THANK YOU to the 16 crew members who sacrificially gave of their time and money to make the trip happen. Be assured that God will not forget your hard work and the love you have shown (check Hebrews 6:10). In time the people there may forget. In time, you may even forget. But what you did last week will remain in eternity forever. Your time there was not in vain.
The Crew was spectacular! The way they worked together and took care of each other is all too rare. I was immensely proud of them. And it did not go unnoticed by the people there. When one gentleman out there called me and Dennis aside to ask questions about God, I truly believe it was because of the witness many of our crew have been over the past years. He has seen that. He commented on it. And I do believe it was because he saw Jesus that made him ask us more about him. That man was in church at the Pass Creek Church of God last Sunday. I don't know if he attends regularly but in the years I've been out there, I've never seen him in church before. Awesome!!
There were some minor issues among the crew. There always are. Anytime you get 16 different people with different personalities together, there is always something that comes up. Its all very normal. The thing is, this year it was handled in a biblical way and because of that, we all came home friends. Again, I'm very proud. Those issues are not easy to tackle, but it was done and done well and the result was peace.
The Work was hard. We accomplished more in three hours on Monday morning that I normally accomplish all week at home. We cut grass that was overgrown. We put together some beautiful bleachers for the amphitheater we built last year. We fixed a mower. We put in a bathroom for Melda. She is thrilled to now have water in her house and an indoor bathroom! We cleaned up trailers (thanks Andy). We built a fire pit in the amphitheater that is a great place to have devotions. We fed kids ... lots of kids a meal every day. We did a VBS for a whole lot of kids every day. We played on the playground with those kids. We did teen nights. And we put band-aids on hundreds of wounds, some invisible, some badly infected. We delivered 827 backpacks full of school supplies to children on the Rez. And who knows what else we did ... there are probably things I'm not even aware of because the crew was just like that - if they saw something that needed doing, they just did it. Amazing.
The Relationships are deepening. It was a good feeling to be mowing grass and have a couple of the adults drive by, see us, and stop in to chat. It was good to connect with the teens. I think I enjoyed the teens the most this year. Normally teens terrify me, but this year, I loved being with them. Its probably because they're "our kids". We've watched them grow up and so there's a connection there. Some of them break my heart because of the choices they're making. Some of them I'm very proud of. All of them I love. Its also exciting to know that some of the women out there will be coming here to REZonate this year. They'll be making Indian Tacos and selling their beautiful Lakota beadwork. Its how they want to support US. That's the beauty of relationships.
The Backpacks. We gave out backpacks in Allen, Calico, and left some at Re-Member for them to distribute. Its hard for us to know how best to distribute them because we don't live there and don't have the connections to do that in a responsible way. That's where Calico and Re-Member come in. They are both great places to leave them and know that they will get into the hands of kids who need them. In Allen this year the kids asked for backpacks every day. I don't remember a year when I've been asked for them so much. It was literally every day and all day long. At one point one little girl said, "But we NEED them". It would have been funny if it weren't so true. I was told they had been concerned and asking for them in Calico too. They have come to rely on us bring backpacks out for the kids. That's just fine with me. Just keep praying that the donations keep coming in so we can continue to take them. The $10,000 from the Harley last year was awesome and we've held some of that back rather than spending it all at one time, but eventually it runs out. Its little donations that make it happen over time. Those little $10 donations represent one child that will get a backpack. We need those ... lots of them. The little girl was right, we really do NEED them.
