New Discipleship Group Space

Some of my favorite d-droup moments have happened in the peaceful and calm environment of my home.  The girls have come to trust my home as a safe place.  They are familiar with the space and do not get distracted by a changing environment like they do when we go out somewhere.  We are able to have more real and honest conversations about their lives and the Lord.  But with Veronica's d-group wanting to use our house too, I am not always able to use it.  To solve this problem I am setting up a d-group space in the youth area at our new church building.  This space will not only be available for my d-groups but for others as well.  Would you like to help my set up a homey and comfortable area for d-groups to meet.  You can contribute through funds or through donating materials.

Here is a wish list:

• Rug ( It has cement floor)
• Couch
• Chairs
• Tall lamp
• Small table
• Shelf
• Cabinent
• Small refrigerator
• Heater (we will be in the cold basement)
• Games/ craft supplies 

~You can donate on our website through paypal: sacredroadministries.com

~You can mail funds to: 22116 SE 51st Place - Issaquah, WA 98029 


~You can call me (509-930-5903) or email me (hmgerman@gmail.com) with any questions.

No Memory of No Church

Over the past couple of months I have really enjoyed meeting with my new D-group of 6th grade girls.  I love how creative and playful and tenderhearted they are.  I think, because they are still apart of the elementary school and not part of the middle school, they do not know yet that it is uncool to like learning.  They are also the first of the children who have been promoted to youth group who truly don't remember a time when Sacred Road (aka: the church) was not a part of their lives.  All four girls are 11 years old, and have been with the ministry from its earliest days.  They were 2 and 3 years old when Sacred Road arrived on the scene.  This means that the majority of the kids in the children's ministry program were not even alive when Sacred Road was started.  We have a generation who do not remember a time when the church was absent from their community.  It is so wonderful to think about that fact.

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

Christmas Deliveries

     For the past five days the Sacred Road staff has been making lists, checking them twice, and loading 15 passenger vans with boxes of food, wrapped gifts, boxes of chocolate, blankets, and Walmart gift cards.  By the time the vans are finally loaded I am verging on a bad mood, because my hands and feet are numb.  We load up in the vans and drive down the cold, dark streets until we arrive at destination number 1.  We crawl out of the vans, hands loaded with gifts and chocolate.  It is very cold outside until the front door of the house opens and a blast of hot air rushes out to greet you along with smiling faces.  Sometimes the visits are short other times the last more than 40 minutes.

      One thing I have noticed in particular this year are the hugs I have received.  They come in all varieties.  Small children hug out of thankfulness, a lot of the elders hug because of our mutual love for the Lord, others hug because they have not been forgotten, and some hug with tears smearing onto your shoulder, because of all of the above reasons.

     Last Night Joshua, Veronica and I made a stop that changed my perspective on Christmas deliveries. We were going to an elderly lady's home.  She is in her 70's and her daughter, who is in he 50's, lives with her.  When I knocked on the door with an arm load of gifts  I heard a voice telling me to push the door open.  I did.  On the other side they were waiting for us with camera in hand taking pictures as we brought in the food and presents. They invited us to please eat dinner with them.  So we sat around their dining room table and enjoyed eating chicken and rice while we caught up on their family and they caught up on the ministry.  Joshua then had a chance to pray for them and their family.  After that they wanted to give us a tour of their newly remodeled house, stopping at every picture along the way to point out which child or grandchild was in the picture.

     There were a lot of first for me while I was there.  I had never had someone take my picture while doing deliveries, I had never eaten a meal in a native home, and I had never been given a tour of a native persons home.  I kept thinking that this is what we do- we take pictures with people, we feed people, and we share our lives with them.  They were showing how much they loved us, and not just the three of us who were there, but the whole Sacred Road staff, and everyone who has ever served on a team with Sacred Road.  What a blessing to be a recipient of such love!  What a way for God to surprise us with His love!

  

Christmas Morning on December 8th

Last night as I plopped down in the arm chair in our living room and surveyed the mess around me I could suddenly relate to the opening scene of the movie Father of the Bride.  George Banks sits back in his chair looking at the ground littered with confetti and cups of half drunk beverages, and plates of half eaten cake in every available surface.  That was the scene Veronica and I  were staring at last night when we got home from dropping off the 12 d-group girls.

The idea started a couple of months ago when one of my d-group girls asked if we could have a Christmas party for all of the d-group girls.  Her idea was to do a Secret Santa gift exchange, decorate Christmas cookies and listen to Christmas music.  So that is what we did.  We started the evening with dinner.  Then we finished tying ribbons on the clay ornaments, which they had made and  glazed preciously.  After that we decorated lots of Christmas sugar cookies.  Lastly, we had our gift exchange which was the highlight of the evening.

