Zuni CRC Displays "the Beautiful Love of Jesus" in a Stained-Glass Cross

When the sanctuary of Zuni Christian Reformed Church lights up at night, people from all over the village of Zuni, N.Mex., can see a large, stained-glass cross — placed inside the church near the top of the ceiling — shining and giving off a welcoming glow.

Hand-crafted by artist Ruth Kamps, the wife of deceased CRC educator Roland Kamps, the artwork was installed about a year ago as part of the construction of a new church in the location, on the south side of the Zuni River, where CRC mission work has been going on since the late 19th century.

A few of the people who live in the Zuni pueblo, which is made up of narrow winding streets and adobe homes with flat roofs, hold to the Zuni traditional religion and apparently don’t find the cross a particularly welcoming sight, say Zuni CRC members.

But many of the 7,000 or so people in Zuni, regardless of their religion, appreciate what the cross represents, which is a ministry that the church and its attached school has provided for many years.

Unlike nearby Rehoboth, N.Mex., where the CRC has been doing ministry since the early 20th century and from which ministry has spread across the region, Zuni is fairly self-enclosed. Ministry here has been centered in one location and defined over the decades by interactions between the traditional Native American community and its beliefs and a number of Zunis who over time have become Christians.

Here is a look at some of the people who are helping to make sharing the gospel in Zuni a lively and increasingly fruitful effort.

The Pastor

Early in his ministry here, Rev. Mike Meekhof was called to visit a man who was hospitalized. As soon as Meekhof entered the room, the man began screaming, and the pastor could see he was deeply troubled.

Fresh out of Calvin Theological Seminary, Meekhof wasn’t quite sure what to do, but he prayed in the name of Jesus, and eventually the man calmed down.

“ People encounter dark spiritual forces here," said Meekhof. “Over the years I’ve been called to do [spiritual] deliverance in powerful ways and to set people free.”

Although cases like that have been isolated, they offer insight into his work of helping to heal troubled souls and put back together broken lives during his time here, which began in the late 1980s.

Slowly, over the years, Meekhof said, he has developed close friendships with people in Zuni, one of the few native tribes left in the U.S. still living on their ancestral land.

People make their living here creating jewelry and other crafts and works of art. Still, life can be harsh: the poverty rate is over 35 percent.

Through his ministry Meekhof has been able to connect with many people, often in times of trauma, such as when someone has died or a family loses their home in a fire. Many have come to consider him as a village chaplain.

“When tragedy comes, I hold people’s hands and pray with them, and the Spirit brings comfort and healing,” he said. “I’ve seen some barriers come down because of God’s grace.”

Whether preaching on Sundays or as he ministers to people in various ways during the week, Meekhof said the passage of years continues to show him that staying in one place and truly getting to know the local people and culture are crucial.

“I’ve been teaching and preaching for a long time, and the Word of God has become so much more alive,” he said. “There have been times when I doubted, but I do see that God changes lives. I have a great deal of gratitude to God for helping us to persevere.”

The Police Officer and His Wife

As a Zuni police officer and a deacon at Zuni CRC, Quincy Panteah often interacts with people who hold to the traditional religion, with its dances and images and animistic beliefs. He grew up in the religion and knows its beliefs and practices.

Sometimes when he chats with them, he said, they talk about Zuni CRC. There has been a long history of tension between those adhering to the traditional ways and Christianity. But that seems to be slowly changing.

 “People say mostly positive things about our church, but I’ve heard some complain about our new building,” he said. “There is resistance here, but God is at work here too.”

A few times, he said, he has encountered someone who is “in a rage — and when I talk about Jesus, they get quiet. When I can, I nudge them to come to church.”

Although Quincy grew up in the Zuni religion with its many taboos and ways of doing things, he drifted from it for various reasons. One of them, he said, was how the women were  treated. Men dominated the women.

He especially saw this in the ways that his grandmother, who taught him about Jesus although she stayed in the Zuni religion, was treated.

