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,

A Ministry of Bubbles and Gummy Snacks

Dear Friends and Family,

            It has been quite a whirlwind of things happening over the past few months. I’m having difficulty even finding a good place to start on how the past months have been and all they’ve encompassed. December should be a good a time as any to start. This December was my first time overseeing the Children’s Ministry Christmas outreach. This covers a variety of events such as taking young native leaders from our church to other reservations and villages, which gives us the opportunity of reaching out to new kids that we wouldn’t be able to normally see by bringing Christmas parties to their front door. Additionally, we delivered over 400 shoeboxes full of gifts to homes here on the Yakama Reservation. The most beautiful of these facets of the ministry though is the Christmas service we put on here at Hope Fellowship. We have kids from our Sunday group be a live nativity set as we tell the true meaning of Christmas on the Sunday before Christmas day. It is such a sweet time to behold.

            Another big staple of the past few months has been my time in Colorado this January. I attended a month-long training program put on by Missions Training International (MTI) and received a surplus of tools and knowledge from missionaries who have served on different fields. They covered everything from how to adapt to culture healthily to how to make sure your spiritual life doesn’t take a hit from the work you are doing on the field. It was wonderful to be poured into by so many experienced and knowledgeable people who truly care about seeing God’s kingdom grown across the world.

            With this time away though brought many sweet hellos on the Sunday I returned after being gone for an entire month. Going from classroom work in Colorado to bustling Sunday morning children’s ministry was very similar to taking a sip from a fire hydrant, so much to take in all at once. But the Lord did gift me with an encounter with one of my kids on this particularly crazy Sunday. One of our “harder” kids was having a difficult time sitting in his seat and listening to his leader. After multiple rebellious outbursts I decided to take him aside and talk to him one on one and see

what was bothering him. He was hungry and exhausted so after a snack he was more than willing to talk with me and open up. In our conversation he told me he didn’t believe in Jesus, because he didn’t save him from getting bit by a pack of Rez dogs. He didn’t believe the Bible because he never saw the stories they talked about. But he did believe in “this place”. As he said it, he pointed to the roof of the building. “The church?” I asked. “Yes, I believe in this place because you guys built it and I can come here and get food”. This little guy is six years old. He’s seen harder things and been through more than I would like to think about. This child has literally lived out of a van for a large portion of his life. With that comes an obvious amount of doubt in somebody he can’t see that he’s told loves him. But the church here is embodying love to him in a way that is unusual to him. He may act out, but he hardly misses church. Just about every event we throw is attended by him. He comes not because he understands Jesus or the Bible but because he is being loved on and cared for. I can’t help but think that’s what Jesus would want for this little guy right now. I’m honored to be apart of Jesus’ ministry to this precious child of God.

Thank you for your support and prayers,

Trey

Rebuilding Broken Bridges

Dear friends and family,

            Summer has come to an end. I have finally had the opportunity to look back on the summer and reflect on everything the Lord did. This was my first time working in the summer as full-time staff. Despite this change a lot stayed the same, such as my role as a Daycamp leader. For the third year in a row I had the absolute privilege of working with the third to fifth grade boys. Four weeks out of the summer I was leading them in crafts, singing, games, and more importantly learning about bible stories. This was the initial aspect of the ministry that stole my heart, so I find it amazing that I have gotten to be a part of it for three summers now. One of the ways that this summer was vastly different though, was that because of my full-time status my role was changing. This change primarily had to do with the fact that I was slowly coming into the role of children’s ministry director. The way this took form was that I was in charge of all Sunday church service children’s activities. I prepared classrooms, prepped worksheets, taught the children’s church lessons, oversaw the kids happily playing on the playground after church, I even made sure they had a prize to take home at the end of every Sunday. Of course, I would be ignorant to not mention the immense help I received in these activities from the summer interns. Gradually, I was becoming a front person for the church to the kids and by extension their families. It was initially strange to see, because in my own self-made plans I hadn’t thought I would get this opportunity for several years. But nevertheless, here I was working directly with the kids I loved so much and furthermore being a bridge for interns and summer teams alike to connect with their first neighbors. Beyond anything else I was humbled. Humbled that God would choose me to work here. Humbled that God would see fit to use a broken sinner like myself to reach a community He loves more than I ever could. I was humbled because this time last year I never would have assumed I’d be stepping up to the role of children’s director.

