I spent last week surrounded by the mountains and some amazing people in Sipapu, New Mexico. Friendships were forged that will last for years to come and the little ski resort in Sipapu will never be the same. This is the first blog chronicling my time in Sipapu and the things I learned and experienced during Cross Training 2010.
The "advance van" pulled into Sipapu early in the evening on Saturday and I was greeted by this picture.
If this was all that happened during the week I would have been content, but little did I know that the real journey was beginning the next day. After running 4 miles in the early morning through a light mist we left for church in the village of Chamisal. We went to talk with the minister Juan about the service projects that we would be doing at the church and in the valley during the week. As I entered the church I never imagined the people there would steal my heart so quickly.
We entered the small, aging church to find 20 or so people there for church that day and I wasn’t sure what to expect. You might call what happened there a “worship stew” as 5 different people led songs throughout worship (none of them close to being on key) and more than half the worship was in Spanish. But I found myself getting lost in it. Singing along even though most of the time I hadn’t a clue what the words meant or how to pronounce them, because the hearts that were being poured out in worship were so pure and beautiful. We came to the part in the song, Days of Elijah, that says “of famine, and darkness, and sword” and it was as if my eyes were opened for the first time. Singing about famine and darkness has a whole different meaning when you are sitting in a church in the middle of one of the most poverty stricken counties in America, that is continually plagued by violence; drugs; and gangs. Poverty is a way of life in the valley. Simply put, no one knows different or has hope for change because it has been this way for so long. It seemed that time stopped in the 70’s but the buildings kept decaying.
After church ended and we had spent some time with the people there we headed to the neighboring village of Penasco for lunch. We walked into a small “trendy” restaurant whose walls were filled with Taos artists’ works many selling for more than $600 and whose menu had nothing on it for less than $11. It was as if being in the middle of all the poverty made the place “cool” for tourist and some who had retired in the area. Listening to the conversations at tables around us I couldn’t get the picture of a small jar set on a table at the front of the church building that read “Building Fund $482.99” out of my head. I kept asking myself, “Do these people not know what is going on just 5 miles away?” As we left the restaurant a part of me felt ashamed of the Polo shirt I was wearing, my $90 a month iPhone bill, and the lack of attention I’d paid to those in need my whole life.
As I began to contemplate the stark contrasts that I’d seen that morning and what it meant to me, the campers showed up….
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” -Matthew 25:35-40
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