Spring Update from Navajo
Although the month of May is still spring, it starts to feel like summer on the Navajo Nation because of high school graduations, and end of school. While confirmation is not graduation, it has often taken place in the spring.
This year we baptized and confirmed three students the first Sunday of May. There really is nothing better in the work of the Kingdom than to see God claim a child as His own through the waters of Holy Baptism. It was also wonderful to hear the students give witness to their faith, in a public confession and a speech.
Besides our main focus of proclaiming and discipling, we have also been blessed with visits from volunteers.
Vernon Abbot from Tulsa, OK, who volunteered last year returned this year and refurbished the bathroom in our guesthouse.
Sam Kim and his family (wife Sejung, and children, Song & Caleb) came for a long weekend in March and went on a hike with the children from our church, including some visitors. Sam has visited twice previously with a group from Our Savior’s Lutheran Church from Topsfield, Massachusetts.
Another family, the Wagners, from Bloomington, Minnesota, were visiting last weekend; they had previously joined our group for a confirmation retreat in Colorado. This year they helped us with some major sorting and organizing.
God has given us plenty of reasons to rejoice, but the challenges remain as well.
Sadly one of the young men in our community took his own life this month. It was quite a shock to all of us, and his survivors are in deep grief. We only have the promises of God to lean on at times like this, that His grace is sufficient, and His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Please give thanks with us for:
- The three students baptized and confirmed on May 6
- The volunteers and their love of the Navajo
Please intercede with us for:
- The survivors of the young man who took his own life
God's blessings,
The Norton Family