This Issue

La Vida Update

ASI Magazine, winter issue, features La Vida Mission in its Project Report section. Article title is “In His Hame, Mission Field in Your Own Backyard”. In the feature editor, Judy Thomsen, explains how monies from 2005 ASI Sacramento have been and will be used at the Mission and why La Vida is an important mission station, right in the United States. Mission personnel needs are still great for a cook, teacher, administrative assistant, Bible worker, and maintenance director.

A State Farm Insurance office in Farmington, NM, donated a dozen gliders to incorporate in the Adventurers Club Build and Fly honor activity.

Kudy and Deidra fly their gliders during Sunday morning Adventurers class.

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Students to travel and serve in New Mexico

Danny Williams, 1st–4th grade teacher, assists Charity and her students, (L–R) Lane, Airikis, Jensen and Jacob as they practice appropriate restaurant behavior before having the actual experience during their trip around New Mexico.

After successfully leading La Vida Mission School to membership in E.A. Sutherland Education Association (EASEA), Charity Garcia, head teacher accomplished another innovative step in Christian education. Charity took a class in Teaching for Discipleship at Andrews University last summer, in which she learned to teach from transformational experiences. Combining that knowledge together with the fact that her 5th–7th grade classes were studying New Mexico history this year, Charity decided to take her students on a ten-day educational experience traveling and serving in New Mexico. She created a budget and an itinerary and proceeded to find a donor. The Mission van, driven by David Boatwright, holds gear for two overnight stays in campgrounds, two nights in a hotel, and several stays in a church facility. One evening will be spent at Sandia View Academy. Students will explore museums and monuments and present a Church program and do an outreach project at Carlsbad, NM, SDA Church Central question the group will keep in mind is “What does it mean to be a Navajo Christian.”

Charity’s Home Economics class, grades 1–4, prepared a four-course Valentine’s Day supper featuring chips & salsa, tacos, salad and brownies. They cooked and served the meal with the flare of Mexican chefs.

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Goal: to upgrade water system

In desert country surrounding La Vida Mission water is very important and we are thankful for the abundant water supplied by our well. Our well has supplied water for decades and is used by not only the Mission, but by the surrounding community as well. There is a hydrant open to the public at all times so that our neighbors can fill water jugs for use in their own homes or fill large fiberglass or steel tanks installed in pick-up beds or small trailers carrying water to stock. This is a far cry from the 1960’s when water was hauled by horse and wagon. Water systems in the Lake Valley area all charge community members to use their water, but La Vida Mission does not. Part of our mission as followers of Jesus is to minister to physical needs of our neighbors and then bid them to follow Christ.

Our water system has been ministering to the needs of all of us at La Vida for many years and it is past time to upgrade the system and make muchneeded repairs. Because of the high mineral content of the water, (see story on agriculture in January/February ’07 issue of Navajo News) it is somewhat disagreeable to drink. Many years ago the Mission installed a reverse osmosis (RO) filter at the greenhouses to supply pure water for the plants. This filter is also the source of drinking water to all staff homes and the clinic, school and cafeteria. We are glad to have this drinking water available; however, it involves taking water jugs down to the greenhouses, filling them with water and then carrying them back to the homes school, cafeteria and office where people can then get a drink. Last year Adventist-laymen Services and Industries (ASI) voted to give La Vida Mission a $35,000 grant to upgrade the water system. About $5,000 has already been spent on water-saving bathroom fixtures in the school and on Delta faucets to replace the worn out, older faucets and to establish standard faucets throughout campus that would all be repairable with the same parts.

A nearby windmill & holding tank.

Our goal, apart from replacing some underground water lines, is to upgrade our 15,000 gallon storage tanks, putting them on a firm base to avoid tilting, as our present tank is doing. Then we have looked at the possibility of installing a central RO filtration system at the water tank to treat all the water that goes to the whole campus. This system would also include a pressurization system as well, since our tanks are not sufficiently high enough to supply gravity flow at adequate pressure for home use. The $30,000 that we have left from ASI will be enough to begin the upgrade procedure, but funds will be needed to finish the project.

If you want to help out, label your gift water system to fund the water system upgrade. We don’t have a specific timetable yet, but we would also be glad for some sweat equity donations of time and labor when we get into the project. Remember, our goal is not just to supply water, it is to make available to all the Water of Life.

A bit of history from Gwyndolin Meyer

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Gwyndolin Meyer had a dream impressing her to reach out to Native Americans west of the Mississippi. In her desire to help the Navajo, she convinced groups and individuals to donate medicine bottles, toys, books, and other necessities by making appeals in newspaper articles and with telephone calls. In 1968, with her husband and her daughter, Donna, she traveled West on vacation see where these boxes for the Navajo people were used. After visiting Monument Valley Hospital in Moab, Utah, where many donations were used, they traveled to the Four Corners area.

