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Rock Point, Day 6

Guido Schlabitz

On the last day we were supposed to finish up the last office room, but it was locked and the lady with the key was out and about. Luckily, the actual painting was as good as done and putting back the furniture was all that remained.

Thus we busied ourselves otherwise before our departure…

At our spaghetti good bye dinner we made the aquaintance of Kai from Pennsylvania, who was on his way to California to serve in the armed forces and stayed at the mission for the night. He was thrilled to meet another Kai, and we exchanged various misspellings and mispronunciations that name inevitably has to suffer.

After our goodbyes, we drove home through the beautiful scenery, remembering our new friends at the Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission.

“Auf Wiedersehen, Walfischberg!”

“Good bye Whale Rock!”

THE END

THE END

Rock Point, Day 5

Guido Schlabitz

This brush is used to fill the many tiny holes in the concrete blocks:

Pioneered by Linda, the specialized brush is used in a circular movement technique and works much faster than a paint roller.

In the afternoon we went to Norma’s new settlement on a hill surrounded by breathtaking rock formations. There, we white skins were taught how to make Navajo Fry Bread.

The dough was prepared beforehand by Norma at the mission kitchen. She took a few handfuls of flour and backing powder, a pinch of salt and some dry milk and kneaded the dough until it looked like wet pizza dough. When I wanted to pin her to a precise receipe, she only said: “Oh, just enough until it feels right…”

If I can repeat it successfully at home, I will post instructions.

Everybody had a ball (of dough that is) and tried to form it into a flat round bread. This part is affectionatly called the “Geography lesson”, as it is fun to guess the various state shapes every participant ends up with in an effort to make a circle-shaped bread. After everyone resigned themselves to their varied stages of lopsidedness, the bread was handed to Norma or boldy laid into the pan and then expertly fried by her.

Then we piled on the hamburger, cheese and veggies to make it a Navajo Taco. State shapes aside, it tasted fantastic with the added aroma of the scenery and the “salt of the earth” community of friends in Christ.

Rock Point, Day 4

Guido Schlabitz

This morning we had Vacation Bible School again, this time relatively on time (10:05 am instead of 9:30 am). Linda showed THE way and everybody sang along.

Then some arts and crafts and playing with hand puppets and the good times were over too soon already.

All we can hope for is that these kids will remember us and the Word, and that it may influence their lives later on.

We did some more painting in the afternoon, too. It is not a vacation trip and we have one more office to do.

Rock Point, Day 3

Guido Schlabitz

As Lutherans, we were, of course, all organized and ready to start Vacation Bible School precisely at 9:30 am, until we found out that we are on Navajo Time, which means announced times are basically a rough suggestion and could mean anything depending on circumstances. So, we painted in the morning instead and had VBS sometime in the afternoon. :-)

The office room we painted was about a third the size of the computer lab from yesterday, but took twice the paint and time. That brick wall took forever and the smooth walls needed a second coat. We will finish it tomorrow.

We were fortunate enough to use somebody’s shade house for VBS again. Participation was more than enough and everybody had a great time watching Lorri’s puppet performance, singing songs and doing crafts. I forgot my camera, so I had to copy a picture from Lorri’s:

We had a sandstorm in the evening, that ripped off Ellen’s screen door, but no rain afterwards. That must be the reason why there are no tall trees here.

Rock Point, Day 1

Guido Schlabitz

A week at the Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Rock Point with old friends from our former church in Mesa — painting the school's computer lab, helping with repairs and the summer vacation bible school, and learning that at 1,400 meters the desert cools off mercifully fast after dark.