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WASHINGTON, D.C., ? This was the fourth year that the Rev. Mark Schaefer, United Methodist campus minister at American University, took a group of students on an alternative spring break to Cherokee, N.C. The group of 11, 'not just United Methodist, not just Christian,' Schaefer said, drove the 531-mile trip in a van lent by West River Camp, March 10. They stayed at Cherokee UMC, a missionary church established by the Holston Conference in the 1830s.

The next day the group helped prepare for and participated in a sweat lodge ritual at the home of Amy Walker and her brother General Grant (his actual name). The purpose of the sweat lodge ceremony is to engage the participants in a cycle of purification and renewal, Schaefer said.

'One emerges from the lodge with a profound sense of forgiveness and renewal,' Shaefer said.

During the week the group repaired the home of an autistic boy and his family, talked with Cherokee Principal Chief Michell Hicks, hiked up Mingo Falls, participated in a potato drop, visited museums and enjoyed meals and fellowship with their Cherokee hosts.

'We learned a lot about a people?s suffering, but also about perseverance in the face of oppression. We learned about a connectedness to nature that affirms the goodness of Creation, and in the sweat lodge, about (our) own fears,' Schaefer said.