Filling a water tank at the Mission.

She writes about her trip out to La Vida: “On the way there (to La Vida) we saw a horse and wagon in the distance carrying two barrels with water splashing out of them. Wells are scarce and the soil is not good for growing food &. Somehow our road bypassed Four Corners where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. We arrived at Shiprock, a town where the sandstone rock is tall, in the shape of a ship. Farmington was next and then down the highway to La Vida.”

They had to watch for their turnoff—a dirt road with two hogans. After traveling 25 miles with no sign of life, two men in a Jeep stopped to tell them to follow so Donna’s car wouldn’t get stuck in mud. Gwyndolin said, “It had rained earlier and the land was wet. There was a deep hole in the road so after the two men went over it, Donna followed quickly so we didn’t have a problem. At the end of this turn to go to the Mission was a large span of water called a wash.” Gwyndolin and her family had come to Chaco Wash, a sometimes rushing, sometimes totally dry, riverbed that borders Mission property. Our present well on the edge of the wash was dug after five or six unsuccessful holes. It is still supplyig water to the Mission and surrounding community.

This horse and wagon story portrays conditions around the mission about 35 years ago. Our roads are better, and we do have drinkable water from the greenhouse’s reverse osmosis filter, but water is still scarce in the surrounding countryside. Sometimes water is found where there is no electricity for a pump and old-fashioned windmill pumps can still be seen occasionally. The upgrade to our water system and the new agriculture plan will go a long way toward reaching our goals.God bless all who support La Vida Mission in this important work.

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Gayle Smith joins staff

Gayle Smith joined La Vida Mission as girls’ houseparent, after visiting the Mission this fall. Warren and Barbara Bredenkamp, our administrator and his wife, told Gayle of the Mission’s need for houseparents and invited her to visit and determine if she could fill that need. The Bredenkamps had been members of a sister church to Gayle’s church (Richland SDA Church) in Pennsylvania.

Gayle Smith and her dog Buddy.

Gayle was raised in Bethlehem, PA but lived in Pittsburgh, PA—Pennsylvania Dutch country. She became acquainted with Adventist beliefs when employed by an Adventist Chiropractor. She had been looking for a church that taught what the Bible taught and she found what she was looking for while taking Adventist Bible studies. She was baptized six months after her husband died. Before moving to La Vida Gayle had been nanny to two girls who were five and seven when she started caring for them and were 12 and 14 when she left. Gayle knew they were ready be on their own without a nanny, even though they thought diffferently. God indicated in many ways he was leading her to a mission in New Mexico.

After her first visit here, God would not leave her alone about making a big life change. It was hard for Gayle to leave her stable lifestyle in which she owned a home, had a job, and was comfortable and happy with her life. On the plane ride home after visiting LVM God arranged for her to hear a “mission commercial”. Her seat mate was a mission-minded lady who spoke of what wonderful people mission workers were, her family having many mission workers in it. Gayle said, “Alright God, I’ll go.” and He made the rest of the arrangements. She rented her home to a stable person on disability who could pay the exact amount Gayle needed to leave Pennsylvania. A friend from Florida, Deanna, offered to drive with her and Buddy (Gayle’s dog) cross country to New Mexico in January and they made it here, tired but safe. Gayle says, “When God makes it clear, I’ll fuss and fume—and then be obedient.”

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Statements sent out

La Vida Mission, Inc., mailed its 2006 year-end statements January 29th. Our practice is to include donations received before January 15th, that are dated in December, on the year-end receipt. Any donations after that date will be put on next year’s statement. LVM will verify that we received a check late in January if there is a question as to whether a donation was made. If you did not receive a year-end statement, please let us know.

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In Memory of

In Honor of

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Bulletin Board

Positions to Fill:

• Cook
• Teacher
• Administrative Assistant
• Bible Worker
• Plant Services Director
• Boys’ dean(s) starting Aug. of 2007

La Vida Needs:

• Boiler system
• Farm tractor, 60+ hp with PTO
• Hyphercator (for clinic)

Special Thanks to:

• Our Heavenly Father for provding our needs.
• ASI for large donation to improve our water system.
• Student sponsors and their contributions, prayers and letters.
• Betty Adams for Pathfinder shirt.
• Ted, Sussie & Mindy Thompson for children’s clothes, toys and towels.
• Sandy Davis for a box of clothing.

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