As our airplane ascended away from Wilmington, one of our team members commented that we would most likely not be the same upon our return to that same view from the window. Oh, how very true that turned out to be!
The purpose of our mission was to come alongside the American Indian Christian Mission (AICM) to spend time with and spread Christ’s message to children and youth from the Apache Reservation in Show Low, Arizona. Each day we went into a different area of the reservation for what was termed “The Bus Ministry.” The bus (which contained toy chests instead of seats, filled with skates, scooters, balls, art supplies, games and various other toys) drove through the different neighborhoods of the reservation picking up any and all children who were willing to come with us.
We did our best to demonstrate God’s love in the several hours we were given to spend with these special young people. Our team of eight was perfectly put together. Actually, maybe I should say team of nine because God showed up everywhere we went! It was wonderful the way the team worked together and encouraged each other throughout the week. We spent pretty much every waking hour together, and I never heard anyone complain, not even once. That is pretty special in itself as our days were long, and we worked hard.
Each day we spent at the American Indian Christian Mission actually felt like two days. We would wake up early each morning and have group devotions. After group devotions, we would have breakfast and then work on projects around the camp. Some team members helped clean out the offices and classrooms in preparation for the upcoming start of the school year. Others went out to the cinder yard, shoveled cinder, and later spread it around like mulch across the camp. There was something different each day and throughout the week we all cleaned bathrooms, swept floors, swept sidewalks, hauled cinder, scraped paint, painted, pressure-washed, and helped in the kitchen. One team member, who was mechanically skilled, even repaired the camp’s golf cart!
After the morning chores and a nourishing lunch made by the gracious and wonderful staff at the AICM, our team, along with staff members, drove an hour and a half through a splendid backdrop of God’s creation onto the “rez” to start the second part of our day. The “rez” is what the people in Show Low call the reservation. Even though I had been forewarned, I was not expecting to see such dire conditions. The reservation we were on might as well have been a third-world country. Nothing prepared me for the destitution and oppressive living conditions I saw on the reservation. Surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscapes in all of creation were some of the most impoverished land in all of America. Wow. What could we possibly do to help?
Upon our arrival on the reservation we would blow the air horn on the big white “Bible bus,” as the Native American children called it, and love on some kids for a few hours. The Native American children made our hearts swell with love and compassion. To be living in such poverty, they seemed pretty joyful. Some were more bashful than others, but for the most part the kids were open and accepting of us. Each day we performed our Joseph and His Brothers skit, sang our song, and recited our Bible verse (Romans 12:12) to onlooking Native Americans, who more than anything wanted to go and put on those roller skates!
After the performance the fun would commence, and joyful chaos would take over. Some children headed to the back of the bus to work on the bottle-cap necklaces we brought as a craft. More kids grabbed the roller skates, and one of us to help them skate up and down the street. Other children wanted to play ball, tag, or jump rope. Some colored or played games in groups and some just wanted to talk. We heard funny things, we heard sad things, we heard stories about Jesus and the Bible from the kids, and we even shared some of our own. This went on for close to three hours each afternoon with a completely fresh batch of young people each day.
The AICM has done a marvelous job of cultivating a trusting relationship with the local tribes. The staff and its volunteers are really making a difference by being salt and light and sharing the good news to empower the Native American youth living on the Apache and Navajo reservations. There are many lives being touched by the hard work and dedication of AICM staff, as well as God’s provision.
I went to Arizona hoping to spread joy, but ended up receiving it a thousandfold. Every moment was spent helping others, praying, worshiping, or talking about the Lord and God’s Word. I wanted to get up early (5am was normal!) to start working, and I went to sleep each night excited to see what the next day would hold. Serving in this way has opened my eyes to so much. It has helped me to understand the truth that we are made for God, and that means loving and serving each other. I am eternally grateful for the privilege of playing a part in the extraordinary week we spent in Arizona.
—Submitted by Lori Lockamy
For much of my adult life I have been drawn to the “idea” of mission work; however, until coming to Port City Community Church about a year and a half ago, I have never felt that it was the right time for me. The mission of PC3, “Reaching people and helping them walk with God,” made me start exploring the possibility of jumping into mission work domestically. My dad and I decided to go on the 2010 Treasure Island (TI) family mission trip to the American Indian Christian Mission (AICM) in Show Low, Arizona.
The goal for this trip was to organize and run a one-week, TI-style vacation bible school/summer camp for American Indian children from the Apache and Navaho Indian Reservations. Easy enough, I thought. Every month for about six months, we came together as a team, virtual strangers, to plan how the week would run, crafts, skits, etc. We had everything planned from sun up until sun down for the entire week. We were ready!
After our long journey to Show Low, we arrived at the AICM, settled in and began preparing for the 50 kids that would be arriving the next day. Some of us were able to go out onto the reservation in buses to pick up kids and saw firsthand the poverty that these precious children were coming from. Other team members stayed behind to welcome the children to camp. I think we all quickly realized that God had something different planned for us that week that ultimately left us relying solely on Him!
