Snapshots from New Mexico

Being in New Mexico is a completely different experience than any other mission trip I've been on. The previous trips I've been on were in Guatemala and then local missions up in Pennsylvania. The main reason I would say New Mexico was so different was because they spoke English. I know that sounds funny, but the only other far off mission trip I've been on was in Guatemala and they speak Spanish there. The poverty and lack of food that lingers within the small town of Tohatchi will make you believe that you aren't even in the states anymore. The best way I could try and give you a visual for such a sad environment is by telling you about a few of my "snapshots". These snapshots are pictures I've taken with my mind and that lay heavy on my heart. So the first snapshot I am going to share with you is about Jennifer and her family. Jennifer is a woman that comes to Tohatchi Baptist Church and has five children that she raises with her boyfriend/husband. They live in a two room "home", if thats what you want to call it. When you walked into the home, you were in the living room/kitchen/dining room. The second room was the bedroom, where there was a queen size bed and a bunk bed. In the corner of the room there sat a bathtub and toilet. There was no wall around it, and they have no running water, so it was unusable. So you may ask, where did they go to the bathroom? Every time they had to go, they had to walk two houses down and use there neighbors outhouse. Could you imagine? Now you have a visual, but let me add to this visual. They had sheets and blankets hanging up all over the walls, why you ask? To keep the wind out because there were huge holes in the walls. If you know anything about New Mexico, you know its windy and when the wind kicks in the sand flies up. The whole living situation is completely ridiculous. Another reason that made their living situation so hard was the fact that Jennifer's daughter, Moriah, has spinabifida. Moriah can't feel her legs at all, so she lives the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Mariah is only 10. The icing on the cake is that Jennifer and her man don't have jobs. You put it all together and you have a very sad living situation. Seeing that home, you just want to tear it down and start from scratch; give them a brand new home and make Moriah's life a little easier. Unfortunately we can't do that, but our first team that came in from Waco, Texas came into Jennifer's home and gave her a fully functioning bathroom. These living situation seem to be fairly common in the area of Tohatchi.  

Another snapshot I have is a little boy that goes by the name of Turtle. Turtle is a little five year old boy who made my day. Our groups do VBS every night for the kids that live all around. They do a few events during VBS: Bible story, crafts, music,with dances to each song, recreation, and snack. During the dancing time, a lot of the kids don't want to participate. So I decided to get involved, I grabbed Turtle and we sat down on the floor together. I held onto his wrist and made him do the motions. Turtle started laughing and as time went on of me moving his arms around, he started to make the hand motions along with the arm movements. From then on Turtle was my friend and a good friend at that! The next day came around and all of the kids were doing there craft and were gradually transitioning to music. Once music started going, Turtle ran up to me and said "I want to dance with you!!!" So he grabs my hand and pulls me to where we had been sitting the day before. I looked at him and said, "I thought you wanted to dance." He looked at me with the biggest smile on his face and said, "I want to do it exactly like we did it yesterday." From then on, Turtle involved me with everything he was doing. 

The last snapshot I'm going to share is about the fire. The first few days of being in Tohatchi, we noticed over the mountain there was a deep black smoke rising up. A few days went by and the smoke seemed to be getting worse. There was no final word on what started this fire, but it was a wild fire. For almost a week the fire was 0% contained and they had over 100 workers on the fire, trying to stop it. A little into the week, we got a call from Aaron, the pastor of Tohatchi Baptist Church, saying that they were making the Navajo people evacuate and needed help. We sent a team of people from our group up the mountain to help as many people as they could. Since all of those people had to leave, they needed a place to stay. So they opened up a shelter in the high school up the street from the church. With shelters come tons of donations to help the people. Aaron asked if we would send a team over to help them organize the donations and make gift boxes for each family. I've heard so much about shelters and how they help people, but it's completely different to walk into one. You walk into the gym and there are lines of cots set up and boxes and boxes and boxes of donations. All the people that had to live there were just laying around and trying to keep themselves occupied. It was such a surreal experience, seeing these people that had just lost everything they have to a fire, having to start over, with nothing. That's an image that will forever remain in my mind and lay heavy on my heart. 

New Mexico impacted my life greatly and I thank God for allowing me to come on this trip and to experience New Mexico. God blessed me with new friendships and a growing passion for Christ. I am thankful for the work we did in New Mexico but also the work He did in all of our lives. I saw such a change in the groups between day one and departure day. Leaving New Mexico was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I pray that God will have my path cross the friendly faces I met in Tohatchi again.  

Emma Blake

Summer Intern 2014