Northern Arapaho Tribe: A CCU Thanksgiving Tradition
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.