Sunday started with a visit to a Navajo Nazarene Church
about two hours away in Nazlini (see Wikipedia article) on the Reservation. On
the way, we witnessed three car accidents within about 1.5 miles. The Pastor
predicted that it might have been because of too much celebrating on a Navajo
traditional religious holiday.
(Remember, the Navajo traditional religion is based on the medicine man
and chants and charms.) The service was in both English and Navajo, so it was
difficult to maintain focus, but the people were very friendly and afterward
fed us Navajo tacos. Yum. It was there we received an orientation from a social
worker who explained some of the prevalent problems among these people: Very
helpful information as all of our students come to us because of difficult
family situations.
The first day of school went fairly well for Roger and me.
He has a bunch of lively little boys who
desperately need a Christian male role model in their lives. My class is mostly
giggly 6th grade girls. Students are still arriving and registering,
so the school takes two one day field trips at the beginning of the year, so we can
have a good start on Monday with everyone here.
One cool thing this week was that on Monday before the
students arrived, the dorm parents went to each dorm and prayed over each room,
and the teachers went to every classroom and prayed over each class. Such a
precious time to ask God to keep the evil influences out of our classroom and
to bring each child to salvation.
My worst trauma on the first day was being locked in the
restroom. Fortunately I had my cell phone with me and a call to the office was
relayed to my rescuer. Needless to
say, I was slightly harassed and claustrophobic, but managed to laugh about it
later.
Our field trips were to Flagstaff (1.5 hours) to the Lowell
Observatory and to Show Low (1hour) for a Fish Hatchery tour and some bowling
and swimming. The children were basically behaving. We took these as
opportunities to teach some social manners. We see certain ones that will be a
challenge in the classroom.
Thank you again for your prayers. This week please pray as we really start school. The
students are generally two years behind when they come to us but are all
capable of learning. They have lacked consistent education due to family
difficulties. Pray that the children learn to love and accept each other. Most
of them are new as there is a large turn-over each year here. And pray for us
teachers to have love and wisdom for these ones who are so precious to our
Lord.
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