Sacred Road Ministries Summer Update

Summer 2025 has come to an end! Our Short Term Teams wrapped up, the last of our Summer Interns have headed home, and students on our reservation have now started back to school. We are grateful to everyone who partnered with our Ministry this summer. Thank you to everyone who prayed with and for us!

Thank you to everyone who invested time, energy, and resources into

supporting us this season!

In late May, we welcomed our Summer Interns, who came to work with us for twelve weeks. This intern team, consisting of four guys and eight girls over the course of the summer, helped us host the short-term teams. They go through detailed training, help us prepare for the arriving teams, and play a huge role in feeding and leading the one-week team members when they are here. We hosted five weeks of short-term teams, this summer, where team members partnered with us in working on homes and hosting Kid's Clubs. Most of our interns were communicating with supporters regularly during the summer and taking time to write down thoughts and stories of what they were experiencing. A recent graduate from the University of Pittsburg, Yaa, wrote a letter in the early summer that we'd like to share HERE.

Summer Teams

If you know much about Sacred Road Ministries, you probably know that one of the central aspects of ministry for the summer is facilitating one-week teams. This summer, we hosted five weeks of Short Term teams on the Yakama Reservation, five weeks on the Warm Springs Reservation, and - for the first time ever - two weeks in Lapwai, Idaho with the Nez Perce tribe! Churches, families, and individuals from all across the United States came to serve with us this summer. During the last two team weeks, Sacred Road staff were hosting and facilitating teams on three different reservations at the same time. We had as many as 150 team members at one time!

During the first half of their day, team members spend time on "worksites" doing manual labor and serving families across our communities. Worksites this summer consisted of roofing homes, exterior paint jobs, building wheelchair ramps, chopping firewood, and much more! In Lapwai, we partnered with the local Boys and Girls Club and the teams repainted that building for their worksite. We were consistently impressed with the determination that the teams had to accomplish these jobs and were grateful that everyone stayed safe on the worksites.

We also hosted Kid's Club across five different locations this summer! We estimate that we had about 250 children come through Kid's Club this summer in those five locations! We are thankful for the opportunities to teach each of these children more about Jesus and His love for them! We are praying that God will protect and provide for all of these kids in big ways and that they would grow in faith and understanding.

It can be difficult to write about the highlights of Kid's Club because so many things happen with Kid's Club in a given day, week, or summer. If you've had the opportunity to experience Kid's Club, you can understand that there is a weightiness and depth to what is happening in the midst of blowing bubbles, playing kickball, helping with crafts, and passing out snacks. We are developing trust, building connections, and fostering relationship in all of our worksite and Kid's Club efforts!

Evan Shaw, our Warm Springs Site Coordinator, recently wrote an update to his supporters that details how they witnessed the Lord moving and working in Warm Springs this summer. You can read the Shaws' update HERE.

Above are three of the Summer Team videos.

You can watch all of the team videos on our Youtube Channel.

Lapwai, Idaho

One of the most exciting milestones for Sacred Road Ministries, for Summer 2025, was the addition of short-term teams serving in the Nez Perce community of Lapwai, Idaho. 

Sacred Road is a church-planting Ministry of the Pacific Northwest Presbytery. It is one of our goals to establish a church-planting network that works in Indigenous communities across the Pacific Northwest. There are sixty reservations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. We would love to see healthy churches be planted on many of those reservations! We have a healthy church established in the town of White Swan, on the Yakama Reservation, and a full-time team with a church-planting Pastor working on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. The connections that are growing with the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho are exciting and we are praying that the Lord will continue to open doors for ministering there! 

During the fourth and fifth team weeks, Chris and Mary Granberry, along with Trey Belisario, traveled from Yakama to Lapwai to help host one-week teams there. They partnered with the local Boys and Girls Club - facilitating Kid's Club for the children at the Boys and Girls Club and spending the week repainting the building for them as the worksite for the teams. By the end of the second week, the networking that was able to happen and the connections that were deepened in Lapwai were huge answers to prayer! 

In his most recent update to his supporters, Trey writes about his work and thoughts for the entire summer. He ends with his experience in Lapwai. To read a firsthand report on what ministry in Lapwai looked like this summer, click HERE. Our Communications Director, Ann Marie, has been a part of Sacred Road Ministries from the beginning. At age nine, her family moved to Yakama and she watched her parents (Chris and Mary Granberry) get the Ministry started in the early 2000s. Her perspective on the growth of the Ministry and the addition of teams in Lapwai can be found HERE.

Above are photos of Kid's Club in Yakama

B.Y.G.E. Update

A key word that comes to mind for our Youth Group this summer is "growth." In May, we host an event at Hope Fellowship Church for the 6th grade promotion. We take time to celebrate and welcome rising 6th graders into the B.Y.G.E. We had twenty five 6th graders at the promotion this year! Twenty five new youth joining the Youth Group. This particular group of 6th graders has been especially invested in our church community. They were so excited to join the Youth Group and have been a part of many aspects of church and Ministry this summer.  

