this game did for the kids. All of a sudden all thirty of the kids were lined up, cheering one another on. I could just see God, as I looked at the kids jumping up and down against the yellow sand. Red Rover seemed to be the key ingredient to letting everyone’s guard down and opening them up. From then on things only got better. Everyday the kids got closer and closer with us and with each other. By the end of the week, you could hear the laughter from the van before it reached the dirt road to the church.

The short term mission trip team that came for the week really enjoyed watching the kids bond and open up. On the last night they discussed how that impacted their trip and their lives. The next week began completely opposite to the previous. The children pretty much leaped out of the big white van into my arms, yelling my name. It was so precious to see the lasting effect of the past week with the kids. They didn’t begin the week quiet again, but over the duration of that week they had formed even stronger relationships. The week flew by, and with every passing day the kids become more and more like the one big family they are.

It is interesting because most of the kids are related, somewhere down the line. Yet due to the distance between them they had not gotten to know one another. By the end of the second week of Kids Club the youth mission trips teams that had come were discussing how they loved seeing how close and trusting the kids were. They talked about how it really impacted them to see how easily the kids opened up to them. It is just so awesome to see the complete contrast in the two weeks, with what started as a simple game of Red Rover, ended up forming a strong and loving family.   

Molly Mulholland

Navajo Reservation

Note: Experience Mission is offering Navajo mission trips on the Navajo Reservation. If you’d like to join one of our short term Youth mission trips with EM, visit us at our website www.experiencemission.org 

Hurricane Relief in Mississippi: We’re Alive! Team Pearlington survived a youth mission trip team of 150 people this past week and we had an awesome time!  Houston First Presbyterian Church is our largest group of the summer. Literally, our entire summer has been in preparation for this short term missions trip.  We have been making sure that things are lined up to accommodate this many people.  It was interesting to see how God worked this week because we found that even with all of the preparation we had done, problems still arose. The first work day we awoke to torrential downpours and it seemed like the week was going to be disastrous because the majority of the work projects we had lined up were outdoors.  We also had some last minute worksite cancellations.  We were sweating it out and praying that things would turn around.  

However, God helped details to fall into place and the week was a “home run”. He presented other opportunities for work projects and blessed us with eager and high spirited students and leaders who were flexible and energetic.   We were also blessed with beautiful weather on Thursday and Friday.  It is truly amazing how our Lord works even in the difficult times. This was definitely a lesson on trust in Our God, and it became very obvious that sometimes it is so hard to let go of all control in a situation and just give it over to Him. This team from Houston was a huge blessing to the community of Pearlington, Mississippi and the hurricane relief work, as well as to the Experience Mission Staff. We were very encouraged by the entire group’s positive attitude and dedication to work hard. There was never a moment when this team wasn’t asking how they could help whether it be in the kitchen or on the worksite. This team worked in a total of 15 worksites doing various things such as shingling, siding, demolition, flooring, decking, interior & exterior painting, staining, porch covers, and general cleanup and yard beautification.

Something that was very unique to this mission trip team was their tight knit community, which is surprising considering their large size. Their evening programs were very exciting and intentional.  We had fun dance parties each night and moving talks given by Brune, Scott, and Tim.  They have an interesting approach to missions.  They use it has a tool for evangelism.   About 2/3 of the students that came on the trip with First Presbyterian Church did not necessarily have a relationship with Christ.  The philosophy this group has about short term mission trips is to show students what it means to live out a Christian lifestyle through serving. Their theme for this week was in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and being “Christ’s ambassadors.”  Many lives were changed this week and many relationships were built both within the team and the community.

-Jim and the Pearlington team

*Interested in joining in the work of Experience Mission? Check out our website at www.ExperienceMission.org for more information and to sign up for upcoming 2010 mission trips!

