Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I pray that the end of the year finds you well and brings joyful reflection. Looking back on my own year I find that it has been full of God’s blessings. Starting off with my sabbatical towards the beginning of the year. I got the rare opportunity to spend substantial time with my family and gain plenty of spiritual rejuvenation. It certainly added a spring to my step for the ladder half of the year! Which I was apparently going to need.

HOPE was hit with some substantial staff/volunteer changes during the beginning of the fall semester. In all honesty, I was left scared of how we would continue the program. But God is good. Instead of having less help than last year we ended up having more! Causing us to add fourth graders to our age range and almost doubling the roster size. What a joy to see how the Lord grew the program overnight. Little else capitalized this point like our Christmas party. We had seventeen of our twenty students show up for it. Ted, our resident wonder chef, cooked up an amazing meal that the kids loved. We played a bunch of Christmas games. Lastly, we had Santa (also played by Ted, he wears many hats) show up and deliver our gift to all the students. The joy on the fourth graders faces made the Santa experience extra energetic this year. But the moment that stuck out to me the most was a text I received during all the chaos. One of our students had gotten sick that morning at school and had to be taken home early. As such, he ended up missing our party. He apparently insisted that his mom let me know that he was sick and felt terrible about missing the last day. That just really tugged at my heart. He’s one of our fourth graders that never misses a day and while he’s suffering from a stomach bug the first thing, he thinks about is how he has to miss being at HOPE. Our goal for the program is always to make the kids feel loved and seen. Seems like this student, and hopefully all of them, feel that. God is good. 

My second big update is that we got to hold another Kids Club in Lapwai, ID! This year we’ve had to cut back on some of our trips due to scheduling conflicts and funding issues. Even our preceding trip was rougher and left me feeling slightly discouraged about our continuing relationship there. But just like with HOPE, the Lord worked despite my doubts. We brought two vans to the boys and girls club. One full of presents and one full of SRM staff and volunteers ready to love on kids. As we carried in the supplies to the gym, the students were lined up along the bleachers as the staff told them about Kids Club. As soon as they saw us, a cheer erupted through the gym. The closest comparison I have for how deafening it was, is an NHL Hockey game I went to once. These kids were over the moon that we had come back. I felt pretty bad for the staff that were trying to quiet them down to continue their assembly. On top of this, I had more story volunteers than I knew what to do with. The club staff sent in extra volunteers to help us which was greatly appreciated. Two of them were starting another boys and girls club on another reservation town and excitedly asked me if we would be interested in doing a Kids Club there as well!

Last year I mentioned how many of the students hadn’t heard the Christmas story before and what a surreal experience it was to tell it. This time may have matched that experience. As we were preparing our story helpers, I heard students quietly whispering what story we were going to the other students that had missed last year’s Christmas kids club. What a wonderful experience to see the change since last year.

For both HOPE and Lapwai our events ended with the same question from the students. “When will we be back?”. Different contexts but the point remains the same. These children love the church and all her many forms. Whether it be an afterschool program or a quarter yearly outreach event. As 2024 begins I can’t help but be excited to think about what the new year will hold. Kids Clubs at new reservations? Longer Lapwai visits? New HOPE students? Only the Lord knows, and I can’t wait to be a small part of it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please continue to pray.

Blessings,

Trey

God is our Shepherd (Spring Teams 2023)

Dear Friends and Family,

Here on the Rez we just finished our Spring teams. This year we had four back-to-back weeks of college students from all over the country coming to work and serve the community. Heading into this season I found myself feeling worried and tired by the daunting task ahead. Certainly, it was exhausting and I’m grateful for these past few days of extra sleep and rest, but it was also profoundly encouraging. Having RUF college students come is always heartening just by the presence of so many young believers. This time around though there were two specific interactions that were clearly blessings from the Lord.

