Storage Unit is no more!

After 1 1/2 years living back east away from the reservation, with our stuff stored, the storage unit is no more!  That "monster" has been slayed, and now we can finish with last minuet packing and be ready to leave KY to live in Dine Bikeyah on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  So excited!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

8 days till departure...

Busy, busy, busy! Sorting, packing, donating, and praying.  In just 8 days we will be on the road returning to Dine Bikeyah.  After a year and a half on furlough, it is time to return to our beloved Navajo!  It is sad to say good-bye to friends and family here in Kentucky, but there is much work waiting for us among the Navajo.   We have a 2 bedroom duplex waiting for us, and only a bookshelf and dishes to furnish it with thus far.  But as always, where God guides, He provides...

We have a two day journey starting out on the 28th, when we will be spending the night in Oklahoma, then we shall push on to Farmington, NM on the 29th.    We sign on the duplex the 30th and spend our first night in it that day!  We officially move in on February 2nd.


God is so good, and He is the Lamp unto our feet and the Light to our path... no matter how little beyond the next step we see He always goes there ahead of us.

Ahe'hee'! (Thanks!): to all who have helped and are continuing to make our work among the Navajo happen!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Set Up at Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin

Yesterday, we were blessed to be able to set up and share at our missions table about our mission among the Navajo.  Our home church Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin, KY has been such a blessing in this journey back to the Navajo. We are honored to have them as our sending church!  We were blessed with two support pledges, and many more interested and 10 signed up to recessive the paper version of our newsletter!

21 days, that is what (housing approval pending) we may have left till we leave for Dine Bikeyah!  We are busy packing, sorting, and deciding what gets taken, what gets stored, and what is gone forever...  'Tis not an easy time but so worth the challenge.   As it is often said, "Where God guides, He provides.  Where He leads, He feeds."  That is sure being proven true, over and over for us!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Back in Kentucky/Opening Doors

Been back in Kentucky for about 2 months busy working and saving, and God keeps surprising us with awesome doors to walk though.  Not that everything is easy.  Never is when preparing to serve the Lord in ministry.  But the door that is opening for us right now is big, and we are praying whole heartily for wisdom on timing to walk through it.  When we do, it would mean being back in Dine Bikeyah for good this time and would be a major step forward for us... timing is the issue/wisdom we need!

~ Rob and Michelle 

In Dine Bikeyah...

So we are back out on the rez for a week.  Wish it were for better reasons we came.  The lose of a17 year old is never easy. Nor should it be. Yet sure are we of where he is today, in heaven with Jesus.  It was good to see our many friends who were here for the memorial.  Many from BABR, college, and Thoreau.  Now we have a week here to perpare and refocus.

What do we mean by refocusing?  When one faces  great hardships, tis wise to look at where we are at, what path God has set before us, and steps are needed to get there.  This is such a time for us.  We know that we are home nowhere but Dine Bikeyah... so what more can we do to get home?  Soon time will make that clear too.

Rob and Michelle

Christian Chapel Foursquare Church

Shared at Christian Chapel Foursquare Church about our hear for the Navajo this morning.  Started out by singing the chorus of "Jesus Ayoo'asho'ni (Jesus Loves Me in Navajo)".  Then shared about Rob and my past and future ministry working in Dine Bikeyah.  Things went well.  We received a few pledges, plus a Love Offering of about equal to 2 1/2 to 3 tanks of Gas.  When ministry gas money goes from one Love Offering to another, that is a major blessing!  Thank you so much to everyone at Christian Chapel who gave, thank you to those who gave pledges, and thank you soo much for our prayer friends.  Everyone makes a big difference in this ministry!

~ Michelle

Trip going great!

Here I am in Kansas for a flying trip around Wichita (Hutchison Family I will see you next trip...) visiting churches, speaking with Friends, going to a medical check up, seeing adopted family, and all this while still connecting with our past Friend/support teams.  Yet, my mind keeps wondering off to this coming January to March, and our move to Dine Bikeyah.  I am so hom sick right now, in part because of how much I keep sharing about it.  Flue for the fire to get us back home....

~ Michelle

Travel and Our Hearts...

 So, our travels begin with Michelle taking a trip to Kansas.  Then we will be traveling around Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and then Texas and who knows where else.  It will be good to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and see how missions is done around the USA at the churches we visit.  Cannot wait for this adventure... but even more we are longing to return to our home in Dine Bikeyah, the San Juan Region of the Navajo Reservation!


