Author: Lori Owen

The last part of my sabbatical provided two different opportunities to spend time with family members. We took a quick trip to Arlington with Mark’s youngest brother and his family for their last hurrah before the start of school. It was great to spend time with our niece and nephew, because they’re growing up so fast.

The second trip was to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where my dad grew up. I got the chance to see some relatives that I had not seen for many years.   When I found out that my parents were making a trip to Santa Fe while I was on sabbatical, I knew it was the perfect opportunity for a visit.

Our first stop was my dad’s favorite restaurant, Tomasita’s, which is across the street from the train station where my grandad worked. Both of my uncles and one aunt met us there for a delicious New Mexican dinner. We spent several evenings at Uncle Dale and Aunt Marilyn’s house, eating dinner on their patio overlooking the mountains. My cousin, Becky, came over and it was good to catch up with her. We also took some time for sightseeing around Santa Fe, walking around the Plaza, touring the Loretto Chapel with the “Miraculous Staircase”, driving up to the mountains, touring the Pueblo ruins at the Pecos National Historical Park, and the Veterans National Cemetery where my grandparents are buried.

The main reason for making the trip around August 13^th, was to attend the 100^th Anniversary Celebration of First Baptist Church. My great-grandparents, grandmother and great-uncle were charter members in 1921, and my dad grew up in that church. He had been invited to talk about the history, and to sing at the service. The first services were held in a tent until the church was built in 1922, and the first baptisms were held down at the river. My Great-Uncle Jabez is the one standing in front of the tent in the picture, and my great-grandfather’s name is on the original cornerstone. Today, the church meets in a traditional adobe-style building built in 1960. I really enjoyed seeing pictures of my relatives, and learning how instrumental they were in starting a church that has served so many people over the past 100 years. It was a very meaningful experience and I’m so glad I was able to be part of it.

God led me to experience some wonderful things during the last 30 days, and I’m so grateful to have had these opportunities.

I spent my third week volunteering at Global Samaritan Resources. What a wonderful organization! They not only meet needs all over the world, but also serve people in the Abilene area. Last year I read an article in the newspaper written by the executive director at that time, Danny Sims. As soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to volunteer with them. The article was written right after the terrorist attack in Nice, France. It starts out addressing the helpless feeling we have when something like that happens – what can we possibly do? The article states there is something simple, yet significant: sending food and kindness to people displaced by war. While it won’t fix the conflict, showing love to refugee families can bring light into their dark world and change their future.

The first two days I sorted through donated bags full of stuffed animals. Coming from someone who still has her first teddy bear, I really loved this job. Some of the stuffed animals will stay in the Abilene area to be distributed by first responders when they encounter young children during a crisis. Others will be shipped to Iraq to be distributed to refugee children. All of the donated stuffed animals are examined for rips and holes, then sent to A-Town Cleaners where they are cleaned for no charge. Any toys that are too large, too small, contain words or logos, or are too scary are pulled out. Any toys that Global Samaritan cannot use are taken to the Christian Service Center. I packed two large boxes of stuffed animals to send to Iraq, and delivered 5 bags of toys to the Christian Service Center.  When I entered the CSC, I heard my name – it was Sarah Bailey, who was doing her volunteer work there. How nice to see FDLIC employees volunteering all over town.

On day three, a semi arrived from San Angelo full of donations collected by a church in San Angelo. Global Samaritan’s job was to organize the pallets and prepare them for shipping to Amman, Jordan. Jason Gazaille was also volunteering that week and we both helped Esther and Sal prepare the pallets. Each pallet must be a certain size before it can be wrapped and weighed, and the boxes are all verified against the spreadsheet provided by the church. Esther told us that having two extra people helped them finish the shipment a week sooner than they expected. It made me feel so good that we were able to make a difference while we were there.