The first one happened towards the very beginning of the month. Last year we had a high school student who made sure her young siblings were at kids club every day of the summer. Even on the one day she missed, she made sure another teen from the house brought the little ones to kids club. Towards the end of last she year passed away. Entering this year’s kids club I was conscious of the possibility that we wouldn’t see those little ones without their older sister making sure they came. For the first three days there was no sign of them. On the fourth day their mom brought them and hung around for a little while as they played. After twenty minutes or so she pulled me aside and asked if we could just make sure they got home safe and if we could, she trusted us with their care. “Of course!”, I practically shouted.

After that it became routine that she would drop them off every day and we would drive them home in our van. As the weeks rolled on all three kids came out of their shell more and more. One of them who I could never get to say one word to me, began a regular game of chanting my name as she flew on the swings. During the last team week our van became overloaded with other kids so we didn’t have room for them to go home on it. I told the kids it wasn’t a big deal I’d just walk them home, (they lived maybe three houses down from the kids club site). As we walked one of them loudly questioned whether or not I even knew where they lived. Before I could answer the oldest sister, who yelled my name from the swing, said. “He knows where we live! He always picked up our sister for youth group!”. It is an incredible encouragement to see their trust in the church growing this spring. I can't wait for the day they follow their older sister's footsteps and I get to pick them up for youth group.

The second interaction came towards the end of the month. On one of the last days of kids club I noticed two high school girls approaching the park. As I went to greet them and welcome them, one of them chuckled to herself and said, “man you’ve gotten old.” In that moment I recognized her as one of the kids I had met and bonded with as a team member seven years ago. It had been probably five years since the last time I had seen her. I laughed and said I remembered her. She was shocked I still knew her name. As she looked around kids club she remarked how it still looked the same as when she was a kid. Both her and her friend ended up helping run our jump rope station that day. I keenly remember playing with her and her brother at foursquare on the Friday before I left as a team member. Seeing her jump right back into kids club and playing with kids after being gone for five years was an encouragement to me beyond words.

All our bible stories the last week were about God being our shepherd. I feel as though God was laying that truth especially hard on my heart as I looked back over the spring. Even in hardship, the passing of time, and death itself. God always takes care of His sheep and brings them back home.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10: 27-28

Blessings,

Trey 

 

Summer is Back!

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Currently, I find myself both exhausted but also rejuvenated from our first normal summer in two years. After simply tasting Kids Club and work sites with extraordinarily small groups last year. This year we finally got back to full teams, multiple worksites, and absolutely jumping Kids Clubs! Sometimes it’s hard to remember how much we miss something until we find ourselves back in the middle of it. Which is what I felt in full these past few months. I had forgotten how sweet it is to have our church building full of brothers and sisters from around the country or having a tarp covered completely in children, listening intently to a bible story. At Adam’s View Park, one of the housing projects, we seemed to have first time kids club attendees just about every week. It was also incredibly rewarding to see so many reunions between team members who haven’t come since before covid with kids that were much older and taller after two years. On top of that, I also had the pleasure of serving on worksites with our youth all summer. Every week we would have between 14 to 22 youth spread out working on houses across the reservation. We painted over graffiti, repainted sheds and houses, undertook yard cleanups for elders, and did whatever we could to help out. To quote one of my fellow staff members, “it’s a miracle that these youth would even come out to help, let alone how hard they work and how much they accomplish.” After working with the youth so much this summer, I’m hopeful and excited to see how the Lord grows them within the church and nourishes their leadership potential.

But summer teams weren’t the only exciting thing happening since my last update. In May I got to take my afterschool kids to a weekend summer camp getaway. We did activities like archery, ziplining, low ropes courses, a giant tree swing, roasted marshmellows, hiked, explored, and just had fun in God’s creation. It was honestly just breathtaking to see the kids have so much fun and try new things. Repeatedly I was asked if we could go back to the same place next year and when HOPE would be starting in the Fall. At our last meeting of the year, we threw all the kids a big party and showed them a video compilation of the past year. All the kids jumped for joy and hollered at the memories of the year. They laughed with each other and chanted each other’s names when they came on screen. If nothing else, I was overjoyed that they got a physical representation of how loved they are and what an amazing year it was with them. Additionally, it is looking like our afterschool numbers will be dramatically growing this September, Last year we had around 8 students. This year it is seeming like I may have trouble fitting them in one of our fifteen passenger vans. What a problem to have! Thank you for your prayers and support of our first year of HOPE afterschool, I can’t wait to see what God has in store for year two!