What can we say?  When there are over 265,000 Navajo living in an area a little larger than the state of West Virginia, and only 1% - 2% are born again believers.  48,000 of these live in the San Juan Region, and we have only 10 churches among the Navajo in this region. That is 1 Small Church (holding 100-200 people) per 4,800 Navajo.  Poverty is high.  Many areas have not had electricity yet, in 2013!  Hopelessness is a Great Plague, and often is the root of alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and suicide all of which are 5x's higher than the National averages.  Is it any wonder we long to get back to our mission work among the Navajo?

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Next Stop...

Winds of change, as we have been in Kansas helping family out... but work is not forth coming.  We love our friends, we love my adopted family, we wish we could spend more time with my birth family... but we have to think of what is best our little family, to, get back into ministry, and  back to Dine Bikeyah.  It might take a while, but we will get back.  For now Kentucky is the next stop...

~ Rob and Michelle

Broken Pieces

Sometimes life has left us in pieces and we just dont know it yet...
That is what I learned these past 5 months, I was broken and in pieces and just didnt know it. Now the pieces with Jesus help are back together, and healing...  Time to get with the journey this life has to offer... on to Dine Bikeyah!

~ "Morria"

Learning Authenticity ...

It has been 3 years seen I have been here, and I don't just mean since I was in Wichita... For the last 3 years I have lived in the land of bright blue skies, monsoons, and deep snows.  Some call it the badlands of New Mexico, I call it Dine Bikeyah, the land of the Navajo, the land of the people.  I left part of my heart there for sure, and soon hope to return, this time 100% myself...

You see, when I left Chicago and came to Wichita in 2009, I thought I could not be me, and go where I was going...
I thought there was no place for the gal in black and brown, with her gypsy, wild west, steampunk,  tribal tastes.  Yet time has taught me otherwise... I can be 100% me and still be where I want to be and live the life I am called to.  That is not an easy lesson, being authentic, to be a ragamuffin.... but it is one well worth learning.  I have learned living in the here and now, letting go my fears, being myself, keeping hungry for Truth,  being adaptable/flexible, being grateful, and learning to be more merry/light hearted, are helping so much....

So, as I step out of the wrong shadows in which I hid for so long, and pull off my mask to be myself, I say to you, "Seek out who you are and what you are to be.  Find where you are both challenge and at home (yes, at the same time), and get busy doing what you are meant to do!"

~ "Morria"

New Year...

Here we are, off the mission field for 5 months, and still no word about a new assignment or which district on the Rez we will be working with. Our hearts are homesick for our Navajo family out in Dine Bikeyah.  Winter is in full force out in the high desert, and it would be very cold if we were there now.  How distant it seems...  Who knows what this new year holds for us?


A New Pathway

A journey now lays be for us,
A new way of doing things,
A new day dawning,
A new adventure to embrace...

~ Rob and Michelle

Southwest in my Blood...

My birth mom, was born in Colorado.  I was born in Western Kansas.  The western soul and the winds
of the west flow in my very being.  After living a wee over 2 years in Dine Bikeyah, I can honestly say, you can take the woman out of the Southwest, but you can't take the Southwest out of the woman.  Homesickness for the West aches in my heart.  The slower, rancher pass of life, "Rez Time" if you would, beckons me.   Soon my heart,  you will at least have a visit.

~ "Morria"

Furlough

So for the next how ever long, we will be on furlough.  We don't know when we will be returning to our beloved Dine Bikeyah.  But until then we will be working odd jobs, and gathering items we need.  Praying that we get a new assignment soon...

~ Rob and Michelle 

Reflecting

As I sit here, with cool weather coming upon us, reflecting on these past 9 years since I started blogging back in February, 2003, I am struck by the journeys I have been on.  I have been looking at a few of the keepsakes that are here with me: the glass bottle with dirt from Dine Bikeyah, the doll called "Gypsy" that Robby got me as a gift, the cedarwood flute I am learning to play, and the few photos about the room with friends and places from the journey.   These past 9 years have brought many people into my life: many, many more than I can list (or spell all the names of... ~_^)  And of course, it brought me Robby, too!

One of the biggest surprises and blessings has been my little sister, Chissy, and her son (my nephew), Ethan, entering my life.  Chrissy was a surprise to me on so many levels.  First that she was in my life, after not being for 24 years.  Now, I am shocked that we have become best of friends, the "forever friends" that sisters should be.  Tis not a bad shock, but a joy I never dared dream would be mine. What a blessing it is to have Chrissy and Travis back in my life again!

So many things have changed over the past 9 years, but these three remain the same: my love for Celtic Christianity, my desire to journey and travel for God, and the calling (now clear) to Dine Bikeyah.

"May Jesus's peace rest with you all, and may you each find your journey-tasks!  Blessings! Amen."

~ "Morria"

Torn..

