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Show MESSAGE # 8 from Father Liebl er, He l en Sturge s , Joan Eske11 and Brother Jun iper , at Hat Rock Valley Retreat Center, P.O. Box # 5 Monument Valley, Ut ah, 84536. (Messages ## 1.7 will be sent on request. This one is dated J un e , 1970) IN OUR Message # 7 we s3id somet hing to the effect that we might not wait for the Tribe to acc e pt the land we offered as an exchange, so it will not come to you as a surprise that we didn't. We prayed a good dea l about it and seemed to be led to select a site on land t hat was already ours. After staking out the building's boundaries roughly, on Sunday, the 17 of May, we adjourned after Mess to the site and formally "broke ground". Each member old enough to handle a shovel took out a spadef ul of earth, with a silent prayer. It had been a springtime of rushing, migh~y wind, and you will see by the picture t hat there was no abating for the ceremony. We .hasten to add that, appeara nces to t he c ontrary notwithstanding~ Fr Liebler has not s prouted wings. Proposal hRS been made to dedicate the new church ·to The Holy Spirit--not only to the rushing , mighty wind as on Pentecost but in recognition of the charismatic movement that is cu~rent1y renewi.ng both the old Church and many denominat ions . Decis ion awa its ecclesia stica l a pprobation. The site selected, while the most nearly level we could find , still had a considerable s l ope; a visiting minister ~rom Kayenta (Jack MacFarland) offered to level it if the Adventists would lend their loader. It appeared that the loader was the personal pr operty of the maintenance man, but he agreed t o do the Job, i n spite of having commitments every day for a fortnight. Meanwhile we borrowed a sl i p, or fresno , hitched t o our Jeep pickup, but three days' work by three men s howed poor progress. St. Christ opher's responded, sending their loader and three ·worker s, but t he ground was t oo hard. We began to wonder if we had misunders t ood God's l eading, when in das hed Sam Chee, a neighbor with news that a real dozer with a ten-foot blade was at Moonl ight Mine site, only four miles awayl Father leaped i nto his pickup , found tne opera tor, Mr. Certonio, who promised tobe over three days. later . Actua l ly, two days later he arrived, and next morning his son completed the Job--and at a cost only a small fraction of what it would ha~e cost Just to bring the "cat" to our s1te from his h0lI1e! Men of the congregation dug the footings and we s t arted filling with r ubble; when we could s urely foresee a date for the laying of t he cor nerst one we sent invitations to all clergy of any Chr i stian c hurch within a 50 mile radius, asking t hem to be wit h us on May 30 and witness to our essential unity in Christ before our community. This we thol.ght very i mportant, since Nava JOs, like many peoples i n the world, are con'fused by the multiplication of sects. Came the da y. From Bluff, first to arrive, were Dan and Ada Bena11y and seven of their children •. Dan was the first NavajO baptized in the Utah part of the Reser vat i on (see p. 92 of "Boil My Heart For Me"). By 4 o' c l ock some 85 to 100 people were there, mostly Na vaJOS. Henry Ph i llips, the NavajO contractor for the mason work, was on hand, with cement dry-mixed and ready; Paiilo Kruc·ero had carved the stone with a cross, the date and t he letters A.M.D.C. We 8s s igned t he different parts ·of the service in accordance with our own traditions --the liturgical parts were read by us of liturgical backgr ound, extempore prayers were offered by Rev. Mr. Philip Davis and Mr. Moore of the Adven tists. The responsive rea di ngs /were of course read by all· who can read. |