Friday Recap

Today half of us were able to continue working on the houses we had started yesterday and the other half was able to continue bonding with the children. Justin, Sami, and Rob, along with their group, were able to almost finish painting a house. Autumn, Tessa, and Lora continued to bond with some little girls by coloring, reading, and making painted T-shirts. Today was also the community cookout and we were able to have dinner with many members of the town. A woman whose house we painted, Mable, was unsure of Youthworks and, when invited to the cookout, made up excuses not to attend. It was surprising to us when we saw Mable with her children at the cookout. Lora felt the need to talk to her and really connected to Mable. When Mable had to leave she asked Lora if we would be back. This is a great example of how our ministry has affected the people of Martin.

After all the townspeople went home Alex, his kids, and some friends danced a Pow Wow for us and we joined in. We did a friendship dance where all of the Youthworks participants joined hands in a circle and side stepped around. It was great to feel connected to all the people here. After the Pow Wow a Lakota friend of ours sang a love song to Tessa. He was much older; don't worry.

When we came back to the school for CLUB time we had our lesson and worship. The Youthworks staff then proceeded to wash the feet of the leaders and pray over them. Our leaders then did the same for us. It was a powerful experience none of us will forget. It put most of us in tears, but our relationships grew stronger.

wednesday

hi its sami
so today rob justin jessie and i were changed over to work projects and tessa lora and autumn went over to kids club. kids club was a bit more hectic than when we were over there(apparently the kids were a bit more wilder(thats for you lora). so any ways we got to scrape and start painting the house of jason and thea, they were some of the kids who go to kids club, and it was sunny out there was also some gross bug nests or something under where the shuters had been. also justin is attracting girls like flies to honey it is rediculous we were trying to save him but we dont know how well that went but we promise to bring him back single. we went on a nature hike with Alex, he was a Lakota that has been hanging around with youth works for 9 years, and i got some pinecones(those are for you mom)
uh oh its time for lights out gotta go
God Bless

more pics

we lived!

pics

Third Day of Trip, Second of Work

Hey everybody! It's Justin, bloggin' for all of you at home. I'll try to fill you in on as much as I can, but I can only know so much about what went on today. 6:45 A.M., Rob and I woke up for breakfast (I had a little more trouble than usual). Had waffles =) Had a little free time, then did today's devotionals. Today's subject was wealth. Not just financial wealth, but emotional and spiritual wealth along with the wealth of resources. We learned how we could use our wealth to further our service for God and help others. Most of our reading came from Mark 12:41-44, the story of the poor widow's offering. After devotionals, Rob, Sami, Jessie, and I left for the local nursing home. We played "kickball" with the residents for a while, where we kicked a ball around in a circle. Later we sang a few songs while attempting to play guitar with it. It almost worked out... =) It all went fine. We came back to the school after the residents' smoke break started. We ate our lunches, and had some free time so we played some lightning. Later we headed over to the park for Kid's Club. Rob and I drove out to the Lakota housing developments. It was kind of sad to see how small the houses were and how much maintennance they needed. And we didn't have enough room in our vehicles for all the kids that wanted to go, either. That was sad, too. But when we came back to the park, the kids were really excited to be there and I became something of a "child magnet". I got tackled a few times, tickled a few kids... It was fun. After Kid's Club, we had more free time with lightning. After that got old, I hung out with some of the girls from the other churches and, of course, everyone gave me a hard time about that. Later, we had tacos and nachos for supper. We went barefoot bowling for our evening activity (pictures will be shown!!! I promise). Later we headed back to the park to play some games, and came back to the school for Club time. Before that, however, we were treated to a quick show of Sam juggling for us and the guys and girls put on a fashion show of all the shirts we could buy later this week. (Definitely have to show you some pictures of that, too!!) Ben, one of the Youthworks staff members, gave us his message on wealth. He had a great demonstration where he gave each of us rocks to hold for a while, representing the various things we hold onto for a false sense of security. After he had finished, we threw the rocks in a small bucket of water to see how letting go of that security had a ripple effect in our lives and the lives of those around us. After all this, we broke out into our separate church groups. We had our usual short discussion of the message and what it meant to us, and we each prayed for the person sitting to our left in our small circle (one of our growing traditions). Well, I'd rather not write a novel, here, so... Ta ta for now!!

second day

Well the day started with more health news as one of the other groups leaders husbands called to say that he had contracted hepatitis B from a restaurant. That meant that every one in the group had to sit out today and go and get a shot. We are washing, washing, and washing some more to keep the germs from spreading. The kids club when good and we had more kids come today. the culture here is very different and it is hard to get anything organised as they will just say that they don't want to and walk off. We do a lot of one on one time with the kids and that seems to really help. I know our group is sad that we will not have the club any more as we switch with the other groups and we do the painting and repair. our fun activity is going to be barefoot bowling at the local house which has 7 lanes. 7 really! most places have an even number of lanes. Any way will write more later. p.s as for the bandannas we are not able to wear them because of gangs that are in the area. it might match a gang color. we were so sad :(

First day of work

We started the day with a bang and the youth did a great job at plugging themselves into the lives of the kids here. I (rob) had Sami, Justin, and Jessie with me doing kids club. Justin had a little boy jonah around him all day and loved being his friend. Sami and Jessie did the snack part along with being on the swings with some kids. Our day was cut a little short due to the weather, as a thunder storm rolled through and closed us for the day there. All in all the day was a win and the Lord got a great victory as we are really coming together as a community.

This is now Jessie Beckett talking to you. We are having so much fun in South Dakota!! Today, Sami, Justin, Rob and I went down to the park to work with Kid's Club, which is kind of like their VBS. When we got there we pushed the kids on the swing and played with them for a little while and then they would go to a Bible lesson. It was just really cool to get to interact with some of them and you could see their excitement for Christ. We pray that God will open up opportunities for us to share the love of Christ with them.

Ann, and the rest of you that are wondering, Autumn is holding Clem, our mascot for this trip. He is a mountain man that we picked up hitch hicking. He is a sweet talking old man that likes to smoke cigars whenever he can get them, doesn't have a license because he got to many speeding tickets, and can't eat pepperoni pizza or else he will get sick. He is just here to spread a little cheer.