Cross Canyon

Much of what we experienced last year in Rehoboth was so cool, we were excited to return to it with some new team members again this year.  Included in that is this gorgeous Cross Canyon hike.  Cross Canyon belongs to Mr. O., the grandfather of a staff member at the school.  This 10 acre piece of reservation land was given to his family generations ago and on the land is an actual canyon, a bubbling creek and even some ancient cliff dwellings.  He generously lets teams from Rehoboth come and hike around his land and then his family makes us Navajo tacos for dinner.  

To get to Cross Canyon, we have to drive right by Window Rock, the Navajo Capitol.  We like to hop out, look around and take group pictures here.

Watching the fry bread for our Navajo tacos being made and then enjoying this yummy meal on the back of a pick-up truck.

Some of the scenery from this year's trip down into and out of the canyon...

Huge ant hill!

Okay, this was the moment that won the trip for all of us.  Two of our older guy students had the crazy idea to launch one of our freshman guys over the creek.  They assured him over and over that they'd support his feet while propelling him clearly over the water.  They even did practice runs.  Of course, something went wrong during the execution of this brilliant plan and Johnny ended up going face first into the water.  He re-submerged covered in mud.  He was a great sport about it, though, and the team bonded over hearty laughter.  I still can't look at these pictures without giggling. 

On our way home from Cross Canyon we watched this awesome full moon rise.  This day was probably a favorite of many on our team...and not just because we laughed until we cried watching Johnny being thrown head first into the water! :) 

June Camp

And then we work.  While this Service Trip offers no shortage of wonderful oppotunities to explore the landscape or learn more about Navajo culture, the main reason we come to Rehoboth is to help staff the school's June Camp.  June Camp is like a super fun summer school.  It is meant as an outreach to the community, which is generally poor, in offering a place for kids to go all day, get some additional education, free meals, and lots of love from teams like ours!

This year we did not do June Camp all day, though.  Another team from Denver was also at Rehoboth running a soccer camp in the early mornings, so we used this time to work on and complete all sorts of odd jobs for the school and church.  

We assembled bunk beds in the dorms and carried old mattresses away.  We built scaffolding and changed light bulbs in ceiling projectors.  We divided our group up to file and organize paper work and move heavy equipment around (paperwork or heavy lifting-- guess which group I was in? :).  I also got to try wearing my lunch lady hat (hairnet?) while working on the cafeteria food prep and serving team.  

We also got their church totally decorated for the upcoming Everest VBS.  We all agreed that this very wide variety of tasks we were given made the work fun and the days go by fast.

Then, around 10:00 each day we'd rejoin the June Camp and lead the kids through their rotations.  This year each camper rotated around to try each thing, meaning we staff did as well.  We made quesadillas, and marshmallow shooters.  We had ballroom dance lessons and did Zumba.  We had paper airplane flying contests and learned lots of different versions of tag.  In the afternoons, we did the more intense and academic math, reading and science rotations.  But mostly we formed relationships with these kids.  We played with them on the playground at every opportunity and we heard our group testify that it was much harder than they were expecting to say goodbye. 

Dave's job was a little different this year too.  Instead of rotating around with a group of June Camp kids, he was actually asked to lead one of the stations.  So, for 3 hours each day, he taught a PE of sorts.  He did so great at coming up with a theme about not saying "I'm bored!" this summer.  Each day he showed us how everyday items, like a ball, a towel, some garbage, and even nothing, can be turned into fun inside and outside games.  His station was actually my favorite!

Like last year, the girls were able to enroll in June Camp and had a fabulous week.  Besides the activities already mentioned, Ella got to climb the rock wall and met these 3 adorable friends, who have all exchanged addresses.

Many of the physical and water activities Delia had to sit out, but she still made the most of June Camp in making new friends.  She got so close to some new girlfriends that there were some major tears at goodbye time.  

The Infamous Crevice

We arrived on Saturday night, but did not begin work until Monday, leaving Sunday to settle in, attend church, play some cards, and hike The Crevice.  This crazy hike was so memorable and such a highlight of last year's trip, I suspect it had a lot to do with why some students returned!

 The Crevice Hike is the hardest hike I've ever been on.  Much of it is using 4 points of contact to scale rocks and scoot across a giant crack in the earth.  Delia was obviously unable to participate.  Another gal in our group had surgery about a month ago too, so she joined Delia and I in tackling a much easier path to the bottom of the crevice, where we could meet up with and cheer on the rest of our team as they made the final jump.

 The views are incredible!  So worth the effort!

The day this hike was taken was actually Ella's 10th birthday!  I love that she conquered it enthusiastically and will keep this unique birthday memory! (See her hamming it up in the middle of all these highschoolers?)

Being at the bottom afforded me a different angle to take pictures this year.  Here are some of our students and leaders taking that final leap out of the crevice.  This trip was family themed!  As mentioned, several students came with brothers and sisters and our other leader, Phil, took along his oldest daughter, Thea, (below), much to the delight of my girls!

 The 2015 Rehoboth Team conquers The Crevice! (And 3 of us are cheaters who just hopped in the group picture!)

With Dave's transition into the Senior Pastor role, we don't know if this service trip with the Youth Group is something we'll be able to do together again next year.  Sad about that possibility and inspired by all the parent/child, brother/sister relationships we had along this year, we've already started imagining what it might look like to make this Rehoboth trip more of a whole family ministry opportunity.  If God leads us back, this hike is one of the many things in this special place I am excited to revisit!

Rehoboth 2015

Since we were SO blessed on our Rehoboth Service Trip last year, we decided to take another group of students down to New Mexico during this first week of summer.  It was a testament to how powerful this trip was last summer when half of the students returned, and 3 of them brought younger siblings!  The trip begins and ends with lots of time in the car-- 16 hours to be exact-- so that is where I will begin this series of blog posts about our wonderful week of service.  Ella actually told her piano teacher "the van ride!" was what she was most looking forward to on this trip!

  

 We begin the trip with a prayer in the dark church parking lot.  We like to arrive in Rehoboth the same day we depart, which means we leave at 4:00 am.

 We had some quiet vans as our students went right back to sleep for a few hours until the sun came up.

 Our drive takes us across the Mojave Desert and the state of Arizona in its entirety.  We pass the time by having dance parties, watching movies, goofing off on the walkie talkies, playing drawing games and Would You Rather?. 

 The Mojave Desert is hot!  And dry!

 Dave, the girls and I stayed in the smaller van.  We would take 3-4 students at a time.  When we had a van full of girls, we'd listen to the dance/pop Pandora stations and watch The Princess Bride.  When we had boys, we'd listen to Classic Rock and watch Star Wars.  We'd laugh more with the boys, but the van smelled better with the girls. :)

 I liked watching the landscape change every few hours.  The Joshua Trees (above) were some of the favorite things I saw whiz by my window.

I spent most of the rides occupying a very small space in the back with the girls.  Mostly they loved each other and did great, but after sitting next to anyone for all those hours, inevitable squabbles will break out and we did all take a turn getting a little punchy.  Ella and Delia entertained themselves for hours by creating fake iPhones to take selfies with and "call" others in our van.  Guess who hung out with highschoolers all week!

And finally, no road trip is complete without the License Plate Game!  This time I found a handy app to help us keep track.  Alas, we never did find hard ones like Hawaii or Washington DC and only came in at 86%