2020 January

Greetings from Pennsylvania, I am Holly Dangerfield. When I was in High School, I learned about the plight of the Native peoples. But I did not know how to help or what to do. I didn’t know where they were. Years later, I was in a Christian Book Store and overheard two ladies talking about someone who lived among the native people and helped them. I asked the ladies for more information. Soon, I learned they were talking about Sylvia Webb and Indian Mobile Mission. That was twenty years ago! Sylvia and I talked on the phone a few times. Then one day this past fall I called her. She told me of a need for toothbrushes and tooth paste for the children and adults. Such a small item and I asked, “why?” Sylvia told me of a child who received a toothbrush in a gift bag. He was so excited! In his family there are six people and they all use the same toothbrush. This was not okay with me. I went to my Pastor and it was not okay with him either. Our Church started a collection and we counted 7000 toothbrushes with paste to match. My Pastor wasn’t done yet. And he said, we are sending you out to the reservation so you can help pass them out. I was thrilled!We made home visits on the second day. I didn’t know in our country people lived in dwellings a little bigger than a goat shed. In some cases, three generations huddled together. I am lost for words to describe what I saw. But the love I felt from all these families….wow…I found myself enjoying the people and the surroundings did not matter. However, I will never take a glass of clean water for granted again or grumble about vacuuming the carpet, washing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom. During one visit, I was surprised to see a large handmade wool Navajo Rug being made on a loom. Another home we visited I saw a five-year-old boy. He wanted to attend school. Sylvia encourages attendance…then we heard what the problem was. The small boy was dropped off months ago by a person who in turn dropped him off at another home. He has no birth certificate. No one in the home was sure who he was. Because there is no paper trail on this child he cannot sign up for school. So, from a distance he watches other happy children enter a building where he can’t go. I did lose my composure when on that hot day we saw a group of horses dying for water. There was a water tank, but the faucet was down in a deep pipe underground. The horses knew there was water but could not reach it. A Navajo lady laid on the ground and could barely reach the pipe, all of a sudden, the rush of water flowed into the trough. The horses gulped till they were full. I saw for myself the need and felt the pain of Sylvia and her daughters experience. For the minimum of twenty-five dollars you can sponsor a child. Or you can send undesignated funds to help families with food and so many other needs. After what I saw, I decided to sponsor a second child