Western Plains District

Western Plains District worked a week in mid-September at Lybrook Community Ministries, near Cuba, New Mexico.  Twelve volunteers from Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Ohio worked on a laundromat at the mission and helped two Navajo families with their homes on the reservation.

In 2014 the only Laundromat within a 50-mile area closed, leaving families with a long drive to wash their clothes. Those without cars rely on the mission for a weekly trip to shop or now do laundry. Over the past three years various groups have worked to build the structure, and donations have come in to purchase machines.  This September, skilled Western Plains craftsmen were able to do the wiring and plumbing bringing the project closer to completion.

Volunteers worked along our Navajo brothers and sisters with painting, siding, and flooring projects in two families’ homes.  We were treated to meals of posole and beans with delicious Navajo tortillas and fry bread.

The Mission also operates a food pantry and thrift store.  With new donations to the store in tow, volunteers cleaned, reorganized, and restocked the store which had a great response to the new items for sale.

Our oldest volunteer was 92-year-old Ethmer Erisman, a retired Church of the Brethren minister from Warrensburg, Missouri, who has always wanted to visit the mission. Others included Gail Erisman Valeta, Henry Gong, and Vickie Samland, Denver; Ed Johnson, Arnold, NE; Phil and Sammy Deacon, Eaton OH; Dean Holloway, Bud and Susan Taylor, McPherson.

The Lybrook Navajo Mission was formed in 1952 by the General Board of the Church of the Brethren (now Mission and Ministry Board).  As the Church of the Brethren’s only denominational outreach to Native Americans, it has had a significant and continuous impact. Its focus in prior years, in response to the special needs of the area, has included sharing the Gospel, combating alcoholism, providing public education and medical care, and meeting numerous community and family needs including maintaining a cemetery and providing a source of safe potable water to the area.

Lybrook Community Ministries, Inc. was formed in 2009 to continue the work of Lybrook Navajo Mission and to bring centralized leadership and operations to the Lybrook community. Tókàhookaadí Church of the Brethren, an anchor of Lybrook Navajo Mission, continues as part of the faithful vision that is now Lybrook Community Ministries.  Jim and Kim Therrien serve as pastors and directors.

~Submitted by Susan & Bud Taylor
Western Plains District Disaster Response Coordinators