The following is the excerpt from Danny Sims’ article that really spoke to me. He said, “No one knows the number of lives and future decisions sending food will affect. But this is the answer to the question ‘What does sending food have to do with Nice, France and terror?’ Maybe not much today, but maybe everything tomorrow. We cannot, as Christians, do nothing. We should not, as Americans do nothing…So what can we do? One Army sergeant told us, ‘Keep sending food. Sending more compassion and kindness than we send bombs is our only hope.’ I asked him how many others in the US were sending food (to Northern Iraq)? He paused for a moment then said, ‘You guys in Abilene, Texas are the only ones.’ Abilene and Global Samaritan are sending kindness and hope. It is something we can actually do in response to terror.”  The entire article is posted on the Global Samaritan website: https://globalsamaritan.org/terror-again-what-can-we-do/

If you ever think one person can’t make a difference, go volunteer somewhere and you’ll see that you can make a difference.

During Week 2, I had the opportunity to take a trip to Dallas with my parents. My mother had a doctor’s appointment scheduled and they were planning to spend a few days at my sister’s house in Kaufman. They invited me to go with them, and I decided that I shouldn’t pass up the opportunity. My parents live in Abilene, but I typically only get to see my sisters 5 or 6 times a year, even though it’s only 3 ½ hours away. It was so nice to spend a few days with both sisters, nephews and brother-in-law.

The appointment was not far from SMU, so we decided to go to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum while we were in the area. It’s definitely worth spending a few hours there reliving the memories of September 11^th, Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq. The exhibits contain documents, videos, artifacts and pictures from the major events of his presidency. There is a full-size replica of the Oval Office, two mangled beams from Ground Zero and President Bush’s autographed baseball collection. And who could resist recreating the famous pose of Bill Clinton peeking between the bronze statutes of both Bush Presidents – we couldn’t!

It was another great Sabbatical week.

Week one is now complete, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. What a blessing to work for a company that gives us this opportunity to rest, rejuvenate and get out of the normal routine.

I spent this first week doing the exact opposite of what I would do normally – I didn’t make a single list, I didn’t plan anything, I didn’t get up early and I didn’t worry about anything. Being a planner by nature, I started my 2010 Sabbatical with a legal pad listing all the things I wanted to accomplish during the 30 days. I checked things off on Day One and still had things left on the list on Day 30. Even though I was rested, I had worked on “things” the entire 30 days. So, this time I have decided to Do the Opposite. Yes, I have a few things in mind that I would like to do, and I have the things on the Sabbatical Expectation list to accomplish, but this time there is no legal pad list. I’ve decided to let God lead me to what I really need to do, and to not worry about the rest.

Barney and I have been starting most days in the backyard with Max Lucado and a cup of coffee. In Just Like Jesus, Lucado describes the heart of Jesus and the heart of humanity as being quite the opposite. He says, “The heart of Jesus was spiritual. Our hearts seem so far from his. He is pure; we are greedy. He is peaceful; we are hassled. He is purposeful; we are distracted. He is pleasant; we are cranky. He is spiritual; we are earthbound. The distance between our hearts and his seems so immense. How could we ever hope to have the heart of Jesus?” The answer, Lucado explains, is to change our hearts to be more like his.

I have to refer to the Seinfeld episode where George decides to Do the Opposite, because it just seems to fit. George decides that every decision he has ever made has been wrong.   Jerry convinces him that “if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right”, so George starts doing the complete opposite of what he would do normally. Doing the Opposite changes George Costanza’s life – for that episode anyway. So far I’ve enjoyed Doing the Opposite. I look forward to seeing how it will change me for the remainder of my 30 days, and beyond.

It was a long drive home on Monday.  We unloaded in the church parking lot and said our goodbyes.  These were not the same people who left Abilene six days ago.  We may not have changed Chinle, but it certainly changed us.

Tuesday morning was the funeral for Michele.  As tragic as it was to lose a young friend, her service was full of hope and good memories because Michele was a Christian and we all know where she is now.  Jimmy stopped us after the service to tell us that our Navajo friend, Leroy,  had texted that his nephew had been killed on Sunday.  Jimmy has been praying for and witnessing to Leroy for 8 years.  We were all praying that Leroy might become a Christian while we were in Chinle, and we were disappointed when it didn’t happen.  But, God’s timing was at work and Leroy became a Christian on Tuesday afternoon!  We had learned early in the week that our plans are not always God’s plans – His always turn out so much better.  Once again, God said, “I’ve got this.”

