World Missions Ministry Spotlight: The Owen Project
Below is a reflection from Mark Keddal, who went on an exploratory trip to the Episcopal Church in Navajoland in Winter 2022 with his wife, Sally, and the Rev. Stephen Shortess of St. Andrew's, Seguin.
My inspiration comes from Ranier Maria Rilke who wrote this about his search for God:
Only a thin wall lies between us,
and that is chance; for it could happen:
A call from my lips or yours -
and it would fall in, without ado.
Because it is built of pictures of you.
In Jerusalem, looking at the old city from the Mount of Olives, new construction almost obscures the holy sites. You must look carefully to find them. Once inside those sites, you must go far beneath the surface to find the stones that Christ once touched. Coptic, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant pilgrims jostle one another searching for God. The prayers and fears, the yearnings and doubts of the many millions who have gone before you hang in the air there like incense.
Is it any different here in Texas? Is it any easier to recognize holy sites? Are there any holy sites? Have most among us given up the search? Is the physical confusion of Jerusalem somehow matched by an internal confusion here, characterized by a cacophony of voices, advertisements, TV images and social media feeds? Is this our "wailing wall?"
Filled with their own prayers and fears, yearnings and doubts, a small group of parishioners from St. Andrew's, Seguin traveled to the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, hoping to establish a new home for the Owen Project. In the ten years of operation, the project has deployed more than one thousand laptops to rural school children in Honduras and Guatemala. Responding to the painful light that the pandemic continues to shine on disturbing inequalities in the U.S., the Rev. Stephen Shortess and Mark and Sally Keddal decided to shift their mission focus [closer to home, to mission partners in] Navajoland.
The Rev. Shortess was a seminary classmate of several of the clergy serving in Navajoland and scheduled a meeting with the Rt. Rev. David Bailey, Bishop of Navajoland, and Canon Cornelia Eaton in Farmington, New Mexico. The group respectfully and cautiously presented the ideals of the Owen Project and introduced its history. Much to our relief, the presentation was warmly received, particularly our commitment to a long and sustained involvement.
Our experience in Central America has taught us that there are no clear givers and receivers in mission work. Instead, two communities explore how it is that we are to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Bishop Bailey and Canon Eaton gifted us with their excitement about how Episcopal and Navajo spiritualities might enrich one another, and how we might be part of that amalgamation.
The next several days involved marathon driving through incomparably austere and starkly beautiful landscapes to visit churches in three different states. In Utah we saw St. Christopher's Mission and met the Vicar, the Rev. Joe Hubbard, and at St. John the Baptizer, we met the Rev. Paula Henson.
A persistent theme emerged from our conversations concerning the plight of young Navajo mothers and their children. Poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, isolation and cultural despair combine to produce physical abuse and abandonment for many Navajo women and young children. They are the most vulnerable of the already vulnerable. To address this, churches in the diocese hope to create women's shelters that also provide for care for their children. Perhaps here the Owen Project might serve some purpose.
Standing on a rise just above a sheep camp, watching a glorious sunset, for a precious few moments, to the Rev. Shortess, Canon Eaton and I, the wall that Rilke wrote about a century ago came down.
Mark Keddal
St. Andrew's, Seguin
- Click here for more information and history of the Owen Project.
