Christmas Letter 2011

     As I think back on the year there are so many good stories I could tell of how the Lord has been at work.  It has been a year of growth.  This past summer we sent five full teams to work down on the Warm Springs Reservation as well as having 5 teams up here in Yakama.  Our team also grew.  This fall two families joined our full time staff.  The Yarbrough family with their four girls joined us from Birmingham, AL and the Dempsen family with their two girls joined us from Kent, WA.  Our youth group has also seen growth.  I started the year with one d-group (discipleship group) discipling two high school girls and now I have two d-groups with a total of nine middle school and high school girls.  

Here are a few highlights that come to mind when I think over the past year:

• Early in the year, thanks to the generosity of the Church around the world, Sacred Road was able to purchase a house with 38 acres that is going to be our Church building.  

• This summer a group of girls from the youth group worked with me and Bob, a man who volunteers with the ministry, to build 21 picnic tables for the new church building.  

• I spent a week last summer with one of the girls from our youth group serving on a team in Warm Springs, Oregon.  

• This fall, after discussing with my 6th grade discipleship girls about how we are all apart of God’s family, one of the girls said, “Heather is only our sister in God’s family, but in real life she is our cousin.”  This made me smile, because in “real life” our only family connection is through Christ.  

• The week before Thanksgiving, Veronica and I made a Thanksgiving dinner for all the d-group girls in the youth group.  15 girls were able to come!  During the meal one of the girls leaned over to another girl at the table and said, “Isn’t this the best-est food you’ve ever had?!”  

• In the fall one of the d-group girls asked if we could have a Christmas party where we exchanged secret santa gifts with all the youth group girls and decorated Christmas cookies.  In November we drew names for each other and in early December we were able to have a Christmas party like she had planned.  It was fun to see her take some ownership in the youth group and want to plan something fun for all the girls.  

• One of the ladies in the community that helps us serve our meal for Bible study every Tuesday night came the night of our Christmas program and baked 15 dozen cookies.  She stayed in the kitchen the whole night helping us serve desserts.  At the end of the night she said, “This was a lot of fun.”

I am so thankful to the Lord for another year he has given me to serve here on the Yakama Reservation, which He has made possible through your many prayers and financial gifts.  

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         John 1:14

 fall kid's club

Latisha and me and her volleyball match

Eileen's 15th Birthday at Old Country Buffet

D-group girl's Easter basket exchange

Kassandra at d-group craft night

Veronica's surprise birthday party

Me and the girls with one of our 21 picnic tables