Makah Mission Trip – Day 2
Makah Mission Trip – Day 2
My co-worker and I had a long discussion the other day about Good Friday, today. We were talking about how Easter is a huge deal. There are church services, the Easter bunny, families get together… Why don’t we also recognize Good Friday? That’s actually the day Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice and saved us from our sins. Her and I both think this should be a national holiday! Right up there with Christmas! Am I wrong? I’m pretty jazzed about the fact that 2010 years ago he did this for me. I plan on taking some time out of today to just spend in his presence. I don’t do this nearly enough, but today, I’m going to make a point of it. Might even dust off some of the old worship music that’s been sitting on my shelf for years and give that a round on the guitar. What about you? Let me know if you plan on doing something special to remember this epic day.
Makah – Day 2
Today started off waking up, then immediately packing up all of our personal belongings and loading them back into the bus. The community was using “The Hall,” where we were staying, later in the day, so we couldn’t just leave our bags and sleeping gear lying around. After everything was on the bus, it we had a quick breakfast before walking down the street to The Assembly of God church where we would be having our services all week.
Just before service started, myself and the other men from our trip gathered in a bonus room to pray for the up coming service. This was an awesome way to start off the day, spiritually and simply from a unity standpoint. Once service got underway, there were definitely some cobwebs hanging around. A pretty slow start overall, very low energy and almost an uneasy, “what are we supposed to do” feeling. 
Things really picked up though when Tim grabbed the mic and started sharing the word he had prepared the night before. Unaware to me, Tim, who was sleeping 3 feet from me on the gym floor, was up till 2am preparing this message. His great energy filled the room as he preached about Vision. The rest of the service flew by smoothly.
As service ended Levi, Boaz and I were making an effort to meet some of the locals and try to break through the barrier of local vs. foreigner. Little did we know that we would meet a man, who seemed almost completely deaf, and he would talk our ears off for almost an hour. 
He told us of his experiences in Bible College in Seattle, and how God had delivered him from death a few times. When he was young, he got sick and doctors had to operate on his stomach. They said he actually died for 32 hrs. He also shared how he had been run over by a car locally. It split his head wide open and he spent a few days in a coma. This man seriously had faced some challenges in his life, but that didn’t have any effect on how much he loved the Lord and how full of the Holly Spirit he was. It was pretty cool. Since he stayed around so long after service and the group was getting ready to sit down to lunch in the back room of the church, he was invited to join us. He sat with another group and it looked like he was running through the story again with them, unresponsive to any questions they had as well; again, pretty sure he was completely deaf.
The bus loaded back up after lunch and we drove through town to the Makah Museum. 
The museum owners were very generous and let us take a tour for free. In this community that was about two miles across by two miles deep, I was expecting a little one-room museum. Nope! It was huge! It ran through the history of the Makah people and talked about the ruins, which were covered by a massive mudslide. Most of the artifacts that were in the museum had been recovered from that site. One of the things the Makah people are most famous for is whaling in their culture. The museum walked through how the Makah would whale with a canoe and harpoon. Pretty impressive stuff that left me trying to fathom how much work that would be.
There was no agenda for the rest of the day, so we filled it just trying to relax and prepare for the work we knew we’d be doing for the rest of the week. We made a trip to the general store, some of the guys had a basketball game while most of the girls took a nap, it was pretty nice to unwind from traveling so much the day before. Boaz and I decided to walk around town with his camera after basketball to cool down. We ended up making a very cute stray friend along the way.
After we got back to the church, everyone sat down for a quick dinner and then gathered for an awesome night of worship. The spirit of the Lord was very present during that service. I ended up responding to an alter call with my apprehensions about the trip. I knew the next few days would be a lot of work and I was a little fearful of how I would be able to handle it all. Many other people ended up responding also for pain, both physically and emotionally. 
I love those types of services where people are completely transformed. Myself, after having someone pray for me, all of my fears and apprehensions were gone and I had a new commitment and energy about the coming days.
After service, we played bump, which would end up becoming a regular activity on the trip. 
One of our guys got a little carried away with the bumping and ended up braking a light on the 30 foot ceiling … we all got a good laugh out of it and he ended up disqualifying himself, I think a mix of embarrassment and feeling bad. When the game ended, we decided it had been enough of a day for us. Back at “The Hall,” we unloaded the bus, a few of us grabbed showers, and it was lights out. Tomorrow we start our service to these people by helping with community projects and volunteering. I’m pretty excited to begin blessing these people.
Tags: Christ, Christian, God, Jesus, Makah, Mission trip
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