my spring break (AICM MISSION TRIP)
May 10, 2010
during spring break I went on a mission trip to show low, Arizona. this area is filled with different Indian reserves for the Navajo and Apache tribes. as the week started we went to a boarding school where many kids and young adults lived instead of the Indian reservations. (some of these kids don’t have a choice) In the boarding school we helped build a road in a 90 acre forest for the cross country kids. That’s how we started each day
of our week. After that we went on this bus called “the blue bus”. Each day around 3 p.m. we would go on the bus to the different Indian reservations. they were really far from the Indian reserve and would take about a 30 minutes to a hour. (sorry for rambling haha!) well…straight to the point we went into these reserves and started honking the horn. all the kids in the area knew what that sound means. Kid after kid ran into the bus, boys and girls. with dirt and snot on their face but also a big smile. we had them play the good Samaritan story and also played a couple songs too. many kids either played basketball or jump rope. or they would go in the bus and make bracelets and color. each kid had something significant about them, and it always show on their face. many kids wore the same clothes everyday or not where any socks. allot of these kids were broken and didn’t know how to really live a normal child life. but through all the crap they still had smiles on their face. there smiles represented how much hope they intake and none of them gave up on it. I guessed if you were raised in poverty, that all you knew how to do is hope.
in my own experience two kids stick out to me the most, raheene and Kobe. Raheene and I colored together and he told me about how much he loves Jesus and sang some worship songs his mom taught him.
then there was Kobe. Kobe was a boy that stayed by himself in the back. he didn’t talk to anyone so I welcomed him in the bus. his face lit up when he saw that he could make bracelets. me and him sat down and started making some awesome looking bracelets. “this kid had talent” haha. when we sat down I asked him about school and at that point he started spilling out about his life. He told me how him and his friends are always getting picked on at school. they would shoot spit balls at them and tease them. I asked him, so what did you do when that happened? he said he would pray to GOD. I was shocked that a kid at the age of ten told me this, and then he started explaining his home life. his sister is in the hospital and he’s been praying for her a lot and his dad just got out for surgery in his foot. Kobe quoted, ” the white man would now help my dad”. he also told me that he has to keep his door locked every night because rapers and robbers would come knocking to come take the kids away or steel from them. I asked him have they ever tried to take you, he said once but me and my mom hid. I told him if something were to happen to run to the cops. then he said sometimes there the cops too. that hit the bottom of my heart. this kid and his family are defenseless is the world he calls home and yet he can still keep a smile on his face. he told me that he goes to church and Sunday school every day and he loves Jesus. it was so hard to hold back tears. Even tho this kid was in a world of hurt he was miraculously in refuge. through all the crap that he explained he still managed to get out safe. you see, from passed experiences and other testimonies, GOD watches you before you even seem to think of him. Kobe was a living example of GODS power and love.
thanks to Kobe I know never to give up and really appreciate what I have…