            Sometimes it can be hard to narrow down the summer to just a few stories simply because so much is packed into these three months. Every week we are working day in and day out to preparing, doing worksites, having kids club, youth group, and even more. But this summer there was a single moment that meant the world to me. It was the middle of a team week and we were having kids club, the activity where we go to local housing projects and provide games, snacks, bible stories, etc. Snacks are being passed out as we sit on our blue tarp readying ourselves for story time, I notice a youth I know is walking with a little girl that I haven’t seen before. They would take a few steps toward us and then stop, then they would start again and stop. After watching this a few times, I decided to go talk to them. As I approached them the youth waved at me and smiled. Now to give you a better understanding of my relationship with this youth, up until this point I wasn’t sure she even liked me all that much. She would hardly talk to me and when she did it was normally sassy or snarky. As I got closer, I asked how she was doing and who the little girl was that was with her. By this point I was right in front of them and she told me this was her little sister, who had wanted to come to kid’s club but upon seeing the large group of people had decided it wasn’t for her. This little sister couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4. I got on my knees so that I was eye level with the preschooler, told her my name and asked if she wanted to come with me to sit and get a snack. The youth was beyond pleased with this deal and urged her sister to go with me. The little sister was not having it, she wanted no part of this bearded stranger. Her big sister asked her if she was scared of me and she emphatically shook her head yes. Before I could finish apologizing for my “scary” appearance, the youth hugged her sister tightly and told her, “Trey is very nice. He will take care of you.” With that the little girl looked back at her sister once more for reassurance and then took my hand as we began walking to the tarp for story time. I’ve never been more honored. For a youth to give the protection of their younger sibling to you is something that illustrates both the trust the church earned on the Yakama reservation and subsequently the trust I’ve grown with youth I don’t even normally interact with. If you don’t know much about Native American history with the church, it was common practice for children to be taken from their families and sent to “Christian” boarding schools. Understandably, this means that the trust between native families and the church should be and in many cases is broken. But this singular moment was a reassuring reminder to me that God is rebuilding that trust slowly, and what an honor it is for me to be a part of it. Please keep praying, it is the most powerful weapon we have.

Your brother in Christ,

Trey  

 

A New Home

Dear Friends and Family,

            I have been working on the Yakama Nation Reservation off and on for the past three years. Whether it has been for a week, a summer, or 15 months, I have journeyed here many times and always found myself longing to spend more time and serve in this community. My current 15-month internship hasn’t quite ended yet, but I have found that my heart has already been filled more than I previously thought possible. Since coming here, last May, I have wrestled with what is the next step in my future, where was God going to call me? The Lord clearly had a plan all along, a plan that has been unfolding since I first stepped foot on this reservation on July 15^th, 2016. I without a doubt know that God is calling me to stay here. There have been several ways that He has made this clear to me. The pit in my stomach that I have every time I think of leaving. The connections I’ve made with both the youngest, smallest children who abound in energy and the wisest elders that have graced me with their company. I’ve known it from the times I walk down the hallways of the schools here seeing children’s eyes light up, smiling from ear to ear. From the most insignificant, halfway smirks that I find on the faces of youth. To the proud faces of elders and adults who see their new wood shed, built by teens from their own community. I can’t imagine ever being anywhere else or being apart of anything greater. God has called me to this place. Not to save anyone of my own power, but simply to be here and be used by Him in anyway he sees fit.

If you’re not familiar with the ministry I’m working with and the conditions of reservation life, let me give you a brief summary. Hope Fellowship is the church planted by Sacred Road. It is located within White Swan, a town on the Reservation. In White Swan, nearly 100% of the population is deeply affected by alcoholism and/or drug abuse. The reservation itself is located in one of the poorest areas in the United States.  In White Swan there is approximately a 75% unemployment rate.  Most of the children in White Swan suffer from neglect and abuse. There are no healthy evangelical churches in White Swan. Sacred Road’s goal is to bridge the gap between Native America and the Church at large. Their goal is to follow what the bible says and love our first neighbors well.

I’m afraid I need to ask something of you now. For me to stay here I need the support of those that God has seen fit to bless my life with. I need partners to step forward and help me in serving the community here. I need support both financially and prayerfully.

I implore you to approach the Lord in prayer and consider joining my support team. For me to stay, I must raise my full salary, which comes to a monthly cost of around 3,000 dollars. This requires me to put my faith both in God and His people. I truly hope you will work with me in loving our first neighbors well. If you would like to financially support me, please contact me so I can send you a support letter or go to Sacred Road’s website at www.sacredroadministries.com, go to the “Giving” tab, and choose me as the missionary you would like to support. Additionally, if you wish to learn more about what I’m doing, get clarification on support info, or personally talk to me about the work here. My phone number is 813-368-6563 or my email address is tbelisario3@gmail.com. I pray the Lord blesses you as much as He has blessed me.

