A Home for Ida

Description

Tribal housing for the Havasupai is at a premium because there is no road| only an eight mile trail| into the Grand Canyon where they live. It’s impossible to get building materials down the steep canyon trail; that leaves helicopters| which are very expensive to operate. Against all odds| Ida Iditicava| a single “seventies-something” faithful Native believer in Supai| was asking the Lord for a house of her own. She had lived with relatives all of her life and often found her living situation difficult. In June of 1999 Jerry Ferguson heard of Ida’s need. It was as if God tapped him on the heart and said| “You go build Ida a house.” Jerry| a computer programmer| didn’t know how to build a house| but he could surely do the footwork if God would do the rest. Pray! Pray! Pray! became Jerry’s battle cry. I was born in Minnesota| grew up in Arizona and married Janell soon after high school. We have three children| twelve grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. I went to work for AT&T in 1953 servicing microwave radio systems and was transferred to Kansas City in 1963 and then to New York from 1964 to 1967. After returning to Kansas City I retired from the company in 1982. Since it was always our desire to move back west we were quick to accept the opportunity to move to Orem| UT. There I formed a computer software company and developed a PC computer system for a ski rental business. We learned to ski and really enjoyed evening skiing close to our home. In 1987 we moved to Phoenix where I continued developing computer systems for several businesses and have now retired.