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.

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