Olympic Peninsula, Washington
All Things Works Together for Good to Them That Love God
by Rosemary Sternbeck
We have had many starts, stops, turns, and adjustments to bring us to where we are this fall. It is always nice to look back and see what God was doing when we thought things were flying out of control!
Our Community Arts Center building project has been moving forward. It now has a beautiful coat of paint. Thanks to a wonderful team from St. Paul’s Lutheran in Trenton, MI it is also wired and insulated. We had planned for the heating duct work (Christ Memorial Lutheran, St. Louis, MO) and drywall (Our Savior Lutheran, Puyallup, WA) to be finished in consecutive weeks. However, God had other plans and both teams will be there at the same time. We were sure this would be a major problem but both groups are 
looking forward to getting to know each other and working side by side on the building. They will also get to experience Makah Days in Neah Bay.
Our Morning Star Girls Club finished their year with their annual tea. Thirteen little girls decorated tables with their own basket arrangements of silk flowers. This year they also had a fashion show. The younger girls modeled their aprons and reversible handbags. Three of the girls made dresses and decorated hats to match. Some of the girls made a special effort during the year to come on their own time to make baby blankets. These were displayed also. In all, about 40 people were served and there were many kind words of appreciation from the girls’ families.
The day before the tea, the older girls in the Mentoring Club came and washed all of the teacups, saucers and teapots for the event. They also helped make some of the desserts. Then, the day of the tea, they served and helped clean up. Almost finished with clean-up, the girls decided we all needed a break and invited Louise and I for “our own tea party.” They had arranged a table just for our small group. It was already getting late and I still had a long drive home ahead of me but stopping for a bit just seemed like the right thing to do. While we chatted, we reminisced about the history of our club and where we might go from here. Trying to remember just how long we have been meeting, one of the girls said “I was just this tall.” This little one had 
lost a dear grandmother this year and talked through tears about her pain. One of the other girls said “I remember exactly when you started meeting with us. It was in 2005.” When I asked her how she could be so sure, she replied matter-of-factly, “It was the year my grandfather died.”
Despite these and other poignant moments, we have had months of “choosing our battles.” At one point, we decided to stop meeting with the older girls for two weeks. After a lot of prayer, we chose to switch to an evening meeting so the girls could bring an older female relative with them. We were concerned that the girls might not like this arrangement, but we were out of options. To our surprise, the girls and their guests loved the idea, and now we had a “me and mom” time. We kept the meeting structured the same as before including a devotion and snacks. At first, some of the women sat just outside the circle during reading the Word and prayer. Slowly they joined the circle with prayer requests and questions about Scripture. What we had seen as a negative thing, God used for good to bless so many others!
To finish off our summer experience, Sheri Timber and her helper, Suzette Cain, and several girls made the trip from Circle of Life Lutheran Church in Muddy Cluster, Montana. They spent three nights with our girls in Neah Bay. After our trip to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation last year, Sheri and Suzette have continued to meet with their girls and have formed their own club called the Dream Catcher Youth Group. Both Sheri and Suzette have a wonderful story of God’s grace and the desire to share the love of Jesus with their people. It was so much fun to see all of the girls together again!
Please pray for these two groups of girls and their leaders to increase and multiply as we walk in faith believing the Lord always has the best for us as we are called according to His purpose.