Here we go again

Only a few more days before our team heads out to St. John's in Valentine and then to Rosebud. We have a really good team this year with many of our youth returning for what will be our 6th summer working on the reservation. Praise God. Please keep our team in your prayers for safe travel and a blessed time as God's hands in the world.

Sunday, June 15, 2015

The morning started out a little out of sorts. To begin with, Fr. Tom's truck didn't want to start. After looking under the hood and seeing nothing visibly wrong, he said a short prayer, got back in and, thank you Jesus, it started right up. Arriving at the church, the time before service went just fine; the whole team from Omaha made it for their pre-mission blessing, even loading the trailer went great, but when Fr. Tom went to look for his prayer book, he couldn't find it and after some searching, it was found in his backpack. Despite this little hiccup, the trailer and team were ready to go right on time and at 10:05 am they pulled out of the church parking lot. There was much rejoicing as the craziness seemed to melt away, that was at least until they were about 2 miles from the church when Fr. Tom remembered he left his phone back in the sacristy. You guessed it, back to the church where a dear parishioner met him at the door when he pulled up and we were back on the road.

It was a beautiful day for the drive. Clear skies and light traffic. Arriving in Norfolk, the team took their first break and had lunch at McDonalds. Everyone was glad to stretch their legs a little. Then it was on the road again. After a short stop in O'Neil, it was clear sailing all the way to Valentine arriving 15 minutes ahead of the planned arrival time. They were met by the St. John's Junior Warden, Karl Busch, who had the church open and ready for the team. Shortly afterwards team members from Lincoln and Holdredge arrived and we enjoyed our typical first day dinner, pizza. One sad note, the team learned that the Dollar General, that used to reside about two blocks from the church was no longer there. You could see the disappointment on their faces as they wondered where they would get snacks and drinks they need to survive, and where they would normally spend part of each day. Fortunately, all was not lost. It was discovered that the store had just relocated. However, they now had an extra 5 block walk. Somehow, I don't think that will be an issue. We will see tomorrow.

Following dinner and some get to know one another time, we headed up to the Reservation for training in a Safeguarding God's Children class that focused on the cultural differences our youth might encounter. The local priest offers it to all teams who work on the Rosebud and it contained some really interesting and need to know items to be aware of. While attending meant we had to rearrange our schedule slightly, we did get to meet some other teams on the reservation, as well as their Wopila House intern and a seminarian from Sewanee, Nancee Cekuta. Back at St. John's we finished getting ready for tomorrow's activities and were soon off to bed. A day that started out a just a little bit crazy, ended with our youth leading the team in Compline and some peace and quiet. As first days go; it was a good one, and we are looking forward to what God has in store for us this week.

-- Pictures Day 1

Monday, June 16, 2014

A beautiful summer morning. The team fell asleep quickly last night and when it was time to wake up, many were still sound asleep. But once they were up and moving, there was an excitement about the day ahead. As many of the youth have been on this trip several times, things just seemed to happen and before we knew it we were in the church for morning worship and on the Road to Rosebud.

We arrived at the church and immediately began unloading and setting up for the day's activities. Our service team began to survey the projects and decided on two; sealing, staining, and painting the handicap ramp and cleaning the basement. As with our preparations at St. John's, things seemed to move effortlessly and before we knew it, we were ready for the arrival of local youth. Fr. Tom drove the van through the neighborhood and it didn't take long to fill up. Several of the youth who joined us had been with us before. As usual, they knew all the right houses to go and pick up even more youth. Gwen was amazed at how the local kids would help us by running up to the door of family and friends and invite them to join us for VBS. We ended up with 20 youth today, about average for a first day. One little girl we need to mention is Whisper. When she arrived she looked like she had grown 6 inches in height. This is her fourth year with us and she knew many on our team and everyone who had been here before remembered her. What a joy it was to renew friendships as youth hopped out of the van and were met by our team to both welcome them and get them signed in.

The menu for lunch today included tacos. This is not only local favorite, our team looked forward to them all morning as Sharon prepared the meat in the kitchen; and everyone enjoyed the chips and cheese dip that came with each taco. After lunch, we headed across the street to the church where one of our teams performed a skit to share the message of today's parable, the Great Banquet. When it came time to sing, they invited everyone who wanted, to come and help them lead the songs and we must have had 8 or 9 youth who jumped at the chance. It was a very energetic crowd today and we were probably heard by the team setting up crafts across the street at the Clark Center,

Most of the team joined the youth at the craft tables while our service team began to take on the projects we had decided on. It was amazing how much they had accomplished by the end of our time on the reservation today. While they worked hard, the rest of our team helped with crafts and joined in a game of kickball. Did I mention it was a beautiful day too? The temperatures were not as hot as last year, so everyone had much more fun playing then they would have had had it been in the 90s. By the end of our time together today we were exhausted. After receiving a snack, they loaded up the van for the ride home (one little girl fell asleep and her dad came out and to carry her into the house).

Meanwhile, back at the church, the rest of the team did an excellent job cleaning up and got everything loaded into the trailer. Once the van returned, it was off to Valentine and the pool. From all reports, the pool water felt fantastic, and other reported the act that the showers felt pretty good too. Some of the team arrived back from the pool a little early, and instead of just chilling, they headed off for on their search for sodas we did not bring on the trip. With snack and soda in hand, they arrived back in time for dinner. Sharon had prepared a wonderful pulled pork dinner (Crystal helped pull the pork at the church on Wednesday of the previous week). Many went back for seconds.

With dinner behind us, the kitchen cleaned up, the team enjoyed a little free time. And what did they do with that time? They made the hike to Dollar General and came back with their favorite snacks. Hard to believe they could envision eating anything after all they ate at dinner, but they are growing young men and women. Once everyone was back, it was time for our evening bible study. Looking at tomorrow's parable "The Rich Fool" we discussed the dangers of having an insatiable desire for material goods and how that affected relationships. Then, using our answers, we asked the question, how can what we learned guide us tomorrow. What followed was a very deep discussion of how we might improve and how we might share more of ourselves so that the youth here knew we truly cared. Art Linkletter once hosted a show "The kids say the darndest things", let me say he was not just talking about 5 and 6 year olds. It isn't that our youth were particularly funny in their responses, quite the opposite, they had deep and thoughtful thoughts to share with the group and this helped us see better how we might interact with reservation youth.

Once our discussion ended, we took some time to begin organizing for tomorrow's crafts and getting thing packed up to expedite our departure tomorrow. One thing that might slow us up, the boys are cooking breakfast (scrambled eggs and ham). Let's hope everything comes out alright. Well, everyone is in bed except me, and that is where I am headed. As far as today went; all I can say is "Thank you Jesus". I pray tomorrow is equally rewarding.

-- Pictures Day 2