To watch a 10 minute video of the 2010 Christmas Feast, please visit...
http://www.youtube.com/user/SacredRoad#p/u/0/gERF3jVmW6o
The meal included fresh salmon and venison (provided and prepared by Rex and Sandra Zack), ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, jello salad, rolls, fry bread, fresh salad, vegetable tray, and homemade desserts. Later each person in attendance received a give ranging in value from $8-$25. I would estimate that the meal and the gift were worth anywhere from $30-$40 combined for over 400 people! The amazing thing is that the actual cost to Sacred Road was $2.50 per person because so much of the food, and all of the gifts, were donated by believers from all over the country! In other words, we were able to throw a $15,000 party to celebrate Christmas and it only cost (us) $1000! And that doesn't include "labor" and rent for the "facility" (which is free to us too).
All of this may sound "over the top", but we believe there is nothing more worthy of celebration than the birth of our Savior and we want the people in this community to join us in celebrating and worshiping Him wholeheartedly... even in a recession :).
I'm very proud of the "regular attenders" from Hope Fellowship (our baby church) who worked very hard to prepare for this event. They did a great job setting up and cleaning up afterward, preparing and serving the meal, decorating the longhouse, sorting and wrapping and distributing the gifts, etc. The teenagers from Hope Fellowship stood out in particular. Thirty-five youth came to the longhouse and made the decorations and spent two hours putting them up. They did a great job serving throughout the night of the feast. We are very excited about these future leaders of the church.
As usual, I am also very proud of the Sacred Road staff who worked tirelessly and cheerfully for weeks and served behind the scenes throughout the evening. We have been blessed with a great team.
On a more personal note, I really enjoyed seeing hundreds of smiling faces throughout the evening. When you visit White Swan, even for a few hours, you become aware of so much pain and suffering and brokenness and darkness. If you stay longer you begin to see the beauty of elements of the culture and the beauty and "worth" of the people, each of whom are created in the image of God. When you spend a summer (or longer) here you begin to see the "beauty and the brokenness" all tangled up together in a complicated knot that only Jesus can untie. When you see large groups of folks gather together here it is usually for a funeral. There, of course, you see sad faces (or folks who are trying not to look too sad). The beauty of the Christmas Feast is seeing so many happy, excited smiling faces. I recognize that much of the excitement and joy is related to the food and the gifts. But I also know that the Holy Spirit loves to use opportunities like a wonderful meal to draw our attention to the Great Feast, the Ultimate Feast, that is offered to us in Christ and that we will enjoy in fullness in Heaven. He loves to use the receiving of a small gift to draw our attention to the Greatest of all gifts, the Ultimate Gift, which, of course, is the Savior, wrapped in diapers, presented in a feeding trough, in a shed, in a small, "insignificant" town a whole lot like White Swan.
In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I choose to believe that the Spirit is moving in just that sort of way, not just at the annual Christmas Feast, but throughout the year, in this community, drawing "beautiful, broken" people, like me, to Himself.
Thank you again for your prayers, your gifts, and your service toward that end. We could not be here and do this without you and our fellow believers.
Merry Christmas!
Chris
This year was my second time to be involved in the Christmas Feast. Last year, one of my favorite memories was working with the youth and helping to decorate the Longhouse for the celebration. I remember wondering last year, what would we do if we didn’t have enough help? We ended up having about 15 kids come by and help. This year, we had almost 40 teens working together to decorate the longhouse. A number of them had already been helping make props for the Christmas drama during the feast. We made two sheep, a manger and a star. Five of the youth worked with Joshua, our children’s director, to help the kids during the drama get their costumes on and go out on the floor at the right time. Youth also helped with a lot of other parts of the feast including passing out the gifts at the end. I was very proud of all of them and so I think my favorite moments were at the very beginning and end of the feast. At the beginning, Chris welcomed everyone and thanked the youth for decorating the Longhouse. At the end, Wendell closed the feast and said that it was hard to imagine that 40 teenagers in White Swan could work together to do something like the decorations he saw. Please pray for all of the teenagers – that they would know Jesus and know that He is trustworthy.
