Today was our last day of work on the reservation. We lost most of our group so we had to pack up 500 bags of food with only 6 of us. We would have gotten it done if we had enough food. This was after getting food from the Food Bank in the morning. In fact, over the week we were here, we gave out over 1100 pounds of food, and thousands for Christmas gifts.
Since we didn't have enough people, we weren't able to do our Street Ministry. I missed going out to the people on the rez prior to the service. Instead, I helped out at the Food Bank, packed up food bags, and loaded the trailer with the food and gifts. I was actually impressed that we were able to do what we did - though we were almost an hour late getting started.
I'm guessing there were between 750-1000 people at Porcupine School (Porcupine being the name of the village). Earlier in the morning, we met JR American Horse, a Native American from Standing Rock (a reservation higher north on the North Dakota border). He mentioned that he had preached before at Porcupine and that it was a bad place. When I asked what he meant, he said there are a lot of Medicine Men there and that there is a great spiritual battle. That said, we had a great service. We had several people accept Jesus. Very cool.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the night. After cleaning up, we had to get back to the warehouse to pack up the truck for a trip to Red Shirt tomorrow. Rick and I will not be going since we are leaving to return home early in the morning, so they will only have 4 people helping out tomorrow. We finished up our work with a final prayer.
Tomorrow, we wake up early so we can have one last trip into the Black Hills so Rick can take some more pictures. We will be going with Prodenzio and Donna. Then we have to drop them off back here at the hotel, drop the car off at the rental place, and get a ride to the airport to catch a 10-something flight. Luckily the Rapid City airport isn't too big or busy, so we expect to be able to get through pretty quickly.
Until tomorrow...God Bless!
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
The Last Day of the Whole Group
Good day today. We got out pretty much on time and took the scenic route through the Badlands to get to Oglala. It was the coldest day since we've been here. Not sure what the temperature was but everyone was freezing. We walked around several neighborhoods and between the two teams, we pretty much hit every place in the neighborhood. Most memorable moments - Jaden praying with someone at one of the houses she had knocked on and Reynard being invited in to a house and given a piece of chicken.
The event went well, though it appeared that there might have been problems back at the warehouse. Not sure what it was, but it sounded like there was disagreement on some things that were happening. Regardless, everything went well once the event started. Tonight I had the opportunity to pray over a couple of people - one who knew Christ but has backslided due to alcohol and is having problems in his relationship.
After the service, I said goodbye to all the people who have been working together with us for the past week - some of them are leaving tomorrow and most of them will be taking the day off to travel around to see the sights. After the service, Linda (from Georgia) bought dinner for Reynard and me. It was the first cooked meal I've had since Tuesday. It was only eggs, but it was delicious.
Tomorrow is going to be tough since there is only going to be around seven of us left to do what forty-something of us were doing the past week. We'll see how things go...
Until tomorrow - God bless!
The event went well, though it appeared that there might have been problems back at the warehouse. Not sure what it was, but it sounded like there was disagreement on some things that were happening. Regardless, everything went well once the event started. Tonight I had the opportunity to pray over a couple of people - one who knew Christ but has backslided due to alcohol and is having problems in his relationship.
After the service, I said goodbye to all the people who have been working together with us for the past week - some of them are leaving tomorrow and most of them will be taking the day off to travel around to see the sights. After the service, Linda (from Georgia) bought dinner for Reynard and me. It was the first cooked meal I've had since Tuesday. It was only eggs, but it was delicious.
Tomorrow is going to be tough since there is only going to be around seven of us left to do what forty-something of us were doing the past week. We'll see how things go...
Until tomorrow - God bless!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
At Wounded Knee
Today, the service was held at Manderson village, which is part of the Wounded Knee school district. So our street ministry went to both Wounded Knee and Manderson. While at Wounded Knee, we stopped at the Memorial at Wounded Knee. God happened to place someone there at the same time who was able to tell us about the history of the place. I checked, and there are many websites devoted to the Wounded Knee massacre, so I won't go into it here, but it was a very solemn moment as we heard about the outrage that these people dealt with over 100 years ago at the hands of the US government.
