Praying for Oregon Counties: Malheur

Malheur Butte, Malheur County Oregon

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; Isaiah 35:1

The story goes, in 1826 a trapper left a cache of furs beside a nameless river in the high desert of the far west and someone stole it, so he named the river “misfortune” in French: Malheur. Later, they named the county after the river. 

Malheur, established much later than the counties of the Willamette Valley, was created in 1887 from the southern part of Baker County. It is in the extreme southeast corner of the state and borders the state of Nevada to the south and Idaho to the east. At nearly 10,000 square miles it is the second largest county in the state, but only has about three people per square mile. It has the distinction of being the county with the highest

poverty rate in Oregon.

The county seat is Vale; the largest town is Ontario.

And yes, I have a personal connection to Malheur County. My grandparents settled in Ontario just after World War II, and my in-laws live there. Even my great-grandmother lived there for a time and is buried just across the Snake River in Payette, Idaho. I lived there after I got out of high school, married a local guy and graduated from the community college in Ontario before moving across the river into Idaho.

Apart from my own personal history, Malheur is quite a place. It is mostly ranches and farms, and has a dry, high desert climate – lots of sagebrush and tumbleweeds. In Vale one can still see the ruts made by wagons traveling the Oregon Trail. Check out the Four Rivers Cultural Center and Museum at Treasure Valley Community College and learn about the various cultures that settled the area. It is a very interesting, unique place in Oregon.

Grasshopper Flat, Malheur County

The memory of my years in eastern Oregon and Malheur county invokes sagebrush, grasshoppers, and the sky. They say Montana is “big sky country,” but for a gal from the forested west side, the sky and the sunsets left a lasting impression. Not as flat as Kansas, I guess, but it still felt like we lived in the sky.

The Bible uses desert imagery - the Children of Israel wandering forty years in the desert, Jesus going into the desert to be tempted. Malheur is the only desert with which I am familiar, so the dry, rugged land, especially around Ontario, is my Biblical example.

How to pray for Malheur County?

With high poverty, there is also high alcoholism, drugs, petty crime and broken homes – “misfortune” indeed.

I think I would decree a different name: 

You [Malheur County] will be a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand,
and a royal diadem in the palm of your God.
You will no longer be called Deserted,
and your land will not be called Desolate;
instead, you will be called My Delight is in Her
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,

Isaiah 62:3-4 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Pray peace and prosperity where there is poverty and strife, freedom and health in place of addictions and bondage. To stand in the gap for Malheur County we really need to be the ‘voice of one crying in the wilderness,’Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

Margaret