God Bless!
Chuck Clevenger, Sacred Road Youth Director
The beginning of the Kid’s Nativity Skit was really chaotic and getting the kids into costumes took a long time and was confusing. Eventually, all of the kids wound up walking out and they did a good job. The best part was that I envisioned having the kids line up on each side of the manger, much like a typical manger scene, but that didn’t happen. Instead they just made a big circle around the manger. The 11 children and 2 youth knew instinctively that they were supposed to be looking at Baby Jesus, and you can’t very well see Him when you’re down on the end of a line. It was a really neat moment seeing the kids understand the importance of Jesus and wanting to see Him, and it was a wonderful night with many happy children and families.
Joshua Tsavatewa, Sacred Road Children's Director
This year my perspective of the Christmas Feast comes mostly from inside the kitchen. We, which includes Mary, me, several local church small groups, women and men from the community, and helpers from the Tri-cities and Seattle areas, cooked and served a Christmas dinner to 400+ people. The meal consisted of ham, turkey, venison, salmon, mashed potatoes, gravy, potato salad, fruit salad, green beans, relish plates, cranberry sauce, fry bread, rolls, and the largest array of Christmas desserts I have ever seen. As the meal time drew closer we were joined by more and more women from the community. We had fry bread being made in one corner for several hours. There were women cutting up venison roasts, while others filled 50 bowls of mashed potatoes and green beans. It was bustling. I spent several years in High school working for a catering company and when the time drew close for the meal to be out and served stresses were always high. Well, that was not the case at the feast. It was busy, but it was full of joy. Everyone was excited to be able to serve so much food to so many people. It was fun to watch the women in the community take ownership of the food that was being served and to work under their capable guidance.
Thank you for all of you who were praying the night of the feast. I know that your prayers were the reason we had such a calm and enjoying time in the kitchen on the night of the feast.
Heather German, Coordinator of Mercy and Hospitality
How do we celebrate Christmas anymore? How do we celebrate Christmas in the midst of a broken, beat up, poverty stricken community which is surrounded by first world wealth? A community that is bombarded by messages of glitz and glamour through the televisions which they use to escape the ever present sense of pain and despair. A community that has been told they are surrounded by a "Christian" nation. On Tuesday night, we entered into the longhouse to celebrate! After a torrent of funerals, we celebrated with a feast, songs, the children's expression of the Gospel in a Nativity drama, and with gifts! What a celebration we had! The women who joined me in the kitchen as the day drew on were overwhelmed with how much food was provided for the dinner. We had hams, turkeys, deer, and salmon. We had mashed potatoes (4 extra large roasting pans full!), potato salad, fruit salad, a relish plate, green beans, fry bread, and rolls. Over 70 desserts came in from Christians who baked for White Swan! As we served the food to the tables, the rooms were so full! Over 400 came to the Christmas feast this year to join in the celebration. So much pain, so much grief has been borne by our neighbors here, but this was a time to celebrate the message of HOPE. A Savior has been born for us! Each year we host this Christmas Feast I see the understanding of this hope in Christ growing. Each year our neighbors are coming and enjoying themselves and one another more. Each year there are more that come to serve alongside of our Sacred Road ministry team, especially the youth in the community! I saw so much answered prayer on Tuesday night! Thank you for praying! We have had no deaths this week. The presence of the Body of Christ was felt in the longhouse on Tuesday and I saw a real division between the kingdom of this world, which has had a hold on White Swan for so long, and the Kingdom of God. The Lord went before us and there was a peace, even in the midst of the chaos of throwing a party for 400+. The message of hope came across loud and clear, and hearts really were warmed by the light of the Gospel! Many who came in somber, left with smiles! May the Good News continue to change hearts as it has changed and continues to change mine! As Mary exclaimed while carrying our Savior Jesus, "And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things" ~Luke 1: 51-53 Thank you for your prayers, Mary |
