Hopi VIM 2015: Blessing & Being Blessed

"Dwell in possibilities"  - Emily Dickenson

A large part of going on a mission trip is emptying oneself before the journey and leaving yourself open to experience everything that happens.  I have found that when I do, I invariably find myself filled to overflowing before the trip is over.  God has a way of moving between the empty spaces and filling them with unexpected joys and blessings I can never anticipate.

Early in the week Bill and Joyce found out from our friend, Kevin, that the HOPI Substance Abuse Prevention Center was about to lose their lease on their current facility.  They are being forced to move by the end of this month.  Since land ownership is a complicated affair in Hopi, requiring complex land use agreements between clans and villages that often take months or years to finalize, we were dismayed by the thought that such a vital program might be forced to shutter its doors.  Kevin assured us however that temporary space had already been located and that discussions were also underway to give the program long-term land use rights to a piece of property behind the Hopi Cultural Center on Second Mesa.  But Kevin also told us that the piece of land in question had a very sad and troublesome history.

The property had once been the site of a small trailer park and the residents of the community gradually fell victim to serious drug and alcohol abuse.  Eventually the site was abandoned and no one knows exactly why.  People simply left and moved on, leaving behind their homes and in most cases, all their earthly belongings.  The trailers eventually succumbed to the elements and collapsed, many of them looking like they had been flattened by a great wind, and were left to rust and crumble away.  Before the HOPI Substance Abuse Prevention program can build on the land, it will have to be cleared of the debris and remnants of the trailer park.  Troubled by the sad history of the place and having known and worked with us for several years now, Kevin asked us if we would help him cleanse, bless and anoint the property while we were here.

So early Friday morning, not long after sunrise, we gathered with Kevin on the site.  Bill led us all in prayer in an United Methodist ceremony and then distributed bowls of water to each team member.  Silently adding our own prayers, we wandered through the remains of what was once a community of family homes and sprinkled water over the place while Kevin in turn blessed it in Hopi fashion.  It was a moving and humbling experience.  We felt blessed to be asked to be a part of the healing process both for the land on which it will eventually sit and for the new wellness center that will be a place of sanctuary and healing to many in need.  Kevin hopes that by this time next year the land will be cleared and made ready and our team may be part of the building process as well.

On Saturday morning the team rose well before dawn and drove up to a village on Second Mesa to see the first portion of a day-long Home Dance.  This is the time of year when the Hopi katsinas prepare to leave the Mesas and return to their home on the San Francisco Peaks, north of Flagstaff.   They will remain there until late January or February.  Out of respect for my Hopi friends I can't say any more about what we saw.  No photography, video or audio recordings, or sketching is allowed.  The Home Dances are religious ceremonies and I feel honored, privileged and humbled to have been allowed to witness it.  It was a very spiritual experience for us all.

I write this as I am flying home, reflecting on all we were given and experienced.  It's been a full and fulfilling week.  Every mission trip has its own set of challenges and bumps along the way but this was indeed a week full of blessings.  We had an awesome team, each person bringing their own unique gifts to make a glorious whole.  We were fortunate to have rain several times while we were there, which kept the temperatures cooler and more comfortable for us all.  We shared our dinner table every evening with friends new and old, each meal filled with joy and laughter.  For me, this is the real reason why we are here; to make those connections, to listen and to learn as well as to serve.

It was very hard for me personally to drive away from the Mesas yesterday but I leave with a full heart and overflowing with the Spirit.  For those members on the team for the first time, they have only seen a glimpse of what Hopi VIM is all about.  I hope and pray they will feel called to return and continue the work they became a part of this week.  For those of us who began this journey in 2006, this week is just a small slice of that journey.  We've added but another few stones to the path that only God knows where it will ultimately lead.
 

Lomatalangva!  (It's a beautiful day!)

Hopi VIM 2015: Going Fishing & Pulling Weeds

 

After taking it easy the first few days in order to acclimate to the altitude and heat, the team got down to business early on Monday morning with all hands on deck in order to set up for VBS.  Thankfully the three members of the team who caught some sort of stomach bug right after we arrived in Arizona are now feeling much better and are back to normal. Thane, the school's principal, Annie the new assistant principal and all of the teachers are away taking recertification training so in their absence, our liaisons this week are Paige and Katie, two young ladies interning here at Hopi Mission School as well as at the Hopi Health Care Center in Polacca and the Hopi Wellness Center here in Kykotsmovi.  Both are in health science programs at Furman University in Greenville, SC and are here for the summer.  They are both delightful and fun and we've more or less adopted them into the team.

