FORT YATES, N.D. — Judy and Bob Hetherington made their first trip to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation almost 20 years ago. Last month, a chapel at Tipi Wakan, one of two Baptist churches on the reservation, was dedicated in Judy's memory.
The couple made their first trip to the reservation, home to 10,000 Native Americans of the Dakota and Lakota Sioux Tribe, before they moved to Roanoke, Va., from Key West, Fla., where Bob Hetherington had served 25 years as a director of missions. He currently is director of missions for the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association.
They returned to the Dakotas a couple of years later. The RVBA began sending mission teams to Standing Rock six years ago. Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia adopted Standing Rock as a mission partnership in 2007.
Almost 150 volunteers from RVBA churches traveled the 1,800 miles to the reservation the last week of July. Another 240 Virginia Baptists made the journey the first week of August.
Judy Hetherington had planned to be at Standing Rock for both weeks this year. Sadly, however, she succumbed to leukemia in February after a lengthy hopitalization.
Last November, when Boots and Jackie Marsh were attending the Baptist General Association of Virginia annual meeting, Judy asked Jackie to consider building a chapel at Tipi Wakan, where Boots is pastor.
“I'm not building any more churches,” replied Jackie. “Our churches are sitting empty. If you want a chapel, turn one of our Sunday school rooms into a chapel.”
So the idea of a chapel was planted. Twenty chairs were furnished by the RVBA. Quilts for the walls were donated by a neighbor in the community. A woodworker from Georgia crafted two crosses for the room, and someone else gave a communion table and pulpit.
On Friday, July 30, Bob Hetherington arrived in the small chapel for daily devotions. Only then did he learn that the room was being named the Judy Hetherington Memorial Chapel in memory of his wife’s vision for the mission to Standing Rock.
Michael Clingenpeel is pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, Va.