catch up post 2

We didn't have any teams out for the week of the 4th of July.  Probably a good thing, since our neighbors set off so many fireworks, no one would have gotten any sleep all week!  It was a good time to relax, read, knit, and see some of the surrounding area.  Also, I got sucked into Candy Crush and broke down and bought all of Downton Abbey on dvd.

Sometimes, missionaries get care packages!  My honey loves me!!!!!  He sent me Sunday School posters for my trailer, and music for a song we're supposed to sing in church when I get home.  I really ought to take a look at that sometime soon....  Thank you, baby!

ZoeyMonster and I spent a lot of time exploring the area around the ministry center, and look what I found all along the roadsides!

Prairie roses!  Aren't they pretty?

Z and I were just getting back from a walk the morning of the 4th of July--I was literally just climbing through the ministry center fence-- when Ron and Dawn said "Russ invited us all to his son's naming ceremony; we're leaving right now."  AGH!  I had been out walking dusty dirt roads during the hottest week of the summer for an hour and wanted nothing more than a cold shower, but no way was I missing out on the name ceremony!  I got myself presentable and in the truck in under three minutes.

I'm gonna send y'all over to Dawn's blog, Views from the Big Country, to read her description of the ceremony, because really, I have no words.  It was an incredible experience, and I felt so blessed to be able to be a part of it!

It was a low-key week, but a good one!

catch up post 1

I haven't posted in a while.  Whoops!  First I was busy, then our internet got all crazy, and...well, I'm here now, right?

It's been an amazing few weeks.  Teams from Texas and Illinois did a roof, repainted a house, built a deck, and helped haul trash to the dump during a neighborhood clean-up.  During Sidewalk Sonday School, they renewed old friendships with the children of Rolling Hills, where some of the youth remembered the children by name.  I think only one of the children clearly remembered the team members (she introduced them to her cousin "this is Shayna, and that's Jake, and they got married last October!"), and a few others I think sort of remembered, but you could see that the fact that the team remembered them by name made the children feel really special.

They also took SWSS to a brand-new neighborhood.  The roofing team was working in St. Michael all week, playing with the neighborhood children while they worked.  One of the girls told me "We tried to do story time, but it was kind of a fail.  The kids were like 'can we go play now?'"  And play they did.  They blew bubbles, sang songs, played duck, duck, goose, and gave piggyback rides, because they understood that building those relationships was just as important as the roof they were building.  Some day, that roof will need to be replaced again, but those kids will always remember the love they were shown!We'd never done SWSS in that neighborhood, but this seemed like a good time to start.

We didn't really know what to expect.  Would we have 6 children?  16?  We really didn't know.  I packed up snacks and craft kits for 60 and called it good.

Oh.  My.  Gosh!  You guys, it was AMAZING!!!  The team walked up and down the road, gathering up the children they'd been playing with all week, and those kids grabbed their friends, and we ended up with 50+ children that day!  We went through ALL the snacks I took, plus ALL my back-up stash!  They colored with sidewalk chalk, played basketball, read stories, gave more piggyback rides and had a great time.  LOVED IT!!!

Hello and Goodbye

This past weekend, we said goodbye to our teams from Oil City, PA and St Mary's, OH, and welcomed teams from Texas and Illinois.  I'm super excited about our new arrivals!  There are a lot of young adults (yesssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!) who seem passionate about sharing the love of Christ through mission.  The majority of the team from Texas has been here before and are excited to be back, willing and eager to do whatever needs to be done  Love that attitude!

But I'm getting ahead of myself, because as much as I'm looking forward to working with these new teams, the people who were here last week were also fabulous.  The team from Oil City included a lot of family groups, which was different.  I like the idea of mission work being a family experience, and while often, teams include some siblings, couples, the occasional parent-child, this last group included ENTIRE families, some with three generations!  How neat would that be?

One of those three-generation groupings included the lovely Miss Pat, 86 years old and on her very first mission trip.  Pat wasn't sure what she would be able to do on a work trip like this, but she was a rock star!  She helped organize the truckload of clothing donations brought by the St. Mary's team, she spent a morning bleaching empty water bottles that I'll be using to make bubble blowers.  I think Pat really enjoyed Sidewalk Sonday School, where she was the official Story Lady.  If I live to be 86, I hope I'm up for new experiences like Pat was!

 Holy clothes, Batman!

Miss Pat, the Story Lady

My favorite God Sighting this week...came from some folks working on a roof in the Tokio neighborhood.  This team understood that while they were on a work trip, they weren't just here to build houses, they were also here to build relationships, so when the two young girls who lived in the house came around, they took the time to stop working and talk to the girls.  The girls shared caramel rolls, which they'd made at summer school that morning, and orange KoolAid with the team, and while they ate they all got to know each other.  One of the little girls asked where the team was from (Oil City), and where that was (Pennsylvania).  "Wow, that's far away, isn't it?" the little girl asked.  Well, yeah, it's pretty far.  "You came all that way to fix our roof?"  Well, yes, they had.  "I feel so special..."

