Rosebud in Review, Part 1

June 25th, 2005 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) |

Rosebud 2005
Rosebud in Review, Part 1
Rosebud in Review, Part 2
Rosebud in Review, Part 3
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Is it possible to use the phrase “life-changing experience” without being incredibly cliché? Because life-changing is exactly what this trip was - and there was nothing cliché about it.

I returned several hours ago from a seven-day mission trip to Rosebud Indian Reservation, home of the Lakota Sioux, in South Dakota. Thirty-two people total, including myself, my “boss” Brandon, the other two interns Molly and Megan, a hilarious mother (”hilarious” as in whoops-I-locked-my-keys-in-the-van hilarious), and 28 high school kids from our Student Ministry began the trip early on Saturday the 18th. Of the four sixteen-passenger vans, I had the privelege of driving the luggage/equipment van, which only seated two because all of the back seats were removed. It was named the iVan very early on, in honor of the three interns who rode in it except on a few occasions. The trip to the reservation was about seven or eight hours, and it went surprisingly fast, thanks to Megan’s never-ending road trip games.

I mentioned in the previous post that I believed the week wouldn’t go how we thought it would, and I couldn’t have been more right. It was nothing like I imagined it would be. We rolled into the town of St. Francis, and stopped at the St. Francis Indian High School, which is where we slept. We did most of our eating and sleeping at the high school and then traveled in the afternoons about 15 miles to a tiny town called Parmelee. Our group and about five other church groups all slept on the high school gym floor and ate our meals out in the commons/cafeteria area. I’m pretty sure it was the most uncomfortable week of sleep of my life for a couple of reasons:

I guess it wasn’t that bad. Okay, it was. I got over it though. The first night we all drove to another town called Mission, where we met up with another big group of churches to eat and worship and talk about logistics, etc. This was the night we discovered the abundant joys of sleeping in a crowded, hot, bright high school gymnasium. Sunday would be our first day of Kid’s Club at Parmelee. We spent much time in prayer to prepare ourselves as best as possible for the day ahead.

During the morning and early afternoon on Sunday we prepared some more, including music rehearsals, dance rehearsals, skit rehearsals, logistics, and so on. We then headed out towards Parmelee, and Sunday is the only day that we took the ’scenic route’ to the town, which was driving through a beautiful tree-sprinkled valley with a winding river running its length. The rest of the reservation reminded me of the topography in Dancing with Wolves. When we arrived at Parmelee, we arrived at a town that had sixty houses at most, a convenience store, and a couple of all-purpose buildings, one of which was the Youth Center where we staked our claim for the week (see picture below).

At the youth center, we all met George, the town’s pastor and owner of the Youth Center (YC), which he got for $1/year for 25 years. He told us the alot of the boys in the town were a little ornery, but that it was really just their cries for attention and love, encouraged and thanked us, and left us to do our thing. A bunch of our group went out into the town to get kids (one could walk the circumference of the town in thirty minutes) and we got some balls out to play with and set up the sound system inside the YC for the service later in the evening. I think the first day we had 30 or so kids, and from them was a complete sampling of what we would encounter the rest of the week.

The kids that came ranged in age from 3 to 15 years old. There were kids who had a smile on their face the whole time no matter what we were doing (I am thinking of Caleb), and there were kids who came, it seemed, only to cause problems (I am thinking of Jeremy, Raven, and Elijah, among others), and there were also inbetweeners.

While people went out into the town to pick up the children, I was inside the YC setting up for worship and rehearsing, so I didn’t immediately bond with any kids. On the third day, though, I really became attached to these three siblings named William, Katie, and Vicky. Although they all had the same mother, each of them had a different father. William is below:

I could dedicate an entire post to this kid. I think he made a more profound impact on me in three days than all of my campers combined from last summer. This doesn’t mean I am devaluing my campers, I am simply hypervaluing William. He is a kid who is joyful, funny, and completely filled with Christ’s love. On one of the afternoons he and I went inside to the basement to take a break from the heat, and I was asking him questions about Jesus - if he knew who He was and what He did for us. William’s answers were so profound that it blew my mind. It wasn’t like he has memorized some silly kid’s song and regurgitated it to me, he told me all about Jesus’ death and resurrection and His atonement for our sins. I mean, the whole nine yards.

You’ll notice in the picture that he has a mohawk haircut. Well, it doesn’t go all the way to the back of his head. There is a gap between his mohawk and a rat tail, or what he called a “dragon tail”. I thought it would be a cool idea if I got my hair cut the same way his was, as a way for us to remember each other. He told me that his uncle cut his hair, and when I asked him where his uncle lived, he pointed down the street. The quest for a haircut had begun. However, his uncle didn’t have his clippers handy, so William and I turned around and headed back to the YC. Halfway back to the building, while riding on my back, William squeezed his arms around my neck harder and said “I love you so much.” I believe my heart melted right there on that street in Parmelee, and I was barely able to choke out “I love you too, William.”

His sisters, Katie (the older one) and Vicky became very attached as well. They were constantly wanting back/shoulder rides. One night while Erin and I were walking the three of them home (read Erin’s descriptive, verbose, and insightful post about the trip), Vicky asked for a piggy-back ride, and I obliged, only to grab hold of her butt for support, which was soaked. I’m pretty sure I had noticed it earlier, but had written it off as some spilled water or something. As soon as I set her down at the house, I took a whiff of my hand which led immediately to a dry heave induced by the smell of toddler urine. Peeing one’s pants was thenceforth called “Pulling a Vicky.”

God is incredible. He worked in so many ways, through so many people this week - I can’t even begin to name them all. The leadership behind the mission trip was awesome, and for the most part everything went very smoothly. Nearly eighty kids total attended our Kids Club, and I think each and every one of them received love from our group both verbally (encouragments, “I love you’s”, compliments) and physically (back and shoulder rides, hugs). Most, if not all, of them know who Jesus is and what He did. My heart has been seriousy transformed after all of this.

I want to write so much more about this that it’s driving me crazy. As you’ll notice, I started giving a play-by-play of the week, but I figured that would be a little silly. Who needs chronology? I want to write my thoughts about the socioeconomic status of the Indians - why they live the way they do and how it affects their lives and our ministry. I have already begun drafting a huge list of inside jokes/things I want to remember about the trip which I will post soon. I’d like to write more about where/when/how I saw God this week. This particular post will probably be edited, so keep on the lookout for changes.

The rest of my cameraphone pictures from the trip can be found here.