This week was a pretty normal week. We had the Indian Health Center come and checked the kids teeth and sealed them. I am not sure what this entails, but Abby is now super excited about brushing her teeth. Kelcy has picked up on this and they both brush their teeth morning and night now. Of course, the “brushing the teeth” emphasis in on bed time, when they are both trying to avoid going to sleep. They have to brush their teeth again. I am really excited about this because the water here is well water and it does not contain fluoride. At home, we mostly drank distilled water, but the kids were also exposed to fluoride in their bath tub and shower water and I would fix them water from the sink occasionally, to keep some fluoride on their teeth. Abby, along with her whole class, brushes her teeth at school. That is really great!
The Red Sands Christian School sent out report cards on September 30th. Some were really good, others needed some improvement. The school uses a system with three periods of six weeks, instead of 2 periods of nine weeks. Some of the kids confessed that they were worried what their parents would say when their parents saw their report card. However, progress is being made with all of the students. You may wonder about Abby? Kindergarteners do not get a report card the first six weeks, so we don’t have anything to report yet. Although, Miss Dawn says that Abby can read several words, like “pot” and “cat”. Very exciting stuff!
Mr. Mark came to visit on Friday, October 3rd. He was on his way to a business meeting in Las Vegas, so he said he wanted to stop by since he was in the neighborhood. He arrived here at Red Sands on Friday evening, about 9:30PM Arizona time (that is after midnight Eastern Daylight Time). We were all so happy to see him. Abby & Kelcy has been anxiously awaiting his arrival. Abby even agreed to take a bath that night so she would smell good when Mark got here. Mark brought a drawing from Alex and Jason for the girls to have. We have it posted on the refrigerator here. Abby & Kelcy both wanted to send something back, so they drew some pictures to send back with Mr. Mark. On Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast and it was pretty cold outside here. I don’t remember the temperature reading, but it was colder than it had been here in the morning. And it rained almost the whole day on Saturday! Mark came to the desert and it was cold and rainy all day! I don’t know if he was laughing or disappointed. Mark had rented a sweet ride for his trip here from the Phoenix airport. The girls and I loaded up in our pick-up and Mark & Jerry road in the rental car and we headed into “town”. We drove downtown to get some building supplies for the staff house under construction. We drove right by “the corner” from the Eagles song, “Standin’ on the corner in Winslow, AZ such a fine sight to see.” Mark & Jerry turned around and headed back that way. I thought maybe Mark wanted a picture of the “corner”, but they said there was a car show back there and they drove through it. The hardware store is right across from the Post Office, so the girls and I crossed the street to check the mail. By the time we made it back to the hardware store, the boys were there. We picked up the supplies and then Mark & Jerry drove on from Winslow to Dilkon to see Mr. Bill’s church.
Mark & Jerry drove up highway 87, headed toward the Dilkon turn off. The road toward Dilkon begins with what I call “scrub”. It is miles and miles of sandy soil with short bushes and rocks. It appears relatively flat and the road is certainly straight. Soon, you begin to see the Buttes (no pun intended) at Dilkon. They appear like giant, rounded rock formations in the distance. Jerry stopped at “The Little Painted Desert” on the Navajo reservation. The LPD (for short) is just a barely marked turn off on the road. There is a rusty, difficult to read historical marker. You drive up a little dirt (read sandy) road up a little bit of a hill, and then you get to the top. AWESOME! You are looking down on the LPD, which consists of a canyon with mounds of rock formations that have been “painted” by the hand of God beautifully. They are gently rolling rock formations that are orange and black and yellow in color. When I say you are looking down, you are looking DOWN. You stand on the edge of a precipice, with a radical vertical drop below it. It is so much like all the land around here. You are driving along looking at what is straight and boring and just off the road “surprise!” Some of the most beautiful country is hidden so much that you would not even know it was there and certainly not expect it to look like the LPD. We have since been to the LPD as a family, which is how I can describe it.
Mark and Jerry then continued on to Dilkon to see the church and Mr. Bills hooghan, then back to Leupp. They stopped at the flea market and saw one of the kids from school and their parents. They spent a little time walking around the market and then bought some Navajo tacos for their lunch. They returned back to the trailer, where it was raining. It was a drizzly, fall rain that soaked into the ground and made it harden back up. When we got here in August, the ground was hard and rocky. After the kids returned and the buses were driving up and down the road and the kids were playing on the playground, the soil softened up and became more like Sand than rock. After this rain, the ground hardened back up a little.
Mark stayed for church on Sunday, Oct 5th. He rode with Jerry on the bus run to Tolani Lake to pick up the Navajo church-goers from that area. After making the trip, Jerry said that Mark asked if he ever got scared when he was driving the church bus out to the reservation alone. Jerry replied that he had not, at least not since the first trip he made out there by himself. Jerry figures that God can protect him. It was another great day at the Red Sands Christian Church. We had 34 people in attendance at the church service, and I counted at least six regular attendees that we were missing. I taught my Sunday School class and I had ELEVEN kids, ranging from second grade through eighth grade. It was very (what’s the word?) hectic, maybe. Some of the kids were a little rowdy and laughing, but it was exciting to see them all there. All of the new people at church were from different families and it was exciting to meet them. Jerry asked Mark to do the communion mediation and he did a great job! After the service, we had the monthly scheduled potluck.
We were a little panicked that we might not have enough food for everyone, because the new people didn’t know it was pot-luck Sunday. But again, the Lord provided. The Lord was at work, because Miss Dawn’s Sunday school lesson was about the feeding of the five thousand! She was a little concerned because we had one meatloaf, one crock pot of sloppy joe, one casserole dish of corn pudding and a single dessert. To our other offerings, the Roberts added hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and Ramen noodle soup. In the end, everyone was fed and again we had leftovers. Thank you, Lord! Mark left and we were sad to see him go. We love you, man! And, it was very nice to see a familiar face.
Next entry is titled Rattlesnake, Tumbleweed, Dust Storm... Very Exciting!
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