Yakama Reflection
Hey Facebook! Here’s an update on my life for those who want to know:
I spent my spring break working with an organization called Sacred Road on a reservation in Yakama Washington. I have also spent my semester studying and researching poverty on Native American reservations, specifically in Yakama, and I will be working on a number of economic development projects with Sacred Road on the reservation for much of this summer! God has placed this group of people on my heart and in my mind for reasons far beyond my own knowledge and I am excitedly and nervously following along.
The Yakama people, like many indigenous people groups, have faced years of oppression, where they were stripped of rights, sovereignty, land and cultural autonomy. The
poverty that exists on reservations due to such intervention and cyclical systems of inequality is undermined and unknown to many.
The people at Sacred Road so clearly follow Jesus with their actions and are one of the greatest signs of loving our neighbors, by loving our very first neighbors, that I have ever witnessed. The chief of the Yakama people has recognized Sacred Road because of the shocking changes they’ve made in the last 15 years on the suicide rate, drop out rate, and overall wellbeing of the people there.
I’m not exactly sure who is reading this, and therefore what this information is good for. Maybe it’ll help you learn a little more about a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or the situation of a people group of people you were unaware of. Maybe you’d be willing to pray for me an this journey, for Sacred Road, and for the Yakama people. Maybe you even feel like giving to Sacred Road to help support them in their goal of loving and serving the people of Yakama. Whatever it is, thanks for reading my first pictureless status since 2012. Sacred Road is worth breaking the streak, that says a lot.
I spent my spring break working with an organization called Sacred Road on a reservation in Yakama Washington. I have also spent my semester studying and researching poverty on Native American reservations, specifically in Yakama, and I will be working on a number of economic development projects with Sacred Road on the reservation for much of this summer! God has placed this group of people on my heart and in my mind for reasons far beyond my own knowledge and I am excitedly and nervously following along.
The Yakama people, like many indigenous people groups, have faced years of oppression, where they were stripped of rights, sovereignty, land and cultural autonomy. The
poverty that exists on reservations due to such intervention and cyclical systems of inequality is undermined and unknown to many.
The people at Sacred Road so clearly follow Jesus with their actions and are one of the greatest signs of loving our neighbors, by loving our very first neighbors, that I have ever witnessed. The chief of the Yakama people has recognized Sacred Road because of the shocking changes they’ve made in the last 15 years on the suicide rate, drop out rate, and overall wellbeing of the people there.
I’m not exactly sure who is reading this, and therefore what this information is good for. Maybe it’ll help you learn a little more about a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or the situation of a people group of people you were unaware of. Maybe you’d be willing to pray for me an this journey, for Sacred Road, and for the Yakama people. Maybe you even feel like giving to Sacred Road to help support them in their goal of loving and serving the people of Yakama. Whatever it is, thanks for reading my first pictureless status since 2012. Sacred Road is worth breaking the streak, that says a lot.