Our VBS theme this year is "Going Fishing", focusing on a different "fish themed" Scripture story each day.  Monday revolved around God's promise to Noah and the story of the ark.  Tuesday was about trusting and obeying God through the lesson of Jonah and the whale.

 

As in past years, the week starts out slow with only a few kids attending at first but this usually gets better as the week progresses and the word gets out.  This year we are feeding the kids a light breakfast of a hard boiled egg and fruit before the fun and games of VBS begins in earnest and each day features crafts, games and songs, skits and snacks.  Monday's snack was an ark made out of half a banana and animal crackers, arranged two by two of course.  :-)

 

While most of the team are helping at VBS some of the rest of us divided up to work on other projects.  Steve, Andie and I began tackling the weeds that have taken over the playground.  In that respect the rainfall has been a mixed blessing.  The crops are doing well this year but the weeds are also flourishing and are pulled up in order to discourage any snakes, poisonous or otherwise, from getting too close to the school.  Reinette, Ann and Lynn went to work in the school library, cataloging the schools books and adding them to an online database/card catalog.

 

Since VBS is only held in the morning and it's too hot to work outdoors in the afternoon, we usually reserve the time between lunch and dinner to rest, recoup, reflect, prepare for the next day's activities and partake of various cultural experiences.  On Monday a small group drove up to Hotevilla on Third Mesa to visit our friend Bob who runs the Hopi School or Hopitutuqaiki.

 

Bob is a pahana (non-Hopi) educator and music teacher who came to Hopi to do his post graduate work on Hopi music and essentially never left.  He has lived in Hopi for over 40 years and the Hopi School has been in existence for 11 of them.  It is primarily an arts and crafts summer program but Bob hopes the school will eventually be able to hold classes year-round.  Their teaching philosophy is based on the traditional way Hopis have always learned things, in a master/apprentice relationship rather than in a more modern classroom setting, so classes are limited to between 3-6 students.  In addition to teaching traditional Hopi crafts such as kilt weaving, sash and belt making, basket weaving, etc., they also offer classes in glass blowing and stained glass, cooking, quilt making and acrylic painting.

 

We make it a point to eat dinner at 6 PM every evening and Bill always prepares plenty of food.  Our table is open for anyone to drop in and have dinner and we are constantly encouraging everyone we meet to come down and "come eat!" That evening we shared dinner with Keith and his mother, Mary who both work at the school and who brought piki bread and hohoysi for everyone.  Felicia, one of our oldest friends, also came down from Shungopovi on Second Mesa with her daughter, Janice and her son, Darion who is just about 9 months old.  Needless to say there was much laughter and catching up and with the team being mostly of the female persuasion, Darion became the center of attention.

Before bed last night, the skies cleared enough for us to see the stars and finally get a good view of Jupiter and Venus in conjunction in the west.  Living so close to Baltimore and DC there is far too much light pollution to truly appreciate the glory of the heavens above us at night.  Out here it is dark enough to see thousands of stars and the Milky Way.  It's a spectacle that once witnessed will not soon be forgotten.  All of our youth members were thrilled.

 

A few more kids showed for VBS this morning and Steve, Andie and I were joined by Amanda on the weed pulling brigade.  We're making real progress and it shows.  We're hoping to have the playground in good shape by week-end. 

Thankfully weather has been cooperating with us.  Some morning cloudiness kept temperatures in the mid to high 80s with no humidity to speak of, of course.  Rain falling all around the Mesas has also helped as it rapidly evaporates which cools the air.  All in all, it has been quite comfortable so far.   Reinette, Lynn and Ann went back to assist Paige in the library, while Bill and Joyce went over to the HOPI Substance Abuse Prevention center to visit another of our friends, Kevin, who is the director of the program which operates under the guidance of The Hopi Foundation.

After lunch, I drove a small group of first time team members up to the public radio station, KUYI (88.1 FM / kuyi.net) to meet Richard, Thomas and Trina and to help out for a few hours by cataloging CDs and sorting and filing some of the station's vast and eclectic music collection.  It was especially heartwarming for me to find out that they are still using an Excel database that Norm and I created for them back in 2011.  At Richard's request because no one at the station had the necessary technological skills, we consolidated multiple Word tables into a single Excel workbook, adding filters and search functions to make it easier for them to catalog and document their collection which is growing all the time. Part of KUYI's mission is working to preserve the Hopi language (lavaye) and music (tatawi) by recording native speakers and traditional Hopi ceremonial and social songs. While we were there a lady picked up a set of 40 year old recordings to take back to the kiva because over the years some had forgotten the proper way to sing them.

