Making Memories . . .

New memories can be so refreshing.  New sights - new scenery - new people.  A breath of new and different air.  Very dry air in this case. 

The Wednesday before Spring Break our family started on the 24 hour drive to Gallup, New Mexico.  We signed up for a family mission trip with 5 other families from our church with the goal of serving a very poor area of New Mexico and the Navajo reservation.

We drove through the corners of Oregon and Idaho, then headed down through Utah and cut through and edge of Colorado. That's five states in 10 days. Our destination was the small town of Gallup.  It's just about where the "S" is in the word Santa Fe on the map.  

This boys traveled great.  A little of this...

And a little of that and an eleven hour day of driving just disappears.

Our church has a long history of mission trips to this area.  Our point of contact starts at the Rehoboth Christian School.  This is where we stay and where the men in our group give their muscle and time to maintenance projects around the campus.  When groups come they bring the man power and the funding to complete these projects.

Our group stayed in one of the dorm buildings.  In the past, Navajo teens would stay on the campus to go to school because it was too far to drive or bus them in.  Transportation is not as challenging these days and the dorm buildings only house one or two teachers or staff.  

 Our dorm building and room.

 Kitchen

 Common room.

We arrived around 5:30pm on Friday and got settled while the rest of the team arrived in small groups.

Saturday and Sunday would be a marathon of site seeing and hiking.  My next post.