So here I sit, trying to remember almost four months’ worth of God’s blessings (I should probably write these more often). With all sincerity it is hard to fully articulate or recollect all the wonderful things that have gone on throughout the summer. But I hope this update does an adequate job of summing up what a wonderful few months it has been. God does not forget His people and has seen us through the trials of covid and out the other side. May God bless you as He has blessed me beyond my hopes. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Blessings,

Trey

First Semester in the Books!

Dear friends and family,

Last week marked the end of our first semester of HOPE afterschool and what a spectacular few months it has been! Our start was a bit rough; we had several forced breaks with conflicting school scheduling and a COVID case amongst our staff, but by the end we were hitting our stride. Towards the beginning of the semester, we were struggling to get more than four to five kids, leaving me a bit frustrated since our goal was around 13 (a full van load). Unsurprisingly, God had a plan and was simply giving us room to plan and learn what we were doing. After a few short weeks, I was approached by multiple students in the school who wanted to be a part of the program! Over the span of a month we doubled the size of our student body. Meanwhile, I was attempting to tread in a whole new territory for me. I’ve been doing Scripture or fun game related ministry for almost a third of my life but adding education to the mix was a terrifying prospect. The main thing I wanted for our program was to balance laughter and fun with the educational struggles of the kids.

We did this by having a time where we specifically worked on their one shared homework assignment, reading for thirty minutes a day. Besides the normal mix of students who either hate or love reading, we also found that many students were three or four grades behind in reading. Some are barely able to read at all. Thankfully, God had provided me with exceptional volunteers who were able to disperse throughout the group of readers. Which gave one on one attention to those that needed it and cheering
along those that simply needed the push. On top of this we wanted to change up their readings so that they weren’t monotonous. Some days we’d have them read normally, others we’d bring out piles of bean bag chairs to lounge in, and others I would read to them while they drew pictures depicting the story to flex their imaginary muscles. It was overwhelming to see the kids take off with the ownership of their books. All of them would take turns sharing with the group what was happening in their story. They’d celebrate as a group when a student finished their book. On the day of our Christmas party where we weren’t planning on having a “homework” time, they even asked if we could make time to do some reading.

Our educational activities such as science experiments, madlibs, math games, and craft projects also had a huge success rate. One of my personal highlights of the semester was the day we did our density science experiment. This involves piling different types of liquid (syrup, oil, water, etc.) into a clear jar and watching how each of them level out. Watching the kids light up when it happened and start wildly discussing how it worked was the sort of educational excitement I had hoped for.

As we wrapped up the year at our Christmas party all our fifth graders asked what would happen next year when they moved into sixth grade. I told them that our target was fifth and sixth graders so they could still come to HOPE if they wanted. All of them, ALL of them, shared a sigh of relief and started excitedly talking about coming back in January. The importance of kids on the Rez looking forward to something in the future, let alone a whole year away in the future,  can’t be overstated. I’m immensely blessed that God has worked the way He has in our fledgling semester, and can’t wait to see what He has in store next semester.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Trey

Wrapping up Summer and Looking to the Future

Hello friends and family,

            A word of warning, I have so much exciting news for y’all that this letter may run a little long. First off, I wanted to tell you what an absolutely incredible summer we had on the Rez. Despite Covid restrictions loosening we still weren’t able to do our average sixty person team weeks. But we managed to make up for that in some big ways. We still weren’t allowed to do Kids clubs here so instead we used some of our extra time to do multiple road trips to different reservations, most notably Lapwai, Idaho. There we made a connection with the Boys and Girls Club, opening doors to more kids, more visits, and more Christmas shoebox deliveries! On top of that we were able to continue our kids club deliveries from last summer, bringing Kids Club to over 200 kids every two weeks. We also managed to train a puppet team from our summer team and youth volunteers that did puppet gospel presentations on our Rez as well as in Idaho and Oregon. Additionally, we kept up with our mobile library project, Bookin it, and were bringing books to housing projects every week. At the end of the summer, restrictions even lightened enough where we got to bring kids from all over the community to our church and have a summer water day bash with everything from water balloons to giant water slide inflatables. So, by no means was this summer boring or slow, God made sure to keep opening doors for us.

