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Show Mrs S"",,",L p~sh., L~ AaW\,,,\~ \:("1\ t"or ot-& t: Chun:)" G\- s-t Ma"':7 o~ ~t. M..t),,\.\·t~-\:J -ah~ h£.r '1D\I"g-£S~ dG+~£"'~ ?atn£\o. . 1:!>£n,1h3 is} inclotniQ."'f .. d c.ou.s '" c5l-- ~a'f 8£f a'l- ,, .. J Message #35 May, 1983 from Joan E. Liebler Brother J .uniper Helen H.Sturges at HAT ROCK VALLEY RETREAT CENTER P. D. Box 5, Monument Valley,Utah . 84536 Tel. (801) 727-3291 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••••••••••••••• II. •••••••••• Most of Messages Nos. 1-34 available on request, but some are very scarce Grace to you and peace, dear friends, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And once again our apologies for a long delay in getting this Message to you and so keeping you informed of our doings. But, as you might imagine, pressures during the past six months have been great on all of us, and I have even found myself exhibiting some of the classic signs of a person in a stress situation! Helen is presently visiting with her niece in Connecticut and Brother Juniper is visiting with his brother in Wisconsin. Helen was with us again for a few weeks in March. With her came two old friends, Joyce and Dan Dix, and Joyce was most kind iri taking a good deal of time during her visit by bringing my accounts up to date. Truly, it was a labor of love. Earlier, in January, our friend Bailey Thompson, spent several weeks with us, and he dealt nobly with a frightful accumulation of third-class mail~ To both, my , most grateful thanks. Since Father went to the Lord we have been trying to carry on with such assistance as we could manage to our Navajo neighbors, and hardly a day goes by without a visitor, or visitors. It is very gratifying, and comforting, to know that even though Father Liebler is no longer with us (physically, that is, because there are times when I truly feel his loving spirit very close and I know that he is praying for us and for his beloved People), people still come in just to talk and; if the need arises, ,for some counselling help. They have domestic problems, too, not only financial, and it is good to know we are trusted and accepted as friends in these situations. And it is good that help can go both ways - we have received much kindness and help from the famili~s living near by. Also, since there is now no priest for the Church of StMary of the Moonlight., nor likely to be one for some time to come, our presence here offers some support to our Lay Administra tor, Mrs Bertha Paarrish. She is doing a really fine job with keeping church services going. Once a month Father Southworth comes from St Christopher's Mission to . say Mass for our congregation, and once a month Father Plummer comes from St John the Baptizer to do the same thing. On other Sundays Bertha conducts Evening Prayer and does it very well. We sing some Navajo hymns, which I "accompany" (as I laughingly call it!) on the organ, and we all warble away - to our own satisfaction anyway (the Mormon Taber:nacle Choir need not look apprehensively in our direction!). It is a great blessing t~t the days are now warming up, as there has been no heat in the church for some months and we had to have services in the "big house" in which we used, to live, and in Which Bertha and her husband and three children now live. However, "The old order changeth, yielding place to new; and God fulfills himself irt many ways .... " and it would seem that our usefulness here is about over. Bishop Frensdorff of Nevada, who is nnw part-time Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, is planning a co-ordinated effort by all the missions to encourage and promote Navajo, leadership in the church. An admirable goal. But - to put the matter bluntly, and honestly - since the new program will not include us - we are after all past the usual retirement age - we cannot expect our friends to continue to support us in retirement for the rest of our lives, so Brother and I have decided to pool our resources and are now trying to find somewhere else to live agreeable to us both. The Bishop has been most kind and understanding, and has' assured us of some financial help, at least for the next five years, to augment our Social Security checks. For' the time being, of course, our situation remains the same. As you know, we were provided with two trailers by the UTO (United Thank Offering) and the Episcopal Church in Navajo land , which were to be our "retire,men t" homes, and a Warranty Deed was executed guaranteeing individual life-tenancy. However, no provision was made for the ' upkeep and maintenance of these homes. (I must admit to some feelings of consternation when this arrangement was made, anticipating a future when all of us would find ourselves "in the slow lane" and unable to be active in church work and pastoral ministry. But Father Liebler's great desire was to live and die among his beloved Navajo People, so it was unthinkable that we should live anywhere but on the Reservation). As most of you know, since we were in the mission field none of us, including Father, have ever been salaried church workers, so your contributions have had perforce to be used for our maintenance as well as for the many calls on our limited finances made by the very fact of our being here and available to the People in this area. In other words, we found ourselves in much the same position as we were at St Christopher's |