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Show We Are Late . . . . in greeting you this year. Snow, snow, snow! Not many can remember when we have had so much. It all began on December 13. All day, then through the night and the next day. Then stopping and beginning again. First school buses had to be cancelled with school being held only for local students. The next day all schools had to be cancelled. Roads were impossible. Just as soon as the equipment would plow and clear a way, the winds drif t ed the snow back across the highways. Services could not come in or out. The mail was stopped for awhile. Food and fuel began to be scarce. Finally on December 20 the governor declared our area in an emergency state because of the unprecedented snowfall and cold. Many were stranded and without food, medicine or fuel and the animals were suffering even more. Some had already perished. As we write, airlifts are planned when the weather clears. We could not reach Salt Lake City for the Christmas meat donation which is given for the Christmas dinner. Sadly, we cancelled our Christmas celebration, believing that many could not come. Some might be stranded in the cold and suffer from exposure. We have no Christmas trees. Many shipments could not r each us in time. Our vehicles and staff were busy with emergency care of those needing it most. Chains were put on and the boys began hauling hay to the sheep and goats. Just yesterday Father Waype, Jay and Nick were on a local haystack loadIng out a truck at five o'clock in bitter cold. Many have given their help to those in need. Help and vehicles have arrived from the north and all are doing the best they can under the circumstances. Here at the Mission, we have had some protection by being in the river valley and we are not suffering. Our Bishop has appealed to the fund for World Relief for the people in t his area. Christmas in Navaioland .. and try to picture this setting with the snow winds and cold of this year. As a speciai Christmas present to all our readers, we repeat the Navajo Christmas Story which has been told for several years on the Reservation. Believing that Our Lord Jesus Christ was the true GodMan for every time and place, we think the charm of this setting will enrich your Christmas Season, wherever you may be ... . . As the cold winter sun dipped behind the crimson contours of Locomotive Butte and Skeleton Mesa a couple trud ged over t he sandstone rim and int~ the bleak expanse of Monument Valley. They were Navajos of The Old Way. Even under the bulk of the Pendleton blanket which she wore over velveteen blouse and long skirt, it was obvious t hat she would soon be a mother. Her husband stayed close to protect her from t he wind . Their buckskin moccasinboots scareJ'y left tracks in the red sand. Soon the pungent smell of burning pinon logs let t hem know t hat t hey were approaching a camp. "Perhaps a relative," they thought - for she could walk no further. Quietly exchanged greetings, a cup of boiling hot coffee, t hen t heir request for lodging. The host motion ed a bout the hogan. They were most welcome at his fire but there was no room for sleeping - too many here already. The nearby summer shade made of cottonwood boughs was t he onl y shelter. Blankets and sheepskins were hung on the frame of t he shade - t he only protection from t he wind. Husband and wife bedded down. The ni ght grew cold er. The mother moaned soft ly and regularl y. Suddenly the darkness turned to a blaze of light. Descendmg a ram bow was a youth clad in white decked in silver and t urquoise. In his arms ~as a glea ming white cradleboard . The m o~ h er carefu lly washed her baby and padded hIS lI ttle body m the soft inner bark of the desert juniper. He was all plump and brown like all h ealt hy Navajo babies look to t his day and from the child the light was spreadin g. As she worked she fai led to see a new and brilliant star casting its glow over the valley. Miles away other Navajos had seen the light and at first had hidden in fear in their hogans un til a voice t hat came from the sky told them not to be a frai d, but to go and see the new child. By morning many had left a small herder to tend the sheep and goats and had started their journey. Far away beyond the four sacred mountains other tribes saw the light and heard of the miracle. Three chiefs .. wise in the ways of t heir people, started their long Journey to visit the Miracle Child. Along the way they mqUlred of what gifts t hey might take with them. They were told t hat t he three most precious t hings to the Navajo were silver, turquoise and corn pollen. - Many days l;;lter they squatted before the entrance to the shade. The three gifts were presented to t he mother. The light shone bright ly around the baby. This was tru ly t he Miracle Child . Mission Portraits: Ethel MacDowell In the Fall Newsletter of 1960. Father Liebler wrote of a volunteer nurse who had come to spend some weeks at the Mission to assist Catherine in the medical work. Never before have we featured a guest worker in this little column but this time we make an exception. After her fourth visit to us, Miss Ethel MacDowell has now said so long for this time and headed back home to California. She spent about three months wit~ us . Eighty-six years young, Ethel has once agaIn been an example of wit, humor, patience an~ work to us all. Sewing, helping with the offIce work and mailing out the Newsletters have all fit. into her b~sy day which begins before Mass In the mormng and ends in the late eveni~ g. Her good friend, Bobby, the Mission dog, :rllsses her a!so. Ethel's stories of early nursing In t hese Umted States could fill a book. Can you imagine a private duty nurse in the midwest during the first part of this century picking cotton to h ~lp pay her salary? or shooting hogs for butcherIng? Well, she certainly did! While here, she. was able to have a long visit with Father LIebler:, Brother Juniper, Helen Sturges and Joan E skell at their r etirement home near Oljeto: In e~rly December, Ethel hopped on the bus fIfty mIles away at three in the morning. We are all s~ddened by her return home, but we kno",: she WIll be back again, keeping us busy keepIng her busy! |