Another thing we learned today was that the village of Pine Ridge and the village of Manderson are "radical" places - compared by other Native Americans to Harlem, specifically in respect to the gangs are that in those places. That said, God has obviously been watching over us and hasn't allowed anything to happen to anyone in the group. We're not going to take any chances though, now that we know. We'll continue to do the work God has placed us here to do, but we will be careful as we walk the streets.
This is cool - We got published in the local paper - the Rapid City Journal.
The service was tremendously well done tonight. Many people came up for prayer. All the food bags and gifts were given out. People were very excited that we were there. I pray that some of these people are giving their lives to Christ. I worry that sometimes, it is just about the food or the gifts, the charity in general, but it is supposed to be about the gospel message. I keep that in prayer constantly.
It was a long day and there were some emotional moments between the Memorial, the service and the prayers. Pray that we continue to have an affect on the Native Americans here.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Spiritual Battle
What a spiritual battle we had to fight today. There were so many obstacles we had to overcome. It started right at the beginning of the day. We were supposed to pick up food from the Food Bank today, but the delivery trucks never got to the Food Bank, so there wasn't as much to choose from as we thought we would have. Then, the truck that was pulling the trailer with the food, had a problem and broke down.
Meanwhile, we were waiting to get out to do the Street Ministry and we weren't able to get started until two hours later than we were supposed to. Later on, after the truck was fixed (miraculously, if you ask me) and the food was put into bags and reloaded on the truck, it got lost on the way to the event at Pine Ridge. But in the end, even after these things, as well as some other obstacles that needed to be overcome, there were probably about 1500-2000 people at the event and we were able to minister to them with the gifts for the children, the elders and the food for the families.
As for the Street Ministry, we went through one part of the village to talk to people about our event and were met by some of the greatest poverty I have seen. Much of it was very much like what I have seen in El Salvador, but there were some really bad dwellings that were horrible, like broken down trailers with windows broken out. There were a bunch of people with cars that had broken windshields. Many houses had smells that were difficult to take - urine smells or dog feces. It was hard to comprehend people living like this.
That said, the village of Pine Ridge had many more modern amenities than Kyle did yesterday. There was a Taco John and a Pizza Hut on the main road, there were bigger buildings, there was a traffic light at the center of the village. I'm not sure I get how a village can have more modern amenities and more poverty at the same time, but that is Pine Ridge.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as well as the villages that we will be visiting over the next few days.
Meanwhile, we were waiting to get out to do the Street Ministry and we weren't able to get started until two hours later than we were supposed to. Later on, after the truck was fixed (miraculously, if you ask me) and the food was put into bags and reloaded on the truck, it got lost on the way to the event at Pine Ridge. But in the end, even after these things, as well as some other obstacles that needed to be overcome, there were probably about 1500-2000 people at the event and we were able to minister to them with the gifts for the children, the elders and the food for the families.
As for the Street Ministry, we went through one part of the village to talk to people about our event and were met by some of the greatest poverty I have seen. Much of it was very much like what I have seen in El Salvador, but there were some really bad dwellings that were horrible, like broken down trailers with windows broken out. There were a bunch of people with cars that had broken windshields. Many houses had smells that were difficult to take - urine smells or dog feces. It was hard to comprehend people living like this.
That said, the village of Pine Ridge had many more modern amenities than Kyle did yesterday. There was a Taco John and a Pizza Hut on the main road, there were bigger buildings, there was a traffic light at the center of the village. I'm not sure I get how a village can have more modern amenities and more poverty at the same time, but that is Pine Ridge.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as well as the villages that we will be visiting over the next few days.
Friday, December 15, 2006
First Day on the Rez
Today we went to the reservation for the first time as a whole group. We went to the land where Wings As Eagles will be building the Dream Center - a place where abused women and children and substance abusers can find shelter, kids with no outlets can play sports and the people can find a place where they can get food. We had a short worship service there and then split into two groups.
The main group went back to the warehouse to prepare for the evening service. My group of ten people went into Kyle - a village further in on the reservation. We spent the entire day meeting people and telling them about the event - a service where we would be giving away a bag of food to each family and a gift for all the children and elders (older people). After we hit all of Kyle, we went to Potato Creek and did the same there.