I cried.

When the roof was done, the girls presented the team with a tattered copy of White Fang, their favorite book, and probably all they had to give.  The relationship that was built last week will last far longer than the roof.  That's church, folks, right there.

When A Warrior Returns

It's storming today, so I can't take the trailer out for Sidewalk Sonday School.  Sad...  I spent some time watching Dance Moms and Googling games to play with the kids, becoming reacquainted with tunnel tag, blob tag, kitty wants a corner, and frisbee golf.  Now I'm watching Windtalkers and thinking about our cultural event this week.

Each week, the teams that come to the ministry center have a cultural evening, a chance to learn more about Native American culture.  Dr. Russ McDonald, a dean at the Cankdeska Cikana Community College here on the reservation made reference this week to ceremonies that used to be performed for returning warriors, and I can't seem to get that out of my brain.  I'll have to ask him if he can tell me more about it the next time he comes out, but from what he said and the little information I've been able to find, Native Americans had a grasp on PTSD and the needs of warriors returning from battle long before the rest of us.

Native Americans recognized that in order to kill people, in order to survive in battle, a warrior must become someone else.  These ceremonies were performed to help the returning warriors become themselves again.  It was also a chance for older, veteran warriors to connect with the young warriors, so they could see that if a young man was having trouble adjusting.  They could then help than young man.

I know a guy who returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.  He spent a few weeks at an Army base somewhere down south debriefing.  His wife joined him for a weekend, where they were required to attend a variety of seminars on How To Rejoin Civilian Life.  Then they returned home to life in Michigan.  

I've never been a soldier, never returned from battle, but the old Native American tradition seems like it would be so much more beneficial.  A weekend of workshops a thousand miles from home can't possibly do as much good as a mentor who's part of your own community, someone who's there to support you and who understands what you're dealing with.

Why don't we have that?

Native Words Native Warriors

What I Do Here

Sidewalk Sonday School Coordinator.

That's my job title, but what does that mean?  What is this Sidewalk Sonday School business?

Well, there's this trailer.

Monday though Thursday afternoons, I haul this beast to one of the neighborhoods on the reservation.  One of the sides folds down, and voila!  A mobile VBS classroom!

Each week, teams of volunteers of all ages from around the country read stories, play games, do crafts, and share snacks with the children of the reservation.

Houses in the neighborhoods we serve are arranged in a somewhat circular pattern, like tepees would have been way back when, with a playground sort of in the middle.  The first day I took the trailer out, I saw children jump up from the wheelchair ramp where they had been playing.  The oldest of the group brought the youngest toddling over, and I watched as the middle child of the group ran from house to house, rounding up her friends and neighbors.  They know our trailer, and they know it means a great snack, adult attention, and a chance to play and have fun.

Some of these children have and will never leave the reservation.  They are caught up in a cycle of poverty like I've never encountered, even working in a school district that almost NEVER has snow days, because if the kids don't get to school, many of them don't get to eat.  Families out here lack the basic resources most of us in the United States take for granted.  Laundry, including towels, is line-dried.  A lot of the kids show up dirty.  Not "it's summer, we play outside and don't get a bath every day" dirty, but "haven't had a bath in a week" dirty.  When you can't feed your kids--and many of these children go to bed hungry--soap is just not a priority.  Many families don't have transportation, and those are the kids who may well never see the world outside this reservation.  To those children, SWSS is church, as evidenced by the little girl who asked one of our team members at a work site on Monday if we were "bringing church today."

That's what I'm doing this summer.  

(most of these photos are from a blog you really should check out! Views from the Big Country )

Introducing...Spirit Lake Ministries

What a crazy busy few days!  I arrived at Spirit Lake early Monday afternoon, and it feels like I haven't stopped run, run, running since I got here!  I'm not ready for a great post, but here are some pictures for your enjoyment

From left to right, the porch of the bath house, food pantry, Sidewalk Sonday School shed, SWSS trailor, Christian life center, and my cabin.  Not pictured are the dorms (big cabins full of bunk beds, much like summer camp or pretty much any other mission trip ever) and the kitchen+dining room.

There's a TON of room to run, and my ZoeyMonster is one happy girl!

The first night here, she was COVERED with ticks!  I started thinking maybe I ought to rethink my position on Frontline (my family doesn't use it because we had a dog who had seizures because of it) after picking a dozen nasty bloodsuckers off my poor baby girl's legs.  BUT I smeared Nature's Miracle Substance, coconut oil, on her legs to soothe the tick bites, and she hasn't had any ticks since.  

This is where I sleep

Why is Blogger ridiculously stretching my vertical pictures?  Hm...I should figure that out at some point...Anyway, this is My Own Space, with a door that closes and locks.  Isn't it cute?

Where I shower (because you wanted to know that, right?)

Community showers!  Just like college!  Except actually, there's a lot more privacy than the showers in my dorm.  Rustic, but clean, new, and plenty of hot water.

