Once we got to Albuquerque, we rested for a day then Friday, we drove to Ramah for the high school graduation. Several of our teens from our former church were graduating, and we wanted to be there for them. It was good to see everyone, but we couldn’t stay long and had to drive back to Albq that same night. 
The next morning, we were up early for our daughter-in-law’s college graduation from the University of New Mexico. It was great having family members join us for this special day. Much kudos goes out to Herman’s brother and wife and his niece and her family. When we were driving from Canada, Gabriel called us very excited because his uncle an
d aunt had volunteered to provide the meal for the graduation reception. They bought the food and Herman’s niece and her man (who is from Mexico) cooked us some authentic Mexican food. Ohhhh my goodness! It was soooo good! and we had lots of leftovers afterwards. We were so thankful! The next day, Sunday, we had to drive to Gallup to speak at the Nazarene church. We had a good time after church eating with the pastor and his wife at Earl’s! Now, what is better than eating at Earl’s on a Sunday afternoon. All that eating over the weekend…we probably gained 10 pounds, but it was all good.Finally, we could take it easy for a couple of days. We met with a friend of ours from Calvary Chapel. We explained that we were looking for a church or organization that would work with us in providing tax-deductible receipting for donations and he told us about an organization called Shepherd’s Staff right there in Albuquerque so we contacted them, filled out paperwork, and were approved! Praise God! It was not a same-day process but took about a month, but we are so glad. So now, if people wish to donate to the ministry God has given us, they can send their money or do it online. We have included the information to the right. This was a big load off our minds because we have been looking for something like this for a year.
Then it was on to another high school graduation in Tuba City, AZ so early Friday morning we drove out for Herman’s nephew’s graduation. It was cool seeing Rez people all over, and especially to see all the female graduates in their Native dress so we took lots of pictures…of people we didn’t know. About the same time, our oldest son had to leave on his final mission trip to Montana. This was the third and final mission trip that is required for the School of Ministry. It was strange traveling without our children although we were in New Mexico and Arizona, but they had to work and our youngest son began his second trimester of school. We are still adjusting to this “empty nest” syndrome. The weather was great during this whole time; Herman had been dreading the hot weather but it was cloudy and even rained a couple of times. It was cool just hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning again. In Canada, it may rain a lot, but thunder and lightning is very rare. The little things we take for granted, huh? (or ehh?)
After the reception, we headed for Dilkon. Yay! Finally home! Sunday morning, we drove to Round Cedar Nazarene Church where we had an awesome time with the people there. Oh, it was good being among our own Navajo believers. We had a great time sitting around talking after the service, and of course, we were the last ones to leave. While talking one day with our Port Alberni youth pastor’s wife, Cynthia said they talked about how they missed the fellowship of their own Christian people (the youth pastor and his wife are from Abbotsford). Yeah, we have the Southside church family, but it’s not the same as home. They talked about missing the fellowship of visiting and hanging out at church families' homes and spending time together. So when we would return home, we soaked it up like sponges. Some of you may know what we mean by that.
When we left the church, which was out in the middle of nowhere, we turned our cell phones on and began receiving text messages. We learned that Cynthia’s aunt’s husband had been killed that morning in a freak accident when he was rounding up cattle. He was thrown from his horse and dragged. So for the next couple days, we were busy with family meetings culminating with the funeral on Wednesday morning in Gallup, NM. Although it was a sad occasion, we were able to see many family members. The evening before the funeral, we attended a preschool graduation for Cynthia’s niece. The children were soo cute as they sang songs in Navajo and English. One child even welcomed everyone in Navajo. We were surprised at the number of people we knew that were there—even several of our Navajo pastors. Once the graduation was over, we dropped off Cynthia’s parents in Dilkon and drove to Pine Hill that night and the next morning, drove in from there to Gallup for the funeral. So we experienced a wide range of emotions during this trip. After the funeral, we had to rush back to Albuquerque for a meeting with the director of Shepherd’s Staff.
After spending the rest of the week with our children, on Saturday, we drove BACK to Arizona AGAIN (trust me, we’re used to this) because we were speaking at Cynthia’s childhood church, which her parents still attend (Leupp Presbyterian Church). The children provided the music for the morning service. It was encouraging to see the next generation being trained in their roles in the church. It brought back memories for Cynthia as she remembered being a part of the choirs and teaching Sunday School. After the service, we ate in Winslow with Cynthia’s aunts, uncles, cousins, brother, and other relatives then returned to Albuquerque. We returned to Pine Hill once again on Wednesday to pick up medication refills and other things and 
got a chance to visit several people. We even got a bag of pinons from the Ellsworth family so the trip was totally worth it. The next day, Thursday, we attended our son’s graduation ceremony from the School of Ministry. We are very proud of him and have seen tremendous growth in his knowledge and walk with the Lord. Because he wants to continue his biblical studies, he and his wife are planning to attend Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, Colorado this August. He is also answering the call to missions and hopes to join us in the future. We are seeing the fulfillment of God’s Word when it says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).The following week, we began preparations to return to Canada. This time, our two older sons and daughter-in-law are traveling back to Canada with us. Because our son and his wife are moving to Colorado when they return to the States, we had to pack and store their things. In addition, our two younger boys and their cousin are moving to a s
maller apartment so we began boxing up their things also. In the midst of all this, we learned that our middle son’s passport was sent back to the Passport agency so after finally contacting a live person, we gave them instructions to mail it to Canada ahead of us because we needed to leave for Canada. Finally, on Tuesday, June 9, we drove out towards Arizona. We were able to stop in Sun Valley for the annual church convention and finally arrived in Dilkon that night. Once again, we were low on finances so we had to wait for funds to arrive before we drove out from Dilkon on Thursday the 11th and made it to Ogden, Utah that night. We returned to Port Alberni on Saturday, June 13th after spending the night in Seattle. Oh, it was good to be home again!TO BE CONTINUED…
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