This Issue

School is in!

Kindergarten teacher, Norla Chee, with students Roedino and Kryssie

Danny Williams’ class pauses during Friday handwriting class. (L-R)Loberta, 3rd grade; Ms. Williams; Rose, 4th grade; Jami, 4th grade; Nathan, 3rd grade; Williams; Jerdino, 2nd grade; Southern, 4th grade; Ricky, 2nd grade; Kudy, 4th grade; Deidra, 3rd grade; and Waheem, 3rd grade.

Charity Garcia’s class enjoys Friday math class on the playground. (L-R) Ms. Garcia; Diondra, 6th grade; Jacob, 6th grade; Nicholas, 7th grade; Brannon, 7th grade; Arickis, 5th grade; Lane, 7th grade; and Jensen, 6th grade.

Rose James’ family joined in during the Get Acquainted program. Little brother couldn’t quite maneuver the hoop.

Jerdino, Caleb and Southern joined in the getacquainted fun Sunday evening before school began.

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EASEA Membership Approved

La Vida Mission School was accepted as a member of E. A. Sutherland Education Association (EASEA) during the August ASI convention, announces Charity Garcia, head teacher. LVM school is seeking accreditation through EASEA.

Charity also reports that the school received $16,100 from a Navajo Health Initiative (NHI) grant written by her and the NHI team. Monies will provide students with nourishing drinks as well as outings and other health-related activities.

Students arrived throughout registration day and parents’ inquiries about admission continued until classes began on August 14—and continue still. La Vida currently has 19 students enrolled: 13 boarding students, two staff students and four day students. Several more are expected over the next two months.

Teachers are Norla Chee, kindergarten; Danny Williams, grades 1–4; and Charity Garcia, grades 5-8. Glori Williams is music teacher and teacher’s aide.

Work study teachers are Bob Blair, David Boatwright, Barbara Bredenkamp and Charity Garcia. Bob and Charity teach native culture; David, agriculture and auto mechanics and Barbara home economics.

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Water, water, and more water

by Cindy Boatwright

Returning to La Vida Mission August 3, after retrieving a spader and chopper for the agriculture program, we discovered why the Mission couldn’t be reached by phone for five days. Power was out due to flooding.

A dike in Lake Valley, six miles to the south of La Vida broke, causing the nearby wash to flood and our power pole to wash out.

According to The Daily Times (Farmington, NM) Governor Bill Richardson issued an executive order that declared San Juan County (our county) and seven other counties as being in a state of disaster. The large amount of rain that swept across the northern half of New Mexico caused damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.”

At the time,Warren Bredenkamp, LVM administrator, and his wife, Barbara, were manning our booth at ASI, Ken Baxter, maintenance department, was was recuperating after a hospital stay, and Bob Blair, maintenance department, had not yet returned from vacation. A bare bones summer staff was on hand.

Fortunately, at that time the Lovato family, Nick and Rebecca-Gurule and children, Victoria, 8, and Nicholas, 6 were volunteering their services at the mission and Nick repaired the Mission generator, keeping buildings on the west side of campus, including the cafe and mission freezer, operating.

The Lovatos, a self-contained volunteer mission family from Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, blessed the Mission in other ways, including making whisperphones and play dough for the school and cleaning campus houses.

Excitement didn’t stop there. August 7, the day the Bredenkamps returned and a week before school began, another rainfall added water to the uncontained runoff above us, flooding two classrooms.

Ken Baxter and Betty Smith sweep rain from the Library before water reaches books on lower shelves. Amanda Pioche (background) waits for a broom.

David Boatwright on mission tractor makes a ditch to divert water from school building. Amanda Pioche and Danny Williams are ready to help.

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Boatwrights arrive from Tennessee

David and Cindy Boatwright arrived to work at La Vida Mission from Clifton, Tennessee, in two phases. Cindy came the first of June to publish Navajo News and David arrived the first of August.

The second phase of their move involved retrieving a spader (for preparing raised beds) and a chopper (for making compost) to use in the agriculture program, which David heads up.

