Home Sweet Home

We made it! After 1000 miles on the road, 20 hours in the vans and four solid days of serving the people of Rapid City, we're back in Rochester. I know of at least one person who's glad to be sleeping in her own bed (and NOT on an air mattress in a Sunday School classroom) tonight.

We closed our trip this morning by taking a detour to Mount Rushmore. It was a great reminder of the importance of perspective -- and that one person with a big idea can do great things in the world.

Our last stop put that into practice: we delivered two dozen hand-tied quilts from the fabulous Zumbro quilters to an apartment building that offers a stable, secure place to live to homeless families who are trying to make it out of the poverty cycle. A few members of our group had worked here on Wednesday fixing furniture and getting the apartments ready for new residents. When I brought them into the office a woman was there filling out an application for one of the apartments. I told the manager the quilts were a gift for the new residents, a way to say, 'welcome home.' And I at those words I could see tears fill the woman's eyes. Home is a pretty powerful word.

an update from Washington's Wolves

Yesterday Andrew P. wrote about building shelves at the Boys' Club. Here's the finished product!

Culture Bridge

Last night we attended a Native American Dance and Drum demonstration. One of the local churches, Woyatan Lutheran, has built a relationship with Lakota Christians (which is technically a misnomer ... even those who believe in Jesus Christ don't use the term "christian" because of the way they were historically mistreated by Christians). One of their hallmark ministries is hosting traditional dance and drum classes. It's one of the few places that offer regular training in this important part of native culture. We got to visit with the leader, Durand, and see several different dances. Most of the dancers were the same age as our students. They were awesome!

The best part was the three 'intertribal' dances, when we were invited to get up and dance too. I don't think we were fooling anybody with our dance skills, but it was a ton of fun.

a note from Truman's Trout

Here's a report from one of the work groups, which spent the morning helping create a natural prairie park in the empty lot next to the church.

Today Erik and Timmy (aka Jacob/Santa Clause/Justin Timberlake) each dug up their own weed, and then argued about whose was bigger. (They were each 2 and a half feet long.) Yesterday Erik and Jacob got in a fight about who got to use the wrench. Me (Meredith G.) and a girl from another church that was in our group were right outside the door and heard the whole thing, it was incredibly funny! -- Meredith G.

This morning we helped clean up the lot next to the church. When we were done weeding, we put the weeds into 50-gallon paper bags. There was one extra bag so I put it on. It looked very awesomlicious. I almost ran into a car but that’s ok cuz ima koolkat. -- Jessica M.

Scenes of Service

One of the realities of relational ministry is that you don't get a lot of photo opportunities. For one thing, you're supposed to be interacting with people, not taking pictures ... and it's a generally accepted rule that you can't take pictures of kids or do anything that might somehow demean someone's dignity.

Still, I want to assure you that we are busy doing things like ...

taking residents' lunch orders at the senior citizen center ...

... cleaning up the Boys Club ...

... playing bingo ...

... and doing the dishes!

a note from Andrew P.

Today at the Boys Club Gunnar, Micheal, Andrew S, Ben, Bennett, Conner, Joey, Adam, Mitch, Logan, Jeremy, and I built shelves for all the boys at the club to put their backpacks and books on. We all also have buddies. The buddies are kids 10 and younger.

My buddy was Zach. Zach is a 7 year old who loves to play hockey and his favorite game to play with me was foose ball. This week has been a very eye-opening and life-changing expirence. I have seen kids who get 1 or 2 meals a day and the Boys Club is the only place they can go during the summer where they are safe. I now see how thankful I am for having everything I do and all the things my parents do to feed me 3 meals every day.

Bennett R. and Andrew P. assembling new shelves for the Boys Club.

a note from Ellen H.

A couple days ago we went to the National Relief Charity (which coordinates food distribution for several reservations in the ares). On the way there we were stuck on the train tracks waiting for the light to change. When a train was coming closer and closer at us, so we were yelling at the people in the front to move forward. Good thing is we got out of the way in time. After we made it there and we had to label and pack rice for 1 and ½ DAYS. Once we were done with that we had to pack peanuts in small bags. Let’s just say I didn’t like peanuts before and I am not liking them now either. In total just today we packed 1,360 bags of peanuts. I am now tired of peanuts and will be probably for the rest of my life!