Here I sit in a home soon not to be mine, torn between my life here in Dine Bikeyah and the new life I will lead in Kentucky until our return... Yes, the open road is calling me.  Yes, I am very restless.  BUT  I have so many friends here.  I have a good life here, except for no work... *la sigh* Tis that not work part thats killing me... 11 days and then farewell, for how long I know not... Next time I will ask for more than a year settled down...

Tis not like we don't have friends in Kentucky; we do, and family, too!  It is just we have not lived there in 3 years.  We both have changed, grown, and become different.  We know where "home" is, where we are called.  Until the day we get to settle (though the road will always be part of my life), the day we establish "home base" here in Dine Bikeyah... I will be among the wanderers.  As Tolkin said, "Not all who wanderer are lost."

~ Rob and Michelle

Culture Shock

What is culture shock? One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Just as easily though, could be one going to another culture or subculture in their home town or any one of the Native American tribes around the USA.  Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of five distinct phases: Honeymoon, Negotiation, Adjustment, Mastery and the interdependence. There is no true way to entirely prevent culture shock, as individuals in any society are personally affected by cultural contrasts differently.

What is the Honeymoon phase?  In this stage a person is in love with their new culture, the food the clothing, the language, everything about it is new and exciting.  This for me lasted for the first 6 months out here in Dine Bikeyah.

What is the Negotiation phase?  This is were one begins to negotiate through the new culture one is living in.  It is a period of great exploration and also frustration, for me this took about 3 months after the honeymoon was over.

What is the Adjustment phase?  This is where one begins to really adjust to a culture and find ones place within it.  It cant take 6-12 months.  For me, I am just now wrapping up my own adjustment phase. (Michelle)

What is the Mastery phase?  In the mastery stage assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture. Mastery does not mean total conversion; people often keep many traits from their earlier culture, such as accents and languages. It is often referred to as the biculturalism stage

This is what any honest traveller goes through, and many times makes re-entry to own one home cultures hard on return visits.  Pray for all of us serving among other culture.  ^_^  You have no clue how much your prayers help us!

~ Rob and Michelle

Dine Bikeyah Calling...

I was 16 years old the first time I heard the words, "I hear Dine Bikeyah calling..."  I was sitting on a chair in Wichita, KS watching Rich Mullin's musical, Canticle of the Plains.  Then I learned, "Dine Bikeyah is a real place, its the land of the people, the land of the Navajo."  Right there at the edge of my seat, I felt some how Dine Bikeyah and the Navjao people were to be my future...

Now I am 29, and I have been living in Dine Bikeyah for over 2 years.  I am still just a beginner in the beautiful Navajo language, and I live just off the rez in the town of Thoreau.  Yet my heart is pulled there deeply, especially when I have been gone for a while.  I get homesick when I leave Dine Bikeyah.  I have found my home among a people not my own.  I have found a place to stop wandering, in a land not my own, and I am home, at last.

~ Michelle

Thanksgiving

 Twas an interesting day, this first Thanksgiving in New Mexico...  Work today was very calm and peaceful, a few people needing table cloth covers but that was all.  At least, having to work I dont have be there for the Black Friday madness.  As I was there so early, I bought myself a beautiful train pocket watch, as my eagle one has died... Needed it to keep track of time for lunch and brakes.  They had a feast for us at work, the whole works, but I did not pig out, as Robby promised a feast at home too...

I got home from my 60 plus mile journey to work and back, and delightful smells greeted me at the door.  Robby had me take a long hot bath, as the eve is cold, and put on fresh clothing.  In the mean time, he put finishing touches on our feast...  I am so proud of him.  He really out did himself!

I am so thankful for being here in Dine Bikeyah,  our warm home,  Robby, our friends, and most of all my Savior, Iosa (Jesus)!  Thanksgiving blessings to all!

~ Michelle

Journey to Flagstaff

We have left for Flagstaff, AZ stopping off at Broken Arrow Bible Ranch to work for the last week of this summer of 2010! Flagstaff lies just beyond the southwestern boarder of the Navajo Rez, and was nested in the southwestern scared mountains of Dine Bikeyah called the San Francisco Peaks.  We are going be to get more training to aid us in our ministry, while going out to other locations like Gallup and Kayenta, and maybe others.

Flagstaff is an awesome city, a mix of Hippyishness with Old Westerness meeting in a modern college town, and though it is beautiful, and traditionally part of Dine Bikeyah, it still is not "Home".  After a year dwelling here we hope to return to Broken Arrow Bible Ranch for a summer, and hope to settle in  the eastern part of Dine Bikeyah.

What does this journey hold for us next?  Little do we know, save He who created all of Heaven and Earth, tis He who charts our course and show us the path to walk,.. May we His servants but listen to His guidance, and follow His path.

~ Rob and Michelle