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Show MESSAGE NO. 4 Father Liebler . Brother Juniper from at Helen Sturges Joan Eskell Hat Rock Valley Retreat Center p. O. Box 157 Mexican Hat, Utah 84531 . (Messages Nos. 1, 2 and 3 were issued . in September, 1966; Merch and November, 1967) April, 1968 THE l-IINTER of much snow, wh1-ch the NavaJOS are already calling the White Death, · has passed into history. Meny sheep and goats, even ·horses and cattle, froze to death or starved In drifts, but most of the herders managed to survive. Slim John, who came from Bluff to visit us, told of helping to clear some of the Reservation roads with a snow plow, in spite of bitter winds;. towara evening he saw a man standing in deep snow, part way up a mesa, leanin.g against a Juniper tree. When he climbed up to the man he found it was an old .crlppled sheep herder, completely frozen, his arms reaching towards the sky. . The three Wise Men from the East CAme a bit eArly for us on Christmas; at 3 a.m. they appeared, wet, snow-covered, trembling with the cold. They haQ been out in a pickup trying to get firewood for their faml1ies; the pickup had given up in a deep snowdrift some two miles from our house, and after several hours of fruitless work they came for shelter at our house. After .plying them with hot coffee and beans, we persuaded thelJl to await daylight, and they got on their way to give their families at least a wa~m Christmas in · . their . homes. Despite blocked roads and frozen radiators in oars, we had 65 out for Christmas Mess. . Routine activity isn't rea1~. Sunday and weekday services continue to draw Nava.Jos who live wtthin a ten mlle rad ius, land we manage to help in various "lays, taking patients to the hospital, pulling cars or pickups out of th~ wash. Nor is it all one-way. A sense of gratitude and obligation has not in the past been a chl:u'aoteristic of Nava JOs, but these seem to be growing. 3eldom do we hear "You pay me?" when we ask them to help with muscle work or native know-how; rathe.r it is "You help us, we like to help you, too." A ·new opportunity for service has arisen since our 1E1st ft'.es98ge went out. Father Smith, the priest at Good Shepherd 'Mission, Fort Defianoe, has asked Fr. Liebler to help there bY ' visiting once a month to act as confessdr and counsellor to the Staff members and to the NavajOS of the area who do not know EnGlish. In the out-stations this latter class is of special importance. Gooa Shepherd Mission, as many of our readers know, is the oldest Christian . Mission to the NavajO People and yet after seventy years has never ha~ a priest conversant with the language of the People. Memy are well instructed in the Faith, through able interpreters, but neither counselling nor the hearing of confessions oan be done through an interpreter. Extensive changes are being |