 I couple of weeks ago at our d-group girls' Thanksgiving dinner the girls all drew names for each other.  The last couple of weeks Veronica and I have been taking the girls to shop for their gifts.  Last night we had a secret wrapping room and they each took turns wrapping their gift.  When the time came they each took a turn giving their gift to their girl.  It was so fun to see them exchanging gifts with girls that they don't necessarily get along with.

When it was all said and done I could not have been happier.  It really looked and felt like Christmas morning in our house.  I think in the past three years of being here, it was the most I felt like family with the girls.  I love that Jesus can do that.  He can bring an unlikely group of people together and build relationships between them that feel like family because of a common bond in Jesus.

Decorating cookies

Justine and her cookie

The gift exchange

The gift exchange

Fall Update

Greetings,

I am coming to you with a thankful heart.  I am so grateful for my team who supports me financially and through prayer, my team on the field with me, and the team of people that are a part of Hope Fellowship.  Lately I have been overwhelmed with the needs of the community and I felt like I do not have enough hands to hold all the people that want to feel loved. On Monday we had 55 kids at our Halloween kids club.  Last night at Bible study we had 95 people.  During both occasions I felt like there were not enough hands to hold all the people  that needed attention and love.  I am reminded that the Lord takes our small offering and he multiplies it to be enough, just like the small boy who brought this lunch to Jesus.  The Lord multiplied it to feed thousands of people.  I see this happening through the whole team of people who are a part of Sacred Road's story.  I also am reminded that the Lord knows the needs of each child, youth and adult here in White Swan, and not one of them is forgotten.  

We are now in the middle of our third fall of youth ministry.  I love the fall.   I know that the youth look forward to a lot of the fun things we do in the fall.  We started off the fall with a trip to the Yakima State Fair with our discipleship groups.  Most of the night was spent on the rides.  It is a good thing I am not afraid of heights or mind going upside down.  We  also have enjoyed going to White Swan High School football games. Also, a lot of our youth girls played volleyball this fall.  It was fun to have a fan section for our youth, when no family came to watch them play.  One other tradition that the youth girls also enjoy in the fall is our pumpkin carving day.  This year we had nine girls carving pumpkins.  To read more about it visit my blog heathergerman.blogspot.com.

One last highlight for the fall is the Corn Maze, which we are still anticipating.  Tomorrow, Thursday, October 27, we will take about 35 youth to a giant corn maze where we will roast hot dogs and s'mores and then try and get lost in the maze.  The youth look forward to this event all year.  If you would like to sponsor this event or any of our youth events you can donate on our website .  

We are also looking forward to, and have started planning for our Christmas ministry.  There are six different ways to be a part of the Christmas ministry:

    1. Donate desserts for the Christmas Program

    2. Donate gifts for the Christmas Program

    3. Donate food for food boxes

    4. Donate gifts for "Adopt White Swan"

    5. Donate Walmart gift cards

    6. Donate funds 

If you would like to more about how you can be involved in Christmas feel free to email me.  

Prayer requests and praises:

1. Pray for the event tomorrow night at the corn maze with our youth group.  Pray that everyone would be safe and enjoy the time together.

2.  Praise that we have had so many people coming to Bible study.  Pray for our staff as we can serve and love everyone that is coming.

Thank you for all of your prayers.

Love, in Christ,

Heather 

Sacred Road Ministries

(509) 930- 5903

heathergerman.blogspot.com

sacredroadministries.com

Pumpkin Carving

This Friday Veronica and I held our third annual Pumpkin Carving with the D-group girls.  We had nine girls plus two of our fellow Sacred Road team members, Neena and Miranda, helping out.  As soon as we rounded up all the girls we drove to the nearest produce stand where there were hundreds of pumpkins to choose from.  After much thought, mainly from me, all the perfect pumpkins had been chosen and we headed back to the house to carve.  An hour and half later we had a row of pumpkins disguised as bats, ghosts, spiders, and smiling faces.  For some of the girls that we have been meeting with for several years now, it was another page in the book of many good memories we have made together.  For our new sixth graders it was one of the first memories we made in our relationship.  I think everyone would agree a good time was had by all.

Getting ready to pick pumpkins

The Perfect Pumpkin

The before picure

Making sure the pumpkin arrives safely

Carving!

The finished product

The After photo