Your brother in Christ,

Trey,

 

Christmas Update 2018!

Dear Friends and Family,

            A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New year to everyone! I hope the season treated you well. Here on the Rez, Christmas is one of our busiest times of year. In December, our days are filled with outreach, a specific example of this is our trips to other reservations and native towns. Once we get there, we throw Christmas parties where we tell the story of Christ being born and give out presents. These locations rarely have healthy churches and, in some cases, only vaguely know who we are. But they quickly realize that we are a different breed of people. At one of the parties, a kid quietly sat next to me before our Bible story time. He slowly leaned over towards me and whispered, “are you the church people?” Of course, I was happy to tell him that I was. His response was nothing short of absolute glee. He told me about how he loved the church people and how he loved hearing about stories from the bible.

My favorite part of these trips was seeing the expression on the children’s faces when they got to open their gifts. I’m sure many are familiar with Operation Christmas Child, but for those that aren’t, the gifts we used were shoe boxes donated from churches around the country. Back home in Florida, I’ve spent many Decembers packing similar boxes but for the first time I got to see firsthand the joy that a simple gift can bring. If you participated in these shoe boxes, whether they came here or went to other children in need, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You made a difference.

Another important aspect of this past season was that it was the end of 2018. This meant that we threw multiple end of the year parties with our youth group, discipleship groups, and YoungLife. We even held a special Christmas service at our church. We had a live action nativity scene acted out by our very own kids. The Nativity story itself was read by one of our young native leaders who came home on break from Indian Bible College. According to what I’ve heard, it was one of the biggest turnouts we’ve ever had. In large part, that was due to the main portion of our ministry in December, Christmas deliveries.

Christmas deliveries are an all hands-on deck operation to go give presents to any kids we’ve interacted with throughout the year or even before then. We load up buses and vans full of presents for children, teens, and adults. Driving all over the Yakama reservation, we go to the homes of each family. Over 400 Christmas presents were delivered. The greatest part about this activity is that we get to see kids that we haven’t seen in months. Many of the kids that we meet over the summer, for various reasons, don’t come to church once the summer ends. Meaning after August we don’t get to see many of the kids that stole our heart. There were countless houses I went to where the children were shocked to realize I remembered them. Not only that, but I brought presents with each of their individual names on them! It was a wonderful way to bring joy to these children. Some of them even waited to open their presents until Christmas day. More than likely because they wouldn’t be getting much else. I was honored to participate and see this aspect of the ministry.

Prayers:

Please pray for the homes that don’t have adequate heat. So far, we’ve had a surprisingly warm winter, but hard freezing temperatures loom and with them bring unique challenges for the families.

Please pray for the ministry as we jump back into our normal schedule. This includes Church services, D-groups, youth group, YoungLife, going to the school to have lunch with the kids, etc.

Finally, I ask a personal prayer. This marks the over halfway point of my internship. My thoughts turn to what it would mean to leave this community that I have fallen even deeper in love with. I’m currently wrestling with where the Lord is calling me and if He is in fact calling me here fulltime. Please pray for His guidance through this decision making.

Thank you to each and every one of you for how you’ve helped support the ministry here. Whether it’s with giving, prayers, or both. I hope God is blessing you as He is so overwhelmingly blessing me.

Your brother in Christ,

Trey

A Forgotten Nation

I’ve now been on the Yakama Nation Reservation for seven incredible months. The months following summer have been a conglomeration of blessings and trials. I often times want to write down everything that I’m seeing but when I actually have the time to write an update, I find that my words fall short and I can’t grasp the most rudimentary parts of my stay here. So as such I normally focus on what’s easier to express or share. Its why I use jokes that kids make about me to remind people I’m still here or post pictures of events to show snapshots of my day. I do this because those are substantially easier to relate to and quicker to explain then trying to spit out what feels like a lifetime’s worth of lessons that I’m only just beginning to scratch the surface of while here. There have been whole books written on the relationships between Native Americans and the church, on what poverty culture looks like, or what life on a reservation would look like. So, to summarizing ideas that took whole books to capture is no small feat. A parent of a team member once said that in his child’s week here he grew a year spiritually. I often wonder how much more God will grow me through a year here. As such growing comes with growing pains and is not all picking daisies and frolicking on the beach. This serves as a warning, this will not be one of those happy, whimsical updates I normally do. For my benefit and for that of my supporters I want to give an update that I avoid giving, an update of the good and the bad here on the rez.

