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Show ( ( (ock, ) SAINT FRANCISTIDE NEWSLETTER, 1947 **** i~* **** IRST NEWSLETTER since Eastertide--we 've just been too busy doing things to t ake time to tell about them! And now as we look ba ck over the things tha t have happened, they a l l seem equal l y im~ ort a nt, a s steps in a constant for ward ,march. The ~~ ____ ~~ pestilence passed,with no loss of lives, but we kep~ school closed till April 14, as a s a fety r,recaution. At the end of the month Father Liebler had to go to Medfor. Oregom, a s delegate from Utah to the Synod of the Pacific. It was a beautiful trip, into a hitherto unlmovm Sta te, and many new contacts were made. Synod s essions are notoriously boresome, but when Fr Liebler was given five minutes to tell of the work at the Mission the synod unanimously requested t hat 1 the time be extendedl No Qet_ter.l.:indication oJ interest could be ex-pected. It's been a summer of young people here. From various parts of the country they came to help us in our' work, and to t aste the life of the West. We often had fift een or more at the t able. They all worked,of course,but they ate u s out of house and home, and our l arder - as lell a s our bank account are in seri ous condition in consequence. ~ell wishers please t ake note, if not action.) They t ook a good share ot the summer irrigation di tch wor , grubbed waeds from the garden, sta cked and loaded an unloaded hay, dug a vegetavle storage pit, helped i ~ the daily chores, and did many other things. We've had a Baptism nearly every month, and of course religioUS instruction goes on even when school i s not in ' se ssion. We made out first jeep trip to Montezuma Creek the l atter part of June; four L---------------~ of us s pent a full week vi siting hoghans and conducting cottage prayer meetings during the day, and Mass every morning, at such places as we were invited to do so. Much more of this sort of work remains to be done. .Had we held t o lower standards, we could have bapti aed fifty to seventy-five Nava jos on this trip alone, for , after having the Christi an religion expl ained to them they almost all testified to cth-e-i-r acce t ce of the Fa ith. ¥t.Q I ~l'HalQret - SQlfte-t;:bM'8:::nllwd¥crti~~een *'itn~!' t w~- 1/, :;; . .::;:, .ty iii dar-..=:: v,Ie l\aVe~dl ett-~e'Orl~ 3 g.il1E [.'ali Early in July Fr Liebler went to Window Rock tlb a ttend the Tribal Council Meeting. It was his first experience, and a touching one. Effort is really being made to teach the Nava jo people how to govern themselves and while strict parli amentary law is a bit too involved for them at this ~t a ge, they are defini~ly learming res pe eac ,I delegate's opinion; and to pool the wisdom of their ~ages. Much of the agenda remained unconsidered a fter four days, partly due to the long windedness of delega tes, and partly to the f act that everything had to be said twice--once in Nava jo and once in English. Our sympathies went out t o the inter-' reter who had t o render equivalents for some of the legal phra seology and forensic Dratoryl Visitors galorel We haven't dared count the total. Of course they took time from our work,but many of them pitched in .nd helped, and all, we are sure, carri ed away glowing accounts of their experiences here. High-lights of ,course were George and John Liebler's visit, and that of Henry and Willi am Sturges with their wi#es. August was the month of r ain. Probably the precipitation for the month equalled the' average yearly r a infall. storms washed out the ro ad from Blanding in a half-dozen pl aces, filled the irrigation ditch with s and, seriously threa tened our buildings. The r ange,however has benefitted, and is probably greener today than it has been in many years. |