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The final days of our trip were spent exploring the South West. I am not sure I am suited for the desert long term, but there is something spectacular about the endless sun and open views. We left Bluff, Utah at the crack of dawn and caravanned to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park where we sledded down epic dunes and laboriously climbed back up them again and again! From there we ventured through beautiful gorges and mountain passes to Lake Powell, Arizona where we quickly disembarked, cooled off, cleaned off, and explored the refreshing water of this massive artificial reservoir. The next stop was Horseshoe Bend State Park which if you have never been to I highly recommend. The overlook is a short and easy walk from the parking lot and is hard to capture with words. It is referred to as the “east rim of the Grand Canyon” which testifies to the magnitude of this view of the Colorado river 1000 feet below as it makes a dramatic turn reminiscent of a horseshoe. From here we grabbed dinner at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Page, and headed to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon as the sun was setting. We arrived in time to see the glow of the Canyon from the Desert View Watchtower. Late June allows for an extended sunset and by the time we got to our rooms everyone was ready for sleep. With real air conditioning, real bedding, and a good clean, private shower, we were in heaven!

Our final day together was epic! After a good breakfast and a little preparation at the General Store we embarked on our hike. It was clear that this crew was capable of a serious hike, so we set off for the South Kaibab trail down 1500 feet or so. It would be a real test for our leader who was not comfortable with heights and she was incredible, skipping up the final several hundred feet. Everyone paired up with their prayer partners and really cared for one another on the descent and the ascent. We were attentive to water and snacks and I think everyone was really proud of their achievement as we finished the hike in just over three hours. The views from inside the canyon were powerful. Many of us found a particular spiritual presence inside the canyon that is hard to explain. It is challenging to deny God in a place like that; put another way, it is hard not to feel God’s presence as your entire body is affected by what you are seeing.

We made our way back to the south rim village, grabbed lunch, explored some more and cleaned up for dinner. We spent our evening on the rim watching the sunset and reflecting on the week. We announced our trip MVP, Lily Meehan, who was voted on unanimously, and recognized our dear senior Ryan Masterman. It was an emotional final evening, but one filled with gratitude. Gratitude that we had survived the week. Gratitude for one another, the Mission and the Diné people, particularly Kathy and Walter. And gratitude for creation, and the power of God’s love, as it was literally enveloping us in a golden hue. We had become a family, and all of us knew that the family was about to break up. Not for lack of love or commitment, but because we all keep moving forward. A family changes just as a river does, and as Heraclitus said, we can never step into the same river twice, for we are not the same person, and the river is ever changing. But God wants us to keep growing and evolving; and often these trips contribute more to our growth and evolution in one week than we will ever truly know.

When I think back to our first trip eight years ago to West Virginia I think about the 17-year-old boy trying to fix his plumbing with us, underneath his double wide trailer with holes in the floor, in February, with the snow falling. He had not gone to school that Friday morning because he could not take a shower and he was ashamed of the way he smelled. He couldn’t go in late, because if he missed the bus it would take him over an hour and half to get himself to school.  He was 17 and could speak about Trump and plumbing, but was in the 8th grade, and it was not clear that he would complete his highschool education. He had missed so much school. From his yard littered with generations of “stuff”, we looked across the creek to the most incredible rhododendron grove going up the mountain. I imagine that holler was spectacular in May.

This boy's home was an hour deep into the West Virginia mountains from our ASP (Appalachia Service Projects) site, which was several hours off any interstate. We were far from anything that felt like civilization, as we had been at St. Mary’s on the reservation in Utah. But it was beautiful, even in February.  

We spent those days pulling out wet and nasty insulation from underneath the trailer; we tried to fix the plumbing and we re-built the stairs so that the family could get in and out of the house safely. As we worked that same boy stridently communicated his excitement of the coming election, and his ability to vote-to vote for Trump. His mother, who wanted little to do with us, sat on the couch each day watching Desperate Housewives. We saw this boy's life, and, like the Diné, he felt left behind.

The final night of that West Virginia worktrip my 15-year-old son became unsettled. He confessed that he didn’t always know what his purpose was back here on the Main Line, but there in West Virginia, he could identify his purpose with conviction: to love and to serve. An epiphany so profound at any age, and undoubtedly encouraged by everything that he had seen and experienced that week.

I often reflect on the trips we have taken over the years. The time spent in Appalachia getting to know the lifestyles, traditions and beliefs of mountain people. Or of DC and the many people experiencing homelessness that we encountered; their individual stories of mental health battles, family tragedies, and survival. And now to the Southwest where we learned first hand what a desert reservation really looks like and who the people are that inhabit that seemingly uninhabitable terrain. Would any kids, or adults for that matter, see these places, or meet these people without these trips? I believe all traveling to be valuable; it opens up the world, it educates us and enhances our global understanding of people. But these “worktrips,” as we call them, are more about the work of attempting to follow the gospel through understanding and love. I believe it is less about the physical work and more about the transformative nature of relationships. Relationships with one another in the group, and relationships with the “other” in our communities or the broader nation, those we often don’t know or understand. It is about allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and open to all of God’s people. When we learn to approach people this way as teenagers it is all the more possible that we will continue to approach all people this way, into, and throughout, adulthood.