We arrived safely in Jemez Springs, NM last night. The drive out here was absolutely beautiful. Huge vistas and canyons, elk and mule deer. Today, Sunday, we divided up the team and half worshiped at Jemez Valley Baptist Church and the other half went to Tinian Navajo Baptist Church. I went out to Tinian, which is two hours through a lot of wilderness and the occasional goat herd. The Navajo service was entirely in the Navajo language, which is beautiful and unique to listen to. No wonder the army used them as code talkers in WW2. We also met up with our missionary on the ground there, Rose Ignacio. She is such a great Christian lady who has a heart to see the Gospel reach her people. The North American Mission Board recently did an article on her and a video. You can view it at www.namb.net and search her name in the video archives.

After our men got set up to begin to work on the construction projects at the Navajo church, Chris and I headed back to work at the basketball camp and block party. We met in the Jemez school gym, and it went really well. We had a good group of kids and parents show up. The children are all very sweet and open to our team. We are working with pastor Daniel Clymer and his wife here. He has done a fantastic job of setting things up for us here on the ground, as well as teaching our team about the spiritual and cultural climate of this area.

This region is unlike anywhere I have ever been in the US. It really reminds me more of India. There is a spiritual darkness here that is palpable. In this valley alone is 2 Wiccan temples, a satanic worshiping group, two Buddhist retreat centers, a New Age church, plus the Jemez Pueblo,--which is the community of Pueblo Indians who for the most part worship peyote and follow the traditional Indian beliefs. Oh, and there is also a strong Catholic presence here left over from the Spanish Conquistadores. Everyone here is spiritual. Most, however, do not have a relationship with Christ.

Please pray for our team this week. For safety, for open doors to share the Gospel, and for a sweet spirit as we work. More updates to come!

Update on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 09:12PM by Paige Niblett

 

Today our construction team left out very early from Jemez Springs to go to the Navajo church at Tinian.  The men got a good portion of the storage building and the playground equipment assembled. I am thankful to our VBS kids for raising enough money to buy the Navajo children play ground equipment.  The missionary told me that they have one small swing set. A while ago a big storm came through and ripped off the swings from it.  She said the kids went around collecting the parts from their swing set and said that maybe someday someone would come and fix their swing set. That is so sad, and yet I’m so very proud of our FBL folks for taking on this need. 

The basketball camp/block party went very well today too. We had more kids that yesterday, and we’ve had a good group of teens there as well. In that note, I would like to say how proud I am of our teens on this team:  Hannah Green, Travis Michael, Brenton McKey and Dylan Sneathern.  They have worked very hard at the basketball camp and ministered to the kids there.  But also, here at Jemez Valley Baptist Church there is a lot of maintenance work to do, and they have pitched in there as well. I think they even surprised themselves by how much construction they did.  

Please continue to pray for our team and the work we are doing here.  I can see the hand of God at work.  Tomorrow I will continue to share the Gospel to the kids at the ball camp, so pray that God will draw some to a relationship with Him tomorrow.  Besides the traditional Indian beliefs here, Catholicism is very big.  The interesting thing here is that many traditional Indians are also Catholic, because the Catholic church does not condemn their traditional rituals.  They are simply added to the Catholic prayers to saints and etc. It is very syncretistic, meaning a blend of religious beliefs.  Also meaning very wrong and sadly dangerous.  

I am continuously amazed at the beauty of this place.  The cliffs and bluffs silently scream of a God who loves us, and yet the majority of people here worship the creation instead of the Creator.