By coincidence, Richard is heading to DC tomorrow in order to advocate for continued funding for public radio in general and for non-profit Native public radio in particular.  Stations like KUYI provide an invaluable service to remote areas like Hopi.  KUYI itself serves not only Hopi but a large portion of the Navajo reservation as well and at times can be heard as far away as Flagstaff.  There have been times when heavy snowstorms have crippled the radio stations in Flag and KUYI has been the only station in the area able to continue broadcasting and providing much needed news and public service updates to this corner of Arizona.  Before we left Richard had us record another "shout out", identifying ourselves and our Hopi VIM team along with repeating the station's call sign and frequency info which is used between programs and required by law.

Paige and Katie joined us for dinner tonight along with Kevin.  My friend Leon also came down with his family and I got to meet Roni and their two children, Mamie and Percival for the first time.  This is the part of the day that I enjoy the most and find the most meaningful - sharing a meal with friends new and old and just relaxing at the end of the day in fellowship and friendship.

 

 

Hopi VIM 2015: Homecoming

For many of us, once you have been to Hopi, this place forever captures a place in your heart.  And for those of us returning, our arrival yesterday evening was like coming home again.  There is a unique scent to the dry, high desert air and a feeling of joy that comes with reveling in the cool evening breeze laced with the freshness of rain carried on the winds from a storm blessing the low lands south of the Mesas.
 

The rainy season has come early this year and Hopiland is greener than I have ever seen it in all my years coming here.  This is a great blessing; the crops seem to be doing well, the corn so lovingly tended and nurtured, is green and getting tall.  The desert weeds and brush have burst forth with a profusion of delicate blooms tossing their heads in the light wind.  The thunderstorm that followed us on our long journey from Flagstaff, finally came to the Mesas overnight as a gentle rain and we woke this morning to find the ground and cars wet from its passing.  We greeted the cloudy dawn and found a welcome, cool breeze kissing the land all around us.  Life is good.

 

It also rained in Flag before we left yesterday.  The San Francisco Peaks, sacred to the Hopis as the home of the katsinas for half of the year, were still shrouded in pregnant rain clouds when we left for the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Hopi cultural and arts festival.  The festival has become an important part of our annual trips because it provides a fun and informative introduction to Hopi culture for those members of the team who are visiting Hopi for the first time.  For those of us who have been here before, it is a chance to greet old friends.  I spent most of our time there running from gallery to gallery looking for and reuniting with many of the friends we've made over the years and meeting some that I have only known through Facebook.  The festival is also a place to see tradional Hopi social dancing and to sample some traditional Hopi foods: piki bread, hohoysi which is Hopi tea brewed from a plant that grows wild on the Mesas, noquivi, a stew, traditionally made with white hominy corn and either mutton or pork, frybread, and the very popular Hopi taco.

 

After leaving the museum after lunch, the team split up in order to complete the necessary shopping for the food and other supplies we will need for VBS and our other projects throughout the coming week before making the nearly 2 hour trek up to Kykotsmovi. However, in spite of today's GPS technology and its mobile app brethren, sometimes there is no substitute for a good old fashioned map.  Combine that with the challenge of trying to keep 5 SUVs in sight of one another as we caravan from place to place and you end up with plenty of wrong turns, about-faces and missed exits.  These comical "F Troop Maneuvers" have led to much laughter.  We missed the exit of our planned route to "K Town" by way of the Leupp road and ended up going all the way to Winslow before turning north toward Second Mesa.  The accidental error actually ended up getting us there faster in spite of adding extra miles to the trip.

Once we arrived at the Hopi Mission School, our welcoming committe consisted of Kristen, one of the teachers and our 2 canine "Rez dog" buddies, Piki and Duma who came running as soon as they heard us pull up.  There was much tail wagging, whining and begging for belly rubs and Andie quickly became our "dog whisperer" on this trip.  She's following in the footsteps of her husband, Brett, who came out on the first 2 trips and had all of the local dogs following him wherever he went before the week was half over.