Eventually, he became a Christian and married Jo. As he patrols the village, Quincy can sometimes look out and see the new church standing tall in the distance. “Being a cop in Zuni and a member of the church brings it all together for me,” he said.

Coming from a Christian home in the village, Jo Panteah learned about Jesus through her mother and grandmother and at the Zuni Christian School.

In her early years, said Jo, she didn’t have much of a grasp of this religion involving Jesus. “I didn’t believe and wasn’t walking with God. But every Friday we would have chapel and hear the Word. We had a youth group and would go different places.”

Still, she said, things didn’t click until she was in eleventh grade at the Rehoboth Christian High School. That was when all that she had heard and learned about Jesus started to make sense. “Back then, I was doing stuff I wasn’t proud of. But I turned around and gave my life to God.”

Since then, she said, she has been growing in her faith and was a stay-at-home mother until fairly recently, when she was hired to be a secretary at the school.

Thinking of the school and the church, Jo said, “Our church has been here for many years, and lots of people in the CRC have helped us with whatever we need. . . . The church is our anchor point in Zuni, and Jesus Christ is our Savior.”

The Artist

Ruth Kamps and her husband, Roland, traveled to many places in his career as a school administrator, but New Mexico — and especially being among Navajo and Zuni people — always drew them back.

As an artist, Ruth has been inspired by the landscape — the spare desert scenes, the canyons, the mountains and buttes. She particularly has loved visiting the jewelry and craft shops in Zuni, said Linda Hekman, her daughter.

For many years, Ruth has worked with stained glass, creating various items for large craft fairs. She also uses oil colors to paint the clouds and soaring skies over New Mexico, as well as old buildings, Native people, and other scenes.

“My mother would say that oil painting is her art and stained glass is her craft,” said Linda. Roland, who was a school administrator at Rehoboth and in the Zuni public school, as well as in California, always urged her to study and use her art.

Linda explained that her mother, with whom she lives in Gallup, was feeling ill on a Saturday in late July when Linda’s brother, Ken Kamps, and his wife, Laura, came with her to Zuni to see the stained-glass window in the sanctuary of the church, where we met them.

Built with the gifts of many people, the sanctuary is decorated with wood from Escanaba, Mich. Much of the work, including the place in the wall where the cross was placed, was done by Zuni and Navajo carpenters and tradesmen. Overall, the sanctuary, on an afternoon in July, had a feel of serenity and safety to it.

The 10-foot-by-7-foot cross is set high in the wall, drawing viewers’ attention  with its strong lines and rich colors.

“It is a Zuni cross with Zuni colors,” said Linda. “It comes out of my mother’s love for the area. It is a way to celebrate the area’s beauty and to let ‘the beauty of Jesus be seen,’ she says.”

As the church was being built, Kathy Bosscher, then the principal of Zuni Christian School, told Ruth that they had space for a stained-glass window in the new church. “My mom said she could do that,” Linda Hekman recalled. Over the years, Ruth Kamps has done some other projects that have been more complicated.

For example, Linda explained, Ruth spent the better part of two years carefully restoring the stained-glass windows, imported many years earlier from Italy, for First Navajo CRC in Tohatchi, N.Mex.

Ruth Kamps is also the daughter-in-law of Rev. Jacob Kamps, who preached in Tohatchi throughout the 1950s. Working diligently, Ruth cleaned the windows, replaced pieces of glass, repaired solder joints, and made the units ready for use in worship.

The windows were on display, with a rainbow of colors streaming through, in October 2017 when the church celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Kathy Bosscher designed the new window for Zuni CRC and Ruth, now in her nineties, determined to make the cross.

“The planning and the search for the right materials took a long time,” said her daughter.

When the cross was finally finished, said Linda, family members took on the delicate task of moving it from Ruth’s home, placing it on a flatbed truck, and driving it to Zuni. Then they carefully carried it in and mounted it in the space prepared for it.

Reflecting on what her mother might say if asked why she created the cross, Linda said: “She wants the Zuni people, whether in or outside the church, to see the beautiful love of Jesus.”