Rural Mission Trip: Just checking in from Costa Rica. The summer has been a challenging one but it’s been amazing to see how God continues to work in ways that we did not see possible. This last week we travelled up to Alto Coen; which to give ya’ll an idea of the kind of trip it is, just to get to the location where you are staying you take an hour boat ride in a banana boat, an hour bus ride, and then a 5 hour hike up roughly 1500 feet on a muddy, rugged terrain. It is an amazing experience but you definitely get a workout. Anyways, throughout the week Ali and I had the privilege of getting to know the people, specifically the women and children while the men worked on the bridge, which was our main focus for traveling up to Alto Coen- to assist in the building of a suspension bridge that would connect two sides of a village. It was a stretching experience as I battled not being able to fully communicate with women and children however it was amazing to see how God worked through my weakness to still do His work. As I sat under a tree constructed structure with a leaf roof, I found myself exchanging my English language with their BriBri language. While the time was spent learning small phrases such as How are you?, What is your name? Where are you from? And how to count to ten, the bond that formed seemed to go deeper then the simplistic phrase exchanges. It was an exchange of lives, a sharing of each others’ hearts and the joining of lives for a moment.
Team Costa Rica

*To learn more about the mission trips that Experience Mission is sending out, visit www.experiencemission.org.

Howdy ya’ll,
It’s been awhile since we have had Internet access as we have been away from our home at the Finca Educativa. This last week we went up to Alto Coen to help in the building of a suspension bridge. This bridge has been a dream for the BriBri families for many years-one that they have been working on for the past 6 years. It has been a long, difficult process for the BriBri as they have fought to find aid and funds to build this much needed bridge. For many of the families, they are unable to get to the nearest clinic and school as the only way of crossing is through a river that contains raging rapids. These ever swelling rapids have separated a village for years and this past week, a group of 7 of us had the privilege to be part of God connecting the two sides. As we arrived with clamps in hand and an excitement to build, one could feel the joy and elation that spread through the air as locals traveled from near and afar to be part of their long journey of building a bridge. Everyone wanted to assist in some way and in many ways it was neat to see the bridge not only physically join a community but also by bringing people together. The men of our team: Yon, Donovan, Monas, Ben, and Kory worked alongside the BriBri men: Abdul, Margarito, Moises, Cesar, and Arielle to name just a few as they began drilling holes in the planks and setting up clamps that would connect the two wires. As Americans and Costa Ricans worked together, with each plank that was laid and each clamp put in place, one could witness the formation of this long awaited project. While we finished the work we came up to do, more work remains to be done on the bridge however with each step the people are finding themselves able to finally see their dream take shape.
Team Costa Rica

*Go to www.experiencemission.org to sign up for one of Experience Mission’s trips in 2010.

Internation Mission Trip: After being here in Costa Rica for about three weeks, the reality of being here all summer started to set in and the days seemed to get long, but our spirits were brightened when our next team from western Pennsylvania arrived.  The group came with great attitudes and ready to work.  Once everyone arrived at the work sites they realized that with the cultural difference, work was going to move much slower than expected.  For us in America, we are used to getting things done in a time effective manner, but here, all of the teams are finding that the work moves much slower.  After realizing the cultural difference, they decided to embrace it instead of fight it.  They immediately spent more time getting to know the people they were working with and serving alongside as well as sharing their lives with them.  Western Pennsylvania was not only a blessing for this community on the Bri Bri reservation, but also a blessing for our summer staff as well.  Their great attitudes lifted our spirits, while Jacob and Alex brought constant laughs. 

This group came down ready to serve in any way possible and ready to serve anyone.  They were even able to financially bless us as summer Staff after Yon’s tennis shoes were stolen.  He desperately needed a new pair of shoes and they wanted to treat us to dinner so they left us money for him to get new shoes and for us to watch a movie and get dinner.  We had money left over so we wanted to pass on the blessing to someone else.  We were able to help Retano, a taxi driver from last year, who lost his leg to diabetes.  He is in the process of getting a prosthetic leg, but is short on funds.  God was able to bless Retano though the western Pennsylvania group with money to go towards his new leg.  Many lives were touched this week.  Even though there are bumps in the road sometimes, God is providing down here and doing amazing things.

Team Costa Rica

*Do you want to go on a mission trip? Check out www.experiencemission.org to view our communities for Summer 2010.