After a hearty dinner that night and the traditional blue corn pancake breakfast the next morning at the "Center of the Universe", the Hopi Cultural Center restaurant, we drove to First Mesa Baptist Church to worship with Pastor Lim and Pastor Choi of the Korean Methodist Church and their congregation.  The new sanctuary has been completed since our first visit last year and is beautiful in its simplicity with its custom made stained glass windows which incorporate Christian, Hopi and Korean symbolism.  

 

 

It was a joy to worship here again.  We sang hymns in English, Hopi and Navajo/Din'eh.  Pastor Lim graciously asked Jill's husband, Bill to give the message today and to help during the altar call portion of the service and it had more than one member of the team moved to tears.  And after a Spirit-filled morning of worship, we shared over an hour of laughter, conversation and fellowship over a delicious lunch in the church hall before parting.  What a blessing to come together in worship as children of God in English, Hopi, Tewa, Korean and Navajo/Din'eh!

 

The remainder of the day was spent preparing for the work of the coming week, resting and reflecting on the tremendous gifts we have received on the trip so far.  God is good!

 

 

 

 

Hopi VIM 2015: The Adventure Begins

Seventeen souls strong, representing six different UMC churches of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, the Hopi Volunteers In Mission team of 2015 arrived safely in Phoenix on Thursday.  To say we received a "warm" welcome is a bit of an understatement... it was already over 90 degrees at 9:00 in the morning when we arrived and reached a high of 107 before the day was over.  We've been told this is unusual even for Phoenix (??) and this entire area of the southwest is having a heat wave!

 

We didn't waste any time lingering in the Basin however but quickly collected our rental cars and headed for higher altitudes and hopefully cooler temperatures.  Our first stop was Camp Verde, about halfway to Flagstaff where we met for lunch with one of our Hopi friends, Gerry and his mother, Frances.  Gerry is a katsina carver and artisan who lives in the area who has been friends with Reinette for a number of years.  They met in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and have kept in touch ever since but the rest of us were meeting him for the first time. 

 

After lunch, Gerry guided us to Montezuma's Well, a large, unique natural spring, situated in a limestone sink hole that was used by the ancient Sinagua and Hohokam peoples to irrigate their crops in years past.  It's continuously fed by waters flowing through the porous rock strata from the higher elevations of the Mogollon Rim.  Because the water flows through limestone, the Well waters are actually carbonated and support only 5 forms of life, including a type of shrimp-like creature and a water scorpion, but no fish. 

 

On our way back to the hotel, we visited Gerry's studio shop where he showed us some of his beautiful carvings and talked about his various projects, including a commissioned carving of a huge twisted and gnarled cottonwood root.  Frances is an extremely talented painter and the sister of one of our other friends who owns a gift shop on Second Mesa.

 

Our adventures began before we even left home when we received word last week that the restaurant we planned to eat dinner at that evening had been run into by a car!  Fortunately the young driver was not seriously injured but the restaurant was damaged to the point where it could not open for business.  After a few emergency calls, Kathy, the owner offered to prepare the food and deliver it to the hotel and the hotel graciously offered us the use of one of their conference rooms in which to gather and eat.  Gerry and his wife, Debbie joined us and we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship and gratitude for the safe travels, the great food and great friends.

 

Most everyone enjoyed a night of welcome and restful sleep but we woke this morning to find out that 3 members of the team have caught some sort of stomach bug and were up most of the night.  We lingered at the hotel a bit longer this morning and after a team meeting decided to split the team.  The 3 sick members stayed back at the hotel and eventually made their way directly to Flagstaff on their own in one of the cars.  The rest of the team continued on as planned, visiting Montezuma's Castle, an ancient Sinaguan cliff dwelling, then stopping for lunch in Sedona.  But due to the late start, we had to skip a few other planned stops along the way and went straight to Flag to reunite the team at the hotel. 

After a visit to downtown Flagstaff to taste a bit of the music and arts festival going on this weekend, the arrival of an evening thunderstorm curtailed any further sightseeing and sent us back to the hotel.  I only hope that some of this beautiful rainfall is also reaching Hopi where it is truly needed.

 

There is a good reason why Gumby has become Hopi VIM's unofficial mascot, last year's challenges in air travel being only one example.  And although we have only just begun our adventure this year, we are already being constantly reminded of our need to remain flexible and open to whatever comes our way.  We're praying for our sick team mates and for God's healing and grace but rest easy tonight, confident that the strength of the Holy Spirit will lift us all and see us through whatever new adventures and challenges await us in the week ahead.