            My favorite part of this summer though, was YoungLife middle school camp. I’ve gone the past three years but never have I seen God work so miraculously. We took 18 middle schoolers and I got the distinct pleasure of being with our 9 boys. While at camp the boys had the fun and shenanigans that I’ve seen so many times before, but that wasn’t all. This group of guys opened up to us in a way that I hadn’t seen before. They shared about their home life, asked hard questions about God, and truly lead each other towards seeking those answers from the church. On the last day one of our boys stood in front of the entire group and shared about the power of prayer and how it helped him. But this growth didn’t stop there, after camp this particular group of youth had a hunger for connection with the church. They began doing weekly work projects throughout the community cleaning up graffiti or weeding at an elder’s house. They began coming to church and youth group without wavering, even going as far as attending our worship evenings on Sunday nights. That particular youth I shared about openly prayed at church in front of the entire congregation. God clearly used camp in an intense, evident way with these kids and it has been humbling to see that growth continue through the summer.

            Looking to the future we have even more exciting news! This Fall I will be starting HOPE afterschool (Healing, Overcoming, Praying, Educating), which will be an afterschool program held at our church building. To start with we’ll be focusing on 5^th and 6^th graders at our local elementary school. Some of you may remember that over covid we brought students to our building for their online classes. Continuing with that momentum it was clear that we needed a revitalized afterschool program when covid restrictions allowed. I didn’t know it then, but God would soon be calling on me to lead the program. In the months since, He has made His intentions for the program clear as well as make my replacement for Children Ministry apparent. Tionna, a young lady who was raised in the church here and has worked with the ministry for long before I even knew what Sacred Road was. We’ve begun sharing responsibilities of Children’s Director as I train her to fully take on the role by next Spring. I could not leave children’s ministry better hands. I look forward to sharing more about HOPE afterschool soon, but if you would like to learn more about it now or give you can go to our newly updated website at https://sacredroadministries.org/after-school. But please be praying for it’s start, growth, and flourishment in it’s first year as well as pray for Tionna as she takes on a new role.

I pray God blesses you as He has blessed me beyond my wildest expectations,

Trey

Books, Eggs, and Aliens, Oh My!

Dear Friends and Family, 

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activities with our state slowly beginning to open back up. If you’ve followed my updates over the past year, you know the immense changes we’ve had to make as a ministry. Yet, in the midst of those changes God was faithful to keep our ministry fruitful. Creating a trend of success and growth in our outreach that has remained evident into the new year. After a momentary setback at the end of 2020, we were finally able to start holding in person services again. Although our attendance has been smaller, the blessings of getting to worship again can not be overstated. Furthermore, we started holding Children’s church last month. Honestly, I had forgotten how sweet it is to teach scripture to our kids. Starting back right around Easter was an absolute gift from God as we got to tell the kids how much God loves them in such a clear manner. In a time of such uncertainty, we got to cement the lengths at which God goes to keep His promises and how far He went to keep His ultimate promise.

Speaking of Easter! We also got the green light to do our annual Easter egg hunt. After skipping it last year it was amazing to see all the giant smiles and hear the laughter from our kids as they ran around our property searching for candy filled eggs.

Despite our state opening more we still weren’t able to have our normal spring teams (as was expected) so we got to do another round of kids club deliveries. Many kids and parents alike jumped right into our ridiculous antics as they remembered all the craziness, we had last summer during the deliveries. Our helper’s alien costumes were a big hit and brought a lot of laughter. Additionally, we’ve been doubling down on our efforts to find ways to remain present in the community and love on our kids in their own neighborhoods. One such way is Bookin It, our mobile library. Run by one of our own youth, Bookin It aims to bring books every week right to the housing projects we serve in. As has become normal in my life now, my expectations for this outreach were blown out of the water. Multiple children started bringing their books back regularly to trade back and receive new ones. Their bright yellow book bags became a beacon that they had remembered us and were looking forward to getting new books. Sometimes they would bring those yellow bags to events we hadn’t even planned to bring Bookin It to. On one such instance, while doing deliveries a child brought his book to me. After I told him we weren’t here with the library but instead to give out Kids Club goody bags, he seemed slightly disappointed. But he was quickly cheered up by the knowledge that the very next day we’d be in his neighborhood with our mobile library. It’s truly been amazing to see the overwhelming response the kids have had to the library.

