[amc] FW: Life on the Reservation
- From: "Kathy Reid" <Kathy@xxxxxxx>
- To: "Mennonite Church" <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 10:22:45 -0600
-----Original Message-----
From: William R Zuercher [mailto:bjz614@xxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 7:16 PM
To: bjz614@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Life on the Reservation
NEWS FROM HOPI MISSION SCHOOL
This is being written on February 22, after having just returned from a
wedding. Two young people (white) who have been involved in youth ministry
with Hopi and Navajo youth for the past half dozen year were married in the
Kykotsmovi Mennonite Church. They and the brother of the groom have
dedicated their time and energy for the foreseeable future in youth ministry
on the reservation. Their father has a national youth ministry of long
standing, based in Arkansas, so they come by their calling honestly. They
use our school for Sunday evening and Wednesday evening youth gatherings on
a regular basis. The principal reason that they use our facilities is that
many Hopi youth (or their parents) who have not grown up in the church have
strong reservations about even entering a church building. A school
building represents neutral turf, and they thus can interact with other
young people and hear the Bible message in a nonthreatening setting.
We just came through a short week, for several reasons. Monday was
Presidents' Day holiday, observed by all the reservation schools. On
Friday, we had a board and staff planning session, so dismissed school for
our students. On the three days in between, about one third of our students
did not come to school because of the Hopi cultural and religious calendar.
It is the time of the year for children to be involved in their initiation
ceremonies which includes some extensive dances and one night of no sleep at
all. Thus ordinary school work takes a secondary role during this time.
Some of the public schools acknowledge this by dismissing school one day a
week during the month of February, rather than try to operate with a greatly
reduced student population.
The board/staff planning session was the fourth such joint meeting we have
had in the past two years or so. The usual 2-hour monthly board meetings do
not provide enough time for the board to learn about such things as
curriculum planning, which is a current topic of interest among all the
reservation schools since we all are feeder schools into the single
Junior/Senior High School. It also provides an opportunity to do some
longer-range planning related to both programs and facilities. We spent
some time looking at preliminary plans for the construction of a
gymnasium/multipurpose building for which we will be doing the planning and
fundraising in the next year, with the expectation that it can be ready for
use for the 2004-2005 school year.
The Varsity basketball schedule continues, with our girls winning most of
their games, but the boys coming up short. The schedule will be finished by
the time of our spring break which begins on March 21.
The blessing of volunteers continues. Last month we reported that Ed and
Marge Harms from Newton, Kansas were with us for almost two weeks, joined
for the second week by Edgar and Agnes Harder from Whitewater, Kansas. Just
after they left, a lift pump in a sewer holding tank serving two staff
houses burned out, but two angels of mercy from LaJunta, Colorado showed up
needing a place to park their RVs for a night or two, in exchange for which
they offered to help get the offending system back in operation. On
February 10, Joni Litwiller from Bloomington, Illinois, arrived to spend
about six weeks with us. She has a short leave of absence from an insurance
company job, and while looking for a short-term volunteer opportunity,
learned about us. She is helping with aide work and is pinch hitting for an
absent custodian. She will conclude her time by taking over the
kindergarten for two weeks while the kindergarten teacher goes home to
Vermont to spend some time with a daughter visiting from Germany. The last
week of February we are expecting Orlando and Maxine Fast, and Bertha
Krehbiel from North Newton, Kansas, for whom a number of projects are
awaiting their coming. Then from about March 8 to early May, Carolyn and
John Voth from Inola, Oklahoma plan to come to help out. Carolyn has a
master's degree in Christian education. She will organize and direct the
Easter program, and have primary responsibility for leading our daily
half-hour chapel programs, plus teach some music. John will assist with
custodial work and other projects suitable for some physical limitations
that he lives with. Peter and Rheta Mae Wiebe from Glendale (Phoenix) are
donating a travel trailer which will be moved to the school premises next
week, just in time to provide housing for the Voths. The others can be
accommodated in the basement of our house which has two bedrooms, a kitchen
and a separate bathroom. Other volunteers are tentatively on the schedule
about whom we will tell you next month.
Our voluntary service unit of nine persons plus Joni Litwiller enjoyed a
weekend retreat with the VS unit from Tucson the weekend of February 15-16;
they have eight volunteers. A number of the volunteers in both units had
been in orientation together during the summers of 2001 and 2002, so looked
forward to renewing acquaintance. The location was the Tonto Rim American
Baptist camp near Payson, southeast of us in the White Mountains. We had
hoped for snow, but their elevation was not high enough to experience other
than rainfall in the days preceding our visit.
As we reported last month, there were a number of weekend trips away from
the school during February. After a couple of weekends at home, that
pattern will resume. It will involve an annual meeting of Arizona Baptist
churches in Phoenix on March 9; the annual meeting of the Hopi Mission
School Foundation board in Phoenix on March 15; and a weeklong spring break.
Bill plans to spend several days in Hesston beginning March 22, from where
he will go to Pennsylvania for the semiannual Mennonite Church USA
Constituency Leaders Council meeting at the Laurelville Mennonite Church
Center. Joyce plans to spend some of the spring break time with the
granddaughters in Phoenix.
Some of you responded to our request for assistance with Campbell's product
labels. Another important means of support is available at least in some
geographic areas. If you have Safeway, Vons, Pavilions or Genuardi's
supermarkets in your area (or if you have friends or relatives who do), you
can register your club card through a program called eScrip. After that our
school receives a percentage of purchases. As of the end of January, we had
310 persons signed up, with a net income from their purchases totaling over
$1,200 for a six-month period. We would like to get 1,000 participants.
The latest collection opportunity involves Tyson poultry products.
Designated items yield labels worth 24 cents apiece. If any of you reading
this either have access to one or more of these supermarkets or use Tyson
poultry products, we would be pleased to send you the information about how
to get involved. Send us an e-mail and we'll get right back to you with
details.
--Bill and Joyce Zuercher
February 22, 2003
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Austin Mennonite Church, (512) 926-3121 www.mennochurch.org
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