By: Tori Sanders
Tuba City, Arizona will forever hold a special place in my heart. I began this adventure, how most people do, thinking I was going to take God to this small little town. Soon after arriving, God helped me realize I was not taking Him to Tuba City, but instead, I was getting to join in on what God was already doing there. I loved being able to experience how to turn my profession into more than just a job. It is important to turn it into your own mission field regardless of where you are located. Relationships are such an important aspect of that, and Speech-Language Pathology is a perfect field to be in to establish relationships. As we sat in on a therapy session, I was able to witness how much rapport has been established between the therapist and the clients cross-culturally. This helped me realize how important it is to be a constant in our clients’ lives because you never know what is going on behind closed doors.
As we participated in an after school reading program at Tuba City Church of Christ, it was evident how reserved the children were. After spending a couple hours with them, they began to open up, and I got to see how exciting it was for them to get shown love. In the Navajo culture, children are not disciplined and raised the same way I had been raised. This opened my eyes to see that when I have clients, they will most likely not have been taught with the same morals and values as I was. It will be crucial to know their home background to help understand why the clients participate in the ways they do. As I spent time in Tuba City with the Navajo, I was able to witness how important their culture and identity was to them. They were confident in who they were. As Christians, we should be just as confident in who we are in Christ and proud to exemplify that in our professions.