The Backpacks for Pine Ridge project is taking off. There's all kinds of crazy stuff in the works.
Ericka has talked to a teacher's association at Ball State about being involved and they are interested!
The band Rabid Granny linked to us and also gave me a head's up about a Wilderness Jam this fall. Apparently they pick a charity to support each year and they have not picked one yet. Rabid Granny suggested I email them and give them some information about what we're doing - I did. We'll see what happens there.
Mountain Fund is also willing to send us some used backpacks and may even handle the shipping for us!
I also talked to Barry and Shelly out at Pine Ridge today. They are doing well in spite of still broken water pipes. I called to see how much stuff they can handle since Sunday the CEO of Caring Partners will be speaking at our church and I will be meeting with him about getting perhaps a couple of skids of personal care products to take to the Reservation.
John and I will also be meeting with the Matthew 25 Ministries at some point to see what donations they can give us. We're hoping for school supplies, cleaning products, and baby items (diapers, wipes, etc.).
Barry assured me that they can handle all we can bring so now it's a matter of how much we can get and how much we can fit into the truck. Good thing we have a bigger truck this year.
And I am reminded again that it is really all about relationships. 1 Cor. tells us that we can give all we have to the poor but if we don't have love it's not worth much (my paraphrase). That is so true. I am SO excited about all the good we might be able to do there as far as providing some needed items to some of the poorest in America but I'm even more excited about the relationships we are building there. It made my day when Barry told me that about 10 different kids have asked about us specifically. Now that's cool!
