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









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Praying for Oregon Counties: Multnomah

Image
Mount Hood, Oregon Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep;  Psalm 36: 5-6   We turn our attention to Multnomah County, but most eyes, and news cameras, are fixed there already. Multnomah County is the smallest in land - 466 square miles - and the largest in population…and influence. Compare Multnomah with 1705 people per square mile, to Malheur County with three. This is, of course, due to Portland, the largest city in the state, which is also the county seat. In fact, since 1968 the county government has had a consolidated city-county government and there have been some attempts to merge the city-county government into one unit.  Multnomah was created in 1854 out of the eastern edge of Washington County and a northern strip of Clackamas County. Its northern border is the Columbia Ri...
Read more

Get With The Plan

Image
Image by  ErikaWittlieb  from  Pixabay   Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Isaiah 30:21   In writing this series of blog posts on Oregon counties, I’ve had to do some historical research. In looking at some counties, particularly those with which I have little personal experience or knowledge, I am sometimes at a loss to suggest a prayer focus. What is really going on behind the scenes? Most importantly, what are the spiritual roots of poverty, or corruption or a high crime rate in certain areas?   While it is always good to pray general prayers, asking the Lord to bless a certain city, to reveal truth, to encourage honest, faithful folks and prosper those who are seeking to earn a living for their families, sometimes we have to dig deeper, not just in research but in prayer.  This is where we hone our skill in hearing God’s directions, and following His plan. Image by...
Read more

Continue to Stand in the Gap: Umatilla County

Image
Umapine Church, Umatilla County, OR The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. Isaiah 35:1 Umatilla County - home to Hermiston watermelons, the Pendleton Roundup, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The three-member Board of Commissioners for Umatilla County comprises Dan Dorran , George Murdock , and John Shafer . The Umatilla County Sheriff is Terry Rowan who oversees a county of over 3,000 square miles and a population of 77,000. The county seat is Pendleton while the largest town is Hermiston. We’ve written about the various sections of Umatilla County, the growth around Hermiston and other historical information, including some of the church history of the area here , here , and here . Umatilla County, Oregon As I wrote this over the weekend of February 25 th , a celebration took place in Pendleton at the Pendleton Convention Center. Called “Two Cultures, One Community Powwow,” it took place...
Read more