Finally, at around 5:00, we were at the High School gym, setting up for the event. It took almost an hour to get everyone in the door - before anyone could enter, they needed to give their name, address and children's names and ages. When everyone was in, we estimate that there was around 1,000 people there. Everyone couldn't fit in the bleachers, so folding chairs had to be put out on the floor. It was pretty awesome.
The service went well - I won't say great. It was really hard because the kids were all over the place. I asked one of the guys who is in our party - Chief Reynard, who is Apache - whether this was normal for the Indian Nations. He said it was, so we just had to deal with it. But it was very hard to speak while there's Chaos all around. But we got through it and afterwards, I'm told that people were listening and were able to understand.
After the service was over and all the gifts and food were handed out, we had to reload the trailer with all the leftover stuff and all the empty boxes, that are still needed because we need to do this again tomorrow. However, we had to return to the warehouse to unload the trailer because early tomorrow morning, we have to go out and get more food at the Food Bank. Then, we also had to load another trailer that a couple of guys are taking to Montana tomorrow to take to the Blackfeet Indians. So everyone was pretty beat by the time we were done, around 12:00 midnight.
I pray that the people we spoke to today will feel the Holy Spirit move and come to a place of salvation. Meanwhile, the two most memorable moments today - We almost got rear-ended when there was a short stop by a car several cars ahead of us. The car behind us was not going to be able to make the stop. Rick was driving and he recognized this, so he drove the car over on the side of the road in the grass. We were passing a bunch of cars on our left and when we finally came to a stop, the car behind us had left burning rubber all over the road and almost hit the car that was in front of us before we swerved out of the way. Rick said it was all God.
The second memory was eating a piece of fried bread - something that the Indians make - it was delicious. Tasted like a zeppoli without the sugar. I have to find that recipe.
Until tomorrow - God Bless! And pray that the work we are doing is bringing people closer to the true God.
The main group went back to the warehouse to prepare for the evening service. My group of ten people went into Kyle - a village further in on the reservation. We spent the entire day meeting people and telling them about the event - a service where we would be giving away a bag of food to each family and a gift for all the children and elders (older people). After we hit all of Kyle, we went to Potato Creek and did the same there.
Finally, at around 5:00, we were at the High School gym, setting up for the event. It took almost an hour to get everyone in the door - before anyone could enter, they needed to give their name, address and children's names and ages. When everyone was in, we estimate that there was around 1,000 people there. Everyone couldn't fit in the bleachers, so folding chairs had to be put out on the floor. It was pretty awesome.
The service went well - I won't say great. It was really hard because the kids were all over the place. I asked one of the guys who is in our party - Chief Reynard, who is Apache - whether this was normal for the Indian Nations. He said it was, so we just had to deal with it. But it was very hard to speak while there's Chaos all around. But we got through it and afterwards, I'm told that people were listening and were able to understand.
After the service was over and all the gifts and food were handed out, we had to reload the trailer with all the leftover stuff and all the empty boxes, that are still needed because we need to do this again tomorrow. However, we had to return to the warehouse to unload the trailer because early tomorrow morning, we have to go out and get more food at the Food Bank. Then, we also had to load another trailer that a couple of guys are taking to Montana tomorrow to take to the Blackfeet Indians. So everyone was pretty beat by the time we were done, around 12:00 midnight.
I pray that the people we spoke to today will feel the Holy Spirit move and come to a place of salvation. Meanwhile, the two most memorable moments today - We almost got rear-ended when there was a short stop by a car several cars ahead of us. The car behind us was not going to be able to make the stop. Rick was driving and he recognized this, so he drove the car over on the side of the road in the grass. We were passing a bunch of cars on our left and when we finally came to a stop, the car behind us had left burning rubber all over the road and almost hit the car that was in front of us before we swerved out of the way. Rick said it was all God.
The second memory was eating a piece of fried bread - something that the Indians make - it was delicious. Tasted like a zeppoli without the sugar. I have to find that recipe.
Until tomorrow - God Bless! And pray that the work we are doing is bringing people closer to the true God.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
A Day at the Warehouse
We saw them! We saw a couple of buffalo! We woke up at 5:30, got on the road at 6:15 and got to the Custer State park before sunrise. We weren't supposed to get out of the car, but we did and we got really close - we guess about 150 feet. It was really great.