 There are things that I’ve learned in the fall here that I never could’ve learned through my summer experience. For one the staff here doesn’t have a “down time”. Summer ends, staff take a quick few days off, catch their breath, and continue trucking through their ministry responsibilities. One of my most joy filled responsibilities that I’ve taken on while being here is to go to school lunches. Which means I get to go to high school, middle school, and elementary lunches. Its so entertaining to see kids/teens light up when you walk into their lunchroom. Frequently, pestering me with the question of “why are you here?!”. The answer that I normally give goes like “to see you guys of course” or “because I wanted to hang out with you”. They never really accept these answers even though I’ve been coming to their school for almost three months now. This playful response marks a much darker, underlying problem that I’ve seen repeatedly throughout my time here. The reason their so shocked by a strange bearded, white guy coming to their school is because so many of them aren’t valued or cared for by adults in their life. When you’ve been told countless times by your caregiver that your good for nothing or your left at home with all your younger siblings by your caregiver who wants to go out and drink, why would you think you’re worth anything? When you live in a broken down shed in someone’s back yard without food, how are you going to get algebra homework done? When your parents decide that they don’t want you at the house and kick you out at fourteen to find shelter on your own, how are you going to feel? When you live in a crack house with your younger sister, how do you think past living today. These aren’t instances that I’m making up from stories I’ve heard second hand. These are kids, real kids that I’ve spent time with. Teenagers that I’ve driven to youth group on Tuesdays or sat next to at YoungLife meetings. I can’t begin to tell you how many angry drive homes I’ve had since working here. To see injustice so blatant, so irrefutably and unmistakably wrong. To hug a little girl one day and have her shipped away by child protective services the next. People here go through hell, so when a random guy shows up at your school to sit next to you to eat an undercooked, lunch cafeteria hot dog, you wonder what he’s peddling. The funniest and saddest question I’ve gotten while here was asked at one of these school lunches. When I told them I moved here from Florida their response was a single word, “why…..why would you ever choose to move to White Swan”. They were so shocked that anyone would move to the center of their living nightmare.

My goal is not to depress or upset you though. There is a duality to the rez that I speak about frequently to those that care to ask me about what it’s like here, brokenness and beauty. An important hardship about working here is to balance these two ideas. It is unhealthy to only focus on the negative brokenness that I listed above. Additionally, it is also unrealistic to focus only on the beauty that is seen in cute pictures or stories I post. This advice is most needed on my part, for when I get sidetracked by the hardships I see. I also try to keep in mind the beautiful things that I’ve seen over the past few months. I’ve seen teens who live in unimaginable situations come to accept Christ. Heard testimony from a young woman who overcame addiction and has become a leader within the church. Seen multiple other youth love on the kids within the church just as they were loved by church staff, interns, and one-week team members over the past fifteen years. I’ve seen God direct situations and circumstances for the better even when I can’t begin to understand what He’s doing. I wrote in the middle of the summer about a group of kids that I had grown attached too. They were left home alone for days without food and most of them were still in diapers. Without warning one day they were evicted from the house they were at and taken by CPS to places unknown to me. I spent months wondering what had happened to them until a month ago when I saw two of them playing outside on a totally different part of the reservation. Furthermore, this week we held our annual Halloween “Trunk or Treat” at church. Imagine my surprise when who should come walking cheerfully down the gravel, but these same children. Native America is the forgotten third world nation in the heart of the United States, but someone hasn’t forgotten them, not for a single second of their existence. I daily need to remind myself that God loves the community here infinitely more and better than I ever could. I hope you don’t take this as a depressive rant from me even if that’s how it began in my head. God is at work here, doing mighty things even if He must use weak servants like me. He has plans for the rez, plans for Sacred Road, and plans for the future generation that is being brought up here at Hope Fellowship.

I urge you to pray/continue to pray for the ministry here. Please pray for the kids here who are abused and neglected by their birth family. Pray for the teens who are fighting to graduate when they don’t even know where their going to be sleeping tonight. Pray for the group of leaders that God is raising among the youth right now. Pray for the staff who tirelessly serve with humility and hearts full of love. Pray for the spiritual warfare that seems to run rampant throughout the rez. Pray for those who do not have adequate housing, with winter’s arrival hastening on. Pray for those that have yet to hear the gospel here, on other reservations, and in places around the world. Please pray.

Your brother in Christ,

Trey