Praise

So, last week we were thinking: We need to figure out how we're gonna wash clothes. We have a dryer but no washer.

Saturday I was hanging out with God and I got a call. "Hey I hear you guys need a washer," said a familiar voice of my friend Todd. "Uh, yes!" I said. Todd said, "Well we could drop it off in about an hour." (!)

So now we have clean clothes. Praise God.

Hope in the hopeless places

Well, this week we started in Whiteriver with Apache Youth Ministries. We've pretty much just been feeling things out this week in meetings and hanging out with teens. It's so interesting because some of these teens have some much going for them, and many of them are in such weird life circumstances that are surreal in the context of being within western U.S. culture. (Of course it is something that was made by western U.S. culture-in-the-making).

It's one thing to study statistics, but it's another thing when those statistics are faces, hearts and personalities. It's one thing to hear about how Meth ravages the reservation, but it something entirely different when you meet a teen who tells you that they've been doing Meth. Suicide can be a number and impersonal when just a statistic, but when a teen you know has lost a friend or a family member the brokenness can seem overwhelming. Or even more impacting is when you lose someone close to you, someone within your reach. The ministry/life that we've invested in is a life devoted to, not just being satisfied reading statistics with a look of pity but, being actively concerned for the personal well-being of those teens.