The last week of Sept was a busy one! We had our first staff meeting with James and Carol, everything went well. We went over everything that everyone is to be doing and we got the approval for our ministries. We also talked about NCF selling food during the Dilkon Fair and the parade for a fundraiser. In Dilkon you have to have a food handler permit to handle food at restaurants, fairs, flea markets etc... and to sell the food you have to have a food permit. So in order for Joey and I to help we were going to have to find a class to attend. Well guess what...the next day a guy from the tribe came by looking for a place to have a class and asked if they could use a area in the gym!! (God thing)
The class was on Friday so we made Navajo breakfast burritos, made with eggs, corn beef hash, and potatoes wrapped in fried bread to sell to the class attendees and we also made beef stew for lunch.
The class brought in 100 people. We couldn't believe so many people were interested in having a food handler’s permit! Joey Sr, Joey Jr, and me all passed our test and got both permits!! :)
Saturday morning was the Dilkon Parade the "J's" made history in Dilkon that day. They were the first white people to ride horses in the parade with “The Christian Ranch" Joey Sr. rode a horse named Diamond, Joey Jr, started out on Last Minute, but the bridal broke and he had to "HURRY AND JUMP OFF" so then he rode on Roper and this horse was known to buck but he said he showed the horse who was boss :) The guys did really well and had lots of fun!! After the parade we hurried back to NCF for the food sales and we did get busy all the people who rode the horses in the Parade came back to eat, it got so busy that we had both Joeys back there helping make Navajo burgers and spooning Mutton (sheep) Soup. NCF made close to $300 in food sales...Thank you Jesus!
That evening James and Carol invited us to go with them to the Dilkon Rodeo we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the experience. It's just really different and weird being the minority; everywhere we go it seems like we are the only "white people". I guess you could say it's very humbling! Don't get me wrong though everyone we meet or come into contact with has been very nice and pleasant. You may get a weird look here and there but they smile and always ask how are you and always say hello :) I don't think it's because they never seen white people, I think it's like what are you doing here on the Res. It won't take long for them to get to know us; Dilkon is big but not very populated.
This past week has been the first week with all the events happening, here is how a normal week around NCF will play out. Mon-Fri during the days the J's work around the grounds and I keep up on the mail and accounting stuff, however on Tues & Thurs from 11am-12pm I have a co-ed aerobics class with a short devotional. On Monday evenings Bo has a men’s bible study and his wife Rosetta has her women’s bible study. Tuesday nights Joey& I have open gym for 13&up and Joey has a devotional with the teens at the end. Wednesday nights we will be opening the gym for 12&under, Thursday nights is Bo's discipleship class. Friday and Saturday is still open and then on Sunday afternoon we have open gym for all church members.
Please pray that we continue to follow Gods will for NCF, community, and us. Pray that we never pass up a time of witnessing. Everything we are doing is way out of our comfort zone, but we love the Lord and we want to live our life for Him and this is where our strength comes from to be here and not where our family is, to put ourselves out there when we don't look the same on the outside. We love these brothers and sisters of ours and God loves them to and the ones that don't know that yet needs to know and feel His love and to know their life has a purpose & there is more to life than what they are seeing or living!!!
Well, Joey Jr is getting really close to finally starting back to school. When we decided not to put him in a public school out here, to keep him home and just home school him I was scared and nervous! I didn't know where to even start or how I would be able to teach him. If he was still in elementary I may have not been so worried. Its funny how everything works itself out though, before we left IN to come here people at church found out I was homeschooling Joey and they offered to help me get things going, advice, or give us books and such. I just didn't have time to listen and it was the last thing on my mind (which made me feel a little guilty) but something kept telling me don't worry about it, get there first, get settled in, and then worry about it. So that’s what we did.
I started searching the web for homeschooling and the first thing that popped up was Connections Academy. I clicked the link read everything and started the enrollment. This is a virtual online public school that is free. They mail you all books, materials, & pc. It is a credited school and if we are still here in 3yrs he will graduate with a AZ high school diploma. He has 24hr access to teachers, they do all the grading & teaching. All I have to do is make sure he is doing the work and be accountable for his attendance. The curriculum seems to be ok, they offer outside club and activities and family field trips :) I haven't found anything yet that worries me, I haven't found the "catch", and I feel peaceful and hopeful that this is another "God Thing" so we are running with it. I submitted the last of all the paper work on Friday, they are assigning his courses, then we wait for the materials, and then he will be able to get started. I will tell you though Joey Jr. has expressed no excitement for his mothers findings :)
We do have a mission team coming the first week of November to help winterize the NCF Gym, we are so excited!! This team is from Cobblestone Church in OH. Please be in prayer for this team as they prepare to come here and in there traveling. Speaking of traveling... please pray that it is God's will for us to travel back home on Dec.7th and He makes it possible for us to do that. We would like to be home for the birth of our grandbaby and to be with our daughter, family, & friends during Christmas. We would also like for God to make it happen for doors to open for us to go speak at churches to bring awareness about NCF during our time back home. We would like to be home from Dec.7th thru Jan.7th.....so please pray.. pray.. pray!!
We love you all & God Bless
The Brownings
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