Arizona Mission Trip 2003

Memories & Reflections...

God has showed me more than ever before how I need to put all my trust in Him and that when I do that He will come through for me, come near to me, answer my prayer, and protect me. On our hike Thursday I was very nervous because I am not the risk-taking, nature, hiking kind of person and I am pretty scared of heights. But through some of the scariest, highest, narrowest, times of that hike, God pulled me through by using other people and giving me an extra measure of courage and strength and balance to make it down and back up that mountain. That’s just how its going to be in life-we’ll have things we are not comfortable with and if we’ll lean on Him to get us through, He will and through our weaknesses and His strength we have then become strong.
-Mindy Hamric

God has blessed me with memories of this trip that I will not soon forget. The memories that I will remember the most are things like, our group working-to the point of exhaustion- while the other groups played cards or just did nothing. Another memory is something like our group raising the Cross on the building or building the deck on someone else’s house. Another thing I will remember is rain, for the first time in two months it rained. The reason that sticks out is it was something that we prayed for in the sweat lodge the night before.

Praise God for the unity we have. On the hike, we never could have made it without some of the guys. However, they never could have made it without us. That hike was like life-you can’t make it on your own. If we could do that well on a hike, I know we can do it for each other as we all go towards heaven.
Praise God for the friendships we have in the vans. I was with some people that I had never talked to before. I really don’t even know why I didn’t, and I now regret not doing it sooner. This team is so special, because we are all friends. I met some new people, and got closer to people I knew. I only pray that we don’t stay as a group. I pray that we include the whole youth group.
Praise God for the faith we have. I saw so many people on this trip that I’ve known all my life rise up to be leaders. Back then, I never thought they would be the deep people of faith they are today. I praise God for that.
Praise God for the work we’ve done. Even if we haven’t seen the reactions immediately. We planted a seed. In God’s time, He will make it grow. This group is great, and I praise God that I was a part of the Arizona Mission Team, and a member in the body of Christ.
-Jennifer Hurt

He has blessed me so much that He has allowed me to come on this trip, and let me help out with the Navajo. Also, He let me forget my wallet when we went to the swap meet, and that made me not spend all the money just there. He blessed all of us on this trip, and have a safe journey here, and hopefully back. He has blessed us with rain, and plenty of work to do here.
-Taylor Emmerson

Praise the Lord for letting me come. For letting me stay healthy long enough to work and hike and only letting me get a cough in the end. For letting me build relationships with old friends. For letting us serve, and letting us get our goals accomplished. For letting me stay focused. For letting our group injuries be minor. For the Navajo people; for Paul and Ann. For the lives we touched, and the lives they will touch. For the other youth groups-new friends, for Jesus.
-Stephanie Casto

Mission work is awesome. The whole week, I have learned commitment, love, submission to authority, humbleness, and humility. Today, at one of the Roadside Flea Markets, a little girl (8 or 9 maybe) came up and asked if I was looking for anything special. I told her no, but she got me thinking. Without knowing it, she helped me find something very important. As this girl was not shy of strangers like most her age, she went out boldly and asked complete strangers if they needed “something special”- for the sake of her mom’s business. In the very same way, we should go into the mission field unashamed of our Father’s business and help complete strangers find “something special.”
I tell you the truth, unless you change your hearts and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt 18:3
-Paul Norton

I truly believe one of the main reasons God had me to come on this trip is so I could have the strength to talk to Isadora about Christ. She is close, I know how awesome of a person she could be if she would give her life to Christ. I also think God wants me to pray more for Hannah’s and Isadora’s steadfast, as I wrote on my rock before I came. I really have been blessed by this trip, and I know that more good will come out of it than just what I can see right now. I put my trust in God, and I know He will not lead me astray. Sometimes it is hard to know if I am making the right choices, and I think this week has helped me trust in God more.
-Chris Milam

