Utah-Idaho LWML volunteers share their experience in Navajo, N.M.

A group of eight women from the Utah-Idaho LWML District spent a week volunteering at our ministry at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Navajo, N.M. Below is an article they have graciously shared with us. Mission Trip to Navajo, New Mexico By Linda Larson

Eight ladies from the Utah-Idaho LWML District spent last week in Navajo, New Mexico at an LCMS mission church at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church on the Navajo Reservation. We joined Tim and Heidi Norton (missionaries) and Louise Lee (Navajo Native) to work with them doing outreach in their community. They are part of Lutheran Indian Ministries based in Brookfield, Wis.

This was a week that is pretty much indescribable. The Navajo people are a warm, loving, welcoming group, and we had an opportunity to cook them meals, lead Bible studies, sing and do crafting (teaching young girls to sew), paint away smoke damage in one home, etc.

They shared a meal with us of Navajo fry bread tacos (they made the bread) and also shared many, many stories of their personal lives, struggles and their love of Jesus and His church. We all came away being fed by the Word and loving the Diné (Navajo) people. The landscape there is wondrous with high desert, mountains, valleys, canyons and lakes—truly one of God’s most beautiful creations.

Our hope is that the Utah-Idaho LWML District and our churches in general will “adopt” this mission as our outreach to the Native people. You will definitely hear more about them as we plan additional trips, perhaps yearly, to visit and work with them.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Linda Larson is the Utah-Idaho LWML district president and a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Nampa, Idaho.

Click here for a PDF version of this article.