Over nine days in July, a group of 14 volunteers from Almond Valley Christian Reformed Church in Ripon, Calif., caravanned 900 miles to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico to help a fellow CRC in need. The group blessed Crownpoint CRC by fixing windows, renovating a bathroom, and restoring water to the church parsonage. Volunteers also installed a new sound system in the church building and hosted a vacation Bible school for children in the community. The group from Almond Valley was blessed in return through the unity they found and the trust they developed in God’s unique plans.
The connection between the two churches started after a denominational Council of Delegates meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich. Mark VanDyke, pastor of Almond Valley, was riding back to the airport with Tabitha Manuelito, a delegate from Classis Red Mesa. She mentioned that there was a CRC in New Mexico in need of a sound system after a recent burglary. VanDyke’s California congregation later reached out to Crownpoint CRC and learned there were other ways they could help.
After some time of discernment and fundraising, Almond Valley sent a scouting party to Crownpoint to determine the logistics of the service project. “Things came together so providentially and beautifully,” VanDyke said. “So many people (at Almond Valley) stepped up giving money so that we could go and make a lot of the repairs.” Almond Valley also took donations of new clothes and school supplies to Crownpoint for that church to distribute to its community.
“We were excited for the project because it would connect us with another Christian Reformed church,” VanDyke said. “Classis Red Mesa holds a special place in the hearts of Christian Reformed people, and it was great to travel there to learn more about what the Lord has done in the Christian Reformed churches in northern Arizona and New Mexico for the past 100 years.”
Randy Eskes of Ripon, Calif., went on the initial scouting trip and was one of the project leaders. He has been a building contractor for 43 years, so he is used to planning jobs and controlling how and when work gets done. He said God taught him a few things on this project, especially when the group arrived in New Mexico and some plans needed to be scrapped.
“God certainly used my years of experience in managing jobs, but I needed to learn to let go and to trust God more,” Eskes said. “An even more valuable lesson I learned on this trip is that the physical work we did is only a means to an end. Building relationships is the most important thing that we can do. I concentrate on doing a job. God is concerned with building relationships with him and each other.”
Doris Anema was part of the VBS team headed by 87-year-old Irene Bishop. “We planned the stories, the songs, the games, the crafts as best we could, but the one thing we couldn’t plan was how many would be coming,” Anema said. Between six and 12 kids attended on each of the four days, with the scheduled starting times becoming as flexible as the turnout.
From digging a trench for plumbing, cleaning windows, and renovating a bathroom to painting a mural, wiring a sound system, and leading VBS sessions, Almond Valley found its service unified the volunteers as a team. They returned to California hoping for more service-mindedness in their church. This trip was not just for building memories to reminisce upon in the future, VanDyke said, but to be prompted and pushed to do more for God’s kingdom by serving others.