God has done so much for me this week. He has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful new people, and to become closer to those I already know. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know people from California and Oregon, and getting so much closer to those within my group. It’s also been great getting to experience God’s creation-in Arizona, you can find the beauty of His works everywhere you look. I’m grateful for the chance I’ve had to help the church and citizens of Tuba City-it has truly been an eye-opening experience. And the sweat lodge was incredible-I could really feel God’s presence in that tiny hut, and it was a life-changing experience. Although there’s so much more than I can list, I’d like to thank God for the chance to come to Arizona, for bringing our group closer together, and for surrounding us with His presence. I’d also like to thank Him for people like Paul and Ann Ghei, Corey, and all the other adults who made this trip possible. God is truly great.
-Mary Ruth Pate

God has blessed me this week first of al by allowing things to work out so that I was able to come on this trip. I have been blessed by getting to know 3 Christian sisters and 4 Christian brothers better. I have met terrific brothers and sisters from other parts of the country and have been able to see my daughter bonding with other high schoolers. I have been blessed by being forced out of my comfort zone for a week-I am very schedule oriented and there certainly has been no schedule around here this week! It has been a true blessing to watch our team work for others in the sun and heat without complaining. It has been a blessing to see the youth getting along so well.
-Michelle Petty

Praise God for all of the ways He has blessed me and my youth group. He has made everything that we have done this week possible. Through us, He has touched many people’s lives. He has watched over us as we did all of our work this week. God has let us have so much fun while praising and working for Him. He has brought me closer to Him and to other Christians. He has helped unite our youth group by serving Him. I have seen God in so many others this week and it has been a great blessing. All of the devos have meant a lot to me. God is awesome and He has made so many things that we do possible.

This time that I have spent with the youthgroup has been so inspiring! I have prayed that the Lord would give me strength enough to keep focus on what I was here for-to serve and to love. While this was going on I have observed all our youth pulling together, edifying Christ through their behavior and their hard work. I have such a sense of pride that I truly cannot begin to express. I am also thankful to all who were responsible for things going so smoothly. I could not have done all I had to do in the kitchen and on this trip if the Lord had not placed the most capable people at my disposal.

God has blessed me in this amazing week in Arizona with many things. He has shown me what prayer is all about, and how to truly suffer for one another in prayer. He has blessed me by strengthening my friendships and has taken the focus of this youth to a deeper appreciation of how God works through them. Throughout this week I have been constantly reminded of His creation and how His power is untouchable. I’ve never seen a group of teens so willing to do the Lord’s work no matter how hot or how long the task at hand was. These kids jumped on it. Arizona- “to hanaanii”- was off the hook!

-Justin Bagwell

God has blessed me through new friendships, getting to know people I’ve known, even better. Seeing our kids at work, seeing kids come up to just help, meeting new people with different backgrounds, seeing God’s creation. Also, meeting Paul and Ann and seeing how thankful they are for everything.

God has blessed me with a great hardworking team. He has brought us all much closer and let us be able to work together well. He blessed us by letting all the youthgroups get along, let the Navajo people here want to listen to us, made it easy to offer help and to give help to our fellow Christians. I thank God for letting us all become friends and that there wasn’t much tension between people. He really brought us closer to Him and filled us up. The sweat lodge was also an awesome experience!
-Kaitlin Petty

The Lord has blessed me by giving such a wonderful group a wonderful experience. This could not have been a better group. Everyone takes care of each other and does all they can for that person. We are also blessed with our youth minister Corey. Without him it would not have been as much fun. The way we all became friends was awesome because immediately we all were a family and still are. I am also blessed by having people to take care of me and people for me to take care of as well.

He blessed me with friends and a closer relationship with the ones I had. He drew me closer to Him and the people who were with me when we went to the sweat lodge. I learned new things as we built decks, porches, roofs, and the cross. I learned it is important to work as a team when we went on the hike. I thank God for blessing me with the ability to come on this trip.

This week I have been blessed by God giving me a greater understanding of Him. He has allowed me to grow closer to those I have already known and to meet those who I have not. He has come to me through people and through dreams and told me what I need to work on in my life. He has shown me how to be more like Him by giving me an example in the adults. He has given me strength and stamina to help me to draw people closer to Him and to do what was expected of me this week. The Lord has truly blessed me.

“The joy of the Lord will be my strength, I will not waiver walking by faith, He will be strong to deliver me safe, the joy of the Lord is my strength.” This week I have gotten to know some awesome people and some other people a little bit better. I had fun, I worked, I laughed, I cried. The week was awesome! The Lord was with us. I also learned some things about myself that will hopefully help me to be a better person. I love everyone here and leaving tomorrow is bittersweet. This trip has helped me grow closer to God and hopefully I will continue to do so.

