I know I'm really late in getting this report out to you, but I wanted to make sure I had time to do it justice!
The trip out to Phoenix was uneventful and after spending the night I started the next day by going to the Midwest Food Bank. I met up with Felipe and was told they were short on staff and didn't have our order ready or even started. I was told I could help them put it together if I'd like and I readily jumped in. Working with John, one of the volunteers, we eventually got the pallets together and were loading them on the truck when I met up with Q Nielsen who is is the Operations Manager. When he heard who I was with he told me to make sure that we don't leave with any empty space in the truck........and we didn't!!! In our discussions, Feed The Children came up and Q said they get supplies from them as well but didn't know about the laundry soap. He asked about our contact(s) there and I shared them with him so he could look into it further for MFB. He asked where we would be distributing the food and when I mentioned the San Carlos Reservation, he said he has a friend who is a doctor and that his friend is interested in doing volunteer work there with his group. I gave him the contact information for Carla Kinney and also shared the information with Carla and gave her Q's contact information as well.
The next stop was to meet Carla and Tiffany in Globe to offload the supplies to her. We shared some great fellowship time and Carla shared with me the many things she and her family are doing on the reservation to spread the gospel. When I got ready to go, we all prayed and let me say I can scarce recall a time where someone prayed so passionately for me as did Carla and her daughter! What a humbling and wonderful experience!!! I also learned that there is no word in Apache for "good-bye" and that the closest they have is (phonetically spelled here.......ah no gote seh) which means, "until later" or "at another time".
After getting on the road, I headed for Cibecue. After dodging horses roaming freely in the roads, I made it to Pastor Wayne's house and his church. (Before getting there though, he asked if I could stop in Miami for him at this little burger house and get him three green chili "burros", which I willingly did! He said he just loves those and hasn't had any for quite some time.) After getting to Pastor Wayne's place, he shared with me that he has no running water in his house and hasn't for some time. It seems the tribal chiefs in charge of the water distribution on the reservation had decided that they needed to make up some extra money and sent Pastor Wayne (along with a number of other families) extraordinary bills of a level they simply can't pay. As an example, Pastor Wayne (living by himself) got three different bills for the month of June which when totaled together came to over $7,000!!!! He showed me the bills!!! So what he has to do now is bring loads of water from somewhere else (like Show Low) in gallon jugs which is what he uses for all his household and hygenic needs. He is considering erecting a tower outside his house with a water reservoir at the top that he can pump water up into and then let the gravitational feed bring it into his house. While there at Pastor Wayne's place, I met a guy by the moniker of "Maverick" who has been helping Pastor Wayne for years with work around the house and the church. While unloading the truck, I also met a couple of young adults by the names of Josh and Brittany who are brother and sister. She made a point of telling me she had no food, that her brother has some but she doesn't, so I gave her some food and drinks to help her along.
After offloading at Cibecue, I headed for Whiteriver where Johnny organized a group of volunteers to help offload the truck for Deborah and the Hope Center as well as for Christian Lent, neither of whom were there due to other obligations. We had some great fellowship, some laughs and I was shown the "tiny houses" that they have been building. Johnny Littleman lives in one of them himself. He also pointed out the woodworking shop they have been building and told me how they have been blessed with organizations coming in to volunteer with different aspects of getting it ready. After saying our good-byes, I headed for AICM to meet up with Cyndie (a nurse) and Scott Alkire (a maintenance specialist). They had organized a few summer interns to help offload the truck and we spent some time talking about what led them to AICM from Indiana. They currently have 25 students and excited about growing this number with the help of the Lord! Finally, it was time to make the final stretch to Holbrook and at about 11:30 pm I finally made it to the hotel.
As usual, Jim had things well under control the next morning and swapped out our white "bomber" for the rental truck to give me more time to rest. By the time I got to the hangar, Jim had the rest of the supplies unloaded, and the truck was repacked for the trip home to Corona. After meeting Ron and Barb Ornelas, George and Ronnie Negley, Marjorie and Daphne (?) at the hangar and getting them all loaded up, it was time for lunch. Eric, myself and Jim had a great lunch and time to talk before I headed out for the return trip. Storms were rolling in and as I headed south on I-17, they let loose and the traffic slowed accordingly. At one point, I pulled off into a rest area and got to sit and witness the amazing beauty of a powerful thunderstorm as it rolled through. Watching the beautiful lightning bolts arc from the sky, listening to the tremendous peals of thunder and watching the drenching downpour of rain left me in awe of how beautiful and stunning the Lord had created that.
I finished the day in Phoenix and made it the rest of the way the next day without incident. Upon reaching the hangars in Corona, Jim and I downloaded the pallets and some other goods that I brought back with me before calling it a day!
