Father Jim and his wife Melissa posed with the Cathedral youth group. For the past three years a group of young people at the Cathedral of the Incarnation have participated in “Journey to Adulthood,” a program that blends action and contemplation in teaching young people faithful living. As part of the program, the Cathedral teens planned and raised funds for a mission trip to the Navajo Nation in Arizona and Utah.

The first stop was the Good Shepherd Mission in Fort Defiance, Arizona. The teens spent time painting a large Parish Hall, clearing and cleaning an uninhabitable home of debris so a Navajo couple could have clean, affordable housing, and working on a village common area which had become overgrown and unusable. The opportunity of working with the clergy of the Good Shepherd Mission was both inspiring and enlightening to the teens. Before leaving Good Shepherd, the group attended a Sunday service celebrated in both the English and Navajo languages. Navajo is the most complex of all native languages and was the one used by the Windtalkers during World War II.

Elenore (left) and Nicole (right) posed with new tenant, Amanda. After leaving Good Shepherd Mission, the travelers made their way to the very remote St. Christopher’s Mission in Bluff, Utah. The total population in Bluff is 232 people and it is so remote that many of the people have no water or electric services. While visiting this mission, the Cathedral teens hosted a dinner for the Navajo teens. Although there are many differences in the cultures of the Cathedral and Navajo teens, there was commonality, too, with music and basketball being major topics of interest. The Cathedral youth visited the reservation schools and did presentations about Long Island and September 11 th for both high school and elementary children. The elementary-age children were given gifts of Long Island seashells and nautical gifts made by Cathedral Church School children. In addition to the physical labor they provided, the visiting group donated much-needed pillows, linens and blankets for the 16 beds in the mission house.

The last night of the journey was spent in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the travelers attended Sunday services and then enjoyed dinner with the youth of St. John’s Cathedral.

The poverty of the reservation and the third-world existence of people living in a first-world country has given these young travelers a great awareness of all the work that is yet to be done. All are looking forward to continuing and expanding this new relationship with the Navajo missions.