Desert Messenger

P��� 6 ���.D�����M��������.��� S�������� 1, 2010 Ancient stories written in stone Tales from the rock - Changing Hearts...Changing Lives Through Worshipping God & Serving Others family friendly films JOIN US FOR GREAT MOVIES! 2ND & 4TH FRIDAYS Cartoons @ 6:30 pm Movie @ 7 pm Free refreshments • Sunday: Christian Education 9am Worship 10:30am Evening Worship 7pm • Wednesday: Bible Study 7pm Women’s Bible Study - 10am SERVICE TIMES: • Thursday: 12 Steps to Freedom 7pm • Friday: Discipleship Class 10 am Grow in your relationship with God By Jedidiah Free As anyone who has spent time out here in the desert knows, the Sonoran desert can be a harsh and unforgiving environment. We, with our modern conveniences and inventions, have managed to make life here much more comfortable than it used to be. If we need food, we go to the grocery store. If we need fuel we go to the RV place and fill up our propane tanks. If we need water, we pump it in, or load up our tanks onto our motorized vehicles and drive to a place where we turn on a spigot and clean water flows out. In the harsh cold, we turn on a furnace. In the heat of the day, we turn on our air conditioners. Many times I have heard people say that they would never be able to live here in the desert if it wasn’t for those modern conveniences. It seems as though we forget that people have lived here for thousands of years without those things. Here in Arizona the Hopi, the Navajo, the Havasupai, the Yavapai, the Yuma peoples, and the ancestral Anasazi, thrived in this harsh, yet beautiful land. We are fortunate to have many places here in the Quartzsite area where we can contemplate the ancient way of life here in the desert. The two closest ones are Dripping Springs and the site along the east side of Tyson Wash between the La Paz and the Tyson Wash BLM camping areas. Farther away, but well worth the trip, is Grapevine Canyon in Nevada, just north of Laughlin in the Lake Mead Recreation Area. This site is spectacular, with thousands of petroglyphs lining a gorgeous canyon. When visiting these ancient sites I frequently overhear the conversations of other visitors. Quite often, people will walk up to a site, take a few quick photographs, and say, “I wonder what that means.” Or “I wonder why that is here, in the middle of nowhere”. Then they check it off their list and head off to the next thing on their agenda, never giving it a second thought. 665 W. Tyson Street, Quartzsite Pastor Bruce Swart 928-927-5808 At the Tyson Wash site there are two panels of petroglyphs and an area with grinding holes across the wash on a rock outcrop. At the base of the rock with the main petroglyph panel is a water hole that goes deep into the water table at the base of the rock. When there was no other water to be found, there was water here and plenty of it. The other panel, on the south side of the outcropping is located above a small cave. Because of the water at this site, there is an abundance of vegetation and trees, as well as birds, and other wildlife.  SEE STONE STORIES ON PAGE 7 movies

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