We had seven days of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.

The last revival service would be held this morning, so our Cooking Team showed up early to start preparations for our part of the lunch after the service.  It was such a fun week working with and getting to know each person on the team.

As were chopping vegetables, Pastor Jeff came in and asked if we would be serving grape Kool-Aid at lunch.  We’d made many gallons of it throughout the last week, and yes, it was on the menu for lunch.  He had found out that for various reasons Memorial Baptist had not had communion for many months, so he wanted to hold communion at the end of the service.  So…we filled communion cups with grape Kool-Aid.

The last revival service was overflowing with people, the music was great and Jeff hit a home run with the sermon.  He was able to use the unexpected death of our friend Michele as an illustration of how we never know when we might live our last day on earth.  He encouraged them to not delay the decision to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Although when no one walked down the aisle at the end of the service, it was a powerful service.

For our final lunch, we enjoyed delicious Fry Bread meal made by both our team and some of the ladies from Memorial Baptist.  We fellowshipped, exchanged email addresses and then loaded up for Albuquerque.  We left Chinle with a much lighter load after serving over 600 meals.  We left books, study materials, t-shirts and even noticed that several high school students ended up with Hardin-Simmons caps and back packs.

 We arrived in Albuquerque after at least 20 restroom stops – one 8 miles from the hotel – ok here’s where it would have been really nice to have had a bus.  We had a time of sharing about what we were taking home from the trip.  Many commented how we received a bigger blessing than the people of Chinle.  We talked about how proud we were of the students that were part of our group.  They witnessed to people in the Burger King, the streets, the baseball field and the parking lot.  They made crafts, gave piggy-back rides and loved on everyone they met.  We talked about how God had orchestrated everything we did, even though we didn’t recognize it at the time.  We reflected that just because we didn’t see results that day, everything happens in God’s timing and we felt like some seeds were planted this week that will produce positive results in the future.   Even so, it was worth every minute.

Day five was full of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.

We took a few hours off on Saturday morning to hike Canyon de Chelly where the wind and water have carved out a beautiful desert canyon.  It’s a sacred place to the Navajo because it’s the home of their ancestors.  The path down to the bottom of the canyon was a mile and a half hike with ruins of the ancient cliff-dwellers at the bottom.  We were told that the canyon has been the site of several movies, most recently the opening scene in the remake of The Lone Ranger.

Having been to Chinle for 12 years in a row, Jimmy has made some good friends over the years.  Several of these friends, and some of the new friends that we met, went to the canyon with us so they could tell us about the canyon and their ancestors.

Our Navajo friends told us how their families have passed down the history of their ancestors.  Dennis said he learned many stories from his grandmother who still speaks only Navajo, and that she taught him the language.  His family meets in the canyon several times a year to camp.

There were five or six tables set up at the bottom of the canyon where vendors were selling jewelry and artifacts.  As I was supporting the local economy, Mark asked one of the craftsmen, a silversmith, how he learned his trade.  He proudly said that it had been passed down in his family for many generations.  He showed us a beautiful silver bracelet that told the history of his family.  It’s evident that they are very proud of their heritage, and it’s now a little easier to understand why it’s hard for them to leave the reservation even though life there has its difficulties.

When we returned from the canyon hike, we met back at the church where the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen was holding their lunch for the community.  It is a much-needed service as evidenced by the long line of people.  Some of the ladies from our team went with them to deliver meals to the homebound.  They said that many of the homes on their stops didn’t even have electricity or running water.  Laura later commented how sad it made her that the shed where she keeps her lawnmower is nicer than some of these homes.

When we served people supper that night before the revival service, I noticed that many of them came back more than once – they were physically hungry.  God reminded me that day that I live a very fortunate life.  I have a good job, comfortable home, loving family and more stuff than I really need.  Many of the things I’ve come to consider necessities are merely just items of convenience.  The majority of people in Chinle need help with the basic necessities of life – food, water and Jesus.  While we can’t meet all of the needs in Chinle, we can change their lives by introducing them to Jesus.

Day four was full of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.

