Idaho

The trip to Idaho was great. If you haven't heard the complicated explanation, you're probably wondering why Grandma and I were driving out to Idaho from Omaha. My Grandpa Lind passed away last spring. He wanted to be buried in Idaho near the tiny town he grew up in. To make that happen, we needed to get the ashes out to the Rockland Cemetery. Grandma didn't want to fly, and we didn't want her driving out there by herself, so we decided Christina and I would take turns driving with her. It was my job to drive out with her, so I flew to Omaha last Tuesday. The trip took two days. Grandma allowed me to help with the driving, so I had fun speeding down the highway in her nice Toyota Corolla at 75 mph. When you normally only get to drive 60, 75 is a lot of fun. I've been on I-80 through Nebraska and Wyoming before. It's sometimes very beautiful, and often very desolate out there. We spent our night on the road at Laramie, Wyoming. If you ever get out there, be sure to check out the Laramie River greenbelt, and don't spend the night at Super 8.

We stayed with Grandma's sister Lenore in American Falls, ID. A lot of Grandma's family lives in American Falls, so I got to see quite a few of my relatives (many of whom I didn't remember). I really enjoyed meeting them all.

On Friday Mom, Dad, and Christina came down and we went out to Rockland Cemetery and buried the ashes. After that we headed further down the road to Roy, where Grandpa grew up. It's not really a town now, but it used to be a little farming community. This is my Great-grandma Lind's old house. It's been abandoned for a long time, and it's really deteriorating. Great-grandma Lind was the post-mistress of Roy and ran the post office through her house.

Here's a bunch of the relatives together on the day we left.

I got to meet Grandma's three sisters who live in the area.

Grandma and Aunt Lenore

Grandma and Aunt Janet

Grandma and Aunt Betty

It was so good to go back and learn about my family roots. Between important places in our family's past that we visited and relatives I got to meet, the trip made me feel much more connected than I've been in the past.

We've just gotten finished with our Heritage Celebration at church. We used to call it Heritage Weekend, but since we had events every day Wednesday through Sunday, we can't really use that term anymore. It was all very good. Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. was able to come and give us a conference on the family. It did make this past weekend incredibly busy for our family, though. On top of that, Mom was at a family reunion on the East Coast, so the three of us had to survive it all without her! Thank goodness for cell phones; it was nice to be able to text each other and check up on what was going on.

As though this past week wasn't busy enough, I'll be on the road this next week, helping Grandma drive to Idaho. We're both looking forward to it. I'll make more posts when I get back.

Colville 2008

This was a another exciting year up on the reservation. Every year we stay at the Omak Longhouse, a beautiful building we are graciously allowed to use. Actually, the guys stay at an old girls' dorm across the parking lot, but everything else happens in the Longhouse.
This year I was involved in several work projects, and spent one day visiting. Here's an overview of my week.

Monday I got to go split wood with my dad and others at the home of an elder in the community. This was my third year getting to help out with wood-splitting, and I always find it pretty fun, even though it's not exactly a girl's activity. Mostly I just helped stack wood, but I did get hold of an ax a few times. It was nice to do a project with my dad. The woman who owns the shed is respected in the community, and something of a spiritual leader. Despite the strength of her belief in her native religion, she seems to understand quite well that we come and do what we do because of our relationship with our own God. Hearing her say this was exciting.

On Tuesday I helped paint the interior of home. It was a bit challenging, since we had to paint a popcorn ceiling. This was the home of a veteran, I think, and he seemed very pleased with the work we did. We all had fun playing with his cats and one very cute Chow puppy. Most residents on the rez have multiple pets, and they love them dearly.

Wednesday and Thursday I got to help paint a deck for a WWII veteran named Mr. Steele. He and his wife had a nice home, but wanted to get their deck a face lift. After painting all the railing and the bench a cheerful barn red, it looked a lot better. The Steeles were very kind to us, and several team members were able to visit with them. We enjoyed spending time with their extremely friendly cat, who was not at all shy about claiming someone's lap, even while we were trying to paint. Friday I joined a group that drove over to the town of Nespelem to visit the residents on the tribal convalescent center. We sang hymns for some of the residents and visited with them. I must say this is an area I am not very comfortable with, so it was stretching experience. The loneliness and suffering that surrounds you when you walk into a place like that is sobering. I'm also not really good at visiting with people. Seeing the smile on someone's face because we cared enough to spend time with them was rewarding, though.

Friday evening was our annual barbecue at the Omak Stampede Grounds. It's always a good time to say goodbyes and spend a little more time with our friends from the reservation. This year we were treated to a drumming performance and giveaway. It's also an opportunity for the young people to run off a little energy. I had more fun taking pictures of everybody else, though, since I'm not really talented with frisbee games.
There's a quick overview. So much happens in that one week, it would take a very long time to tell it all. (Of course, you, my blog readers, probably wouldn't want that much detail anyway.) God was abundantly gracious to us in every detail of the trip. If you think of them, please pray for the people we interacted with up there--for the Irey family, that we would be able to continue our relationship with them; for all the children who came to VBS; for the people whom we were able to help by our work projects; for the prison inmates we met; the convalescent center residents; and others.
This year it was brought to my mind that our work on these trips is only a very small part of God's plan. It's also part of a very long-term plan. Each year is a little piece of what God's doing. It may take years for the fruit to show.

I'm back...

It's been a whirlwind two weeks. Two weekends ago we had a girls' night at our house, then the next night we went to an English country dance. We decided to go on a quick two-night camping trip on Monday through Wednesday. Crazy, maybe, considering we were leaving on a missions trip on Saturday, but it was refreshing and an all-around good time for us. By Friday we were scurrying around packing bags and trying to think of everything we needed to take with us to Colville.

I'll probably post several missions trip blogs. You can see our team picture here, on Bre's blog.

Colville 2008

This will be my fourth year joining the team from Westminster on our annual trip to the Colville Indian Reservation. I can't believe that we're going for the fourth time! One thing I have learned is that every year is different--new challenges, new opportunities, new relationships. However, one thing remains the same--we are going in order to bring Christ to the people of the Colville reservation through whatever means God provides. The ways we seek to do this include everything from a friendly smile, to a brand new woodshed, to a heart-to-heart conversation. It seems that we normally end up receiving more than we give. It's a blessing simply get to know our own team members better, not to mention making new friendships with those that we meet on the reservation. Every trip is certainly an adventure.

...and it's less than two weeks away!