…out of a job

Crazy is how I’d describe the past few weeks.  Honestly, I pride myself on being very good at setting boundaries around my time and energy…not because I don’t want to do things; because I want to have the ENERGY to do things.  As an introvert if I don’t refuel myself, I falter miserably.  I always want to say no to good things so I can say YES to God things…

The past few weeks though, all the yeses have been to God things, they just sort of piled up on me. Ha.  J said it best…”sometimes it feels like we’re stretched as thin as we can go and then we get stretched a little thinner.” The joy’s of growing pains are real for the Galloway family right now.  The pain of being stretched farther outside our comfort zone is legitimate.  The reality of what life with six kids looks like is sometimes frightening.  God continually offers the next right step, we’re just focusing on the daily dose of grace and mercy we get from Him in this season.

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending Living Proof Live with Beth Moore in Chinle.  I was there with women who represented TWENTY-NINE various Native tribes. It was absolutely breath taking to see all those beautiful faces, hands lifted high, worshiping our Savior.  The Spirit was all over the Wildcat Den and Beth brought the Word.  The coolest moments of the day were when I looked up and realized how I’ve truly grown to love the Native way of life.  How much respect I’ve developed for the women who are so progressive and yet still so true to their Native heritage and culture.  It was incredible to recognize how Jesus must have seen us all in the building.  The wonder and awe I felt as I watched woman after woman relate to Beth’s message, I know Jesus must’ve felt such joy as his princess daughter’s loved on one another and Him. Beth spoke about how each of us is significant.  What a powerful message for women.  For me.  I can’t tell you the number of times I feel insignificant.  The times I feel like my job as a wife, mom and home school teacher are insignificant.  I have, since my day with Beth, reminded myself multiple times a day that I am significant…my life, my jobs, my family are all significant because HE sees them all.  I’ve also written in my journal several times, this statement…”If I feel insignificant, how do my Navajo sisters feel?  Do they feel forgotten?  Do they feel less than, the way I often do?”  I don’t know the answer to those questions-I do know that so many of the women in the Wildcat Den with me were just as overwhelmed as I was that day.

The following weekend, I saw a dream become a reality.  I met with Mrs. Hilda, a pastor’s wife from one of our partner churches, and we wrote a Sunday School curriculum.  Yes, you read that right, we wrote a Sunday School curriculum.  One of our biggest challenges in ministry since we arrived is that our beautiful church families are tired.  Most, if not all, work full time jobs, run churches and have families to help provide care. Many are running these churches alone.  Many are families trying to raise up a new generation of believers, however, at the end of the week they are weary and putting together a lesson causes some difficulty.  Almost immediately, I began to dream of what it would look like for me to work with other Navajo church leaders to write a children’s ministry curriculum…one that spanned the wide variety of ages served in our churches and that was dynamic and thought provoking and ultimately lead the next generation of Navajo to Christ.

Well.  We did it. Mrs. Hilda, me and Jesus. We did it.

In December, at Christmas on the Rez, Mrs. Hilda and I will present each of our fifteen partner churches with an entire year’s worth of lessons for children.  Bible stories, games, crafts, monthly themes and memory verses-they’re getting it all.  My prayer is that each year, more and more of our Navajo leaders will join in and that I’ll work myself out of a job.  My greatest joy will be the day I am able to hand off the curriculum weekend to my sweet sisters in Christ and watch them complete a year’s worth of lessons on their own. I can’t wait to watch Jesus move in the hearts of the young people here on the Rez, to see His spirit dwell within them and watch them grow and move into a working, fluid relationship with Him.

Now, you might be asking why I’d want to work myself out of a job.  The Navajo are a strong people.  They are powerful and bold.  I’ve written many times about the fierceness they have in prayer, about their gentleness with the land and their livestock and the way they continually turn their eyes to Jesus.  The simple fact is, the Navajo don’t need me.  The Navajo are fully capable of reaching their own people. I am simply here as a servant.  I want to work myself into a cheerleader and not a leader.  I want to be their biggest supporter and their smallest dependency.  I want my children to grow up loving their brown cousins and trusting whole-heartedly, the way Little Man does, that he is Navajo, too.  We may not have the same color skin-we were adopted though…into the family of Christ and into our Navajo family.

My hope is that as you read these ramblings, they’ll all make sense.  I hope you’ll feel my heart and the way it beats for the Navajo.  I hope you’ll begin to understand that what started out as a calling only revealed to J and a blue-eyed, six year old, has become a passion that pours out of every fiber of my being.  I am not Navajo; I am FOR the Navajo.  I am forever changed by the brown eyes that see into my heart, by the smooth brown skinned hands that hold mine as we pray together and the beautiful black hair that dances as the desert wind blows.  I am humbled and thankful to do life with my Rez family.  I am honored to have been adopted, accepted, and loved by them.  I am not Navajo, although, my heart beats to the rhythm of Navajo land.  Thank you, Jesus, for bringing my family here…for bringing me here, for holding steady when I couldn’t see.