Navajo Reservation FAMILY GO Team 2016

Place: Arizona

Date: August 6-14

Cost: $550

This year instead of going across California’s southern border for our Family Global Outreach Team, we’ll be going 14 hours east to Arizona to serve on a Navajo reservation! The experience that many Native Americans have historically had with Christianity has been negative. Although we will build things, our main objective will not be building things. Although we will repair homes, our main objective will not be home repair. Although we will help the elderly with tasks they cannot do themselves, our main objective will not be helping the elderly. Our main objective will be to follow Jesus’ example of selfless service and show people what he is like, winning a good name for him and for Christianity.  

This GO Team is unique in that it is open not only to families but also to teenagers and scouts. It provides an environment in which families and students can grow deeper in their faith together. It will present unique opportunities where they can be stretched, be immersed in one another’s lives, experience a different culture, and be used by God in ways that don’t happen every day. In short, it will allow us to experience God in ways that rarely happen at home.

Our main task will be to represent the local Navajo church by repairing unsafe or unhealthy living conditions of the homes of the elderly, handicapped, and the very poor. Even if you’re not Bob the Builder, you will be able to contribute something meaningful to the project.

We’ll be doing “outreach” in the sense that we will live down the bad reputation Christianity has had among the Navajo, earning a good reputation within those communities, and facilitating a connection between the Navajo church and the community.  

Something powerful happens when we follow Jesus’ example and serve others the way he did. When we agree to help improve the living conditions of a resident, we do so with the goal of showing them the love of Christ in a tangible way. Many of them have all but given up on God, or anyone else, truly caring about them, and it’s hard for them to believe that we have no ulterior motive. When they’re finally convinced, it can be life-changing. The local church and Christianity earn credibility and the right to speak into their lives, and we become a little more like Jesus.  

We are excited about what God has in store for our Family GO Team this year.  Please join the team in prayer as preparations are being made and as they go August 7-13.