We got back to the Lodge at 8:30 and went to the warehouse. Today, we were there with all the other people who were coming to help out. There are about 40 people here from Long Island, at least half of them are 15-16 years old. We spent the morning understanding the itinerary for the rest of the trip and Pastor Lori and Gary told everyone about their situation. It seemed that the prayers over the past couple of days really helped them to discern what they needed to do. They decided to go to Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to do the funeral for their friend, Pearl. That means that we need to do these outreaches without them for the first 2-3 days.
After they told us their situation, they gave assignments to everyone and the rest of the day, we packed up bags of food from the boxes of food that we had brought yesterday from the Food Bank. Other groups also put together bags of candy to give out to the younger children, bags of toiletries, boxes of blankets for the Tribal Elders and a bunch of other preparations for tomorrow.
In the late afternoon, about 7 of us were brought in to a meeting to discuss our responsibilities for the rest of the trip, especially during the next few days when Pastors Lori and Gary wouldn't be around. I will be leading the Street Ministry teams. I'll also be delivering a message to the villages we will be visiting the next 2-3 days.
I'm looking forward to the next couple of days when we will finally be done with all the preparation work and actually get out and meet with the American Indians. I know it's important to do all the preparation, but our human nature wants to skip the tedious, hard parts and go right into the parts that seem to have the impact. But I also know that without the preparation parts, the impact will be greatly reduced, so it's totally understood that these two days were necessary - just glad to be done with them and moving forward now!
Looking forward to tomorrow...I'll keep you posted.
God Bless!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Day 2 in Rapid City
The biggest surprise of the trip so far - 50 degree weather. Rick keeps saying he wants it to get really cold, otherwise he wasted the $200 he spent for warm clothes.
Today was a physical day. Rick and I met Pastors Gary and Lori at the food bank and the four of us went through all the food they had. They didn't have a lot - at least not a lot of food that is good for you. There were cookies and junk food galore. We had to go through all the good-for-you food and check expiration dates (there were some cans with expiration dates of 2002!). After we did that, we packed the trailer that Wings As Eagles owns with everything we found. Then we took the trailer to Wings As Eagles' warehouse and emptied the trailer. The whole thing took about five hours. When we were done, we had packed and unpacked 4500 pounds of food. The game plan is tomorrow, we will pack all the food into bags.
After lunch, we ate and prayed and asked for God to provide more leaders to Wings As Eagles since they are getting more Native American tribes in the Northwest looking to them for help and there is no way they can do this with just the two of them. Also, we prayed for guidance and discernment for Pastors Gary and Lori since there have been so many difficult situations lately. They got another hit today when they got a call and found out that a woman who had been working with them since the beginning of their ministry passed away this morning. They were being asked to go to Montana to the Arapaho reservation to do her funeral ceremony. They are very distraught that they need to choose among comforting the people that have lost family over the past few days here on Pine Ridge, leading this Christmas outreach and going to Montana.
After this, Rick and I were done with the work for the day (except for picking up people at the airport at 9:00 in the evening) and we had about 90 minutes of sunlight left, so we decided to drive down to Mount Rushmore. Rushmore is about 30-40 minutes from Rapid City. The drive up the mountain was amazing. The beauty of God's creation really hit us. We also drove the next 20 minutes to see the Crazy Horse monument. If you don't know about this check out the link: http://www.crazyhorse.org/ Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it because they wanted $20 and there was no way we were paying to see something that isn't even done yet! Then on the way back, we took the scenic route through Custer State Park. There was a sign that said to be careful of crossing buffalo. It also said not to get out of the car because they are dangerous. Cool.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to see any buffalo before it got too dark and we traveled too much of the scenic route in the dark. So, we decided to wake up early tomorrow and try the route again so we can see if we can catch some buffalo. Hopefully, we'll see them tomorrow because I'm expecting that we won't have much free time the rest of the way.
Until tomorrow...God Bless all!
Monday, December 11, 2006
Arrival in South Dakota!
First - thanks to Kevin W. for recommending I keep my journal on the web. I think he really wanted to see what missionary work looked like, so here you go...
So I picked up Rick at 8:00 at his house. Debora looked so sad to see him go - it was touching. Thank God for the HOV lane, because we got to LaGuardia on time - around 9:15. Finding parking was a pain since I never did that before at that airport, but really, getting on board was pretty uneventful.