While returning to La Vida with equipment loaded on a newly-purchased, used trailer, the wheel fell off three times and van brakes scraped noisily in Conway, Arkansas.

Nothing could be done about the wheel bearing that day; however, David could repair the front brakes.

While lying under the Van’s front wheels in O’Reily’s Auto Parts parking lot, Gary Troutman of Hugg and Hall Equipment Company offered to help in any way he could. An O’Reily’s employee turned the drum perfectly, after reading the logo emblazoned on the van. He said he didn’t want God to be mad at him for not doing a good job for missionaries.

Later Ronnie Wilson, youth pastor of the Meadowlake Baptist Church, remarked about the miserably hot, humid weather and asked where they would spend the night. He insisted on paying for a room at the local Motel 6. Not only was it the last available room, but it was a nonsmoking one at that.

The next day Bruce Meyers of Conway Bearing replaced a totally obsolete bearing with a much cheaper one that would work. That put on, they were on the road again only to have the wheel studs sheared off of the same wheel.

Those replaced, the wheel came off a third time because the entire spindle broke off the end of the axle. The Boatwrights finally rented a UHaul trailer (“marked down in price for church workers”) but were faced with the dilemma of how to load a onewheel trailer atop another trailer. At this point another “good Samaritan” helped David load the crippled trailer using a high lift jack and come-along.

For five days the Boatwrights had been unable to reach the Mission to explain their delays. The reason is explained in the story on page two. Had they arrived on schedule, they would not have been able to reach the Mission because the road was under water. In fact, they arrived just as the flood waters receded and electric power was restored. God knew all along what was best.

David teaches agriculture and is plant manager. Cindy is newsletter editor and in charge of promotion.

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Temporary staff

Julia Roanhorse, La Vida board member from Cortez, New Mexico, volunteered to parent the girls’ home for one month, giving La Vida more time to hire permanent parents.

Thank you Julia!

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Hacienda Heights helps

Nancy Yazzi, operator of the local trash transfer station and a community user of La Vida Mission’s water well, got a surprise one morning when she brought her dusty, muddy pickup to La Vida to fill her water tank she carries in the back of her pickup.

The cement slab beside the hydrant was being used by young people from Hacienda Heights, California, washing mission vehicles. Seeing Nancy coming, they quickly moved the mission van and waved her forward to the hydrant. When she got out of her truck they quickly sprayed it with water before putting the hose in her water tank. Then, with buckets and rags they washed her truck and before she knew it, Nancy was driving out with a full water tank and a clean truck.

Besides washing all the mission vehicles the Hacienda Heights Church group, headed up by Pastor Will Sellers, performed other much-needed tasks on campus, helping the staff get ready for school.

Twenty young people besides Pastor Will, Sally Richards, Ben Ohashi and Roy Oshita, chaparones, arrived Friday night before school opened Monday. Sunday was spent readying classrooms for school the next day. One group helped clean and decorate classrooms while another group did the same in Sabbath school rooms and the church.

Another large project was cleaning in and around the greenhouses. A number of steel drums filled with water for heat storage, were rusted through from the corrosive water and needed to be taken out to be crushed for recycling. While some worked on this tedious task, others picked up trash and unusable odds and ends and cleaned and raked outside the greenhouses. Meanwhile, inside, still others were pulling weeds and readying beds for planting.

One of the oldest buildings on campus is being used for storage and had a leaky roof. The young people took on the formidable task of repairing the roof. The process involved sticky, tar-like patching cement and roll roofing. Cleanup of hands and clothes took nearly as long as repairs to the roof.

While that group worked on the roof, three strong young men helped take off the rear leaky tractor tire. After successfully removing it they got the front wheels on the smaller tractor ready for new tires.

Pastor Will had been at LVM with a smaller group from Hacienda Heights Church just last April. The young people are so full of energy and so willing to expend it in useful labor (under Pastor Will’s careful shepherding) that much work always gets accomplished. La Vida staff thanks this enthusiastic group of volunteers. They are welcome to return whenever they wish.

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Dedications

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