Praise the Lord for letting us have such an awesome mission trip, for bringing our youth group closer, touching the lives of other people, and for touching my life and letting me see him an a whole new way. Praise the Lord for keeping us safe, giving us a great team, keeping us strong, working through us, and for sending His Son to die on the cross so all this would be possible. Praise the Lord for the parents that care, the sweat lodge, a great youth minister, and the Navajo people.

God has blessed this week by allowing me to come to Arizona and letting me serve and praise Him by serving and working hard for others. God has blessed our mission team by making us pull together and letting our overall strengths make up for our individual weaknesses.
-Andy Jones


God, you are wonderful because…
Because in just one week you have used the willing to be a blessing
…made the weak strong in service to you
…brought unity about in a group of people from different families, schools, likes,
and dislikes
…show us what it means to serve
…shown us what it means to be suffer in prayer for one another
…shown us what it means to be selfless and Christ-centered
…taught us to work together
…taught us to love and trust each other
…taught us to love and trust you.
I praise you, Father, because I see you in the kids in this youth group. I pray that they will stay close to the cross, stay close to each other, pray for one another, and always remember that you have called us to unity. Thank you, God, for allowing me the blessing of being a part of this Arizona Mission Team.
To You and You alone be glory and praise
--Corey Trevathan

He has blessed me by building a strong team of kids and adults who were and are determined to be a success no matter what Satan throws at them. He has blessed me with friendships with the true Christian examples. He has blessed me by allowing me to fail yet succeed with His help. He has blessed me by showing me all His glory through His hard work. He has blessed me by showing me through these kids that teenagers are the Church of today and that He is at work through them.
-Rick Norton

God has truly shown me some amazing things this week! He has used this week to let me really recognize His power and amazing greatness. The beauty of His creation has overwhelmed me. God has allowed me to come to an oasis this week. He has given me peace from all the things that await me at home as well as giving me the joy that comes from serving Him. He has shown me that He is in control of my life and knows what’s best for me. He will always take care of me. God is awesome and I have discovered how much I really love Him.
-Holly Hamric

I have come closer to God through prayer and through my thoughts. This closeness was gained by working together to achieve a common goal of helping others -by the sweat lodge, by overcoming difficulties, and by just being close to each other. I know good things have happened and will continue to happen for His power is so great. All we need to do is plant, water, and He will send the harvest. And I believe that in what we have done. It is ironic that by making yourself less you have become greater, and I guess that is what Jesus is trying to tell us.
-Mark Yokley

God has blessed me with an awesome week! I know He touched so many people’s hearts --our youth group, other youth groups, and the people that come to TNT, the people that we made stuff for, and the kids who went to VBS. God has blessed us with an awesome time at the sweat lodge. Before this trip, I didn’t really know what to expect of the sweat lodges. It was the deepest I have ever gone in prayer. I also got a whole lot closer to all my friends. I also got to see the Grand Canyon. Never in a billion years would I have ever guessed I would get to see something so beautiful and amazing. I am so glad I got to experience all that!! Love always
-Jenny Massey

This week God has blessed me so much I can’t write it all down. I made some great new friends; some I met for the first time and some I just got to know better. I learned how to work together with others better, and how to put myself last. We had to work hard to get work done, but in the end it will be rewarding. I’ve gotten so much closer to God and my friends because of having a week without having to deal with problems from home, and I am leaving here with a new outlook on my Christianity and relationship with God.
-Ashley Miller

God has blessed me with a fun trip, good friends to share it with, safe traveling, better understanding of his plan for me, encouragement from Christian family, and a closer walk with God. This week I have learned so much and experienced things that can only be found on a mission trip like this one. I learned to be flexible and patient, caring and understanding. In the sweat lodge I learned to concentrate and focus on prayer despite my surroundings. I learned how to work hard and trust others during the work projects. Most of all, I learned to rely on God to show the way. This trip was amazing and I loved every minute.
-Emily Jones

This has been one of the greatest weeks in my life. I have truly learned the true meaning of being a servant. It is because of all the wonderful examples I have witnessed through the adults and sacrifices that have been made. To see these children mature this week and to be Christ-like and to truly serve and sacrifice as Jesus would. As I watched and listened to the prayers and changes at the sweat lodge in all adults and children and watched these people suffer for one another and the unselfish actions that I witnessed was unbelievable. It is so wonderful to be a part of this group which is the Truly the body and service to Christ. God has blessed this group so richly.

