LUMBERTON, NC — About 75 students at Lumberton High School have learned an important lesson without opening a book — that there are folks who have never met them, who don’t know their families, but want to help them navigate some troubled waters. (News Article by Terri Ferguson Smith)

Those students, who remain homeless after flooding from Hurricane Matthew, are being anonymously adopted by donors who have signed onto the Adopt a Pirate — One Backpack at a Time program.

Sanctuary on the Trail is one of those places. Several people have stepped up to help us by donating winter gear and money. 

Today Rene' spoke with Adrian Hammonds, one of five Lumberton High School school guidance counselors who have been working to provide students what they need following Hurricane Matthew.

He is trying to raise $3,750 to give the 75 students $50 gift cards each for Christmas. We offered to match that with $3,000, giving the children and additional $40 gift card each. 

Would you consider helping us?

Adrian describes the children as humble and good natured. The thing they need most is a place to stay. They are moving from house to house and hotel to hotel. Some have to drive as far as 40 minutes to get to school each day.

In the local newspaper Adrian sais, “They are so amazed. They say, ‘Mr. Hammonds, who are these people?’ We just tell them that they are people who care for you, who love you. Here’s a new pair of shoes, here’s a new jacket. It’s really worth it to see how the students are reacting to it.”

According to the newspaper article, Hammonds said when students returned to classes three weeks after the flooding, counselors tried to assess which ones were still living in hotels, shelters or with relatives.

“We made an announcement to the children that we want to show you that we love you, we know that you are under stress and we want to help you,” Hammonds said.

They identified about 75 who were displaced and met the initial needs of school supplies, personal hygiene items, food and water. Then churches, businesses and other organizations began adopting Pirates one at a time.

This is Rene's Robeston County/Lumberton hometown neighborhood, devesitated by flooding following Hurricane Matthew. Rene' is President of Sanctuary on the Trail and will ensure your gift(s) reach these children.
​--  Thank you and Merry Christmas!

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With the program attending to some of the children’s personal expenses, such as shoes, socks, school supplies and clothing, parents can save money for getting into an apartment or house, Hammonds said. After initial purchases were made, cash donations went to purchase gift cards for students.

School counselors are collecting backpacks stuffed with donated items and clothes nearly every day. Donors are not given the child’s name. Each child is assigned a number and donors are given that number, clothing sizes and other information about what the child needs, Hammonds said.
“These teenagers are very protective of their identity, their image,” Hammonds said.

Hammonds shared notes from students expressing appreciation.

One read: “Thank you so much. This means so much to me and my family. May God bless you so much. I can’t stop thanking you. I know you haven’t seen me before but I hope this makes your day.”

And another: “Hi. I wanted to say thank you for all your selfless giving and support. My family and I have been through a lot due to the storm and we’re trying to get our lives back together. I really appreciate all you have done, nothing has gone to waste or in vain … . What may have seemed like a little giving has been a big blessing to our lives.”

Hammonds said he hopes adopters can help the students beyond the Christmas season as their needs are not short term.

“If an adopted child comes to me and tells me that their family is now going to be in a house, I want to be able to tell my adopting family that now they need towels, wash clothes, a bed and other things like that,” Hammonds said.

Numerous churches have adopted Pirates, as well as some Lumberton graduates — one from the class of 1978 and another from the class of 1982.

Anyone who wishes to donate to the program can email Hammonds at [email protected] or call the school at 910-737-5115, 910-737-5112, or 910-737-5110.

Robesonian Newspaper Terri Ferguson Smith can be reached at 910-416-5165.

Sanctuary on the Trail will continue to take in donations to help these children through the Spring. 
Contact is Rene' Locklear White, 540-554-8730, [email protected].

In Indigenous culture woman were and are more than birthing new lives. They are builders, warriors, artisians, farmers, storytellers, doctors and leaders.

Help us reach a $15,000 goal to publish a new book and help Verity Varee (Vv) find and tell our indigenous women's stories from around the world.

The strength of women continues to be essential to our society. Today, a group of young women, led by Vv founder Emily Dean are producing a unique book to accompany three years of determined work. Be part of redefining beauty and helping bring women of all races and nationalities into one circle.

Please consider giving to this unique project by pledging $8 to $8,000.

    Virginia nonprofits are now accepting applications from artists ages 12 -120 who are creating artworks that explore facets of the Three Sisters.
     The Three Sisters Regional Art Challenge is a new program to support a temporary public fine-art project that engages communities, enhances creativity and enriches the vibrancy of Native

     The Three Sisters Art Challenge is an art show and sale opportunity for residents of Virginia and its surrounding region: West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Washington D.C., Tennessee, North Carolina and beyond.
     In Native American culture, the Three Sisters represent agricultural treasures of maize (corn), pole beans and winter squash (or gourds).

