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Show 1 I D IURING the past Summer we have been celebrating the 15th anniversary of our arrival, and t he founding of St. Chr istopher's Mission. In t his issue of the Newsletter we shall look backward for a few moments and then look forward. We want to review the progress of the past f ifteen years and especially of the five years since our Tenth Anniversary Number, and then share with our friends some of our dreams for the future. On the 15th of July in 1943 our two cars and pickup rolled to a halt in the sands not far from the present site of the Mission, and we had hardly pitched our t ents before we were surrounded by inquiring People. Few of them had any knowledge of English, we had only a few words of Navaho, but we got along. Navaho et iquette has standard questions at first meeting : "Where do you come from ?" "Where are you heading?" It wasn't hard to say that we came f rom near the big water toward the sunrise, beyond Washington ; but when we said we are not going anywhere, we are staying right here, that was another matter. They had seen tourists and others come and go. No white man would stay! It was literally years before they would believe t hat we were really there to stay - even after we began construction of stone buildings, but it was even more years before they accepted the incredible idea that we had come without ulterior mot ive. Many still think that when we urge schooling, hospitalization, church attendance we are doing it in the hope of some material gain, and they naturally expect a reward or at least appreciation for their compliance with our requests. "You got some lTIellicine?" "What kind of medicine do you need?" "Sores mellicine." So began our ministration. Anything from dandr uff to athlete's foot, belly-ache to barbed- wire cuts in a horse's foreleg! "Y ou gun make school for chin ?" "Do your children want a school ?" "Yes, we want school. Lots times I tell store keeper write letter to W asheen-doan, tell him make school for chin. Don't get no answer. Maybe Washeen- doan don't know read and write, maybe?" So began our school program. |