I got a call yesterday from the missionary on the Reservation. She was distraught and asked us to be praying for the Lakota people, and for them as they deal with several tragedies.
In the past few weeks several young people on the Reservation have committed suicide by hanging themselves. The oldest was 21 years old. The others were younger still. The impact this has had and is having among the people there is hard to imagine. Perhaps the best way to illustrate it is to tell what the missionary told me yesterday.
One of the mothers in the village called the church in a panic because she had caught her 6 year old little girl with a noose around her neck and with the end of it thrown over the doorway and was about to pull it when her mother found her. This is a family that those of us who have gone out there know well. My son Logan has had a special bond with this little girl.
For us, this is not a story of tragedy far away. It affects our friends, our extended family if you will. It's personal and heartbreaking.
Please pray.
