SD Trip Day Four * Welcome to Manderson

Monday, 30 June

We have spent one-and-a-half days in Manderson, preparing for this day. Monday is the day when all of our ministry efforts go into full swing. We have people working in several areas:

• Men's Ministry ~ they serve breakfast to the men early every morning and then do a Bible study with them
  
• Women's Ministry ~ our ladies work with the local women on handicrafts as well as Bible study
  
• Youth Ministry ~ we have eight people working with the youth {and by youth, I mean ages 15-30. . . yes, it's a big age span!}; they play games, work on small projects like decorating flowerpots or making t-shirts, and also share the Gospel with them
  
• Community Ministry ~ we have several men who are willing to do whatever is needed throughout the day, from running the vans to pick up children for VBS, to cleaning up the local park, to mowing and weedeating yards (i.e. scrubbrush)
• VBS Ministry/Children's Ministry ~ Hooray! My job! I am the VBS director/coordinator. I am helping twenty-eight people from our churches to minister to the local Lakota children. This is a really bright highlight of the week for everyone involved. We take the kids through different "stations": Music, Bible Study, Recreation, Snack & Crafts. Micah is helping T.J. & Janice Jernigan in the Recreation area.

I love working in VBS! I feel like it is an amazing opportunity to minister to children who truly do not understand who Jesus is, what he has done for them, or how much he loves them.

Later that afternoon, we visited the residents of the Cohen Nursing Home in Pine Ridge. I was a little disappointed going into it because we had been told that my favorite resident whom we met last year, Clarence Wolf Guts, had been moved to another home. Mr. Wolf Guts served in WWII as one of the Windtalkers/Codetalkers. He was conferred the Congressional Medal of Honor for his many acts of bravery and service. Most of all, he talked of how his service glorified God. I REALLY super-duper wanted Micah to meet him and hear his story. How many nine-year-old boys have the chance to meet someone like that? How cool. . . it would have been. BUT! I still decided that Micah & I would go with the other twenty or so people from our team who wanted to go. On our way there, we purchased items for "goodie bags" for all the residents. . . snacks, toiletries, etc., as well as some items for their game room.

We had the opportunity to talk with a man who was pretty wishy-washy about what he believed spiritually. Our pastor, John, presented the Gospel to him in a very straightforward, kind, concise way. He was receptive to what we had to say and was thankful that we offered to pray for him. We also found out that his grandfathers were two of the men involved @ the Massacre @ Wounded Knee in 1890. Then, we went to one of the resident's living quarters and met Les Poultier. We found out that he worked as a cartoonist in the 70's & 80's. . . Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Josie & the Pussycats were all his work! He showed us some paintings he was working on and talked to Micah and Caleb (age7) about his work cartooning. We talked with him about Jesus, too, and he explained that he was a devout Catholic. We enjoyed visiting with all the residents, and now Micah can say he knows the guy who drew Tom & Jerry. . . he was pretty thrilled with that.

Our day was capped off by serving hamburgers to the community for dinner. Although we had ALL the prep work done beforehand, including something as small as taking all the ties off of the hamburger bun bags, we ended up serving dinner over an hour later than we had planned to. The charcoal we were cooking the burgers on got hot at first, then kind of fizzled out. All of our hungry friends got a little restless, and a few people left, but most of them stayed with us, and we ended up serving over 300 people. To fill the time in between arrival and eating, we extended what was supposed to be a short worship service. Our amp busted on the way to Manderson, so we rigged the sound system up to someone's van, pulled the van into the middle of the crowd, and opened all the doors/hatch in order for everyone to hear (somewhat!). It was quite the sight!

Some of our ladies & men went to bed that night smelling like hamburger grease (they ended up frying the burgers inside on whatever pan/griddle they could find). Bless them for serving by slaving over a hot griddle with no break.