My cohorts

Mike, Libby, Zoey (but you knew that, right?), Ron, and Dawn.  You'll probably be hearing me mention them a lot.  Not pictured are Z's new pack, Cooper, Maizie (for Amazing), and Grace.  Z is NOT the most well-socialized dog, so she has a love-hate relationship with The Pack.  I am not the most well-socialized human, so I empathize.  Not that I have a love-hate relationship with this particular pack--they're fabulous!

And my chariot

Until yesterday, I had never pulled a trailer in my life, but nothing broke and nobody died!  Even more impressive, today I did it *without* anyone telling me what to do!  Again, nothing broke and nobody died, so I was pretty darn proud of myself!

I promise, I'll write more this weekend!

The Last Week Home

I am currently sprawled on the bed of my Super 8 motel room just outside Minneapolis.  This morning, I woke up in Grand Rapids (the one in Michigan, not the one in Minnesota).  That's 600 miles of driving in one day, with only the ZoeyMonster to keep me company, and I did it!  The longest I've ever driven before was the 5 hours from my grandma's summer house, so I was pretty impressed with myself!

She's pretty wiped out for having done nothing but sit in the front seat spazzing and drooling all over the passenger door (Z is NOT a fan of the front seat!)

The last week has been a nonstop whirlwind of packing, quality time with family and friends, and end-of-the-year craziness.  This was my first year working in the public schools, so I don't know what it's usually like, but I'm pretty sure this year had extra crazy.  My building is closing, but the program is continuing, so EVERYTHING had to be packed and ready for the movers to take to our new building by the time school got out yesterday.  It's funny how little space everything takes up once you throw away the junk you don't actually use and package the rest up in boxes.  More than half the school fit into one unused classroom

 The kids were pretty much left with sticks and rocks to play with for the week, but it actually worked out pretty well.  Less is more!  I was inspired to start purging at home.  You know, because I didn't have enough to do already!  But it actually helped me get ready to leave, because with less stuff, it was much easier to organize the things I needed to pack.  I still have too much and definitely over-packed, but much of what I packed will NOT be going home with me, and I'll get rid of more at home when I get back

Ugh!  my brain is starting to cloud over--I think it's time to walk the dog and slip into mindless oblivion for a while

My List

The pile of Stuff To Pack in my living room is growing, and, while I wish I could say that my To Do list is shrinking, it seems like for every one thing I cross off, I add at least two more things. *sigh*  It's possible I may have gotten a little too fixated on that list today...  Two minutes before it was time to open the doors for the afternoon session, I realized I couldn't find my list, and sprinted from one side of the school to the other and back searching for the darn thing, only to find it in my back pocket.  Fortunately, since I work in special ed, *most* of the adults I work with are so used to our kiddos that they don't really even raise an eyebrow anymore when my quirkiness shows.

I have a lot to accomplish in the next couple days, a lot of things to keep track of, but I can't let it turn me into a total spazz.  Then the AD/HD will just kick in and I won't be able to get anything done, and I'll spazz more, and suddenly, it will be Friday after school, and nothing will be done, and I won't have spent any of these last few days on the things and people who matter.

Perspective

It's Getting So Close!

I leave for North Dakota in a little less than a week.  6 days, 13 hours, and 33 minutes, not that I'm counting down or anything.  I'm excited for this wonderful opportunity and, if I'm 100% honest, more than a little nervous.  Once I get there, I'm sure I'll be fine, but right now, the prospect of a 19+ hour drive in my 98 Honda Accord with just the ZoeyMonster for my copilot... yikes!  What if I get a flat tire and a serial killer gets to me before AAA?

Mostly, though, I'm excited to finally start this adventure that's been in the making since, oh, November?  Before then, really, if I think about it.  About 5 years ago, a family from my church decided they wanted their last big family vacation (the oldest child was graduating high school) to have a mission component.  Though our church offered a number of mission opportunities, there was nothing that really fit the needs and interests of the family, so they looked into other opportunities within the larger United Methodist Church and found the Spirit Lake Ministry Center on the Spirit Lake Nation reservation in North Dakota.  They spent the week doing light construction and repair work on homes and tribal buildings on the reservation, and also around the ministry center.  They helped with children's programs on the reservation, and they had opportunities to participate in Native American cultural activities.  Then, like every other mission team our church sent out, they came back and told everyone all about it.

For the next couple summers, our church sent teams to Spirit Lake Nation.  My friends, Ron and Dawn, loved it so much that they became volunteer coordinators, choosing to spend their summers coordinating and overseeing volunteer work crews.  They've been trying for two summers to get me out there, so this November, when I finally was able to move from working in private preschool+daycare to the public school system, I texted Dawn "Guess what?  Summers off=I can come to the rez!"  To which she responded "You know, I think they're looking for a Sidewalk Sunday School coordinator.  I think you'd be perfect!"  Emails were exchanged, phone calls were made, and voila!  I've gone from planning to volunteer for a week or two to a paid position for the summer!

I get to spend my summer break in mission with children.  Could life be any better?  God is good!