During my sabbatical/vacation I spent some time with my older children, which is always uplifting. At a certain point, when the kids are all grown and have lives of their own, we have to accommodate ourselves to their routines if at all possible. Speaking of the kids, a couple of years ago my now 28-year old daughter, Jessica, put stocking-stuffers in the socks that had been “hung by the chimney with care.” They were the sorts of metal pins that you can attach to your lapel – like those old-time political buttons. Each pin was emblazoned with some message or other, and she intended them to say something about the recipients. The one Jessie gave me had a cartoon drawing of a dog in a cape on it, with the words “Under Dog” printed underneath. She explained that she knew that I was a person concerned about all sorts of underdogs.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons that I went to the Navajo Nation after my visit with the kids. The Navajo Reservation spans portions of four states – Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Not only does that region provide a homeland to the Navajo, but also to the Hopi and Apache tribes. The ancestors of the Hopi migrated there between about 2,000 years ago from Mexico and the Navajo migrated south from Canada about 1200 A.D., but it’s thought originally from Mongolia. The land was arid and the crops hard to cultivate. Corn was their staple, and in many ways still is. While there were raids back and forth, the various tribes lived in relative harmony. The Hopi were particularly known for their peacefulness and spirituality. That may have been the reason that European settlers from the East didn’t bother the Hopi much, or it may have been that the Hopi gravitated to the tops of mesas and were inaccessible.

White settlers started moving into that region in the 1840’s inspired by the silver and gold rushes. Troubles between white settlers and the Navajo gave rise to waves of military intervention, massacres (more perpetrated by the U.S. Army against Navajo villages), and eventually the famous Trail of Tears, when the U.S. military rounded up most of the Navajo people and put them in a concentration camp. Many died of starvation and disease due to the lack of food and medicine diverted by the Civil War. The federal government returned the Navajo to a Reservation created in what had been their earlier homeland in the socalled four-corners area of the Southwest.

Are the people of the Navajo Reservation underdogs? No. They are people with dignity, resourcefulness and good humor. But they are also people with very real and diverse needs. Poverty is widespread; education is limited (largely resisted because it’s thought to be laced with white propaganda); material resources are few; and the Episcopal Church has had a limited but dedicated presence there for decades. Navajoland is a missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church. It is composed of some 8 congregations -- four of which are missions with almost a dozen house churches beyond that, sprinkled throughout New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. They need material help and friendship and, at least at this point in time, there are few parishes from elsewhere partnered with them.

The St. Paul’s Dream Team discovered that there are adults in the parish who would like to become involved in some sort of mission akin to the one the teens have accomplished the past two years in the Dominican Republic. That might be a local mission or it might be a mission in partnership with people, who live farther away. Since sentiments had been raised about needs in this country as well as abroad it seems timely to think about a domestic mission for adults from St. Paul’s. Yet missions that are both remote and culturally different from our own have great benefit for those involved for all sorts of reasons. There are two possible options, either of which could meet four criteria – actual need, domestic, remote and culturally different. One option is a mission in partnership with the Episcopal Church in Navajoland and the other with the Episcopal Church in New Orleans. Please keep the possibility of mission for St. Paul’s adults in your prayers.

Affectionately in Christ,

Phil +