For three days during the University's Thanksgiving Break,
Colorado Christian University will be sending a team of 16 students to an
Indian reservation in Wyoming. The team will minister to the Northern Arapaho
Tribe on the Wind River Reservation, sharing a Thanksgiving meal with residents
of the tribe.
This November marks the ten-year anniversary since
the trip originated as a student initiative. Supported by CCU faculty and staff
who collect turkeys, Wal-Mart gift cards, canned food, and clothing items, the
team will venture to the reservation to continue to build relationships and
meet the physical needs of the people in the community.
Since 2001,
CCU has annually sent a team to visit the reservation, and this year's team
members are hoping to carry more food and clothing donations to the community
than ever before. The CCU team is also expanding their reach from school
children to seniors, meeting the needs of the older residents on the
reservation, and spending their time ministering to the elders of the
community.
Last year, during the University's Year of Evangelism,
the Women's Basketball team went on the trip and spent three days playing with
the kids in Arapaho School and distributing the food to hundreds of families.
The team took with them 100 turkeys, and 50 coats, along with other donations
of clothing and food.
This isn't the only trip taking place over
Thanksgiving Break though. Another team is visiting a Navajo Reservation in New
Mexico. An alumnus who attended CCU in 2002 began the trip as a ministry to her
hometown, and this year, students will return to spend the entirety of their
break chopping wood and delivering it (along with Thanksgiving turkeys) to the
elderly in the community, supplying the heat the homes will use all winter.
Finally, students and staff will also be working with teenagers from
the Crow reservation in Montana, serving alongside other students who wish to
make a difference in a community outside their own.
Learn more about
all of CCU's mission trips and the University's mission program,
CCU2theWorld.