By Emily Adair
Pinckneyville Press 24 June 2015

    A local pastor and his colleagues are “rushing the clock” to save the Cherokee language.
Brian Wilkes, of the Four Rivers Native American Church of Pinckneyville, is largely the public face for the Cherokee Bible Project. The Bible Project completed a digital translation of the New Testament in spring and is currently working on the Old Testament.
    “Historically, the New Testament has been used as a way to help study the language,” Wilkes said, “because they used a level of the language that was very defined, very elegant. Just like everybody does when they translate the Bible, they try to put their best into it, and so did the Cherokees.”
    The New Testament was initially translated by 1860, according to Wilkes. He said many of the 85 Cherokee characters can look similar in tiny print, especially if there’s a smudge on the page, so the Cherokee Bible Project started with the goal of updating the existing material. This included checking the grammar, digitizing the materials and creating a large-print version. All together, the 27 books of the New Testament took approximately two years to retype and publish.
    Wilkes and his colleagues, however, are doing original translations now, because only pieces of the Old Testament are known to have been translated previously. He anticipates this project will take three to five years to complete. His motivation stays strong, though. Wilkes said he started working with the Cherokee language in 1996. At that time, there were approximately 20,000 fluent speakers. Six short years later, there were 10,000 fluent speakers.
    “When a language dies, so does a culture,” Four Rivers President Joyce Rheal said. “So we’re trying not only to preserve a language; we’re trying to preserve a culture.”
   In the last 13 years, there has been a massive push in schools and communities to use the language while they still could. According to Wilkes, there are now about 2600 fluent speakers. A study more than a decade ago found that there were no fluent Cherokee speakers under the age of 40. “You can do your math and realize you’re a generation away from extinction,” Wilkes said. He said many people know they have a connection to the Cherokee people, but they do not necessarily know the history, language or culture. Wilkes has documented his own lineage back to Croatoan heritage, though he also suspects he has some Creek and Cherokee roots. Despite his experience with the Cherokee culture, even he has a lot to discover.
    “I call it (the Native American Church) the biggest denomination nobody’s ever heard of,” Wilkes said. “Comparing Native American philosophy, culture, ethics to what you see at a powwow is kind of like going to a Catholic Church fundraising carnival and thinking you understand 2,000 years of Vatican history. There’s always more to be learned.”
    Wilkes earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in ministry. He is working on his PhD now, and he recently

received an honorary doctorate for his Cherokee preservation work from the Wolsey Hall School of Theology in Oxford, England. Wolsey Hall also awarded Rev. Johannah Tsasuyeda Meeks Ries of North Carolina the same Doctor of Humane Letters degree for her work with the Cherokee Bible Project.Wilkes’ healing work at Four Rivers incorporates Native American practices, but many of the church members, including the three officers, identify as Christians.
    “At our local chapter here, most of our people are Cherokee mix bloods who grew up in some Christian denomination and still consider themselves Christian, but also feel at home expressing that in Native tradition, Native language, Native songs and don’t see a conflict.”
    The church, which is part of the Carbondale Interfaith Council, does not ask its members to give up their other church memberships or re-baptize.
Four Rivers offers practical knowledge, including the upcoming meeting’s discussion of healing plants and what the time of the year means. Wilkes said even an atheist could feel welcome and learn something new. Wilkes said the international recognition of the Cherokee Bible Project has made a lot of people take a second look at the church and the motivations behind the project.
     “About 30 years ago, one of my teachers said to me, ‘I won’t live to see this, but you’ll live to see a time when what people think of Native American history and culture will change completely. And they’ll begin to understand just how extensive it was and just how ancient it is.’” Wilkes said. “I’ve lived to see that.”

By Mary Annette Pember  5/28/15  

Indian Country Today Media Network - Trauma is big news these days. Mainstream media is full of stories about the dramatic improvements allowing science to see more clearly how trauma affects our bodies, minds and even our genes. Much of the coverage hails the scientific connection between trauma and illness as a breakthrough for modern medicine. The next breakthrough will be how trauma affects our offspring ...

Sanctuary on the Trail -- Raw-food-diet author Adam T. Gardener PhC shared his blueprint with The Gathering leadership this week.  Adam was visiting from Utah, where he is planning a premier biosphere botanical garden. Copies of Adam's Second Genesis diet books will be on sale at The Gathering here in Virginia Oct. 30 - Nov. 1, hosted by the Sanctuary on the Trail in partnership with the Virginia Annual Gourd Festival.
    Adam's work provides "piercing insights" into human genetics and human food. He aims to introduce people to food in a connected way that helps them use a plant-based diet to heal  rheumatoid arthritis, kidney stones, fibromyalgia, acid reflux, cancer, diseases and much more.
    We are excited Adam and his lovely wife Eve have "Caught the Spirit of The Gathering" and are sharing their knowledge with people of all ages.

   Thanks to Brian Wilkes, of the Cherokee Bible Project and Four Rivers Native American Church, for inviting us to provide a cover photo to his new book: Haggai in Cherokee (photo below). Haggai in Cherokee is one of a series of books in Cherokee on the "minor prophets."
   The image we provided (photo at right) is a man-made rock formation, we found among many features near the Paleo-Indian site here at the Sanctuary on the Trail.™
  Haggai was a Hebrew prophet (520 BCE) during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and one of the 12 minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The name means "to make a pilgrimage," and is related to the Arabic word hadj.
     It can also mean "God's Festival", or to complete a circuit, as the Jewish people did when they returned from the Babylonian Exile 

and rebuilt the temple.
   The message in the two-chapter book is filled with an urgency for the people to proceed with the rebuilding of the second Jerusalem temple.
   The book Haggai in Cherokee is being published now and available through the author, with Amazon.com and most online bookstores.

Emily Dean, it is always a pleasure working with you and following your progress & your business success with Verity Varee.

   Thanks Holley Gerth for allowing Rene' White, president of the Native American Church of Virginia to help you and your daughter with logistics during your WINSOME RETREAT 2015.
   Holley is a bestselling writer, certified life coach, and speaker. She loves connecting with the hearts of women through her popular blog and books like You're Already Amazing and You're Made for a God-Sized Dream. She's also cofounder of (in)courage and a partner with DaySpring.
   Holley lives with her husband, Mark, and adopted daughter, Lovelle, in the South. Hang out with her at www.holleygerth.com.