Our second day on Hopi Land

This is our second day in Hopi Land.  The weather has been beautiful, clear skies with stunning sunsets.  The Hopi have a story that in the beginning their people chose this land because no one would envy them here, and no one would steal the land from them. Indeed, the Hopi were one of the few people groups in North America that were never displaced from their land.  Visible from the house we are staying in is the oldest continuously populated town in North America.  The Hopi are an ancient people group.

As we drove out from Flagstaff yesterday, the dry Pondarosa Pine and Juniper of the mountains gave way to flat land dotted with sage brush and yellow grass. We seemed to drive on and on through nothingness, just the mesas jutting up from the ground to provide landmarks.

I found myself imagining the long ago ancestors of the Hopi walking through this land, and settling at the feet of the mesas to grow their corn and raise their families.  Coming from the tall mountains and fresh pine forests of Oregon, it would be the last place that I would chose.  But for whatever reason, they stayed here and built a life for their people.

We have spent the day working on projects here in a house that has been used by YWAMers for almost 20 years.  It’s been left to itself for a couple of years and needed some cleaning and care.  While some of us cleaned the kitchen, others took apart the porch to shovel out sand that the desert winds had piled up everywhere.  Every time anyone came into the house, the floor had to be vacuumed again, large sandy footprints recorded where you had been.

Abigail and Carolyn spent almost the whole day outside.  I thought that there would be little for them to do in this sandy desert, but they kept happy for hours playing with the neighbor’s dog, looking for treasures in the sand, and helping us sweep and clean away the sand.  I had to give them a good shower at the end of the day.  Sometimes it’s surprising to me that the places that seem the most difficult to us are where kids flourish. 

Tomorrow will be an adventure as we head out to visit people and get to know the Hopi Reservation.  I don’t feel very well prepared to launch out in a community, but as always we will trust God to guide and give us strength. What do you have for us this week, Lord?

We found out that there will be a Bean Dance on Sunday, the first of the ceremonial dances of the year.  We are eager to attend and hope that we can go with the YWAMers here.  We want to learn about the culture and connect as much as we can while we are here.