Makah Mission Trip – Day 1
Well I made it back from Makah. I can’t begin to describe in one post what an amazing experience I had there. I saw lives changed, including my own. I was actually good at keeping a journal of my experiences there so I will break that down for all of you one day at a time. I will definitely admit, some days were better than others but I really want to share my entire experience with all of you. Hopefully it will inspire you to pursue the next missions trip your church is planning, or maybe donate financially to one if you can’t attend. For my first experience, it was everything I could have imagined and more. So, without further a-due, here’s my Makah experience.
Makah Day 1
6:30 am, I pulled into my buddy Boaz’s house to meet him, his wife Jessica, Kayla and Taylor so we could all carpool out to the church together. I had my Starbucks in me and was feeling pumped and ready to go on my first ever mission! This was going to be amazing! We loaded the bus up and headed out around 7:30. Our little group of 5 were some of the first to arrive so we got our pick of the seats on the bus. We chose the front two rows which were the only two that faced each other. This was awesome because it gave us foot rests and we could face each other to talk more on the long drive up to the furthest northwestern point of the United States.
After a quick stop at the Walmart in Woodburn to stretch our legs, we didn’t stop again until we were about an hour over the border into Washington. Our leaders had ordered a bunch of pizzas that we picked up, and had a giant picnic in a park. The weather was gorgeous in the park which allowed us to throw the football around. We stopped again in Port Angeles for a quick rest stop. The tiny little town of Port Angeles has become very well known from the Twilight books. It’s not quite as famous as Forks Washington, but it still had it’s very own “Dazzled by Twilight” store that the tourists who visit the small town because of the books can pick up their souvenirs from. Neah Bay, where the Makah reservation is located, is was only another hour and a half drive. We were told Neah Bay was technically a rain forest, and it was very evident when we hit the rain forest portion. We went from gorgeous blue skies to gray and gloomy rain in a matter of minutes. Despite the change in weather, the sceneray was unreal. Miles of rode run right past a giant crystal clear lake, home to at least a couple bald eagles that we saw, which we discovered later were all over that area and we saw one almost every day.
The last 20 minutes of the drive was spent in prayer and worship. When we started this, I think it finally set in that we were actually almost at this place we had talked about for several months. I definitely got a little more serious, I’ll admit, I may have been even a little nervous about what lied ahead for us. Again, this was my firsts missions trip and I really didn’t know what all to expect. We had discussed several times on our weekly meetings how we weren’t just going to a reservation, but we were going to a spiritual war zone. Our leaders talked about how much the enemy hates the fact that we are coming to this nation to share what Jesus did on the cross, and how every trip seams to have spiritual attacks come against it.While on the bus, we prayed for the community we were about to enter and that God would use us to our fullest potential. I’ll never forget the rush and confidence I had come over me. It was one of the coolest feelings I’ve ever had. I really felt the reason we were on this trip and felt such a presence of God on that bus. As we drove into the town, my heart ached for the condition of most of the houses they were living in. One of the legends of the Makah people involves the Thunderbird, which they idolize everywhere. We saw it on the sides of buildings, on totem poles, all over the place. It was evident that this piece of wood wasn’t doing much to bless the community, but we all know how wonderful the God we serve is, and what he can bring. We first just needed to introduce him.
We arived arrived at Living Waters Church in Neah Bay. This was the church the girls were going to be sleeping in. The entire church consisted of a 15×20 foot room, a small kitchen and a bathroom. Outside, there was a mobile home that was used for sunday school classes on Sundays during service, (you’ll hear much more about this later). Upon arrival, we were greeted by the pastors of this church, husband and wife Pastors Andrew and Andrea. They welcomed us and after quick introduction of the 50 or so people we had brought, it was chow time. BBQ burgers hit the spot after that long drive. After we stuffed our faces, we unloaded the girls stuff from the bus and the guys headed to “The Hall” aka the community center. This is where we would be sleeping all week.
After unloading the rest of the stuff off the bus and setting up our sleeping areas on the hard wood floors of “The Hall”, 5 us us decided we’d rather shower that night than wake up early the next morning. We hopped back on the bus, and a 5 minute drive later, got to the marina where we’d be showering all week. One of the small competitions we had by the end of the week was to see who could take a one quarter (25 cents) shower. One minute to do whatever you need to do to get clean. Happy to say, I was able to accomplish this once. (fist pump)
Falling asleep the first night was anything but simple. I had a million thoughts running through my mind about how we were going to minister to these people. What type of community service projects would I be doing? Would I be starting them tomorrow? It took some time, but eventually, I was able to get to sleep, and rest up for what tomorrow would bring…
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