I hate United. Every time I travel on that airline, I feel uncomfortable. The flight to Denver felt like forever - it was around 4.5 hours. They never fed us. The movie was The Da Vinci Code, which really wasn't that good. We met Barry, who sat next to me in the Window seat. Yes - that means I sat between Barry and Rick - do you feel sorry for me yet? The best part of the trip was the end.
By the way - Rick hasn't had a cigarette since we left. Pray for him as he tries to quit on this trip.
The flight from Denver to Rapid City was on a little turboprop. If you haven't experienced turbulence on a turboprop, you haven't had fun in an airplane. Other than a little of that, the trip was also mostly uneventful.
The turn of events came when we landed. We called Pastor Lori to let her know we were in. They had bad news for us. Since they have been back on the Rez (about 2 weeks), there has been several deaths. Sunday, a woman, Mary, lost her husband and two children in a car accident. She asked if we could come with them to console and comfort her.
The trip from our lodge (yes - we are staying at the Thunderbird Lodge) to Pine Ridge Reservation is about 90 minutes. We got to Mary's house about 8:00. Pastor Lori started out by saying that there is really nothing we can say, all we can so is worship. Then, Pastor Gary played music on his guitar. After about an hour, Pastor Lori read from John 11:25-26 where Jesus explains that he is the Resurrection and the Life and that all who believe in him will live, even though he die. Then she asked me to say some words, so I just added that in the same passage, when the women wondered where Jesus was and wasn't there to save their brother, we often feel the same way today - but Jesus is there and it is he who supports us through our difficult times - he really is the way the truth and the life.
Probably the most powerful part of the evening was when Mary herself prayed and the first words out of her mouth was "Thank you Jesus." Her strength and her faith was amazing, especially in light of her situation. Isn't amazing what Jesus can do?
So now, Rick and I are eating dinner - finally - at 11:30. Ham sandwiches. Be back tomorrow!
In Jesus Name - God Bless!
So I picked up Rick at 8:00 at his house. Debora looked so sad to see him go - it was touching. Thank God for the HOV lane, because we got to LaGuardia on time - around 9:15. Finding parking was a pain since I never did that before at that airport, but really, getting on board was pretty uneventful.
I hate United. Every time I travel on that airline, I feel uncomfortable. The flight to Denver felt like forever - it was around 4.5 hours. They never fed us. The movie was The Da Vinci Code, which really wasn't that good. We met Barry, who sat next to me in the Window seat. Yes - that means I sat between Barry and Rick - do you feel sorry for me yet? The best part of the trip was the end.
By the way - Rick hasn't had a cigarette since we left. Pray for him as he tries to quit on this trip.
The flight from Denver to Rapid City was on a little turboprop. If you haven't experienced turbulence on a turboprop, you haven't had fun in an airplane. Other than a little of that, the trip was also mostly uneventful.
The turn of events came when we landed. We called Pastor Lori to let her know we were in. They had bad news for us. Since they have been back on the Rez (about 2 weeks), there has been several deaths. Sunday, a woman, Mary, lost her husband and two children in a car accident. She asked if we could come with them to console and comfort her.
The trip from our lodge (yes - we are staying at the Thunderbird Lodge) to Pine Ridge Reservation is about 90 minutes. We got to Mary's house about 8:00. Pastor Lori started out by saying that there is really nothing we can say, all we can so is worship. Then, Pastor Gary played music on his guitar. After about an hour, Pastor Lori read from John 11:25-26 where Jesus explains that he is the Resurrection and the Life and that all who believe in him will live, even though he die. Then she asked me to say some words, so I just added that in the same passage, when the women wondered where Jesus was and wasn't there to save their brother, we often feel the same way today - but Jesus is there and it is he who supports us through our difficult times - he really is the way the truth and the life.
Probably the most powerful part of the evening was when Mary herself prayed and the first words out of her mouth was "Thank you Jesus." Her strength and her faith was amazing, especially in light of her situation. Isn't amazing what Jesus can do?
So now, Rick and I are eating dinner - finally - at 11:30. Ham sandwiches. Be back tomorrow!
In Jesus Name - God Bless!
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