We had a "Youth Worksite" during each team week this summer, where some of the Sacred Road staff worked alongside some of our Youth Group kids. We had an average of 25 youth show up for worksite each day - including many of the new 6th graders! They were excited to have time with each other, to have something to do for the summer, and to have an opportunity to serve their church and community. They spent time mowing, pulling weeds, painting over graffiti in public areas of White Swan, and more. Many of the youth also volunteered to serve at Kid's Club, facilitating games, keeping kids safe, and passing out snacks during our story time. We are so proud of the youth who have worked with us this summer!

For YoungLife Camp, this summer, we sent 15 middle schoolers and 11 high schoolers from Yakama. They had an incredible time at the camp and came back so encouraged by their time there! Since the week at camp, one of the middle school boys who went has been baptized at Hope Fellowship Church. He prayed to accept Christ at YoungLife Camp with our Pastor, Joshua Tsavatwea, and then Joshua was able to baptize him at church.

We are continually thankful for our partnership with YoungLife and are excited to have opportunities for our youth to experience YoungLife Camp each summer. Our youth spend time creating fun memories together! It also fosters opportunities for rich discussions in their cabins. Please pray that some of the discussions that happened with peers and leaders would lead to deeper relationships within our Youth Group and a deeper understanding of who God is!

During the summer, we had countless outreach opportunities that we haven't detailed in this newsletter. For example, the Yakama Nation Treaty Days weekend is in the beginning of June and holds many, annual celebrations and events in our community. The Tribe hosts one of it's largest powwows, as well as a rodeo, and multiple parades. For many years, Sacred Road has been asked to participate in the Treaty Days Parade. Each year, our Youth Group has a float in the parade that our

D-Group kids get to help decorate and ride on. In the last several years, we have also been able to help contribute volunteers towards the parade and various activities surrounding the events. Our volunteers help with parking, safety, food distribution, and clean up. Similarly, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have their Pi-Ume-Sha (the annual acknowledgement of the Warm Springs Treaty) weekend in mid-June. Our Warm Springs staff have been able to volunteer and contribute towards set up, food distribution, and clean up for the Pi-Ume-Sha powwow, as well. 

Our goal, in helping with these celebratory weekends, is to contribute towards the community and to take on some of the grunt work that happens behind the scenes. We want to be able to minister to those around us and build connections with people in the community!

To see more about some of the opportunities we have and the Outreach Events that we host, follow us on social media.

After church a couple of weeks ago, we passed out backpacks filled with school supplies to our youth and children at Hope Fellowship. The kids were so excited to receive brand new backpacks, which were donated to our Ministry, and felt that much more prepared for the start of the new school year! Thank you to everyone who helped contribute backpacks and supplies to our kids!

H.O.P.E. After-School will be starting back this month! We are encouraged to witness these students gaining confidence in their abilities in and out of the classroom. Please continue to pray for our H.O.P.E. students, staff, and volunteers as we begin a new school year very soon.

• Please continue to pray for our staff - that the Lord would continue to provide and sustain. Pray especially that the Lord would refill everyone on staff as we rest from the busy summer and transition into the next season of Ministry life here.
• Pray for the communities on the Yakama, Warm Springs, and Nez Perce Reservations. Please pray for healing and peace for these tribes. Pray that our communities would feel welcome at church and that the Lord would continue to change hearts and lives.
• Pray for the efforts we are making to build connections with other reservations and Native communities in the Pacific Northwest. Please pray that the Lord would continue to open doors for us to connect with the communities of Priest Rapids, Celilo, and Georgeville.
• Please continue to pray for the Granberrys' daughter, Beth, as she recovers and tries to regain health and strength after a long battle with cancer. Pray for the results of coming scans - more news comes in October about how the cancer has responded to all of the treatment.
• Please continue to pray for the Farris family. Many of you have heard that a brush fire, from a neighbors home, got out of control and completely destroyed Sacred Road's ministry house. This house was being prepared to be used as a Safe House for women who needed a place to stay when leaving Domestic Violence situations. The Farrises, who have been on staff for several years, were living in the upstairs portion of the home. They lost everything in the fire. Please pray as they continue to navigate the losses and work to reestablish themselves. We praise God that they have found a new rental place and will move there in September. 
• Our Christmas Ministry is right around the corner! Please be praying that everything will go smoothly as we coordinate Adopt-A-Family details, organize shoebox donations, and prepare to celebrate the Advent season with our church family.

Following Summer Ministry, Sacred Road has to put some effort into bolstering our funds. Many SRM staff members will be traveling to connect with supporters and attempting to fundraise for the Ministry. Please pray that the Lord would continue to open doors and provide for our staff and our Ministry Programs. We have seen Him sustain this Ministry for more than 20 years and we are humbled by the generosity of churches and families who have partnered with us! If you are interested in financially supporting Sacred Road, we would love to talk with you about what that could look like. You can learn more about various Ministry Programs on our website. Go to the "GIVE" page to see the various Ministry Funds.

Thank you for taking time to get updated on everything that has been going on with Sacred Road Ministries this summer! We are humbled by the support and prayers we have received. Please continue to pray for our ministry team as we serve in Yakama, Warm Springs, and Lapwai.

To learn more about Sacred Road Ministries, visit our website and subscribe to our Youtube channel. You can keep up with regular news and updates by following us on Facebook and Instagram.