After Thursday’s chaos, Friday was the complete opposite – it felt like the calm after the storm. Some of our college students switched from the D-Now Team to the VBS Team. VBS kids did crafts and learned Bible stories in one room, while the D-Now teens met in another room. The Baseball Camp was full of students from all ages wanting to learn about baseball. Mark and the Evangelism Team were out in the neighborhoods inviting people to the revival and meals. The Ladies’ Bible Study had so many ladies that they ran out of chairs.

My job was on the Cooking Team. We started working at 9:00 to prepare hamburgers for lunch. Even though we had some extra mouths to feed, we had food left over for the soup kitchen to freeze and use on another day. It is the Loaves and Fishes kitchen after all – so what else would you expect.

The VBS lesson for the day was “What to do When You’re Afraid”. Venita asked what things they were afraid of, and got answers like, “monsters under the bed”, “afraid of the dark” – the same as any other kids. She taught them how to talk to God whenever they’re afraid and that they will always have a friend in Jesus.
The night before when we were trying to put VBS together, Andrea had the great idea to download a Veggie Tales video on her computer for the kids to watch. When she started the video the next day, all of the adults in the room were floored. She had picked the video “Where’s God When I’m Scared?” without even knowing that it was the same theme as the VBS material! The video addressed all the same questions that Venita had asked earlier in the day. Hmmm…it seems that God really wanted us to have VBS in Chinle.

That evening we fed another 100 people spaghetti for supper, then had our first revival service. Two young men showed up after being invited to the meal and the service. After the service we immediately had our group meeting and when we were finished, we discovered that those two guys had been waiting in the parking lot for an hour to talk to Pastor Jeff. They ended up attending many of our activities during the weekend and even exchanged email addresses with several people in our group.

Day three was full of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.

We started the morning in Albuquerque with a team pep talk and prayer. Our caravan arrived at 2:00 p.m., after at least 20 restroom stops, and pulled into the parking lot at Memorial Baptist Church – a small, five-room building with approximately 30 active members. Their soup kitchen, called Loaves and Fishes, feeds the community several times a month and delivers meals to the homebound.

Chinle is in the northwest corner of Arizona, about one hour from Gallup, NM. When I Googled “Chinle AZ”, the following information pulled up: The population of Chinle is 4518; 89.8% are American Indian; 45% of Chinle residents live in poverty; the median household income is $19,930; 31.8% of people over 25 are unemployed.  There are 7 businesses in town and little opportunity for employment.  The majority of those employed work for the schools and hospital.  Before we left I had a picture in my mind of what it would look like, and it turned out to be pretty close to what I saw when we arrived.

We unloaded all of the food and equipment and prepared for our 5:00 p.m. Session 1 activities – or at least we thought we were prepared. Mark and the other vans started off by picking up the kids for Baseball Camp and dropping them off at the high school. Then they picked up some more kids and brought them to the church for D-Now – there were a couple of teenagers and lots of elementary age kids. But wait…this isn’t what we had planned. The D-Now activities were planned for teens and would not be appropriate for the younger kids. The D-Now books we brought were for teens. The D-Now lessons were planned for teens. With children running around everywhere, the team had to launch from Disciple Now mode into Vacation Bible School mode. On the fly, they revamped the lessons, games, and music. For two hours, Alan sang every children’s song he could think of. The Cooking Team hadn’t planned VBS snacks, and these kids were starving, so we dipped out the ice cream we had bought to go on the peach cobbler for that evening’s fellowship. The afternoon felt like absolute chaos.

At 7:00 p.m., after the vans took the kids home, we moved chairs into the parking lot and had a sing-along and fellowship with the church members. Everyone was exhausted, but it was monsoon season with rain in the area and the temperature was perfect, the sunset across the desert was beautiful, and we were all calmed as we sang songs of praise.

We had our nightly group meeting after the fellowship and worked on a plan – a new plan – for the next day. We discussed the need to feed the VBS kids lunch and snacks, and whether someone would need to drive to Gallup to buy more food. Instead, a plan was devised to stretch the food we already had and make it work. Someone had already made a call to Pioneer Drive and they were emailing VBS curriculum before the night was over. Venita, from our Ladies’ Bible Study Team, said she would be glad to be in charge of the VBS. She’s an elementary school teacher and a pro at VBS. So Venita said, “Jimmy, I’ve got this.”

