Wednesday, August 22, 2007

FYI

Now that accounts are being settled we have a grand total for the trip - $19,126.14

That includes all of the following expenses:

  • Truck Rental
  • Van Rental
  • Fuel
  • Lodging
  • Food
  • Pallets of Product
  • Backpacks/school supplies for 150 kids
  • Freezer
  • VBS
  • Teen Nights
  • Work Projects - at the Pass Creek Church as well as in people' s homes

If we had to pay for all of that and had no donations the cost of the trip would have been $736.00 each. (with 26 people going)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Coffee and Hot Chocolate that Help Make a Difference!

We are still selling Equal Exchange Fair Trade Coffee to help us with raising money for Backpacks for Pine Ridge. I have also just placed an order for Equal Exchange Fair Trade Hot Chocolate Mix! Hopefully in October we will also have Fair Trade Chocolate Bars - they are really good. All of these products are quality products and they help to make a difference in the world.

Here's how it works...

You can buy the coffee and 48% of the money from your purchase will go toward purchasing backpacks and school supplies for the children on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It's a situation where everyone wins and we have an opportunity to make a difference in many ways.
  • First, we will be making money to purchase school supplies and making a difference in the lives of children on the reservation.

  • We will also be helping the farmers who in developing countries by purchasing Fair Trade coffee.

  • And, we will be raising awareness about Fair Trade products.


That's 3 different ways we can make a difference!

Will it cost more? Yes, but your money will be doing so much good on so many levels and the products are so much betterAbout Fair TradeFair Trade ensures that the farmers who grow the coffee in Third World countries are paid a fair wage for their crops, that they do not have to work in hazardous conditions, and that no child labor is used.

Some things you may not know ...

  • The farmers who grow the coffee we drink are often paid less than it cost them to grow their crop, keeping them in a cycle of poverty.
  • With chocolate, the story is far worse. "While chocolate is sweet for us, it can be heartbreaking for the hundreds of thousands of child laborers that pick the cocoa that goes into some of our favorite treats. In 2001, the U.S. State Department, the International Labor Organization and others reported child slavery on many cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, source of 43% of the worlds cocoa. Subsequent research by theInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture revealed some 284,000 children between the ages of 9 and 12 working in hazardous conditions on West African cocoa farms. Of these children, it was reported that some 12,000 child cocoa workers that had participated in the study were likely to have arrived in theirsituation as a result of child trafficking". - From The Global Exchange

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Informational Meeting for the 2008 Trip

There will be an informational meeting for the 2008 trip to Pine Ridge Reservation on

Sunday, September 9, 2007 @ 4PM

Anyone who has interest in going on this trip needs to be at the meeting. Attending the meeting does not in any way commit you to going on the trip.

If you have never been on a Pine Ridge Trip before it essential that you attend this meeting. You need to know what you're getting into before you make a decision about registration.

If you have gone on two (2) of these trips in the past, you need not attend this meeting but you will need to see me for your folder with your registration materials in it.

All youth 13-16 must have a parent attend the meeting with them.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Backpacks 2008

I've been shopping for backpacks today. So far here is what we have:



  • ALL of the school supplies for the village of Allen!!

  • 64 Backpacks for the village of Allen

  • We still need 86 more backpacks and then we will have all of the backpacks AND schooll supplies for the village of Allen

  • ALL of the Folders for the village of Wounded Knee!

  • ALL of the crayons for the village of Wounded Knee!

  • ALL of the notebooks for the village of Wounded Knee!

Of course, we still need $ to finish purchasing backpacks and school supplies.




This is Cody's old room, now the "Backpack Room". Brian came in today and took a look inside and said, "That's a LOT of school supplies ... oh look, we have labels on the walls".

More Pics

The 2007 Crew







Um... Josh, really, couldn't you wait?





Does he look like he's ready to smoke those scissors?










Saturday, August 11, 2007

Date for 2008 Trip

We have a date for the 2008 trip. We will leave early Saturday, July 26, 2008 and will return home on Monday, August 4th.

There will be an informational meeting about the trip announced soon.

The 2007 Video

Friday, August 10, 2007

Video of the crew

This is footage of the crew on the trip to Pine Ridge. It's not fancy, just raw video of portions of the trip.

Some Great Shots

We were fortunate to have some gifted photographers on this trip. I did not take any of these pics and I'm not sure who did - either Connie, Tim or Cody, but they are amazing. Oh, I just realized that I did take the last one. I get one in 500 pics that are decent.





























Tuesday, August 07, 2007

We're Home

We are back and we survived. All in all, it was a great trip - thanks to a fantastic crew and the good Grace of God.

We are exhausted! We gave up vacation time. We've traveled many hours, worked hard, put in long days and short nights. We averaged 4 hours sleep a night. Some of us were sick. Others got sick. Some of us were bitten, slapped, and snotted on. Some of us had our hearts completely broken.

We've delivered food to people who had none. We delivered water to people who didn't have water. We've put in electricity to someone's home. We took a truckload of product that can be given out to the people as needed. We took life-saving heaters for the winter. We visited in homes. We bandaged a drunk Indian who had been stabbed. We were given the honor of being invited to join in one of the Lakota sacred ceremonies of a sweat lodge. We ate a lot of dirt on rez roads. We painted over gang graffiti in the village - and added some positive graffiti of our own. Physically, we were miserable. Emotionally we were drained. Spiritually we were enriched. Jesus walked with us in unexpected places. None of us will ever be the same again.









Unloading the truck - all 7 tons of it, by hand





We filled their room




Giving out Backpacks with school supplies - the kids get so excited it's like Christmas in July


Some can't wait to get home to open them


Phayth did a rap concert in the village


And did some graffiti art on the trailers












The water fight!


















Going to visit Melda Runs Around the Edge Red Bear Trejo












A Holy moment at Wounded Knee




Faith, Hope, and Love and the greatest of these, is love