The kids were beautiful, full of smiles and laughs, happy to be doing something fun, free from reservation life for a while, free to just be kids. Some of the kids came to camp that week with only the clothes they were wearing, some carried a bag of dirty clothes with them for the week, some wore shoes that were either way too big or way too small for them, some had bugs in their hair, some would not have eaten that week if they hadn’t gotten on the bus. While some had sad faces and poor home situations, most of them smiled and laughed and were eager to see what the week would hold.
It didn’t take long for us to realize that these kids were not going to fit into the mold that we had so delicately carved out for them in all of our months of preparation. After a couple days of struggling, we realized that what these kids needed more than anything was love, attention, free/safe play time, food, maybe something as simple as a hug… and certainly the hope that can be found in Jesus. We sang, we danced, we hugged, we prayed, we rocked to sleep, we washed hair, we swam, we had an ice-cream party, we worshipped, and we loved. And most importantly we taught the kids about Faith (Hebrews 11:1)!
Our team could not have been more perfectly put together, and it was obvious that God was the composer. We had “Grandpa Mike,” “Nurse Ginger,” our own Crazy Bear bus-driver/CPR/life guard/pool repair man, not to mention our photographer and TI dance team… and the list goes on. Everyone had a special part, and the week was ultimately a huge success!
Our last day was spent in the Grand Canyon with mixed emotions: excited to return home to family and devastated to leave “our” AICM kids behind. The twenty-some strangers that I went to Arizona with have now become some of my most precious friends, and we will forever hold the treasured memories of that week together. I went to Arizona to change the lives of the American Indian children and left Arizona having been changed by them. I now serve as a small-group leader in TI and plan to return to the AICM in 2011.
— Submitted by Angela Pietro
Well, we made it back from our wild and crazy mission trip to Arizona! Before we left, we had to regroup and change our destination for the week at the very last minute—something we had no control over! So we were able to go to the American Indian Christian Mission (AICM), a boarding school for Navajo and Apache kids who live on reservations in Arizona. Our job was to work there to get the school ready for fall and then at night go to a tent revival on the reservation to provide a Vacation Bible School of sorts for the kids while their parents attended the revival. We were also planning on putting on our TILT (Treasure Island Live Theater) program for the families. TILT is an energetic, creative “theater,” which we would focus this time on FAITH.
We were a team of about 11 kids—all under 12 years old—and 20 adults! The work at the school was taxing and included moving rocks from the wild to make a rock garden or line a prayer walk, moving furniture and boxes from one building to another, painting walls, etc. The nights at the reservation were long. It took an hour and a half to get there, and we stayed for about two hours. We limped home around 11:30 p.m.—which was really 2:30 in the a.m. back home in Wilmington!
When I got home and thought about the activity of moving stones from point A to point B, an analogy popped into my head. This was pretty grueling work—the stones were heavy, but every now and then you’d come across one that was small and pretty. So some folks would put the pretty ones aside to take home with them. The great big huge ones we were ready to throw down right away. We were making a rock garden to beautify a path. So the analogy hit me on my return that those stones are like sin: Some are heavy ones we are so glad to drop as soon as we can. Others are not so bad; they’re pretty. We like them and are willing to carry them around a while—at least until we’re carrying so many little ones it begins to weigh us down. Then we get convicted about that sin and know we need to leave it behind as well. God uses those sins to make a beautiful path, leading us to His Son, when we are willing to drop the stones and look to Him.
So…. What stands out most to me from this mission trip is: God’s provision! First, the school needed to get this work done for the kids’ return in three weeks. They have teams who come throughout the summer but didn’t have anyone scheduled for that week! Second, on our team we had a licensed electrician, a general contractor and a couple of guys who do handy work at home! Third, on a personal note, my dietary restrictions were nothing strange for the cook as she has the same allergies as I do! Fourth, even though our traveling team—who were bringing out the equipment in a trailer pulled by a van—suffered not one, not two, not three, but FOUR tire blowouts (without a jack for the first two), and then somewhere around Albuquerque their radiator blew, they arrived safe and whole to AICM!! Fifth, the team acted as one during the VBS nights on the reservation. We divided up and were able to manage the 40-50 kids that came by—some just to watch what we were doing, others who played rambunctiously around what we were doing, and some engaging completely in what we were doing! Sixth, on our night for TILT, even though we were greeted with a huge electrical storm while setting up in a circus tent with huge metal poles, we pulled it off without a hitch and were joined onstage by a couple of the kids we had seen there all week, as they danced and worshiped with our team of kid dancers!
So, as a whole, we cannot say the trip went smoothly—but as we carried the message of FAITH with us, God remained faithful to us in his provision. I’m grateful to be given eyes to see that through it all.
—Submitted by Brooks Koff