Day two was full of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.

With instructions to leave town at 8:30, we were doing the last minute packing when Jimmy called with the sad news that a friend from our Sunday School Class had passed away during the night.  We could hardly believe that Michele Scott, a 46 year old wife, and mother of three teenagers, was gone.  We were numb as we thought about her husband Mike and their kids.  Then, it crossed our minds that our trip plans would probably need to be changed.

Jimmy went to the Scott’s house to see Mike and the kids.  The house was already full of friends who had already stopped by to grieve with them.  One of those people was our Youth Minister, Jeff.  Jeff had planned to go on the Chile trip to lead D-Now, but felt led to cancel since he would be gone most of the summer on youth trips, and that would be one more week away from his family.  That Wednesday morning at the Scott’s house, Jeff said “Go to Chinle…Jimmy, I’ve got this.”

The rest of us assembled in the church parking lot, waiting for word from Jimmy about whether our trip plans would be changed.  When he arrived we held a prayer time for the Scott family, and he told us the trip would go on.  Even through our sorrow, we had a mission to carry out.

So on Wednesday, July 24^th, 35 of us set out for the 703 mile trip to Chinle in four vans, one Suburban, two pick-ups and a trailer full of food, luggage and baseball equipment.  We arrived in Albuquerque for the night, after at least 20 restroom stops between Abilene and New Mexico.

After supper we held our group prayer time and talked about the plans for the next day.  It looked like Michele’s funeral service would be held on Tuesday when we returned to Abilene and the Scotts were being taken care of at home.  Jimmy talked to us about the passage in Mark when Jesus wanted to be alone right after the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, but the people needed him.  Even through His sorrow, He had a mission to carry out.  And so did we.

Day one was full of laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, chaos, calm, excitement and amazement at what God can do.

Shik’ihooldoh. I have no idea how to pronounce it, but it means “I’ve been set free” – the theme of our Revival services in Chinle, Arizona. Our group wore leather bracelets with Shik’ihooldoh printed on them as a reminder that Jesus came to set us free from all the sin and chains of this world. It’s the message that we went to share with the people of Chinle.

Jimmy Pogue, our trip organizer and leader, has taken high school students to Chinle as a service project for the last 12 years. His cousin from Arizona had introduced him to the needs of the people in Chinle, so each January the Cooper Student Council travels there to meet the physical needs of the Navajo by taking them food and clothing. But, Jimmy also saw a huge spiritual void in the lives of the Navajo people – one that only the love of Christ can fill. So in August 2011, he took the first group of Abilene church members to lead a revival and build a soup kitchen in the local Baptist church.

As with the first trip in 2011, Jimmy prayed that God would provide him with the names of the people from Abilene that He wanted to send to Chinle. Through that prayer, the 2013 Mission Chinle was assembled: a Revival Team, a Disciple Now Team, a Baseball Camp Team, a Cooking Team, a Ladies’ Bible Study Team, and Evangelism Team. I was on the Cooking Team and Mark was on the Evangelism Team. Many of those traveling with us had also been on the 2011 trip, and five were college students who had been to Chinle more than once when they were Cooper High School students. These five students were even more excited to return to Chinle to share their faith. For several months, we met on Sunday nights to make plans for the activities we would offer during the trip, and to worship together to prepare ourselves for the mission. Everyone agreed that it would be worth all the preparation if only one person made a decision for Christ.

Jimmy lined everything up, including a bus to take us to Chinle and the hotels where we would stay. In July, the bus company cancelled our reservation – because they had received a job that would pay them more money. Jimmy was discouraged and dreaded fact that we would have to caravan to Arizona instead of all riding in one bus. So he reluctantly rented 5 vans, disappointed that things weren’t working out like he planned. Later, when Jimmy talked with the pastor at Memorial Baptist, John told him there were 22 kids signed up to attend our D-Now and Baseball Camp, but they lived all over town and he didn’t know how they were going to get there. Hmmm…so maybe the vans will work out after all. And, it wasn’t the last time that God said, “Jimmy, I’ve got this.”