BAH! IT'S BEEN FOR-EV-ER!

Hey, kids! I have been meaning to write a blog but I've been kind of busy with my internship so I'll just catch you up real quick...

Arizona is amazing! It is so good to be back out here! Erin is the other summer intern out here and she is totally awesome! Great girl with a great heart! We've been at the Kennel a lot working with short term groups that come in and we've been doing a lot for Hoops on the Rez. Hoops on the Rez is a basketball camp that AYM hosts every year and it's awesome. Saturday we are helping pick up a short term team of about 20 AND 40 basketball players who have basically been recruited to help out this year...don't worry...it's not like Dwight Howard is coming or anything...but college players none the less! Hoops on the Rez is amazing because it brings in sooooo many Apache Youth. These kids are good at ball and this is such a great opportunity for them because they don't really have anything to do all day except sit around and that plays in to them getting in to trouble. 

Speaking of, it is still a very dark place out here. Some of you have caught on to the little girl that has stolen my heart, Sequoia. The other night we dropped her off at home on our way up to Pinetop and her mom was not home. Sequoia seemed very upset and we all knew why-this is something that happens quite often. When we went to pick her up the next morning Sequoia asked "If you see my mom, will you tell her to come home?" Wow. It ripped my heart out of my chest. What kid should have to beg their parent to come home? It reminded me of the story of the Prodigal Son but in reverse. 

That's life for a lot of these kids out here-and for most their stories are even worse than that...

But to me, it doesn't matter how awful it gets out here because I have met some amazing Apache teens who have chosen another way of life. A way of hope. That being said, I will never tolerate the word "hopeless" in reference to the Reservation. I've heard it one too many times from people back at home and if I hear it one more time I am going to freak out on who ever says it! haha. I know that sounds harsh, but I've realized I have sat on the sideline in one too many a conversation that degrades the Reservation. Yes, the Reservation and any other location for that matter, is hopeless without Christ but it's a slap in the face to say the Rez is "hopeless", that the kids out here "don't have a chance". Even just typing that out makes me want to curse like a sailor because it's all lies! Hopeless is a word used by the lazy. Sorry if that's rude or too straight forward but I believe it with my whole heart.

The Reservation gives me hope. Sequoia, Rainey, Dmitri, Millie, Marissa, Tia...these are the kids that give me hope.

On a lighter note, I have been overwhelmed by the support of my friends while I've been out here. Why this came as a shock to me I have no idea because I have the most amazing friends a girl could ask for...but still...my friends have gone above and beyond anything I could ever ask for them. I am truly blessed to have you in my life. YOU give me hope.