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.
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