Mission Trip

I'm a few days behind, but internet and time has been limited! Cell service is even more limited!

We left Friday morning early from the church. 15 total, 6 adults and 9 youth. We headed out in my van, and two other vehicles (including a very nice horse trailer with all our stuff stashed inside). We had a safe trip, but certainly saw God's hand protecting us as we drove along. At one point, we had stopped for a quick bathroom break, but Natalie kept saying she was hungry so we decided to have a lunch at the rest stop. We watched the cars and trucks pass as we ate in the bright sunshine. A short time later we were back on the road. Not more than 10 miles later we saw a horrible accident, and we had just watched that van pass shortly before we ate. It is very possible we would have been right at the accident! We had numerous other close calls, but God is good! :)

We stayed our first night in Spearfish, SD. We got in early enough we were able to eat supper and spend a few hours in the pool and hot tub. It was a well needed break from the car. Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. After we ate, we all prayed and shared a devotion. It was awesome to sit in the breakfast room, and for everyone to respect our prayer time by getting quiet. And not one kid seemed bothered that we weren't in private! In fact, afterward one of the leaders went back in for some directions and heard another large group talking and asking where our church group was from, and wondering where we were going. :)

Saturday around 3:30 we pulled into Mandaree ND. We got unloaded and went up to the church for a quick overview of our mission for the week. Then we were sent with some cash, and went to an Indian Pow Wow! It was truly amazing to watch the native dancers. I will post some pictures when I get some free time! We had to leave before really any of us wanted, but we knew our group was exhausted!

Sunday we were up for devotions and prayer and then to the church for breakfast. We had church (and that was really exciting) and then a pot luck dinner afterward. We got to spend some time talking and sharing with some people in the community. We had to unload the trailer full of our VBS props, and then we were able to just spend some "free" time with the community. The kids decided to head to the park and play. One of our youth (the only boy) decided to play basketball. After a couple hours, we were all tired, and sharing our experiences. The kids flocked to the girls on the playground! And Toby had a court full of young men playing basketball with him! Being the EMT, I was fixing scrapes from the Native children. I think some of them literally picked scabs so they could come get a band aid!

After playing and a quick supper, we had another meeting about the activites of the week. We were reminded that our main mission is building relationships! :) Then we went off for another evening at the Pow Wow. The kids took flier to hand out about several events happening this week. My two girls (a proud mommy moment) continued the whole evening handing out fliers and talking to children and women! I coudln't have been more proud! :) They have been an inspiration to watch.

We came home after 10pm and had our bible studay and debriefing period. It has been fun to share what God has done throughout the day. I've been very proud of our youth! They have really been willing to step out and build relationships with any/all the people! We were in bed around 11:30.

Today was another early morning (it will be this way all week). You could see that the last few days have been slowly catching up on everyone! It was a slow start today. Once at the church for breakfast, everyone slowly started to wake up. After we ate, we sat around as a big group (we have some people from Tx here as well- all adult) and share in devotion/ and prayer time. We sat around and sang some praise songs and then did some awesome focused prayer time! I think we might have been there for an hour or more!

After prayer we did some cleaning at the church, and then we had planned on playing baseball with some local kids at the boys and girls club, but there was a sign saying they were closed and cleaning up the grounds where the Pow-Wow had been. We grabbed some gloves and trash sacks and went to help clean up. As a side note- I have never seen so much trash thrown all over the place. It was really really bad! It was a fun time, even though it was picking up trash. We were happy to help, and I think the locals were pleased to see us.

We had lunch and now we are "home" for a quick rest time. In just a few minutes we'll go get the kids up and head back to the church for our first session of VBS (although we are calling it Bible Camp since school is a negative thing for these kids)! :)

I'll try to update tonight and each night the rest of the week! Please keep praying for the team and this community!

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