He walked toward the mesa. Rope in hand. He was done with this thing called life. He was sick and tired of living. No one understood him. Others in his family had taken the same trail. It would feel good to not feel. His cowboy boots with stubs for heels scuffed along. I just need to find a tree he mumbled. He wanted to get this over with. He felt tears start in his eyes. He didn’t want to feel anything. Suddenly a strong cool wind knocked him to the ground. He couldn’t move. He was out of breath. He heard a loud voice “Jesus Loves You” he was bathed in love. This was powerful. He had been raised on the Navajo Nation. He was wild. Crime was his thrill. He was known as “the bad one.” He was feared. He laid in the sand. He smelled sage; it was all around him. In his culture sage was medicine to draw out evil, it had not worked for him. He needed something stronger. He needed a miracle and Jesus was it! A long time passed. He felt clean on the inside. His mother and others prayed for this miracle in his life. He was born again, a new person! It was a new day he wanted to live! He wanted to help people who were hurting. Sylvia knew this family since 1972. They were all wild and a law unto themselves. One by one she saw them come to the “Cross” This sons name is Jersey. Now he is one of many walking the Jesus Trail. Two years and Jersey is still a new man. He loves people and wants to reach out to them with the Gospel. He knows some will not trust him. Jersey blames no one but himself for his past. He is strong in his faith, and knows it will take time for people to trust this new Jersey.
Indian Mobile Mission does not have a church or a pulpit. We do what scripture says, we go about doing good. Mobile means we “go” to them. We find them as they are. We’re on the trails, in the homes reaching families who are depressed lost and lonely.
We encourage education and take school and classroom supplies to the children. Over the years we have seen teachers in the classrooms where once they were students. Fayden is one of these. She was born a little person. She was tossed between relatives. We helped her stay in class. She loved school. She fought her way to the top in all her studies. Last week she came running to hug me and said, when I was in third grade you told me I would be a teacher. I just graduated from high school and I’m going to teacher college. I want to come back to the reservation and help children like me. Fayden is no more than three feet tall. On the inside she’s a giant!
In a day we visit many homes. We see all kinds of needs and wishes. Some we can help others we can’t. At one home lives a mother with three children. Home is one room. I asked the mother what her wish would be if she could have a wish come true. Without hesitation she said ‘I wish my children could take a bath. So many wish for the same thing. The reservation is federal land. We can’t just take shovels and start digging. I hear other countries allow that. I know of Navajo families who
did all the paperwork to qualify for water, five years later still nothing. Life on the reservation is really survival. In a day we can travel three hundred miles round trip. Every home is different the needs vary. The area we are in has no shopping available. The families would have to travel 150 miles one way to buy shoes, food, or classroom needs. You Give – We Go. Together we are a team!
During the time of covid we saw so much illness and dying. We were still with the people prayerfully going forward. We gave out story books to children when schools were closed. They devoured them. They climbed over the side of the four-wheel drive pick-up truck, found the books they wanted. Climbed down and sat in the dirt reading out loud. They became the teachers to their elderly grandparents who never had a chance at school. And speaking of education, without it how could people read God’s Word? We encourage Faith in Jesus and education. Two years ago, a fourteen-year-old girl quit school. She felt so smart. She hid when we arrived at her tar paper home. After a year she came out of hiding with a smile. I re-enrolled she announced, I will be in 9th. grade. She needs shoes and clothes-wanna help?
We invite you, when the reservation is open to tourist, follow us around for a day. Don’t dress up or polish your shoes, you would be out of place. Don’t iron your shirt or curl your hair, you would again be out of place. But do be ready to fall in love. Be ready to meet a people that “heard” the Gospel gladly. You will meet shy Indian children, adults eager to know where you are from. You will sit where we sit, on dirt, there’s no grass! Children will crawl all over you and pets like chickens, kittens and goats will pester you for crumbs or a friendly pat.
Thank you for letting me share my heart with you. With much love and appreciation,Sylvia and Sylvia
P.S. Fifty four years on the Navajo Reservation and still trucking, not bad for seventy eight years old
Indian Mobile Mission 