SANTA-CALI-GON DAYS by Art Soldner

For those of you who live outside of the Independence area, "Santa-Cali-Gon" probably has no meaning. For those who live in the Kansas City - Independence locale, it is a four day celebration during Labor Day Weekend depicting the important role Independence played in frontier days. Independence was the starting point for the Sante-Fe Trail, California and Oregon trails, hence the name "Santa-Cali-Gon".

While the idea of seeing who can beat who to California over the trail of your choice is the theme behind "Santa-Cali-Gon", today's festival is more a case of who can eat the most hot dogs, see the craft booths, eat the most nachos, see the frontier village, eat the most bratwurst, ride the ferris wheel or octopus without getting sick, eat the most kettle corn, walk several miles around the Independence square, consuming copious amounts of cider or soda, all in 90 degree weather. You get the picture?

So what does this have to do with Indian Ministry, specifically IMCA? Early last year, the Board of Directors felt putting up a booth at Santa-Cali-Gon might be a good way to get the messages of the Book of Mormon, Indian Ministry and IMCA in front of the public. Little did we realize the logistics, mental gymnastics and plain back-breaking hard work involved. In the end, however, it was all worth the effort.

The idea was to have a booth where we could talk to people about Indian Ministry, the Book of Mormon and the IMCA program. As a side venture we had several handmade crafts, blankets and beadwork available for sale.

During the four days we had many opportunities to spread the gospel message. We spoke to Indian people about the Book of Mormon and IMCA. We also spoke to members of the temple lot, Mormon and Hedrikite faiths, and also many members of the RLDS institutional church that there are indeed Indian Ministry programs functioning today. One priesthood brother from the Navajo Support Group had an interesting dialogue with a couple of another faith who were sure (and told us so) that we were all bound for the nether regions for believing as we do.

There were many IMCA volunteers who gave of their time and talent to make this effort a success. Several of them were people who cannot travel with us on weekend trips, have odd work schedules or have other situations which are prohibitive to leaving Independence. They were the ones who opened up early, got the booth ready, talked to people about IMCA, the love of Christ, the Book of Mormon and made special handcrafted items. It is to these folks and all the other volunteers who helped us that weekend that we are indebted. Without them the outreach ministry given could not have happened.

Plans are in progress for the 1997 Santa-Cali-Gon Days. There are plans for a bigger booth, more area to just sit and talk, more area to show people how we make crafts and do beadwork and for more volunteers to share with people about the true love of Jesus Christ. And maybe, just maybe, that couple who were so sure about where we are headed, will come back to see us.