Prayer Requests

I’m quickly approaching my three year anniversary of moving to the Rez, (May 2021). Honestly, it has felt as though time has stood still while I’ve lived here. Like I just left Florida yesterday. At the same time, I do notice that my roots in WA have grown substantially. As is the way with growing up and cementing my feet more as it were. I find myself needing more support. For the beginning years I’ve made do with whatever I’ve gotten from my generous supporters. But as I look to the future it becomes apparent that I need to raise more funds to sustain my living here. Expenses like health insurance and saving towards renting/buying my own place means I need to stabilize and grow my base support levels. If you already support me, I can’t thank you enough and am not asking you to double up on your support or anything. Instead, I’m asking for prayer that I can find new donors and that God will open more doors. Please pray.

Also, please pray for the summer. We are still figuring out if we’ll be able to hold our normal summer teams and kids club programs. Please pray for wisdom on our part in deciding and safety for either outcome. God has a plan for this summer and no matter what happens He will accomplish it.

Blessings,

Trey

An Unstoppable God

Dear Friends and Family,

            What an astounding series of events have unfolded these past few months. In such a short span we have experienced so much. Normalcy feels almost antiquated in these unsettling times. Yet, it is a resounding comfort that as believers we can hold firm to the promises that God can be moving even when our nation is, quite literally, shut down. Here on the reservation we can attest to such things quite clearly. Our summers and a large portion of our spring is determined and embodied by large groups of individuals coming from the across the country to work with us. Due to Covid we have had to cancel all of these defining aspects of our ministry for the year. Which as you can imagine feels like a huge blow to the stomach. BUT, we have also seen how miraculously God can move when we’re stuck at our houses. Since we couldn’t hold normal services, we’ve had to do online services like so many other churches. What we saw though was an influx of people that were watching that haven’t been to church in years. Some who have never come at all. This means that the gospel was reaching new people even as we were drastically dropping in our planned activities. Furthermore, God has still seen fit to give us opportunities to reach out to the community. Everything from supplying food and other essentials to houses, to posting ridiculous videos of ourselves for the youth. Recently, we were even able to partner with another outreach here and give out food boxes, hand sanitizer, masks, and other necessities. Clearly, God is still moving despite the obstacles that seem insurmountable to us. God was here long before these tumultuous times and will continue to be long after.

Ways to Pray

•     Our county has one of the highest number of Covid cases right now and is still growing. Please pray for the safety and health of the community here that I hold so dear.
•        At the moment I’m working on growing my support as it has been affected by the shutdown and the job losses felt by so many across the country. Please pray that the Lord will open doors and give me boldness to speak about the calling He has placed on my heart.

Ways to Get Involved!!!

As I’ve already said we are unable to hold our normal summer events, namely kids club which is my personal favorite. Since we can’t bring kids together for kids club, we decided to bring kids club to the kids! Our plan is to try and get several packages or “Kids Club in a Box”, and give them to households that would've come to the in person event. These boxes would consist of crafts, snacks, toys, flip flops, and all the other summer essentials. For us to pull this off though we will need the help of our brothers and sisters! We need flip flops, bathing suits, candy, dollar store toys, socks, etc. The mailing address for these is 14531 Pumphouse Rd, White Swan, WA 98952. If mailing isn’t an option we would also love donations to the children’s ministry fund so that we can purchase supplies for these boxes. You can donate at the donation page of www.sacredroadministries.com. If you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to contact me at tbelisario3@gmail.com or 509-985-2644.   

Thank you for your support and prayers. May God bless you as He has over surpassingly blessed me.

Trey,