This week has been awesome! I have made so many new friends and rekindled old ones. Everyone, in my opinion, has truly grown closer to God. I hope that our entire group has been an influence on the community and I hope that Paul and Ann continue being great influences. All of the people from the other groups have been so much fun by just being here, playing cards, buying us milkshakes, and a lot of other things. I have gotten to know many people in our group a lot more by talking and spending time with (and occasionally having water fights with.haha) I hope that those I have grown closer to, will continue to be the great influences that they already have been. This has been an awesome week and there are so many things I could write down but I think that one of the most important things is the unity that we have within our Mayfair group. I am so glad that I chose this mission trip and God has blessed us with a wonderful experience that I know I will never forget.
-Elizabeth Yokley

How God has blessed me this week in Tuba City:
Being away from the daily distractions I normally encounter has been good for me. I have had more time to think about my relationship with God and His purpose for me. The first half of the week was not what I had thought it would be. God reminded me that I was here to serve-I knew that coming, but it was strongly reinforced. The second half of the week, God has helped to change my attitude about some things. I was able to enjoy His creation, and I was able to pray to Him as never before. I have been blessed by Him, also by being able to get to know His children better. He has provided an incredible family for me to support me in so many ways. In being given this opportunity to come here, it has helped me understand some things about myself that I would like to change with His help.
- Jacquie Thompson

God has blessed me by letting me experice some things I’ve never thought of experiencing. Also he has let us be able to help people hopefully in a way that is pleasing to him. He has blessed us with some of the best people ever with Paul & Ann Ghee & Chris Farber. They are all wonderful. Lord, you have blessed us so much with this trip. Let us remember this trip when we go back to our selfish ways.

God has blessed me by allowing me to get closer to everyone in the group. He has shown me I need to be a better handy man, taught me to not jump from high places, shown me what helping a neighbor is really all about, taught me to rely on others more, and totally changed my prayer life. He has shown me I don’t need to be so lazy and in turn gave me the best week of my life.

This week in Arizona, God has changed my life in so many ways. He has taught me to work hard and not to complain. He has also changed my prayer life by teaching me to pray for others more. This week I have also learned to trust in God. It has also been great this week to see some of God’s amazing creations. The devos have also been life changing, especially the one at the coal miner’s canyon.

Blessings include a safe trip here, lots of new friendships, a better relationship with Christ, a better prayer life, a better understanding of the Cross, a lot of better understanding of the cross, a lot of old relationships bettered, sweat lodge, seeing
Christ through just about everyone I came in contact with in one way or another, being able to step a lot farther out of my comfort zone than I’m used too.

This week God has shown me a lot of things. I realize that I am not where I need to be spiritually for one. He has blessed me so much with new friendships, with a better attitude, and with so many other things-- Through beings sick half the week and seeing how so many people were willing to help and how much they cared. I saw people working harder and harder and just wouldn’t quit. It was so awesome to see all this. It helped me realize the kind of person I need to be. I thank God for this week and everything he showed me.

He has shown me that its not about me-its about him. Even though we are Christians and they are Navajo Indians, we all worship the same God-God brought the people together. Before I came I was weak but now I am coming back to the heart of worship and its all about Jesus. I believe this trip with the Indians helped me realize that I needed to go back. The look on the people’s faces once we were done was amazing-it was like they could feel God through us even if we didn’t know it.

Praise God for letting me work hard all week, for keeping my back strong pretty much the entire week. I got to see all of these beautiful mountains and other things. I didn’t get hurt when I was doing dangerous stuff. I learned how much people I didn’t even know well cared about me. I learned that it takes teamwork to do these jobs. I got to be pleased with what I have done working outside. I had a fun time. I got to know people that I had never really talked to before. I learned how to pray more for others, more than just praying for myself.