Two Stories of Giving

I am one of those people who happen to believe that Jesus meant exactly what he said in Matthew 25:31-46 so that is why I get excited when I see people who are quick to give. Today I had the joy of hearing about two ways in which the people I go to church with are involved in living out the words of Jesus.

Several weeks ago Ray and Kathy Griffin started collecting winter coats to take out to the Reservation. Almost 500 coats were collected and in early November Ray and Brian drove out to South Dakota to deliver them. Today Shelly called and told me that the day they gave them out was "amazing". She told me one lady said, "Hey Shelly - I think everyone in the village has a coat now!" Shelly said that's kind of a unusual thing on the Rez. As I was talking to her they were getting ready to take the rest of the coats to Whiteclay to give them to the people there. Shelly hopes to send some pics of this soon. If she's able to, I'll post them here.

The other reason Shelly called was to ask if our church would once again buy Christmas gifts for a family on the Rez. I told her we'd love to and sent out an email as soon as I got off the phone with her. Within a couple of hours every member of that family had someone buying them a gift for Christmas! Now we're on round two ....

If you would like to help make this Christmas extra special for this family contact me at AmberBuriff@aol.com and I'll get the information to you. It would be awesome to flood them with gifts. You won't regret it.

Lookin' Good for 2011

We had a great meeting yesterday and are excited about the new people who want to join us next summer! It looks like we are going to have a great crew! The theme will be WATER. That means we'll have a water park theme for VBS and one of our main work projects will be getting water to Melda's house. We also hope to put some seating into the amphitheater that we built this year. And we have 800 backpacks full of school supplies to deliver! Its going to be a great year!

There is still time for you to join us. Just go to our web site www.PineRidgeMissionTrips.com and download the registration materials and make sure you have them in no later than Jan. 1, 2011 along with your registration fee of $100.

A Letter from Barry & Shelly Bentley

Following is a letter from Barry and Shelly Bentley

October 25, 2010

I'd like to take a few moments to share a little about our mission with
you. The Pass Creek Church of God is a missions outpost and church on the
Pine Ridge Reservation. We are one hundred percent supported by those who
have chosen to partner with us through donations to serve the Lakota
people.

Our vision is one of evangelism, discipleship and practical love throughout
the whole year.

This winter we are beginning a new and exciting program to help the poorest
among us. There are roads which are impossible to cross on the Reservation
during the winter. Snowstorms and unfinished roads are conditions which
often leave our poorest families without access tot he most basic essentials and
desperately in need of medical supplies. Unfortunately diabetes has
afflicted the Lakota people at an unprecedented rate (800% higher than the rest
of the United States). This gives us the opportunity to be Jesus' hands
and feet as we deliver these essentials through a partnership with the local
hospital and the use of a donated snowmobile. In order for us to continue
this mission safely we are seeking a second snowmobile so that we can go out in
pairs to deliver not only these basic needs, but also to evangelize and disciple
these families throughout the winter.

This coming summer, our usual schedule of work camps will resume.
Every year churches from around the country and missionary organizations (such
as YWAM: Youth With A Mission) take a turn spending a week or two with us to
help evangelize our community and to complete building projects with us.
Our three month plan through this upcoming summer season involved more than just
handing out gifts to underprivileged people. Our discipleship program
brings those seeking to know our Lord better through a series of classes that
incorporate baptism, communion and foot washing to prepare them for our fall
curriculum. Our hope is to help incorporate them into the body of
Christ. This season is a perfect opportunity to partner your VBS
fundraising with our summer missions projects.

Fall is just as exciting as summer and winter for us. This is the
time of year when part of our staff gets to travel to some of the churches that
partner with us through work camps and financial giving, showing what we've been
able to accomplish together. It is also the time of year when we can begin
to take stock of what we have and to pray for what we need. Right now we
are hoping to expand in to several new ministries including bereavement,
addiction and depression. In order to do so, we need to improve our
facilities, projector for our sanctuary as well as lighting and a public address
system for our amphitheater.

It is our hope that you would consider committing to a gift of $250.00 a
year to help us continue our ministry to the Lakota people.

Sincerely,

Barry and Shelly Bentley
Bredon Faulkner
Pass Creek Pastoral Staff

If you would like to partner with the Pass Creek Church of God, you may make checks payable to:

Pass Creek Church of God
P.O. Box 600
Allen, South Dakokta
57714

A Trailer Full of Coats

Early Monday morning Ray Griffin and Brian left for Pine Ridge Reservation with a trailer full of winter coats. Several weeks ago Ray and Kathy felt led to start collecting coats for the people on the Reservation to help them through the cold South Dakota winter. Since they they collected almost 500 coats. Kathy worked hard at mending what needed mending and had them dry cleaned, then they were packed into bags and loaded into the trailer for delivery.

Shelly Bently (missionary in Allen) helping unload the trailer

the kitchen at the mission full of coats

Many of these coats will be distributed to the people of Allen, Kyle and Wounded Knee and others will be taken to Whiteclay. For those who may not know about Whiteclay it is well known for its contribution to the problem of alcoholism on the Reservation.

The Oglala Lakota Nation has prohibited the sale and possession of alcohol on the Pine Ridge Reservation since the early 1970's. However, the town of Whiteclay, Nebraska (which sits 400 yards off the Reservation border in a contested "buffer" zone) has approximately 14 residents and four liquor stores which sell over 4.1 million cans of beer each year resulting in a $3million annual trade. Unlike other Nebraska communities, Whiteclay exists only to sell liquor and make money. It has no schools, no churches, no civic organizations, no parks, no benches, no public bathrooms, no fire service and no law enforcement. Tribal officials have repeatedly pleaded with the State of Nebraska to close these liquor stores or enforce the State laws regulating liquor stores but have been consistently refused.

It is not uncommon to drive through Whiteclay and see the streets lined with Lakota men and women who are drunk. It is no different in winter. Often they will sit on the street without a coat and drink despite below zero temperatures. The plan is to take the coats to Whiteclay and walk the streets putting coats around these people and praying for them.

Ray and Kathy are great examples of someone who just wanted to do something to help. You don't need anything other than a willing heart and a willingness to get the ball rolling and God only knows how many hearts will be touched.

All You Need to Know at Your Fingertips!

We have a brand new site for the Pine Ridge Mission Trips! This blog will still be the place to get updates and such but if you need registration forms, packing lists, etc. you can now visit the Pine Ridge Mission Trips site and download them. The packets are now online so you will not be getting one at the Informational Meeting. Print them out and give them to Amber or mail them in with your payment and you'll be ready to go! Check it out.

www.PineRidgeMissionTrips.com

Informational Meeting for the 2011 Trip

There will be an informational meeting for anyone interested in going on the Pine Ridge Mission Trip next year on Sunday, Nov. 21st at 4pm at the Winton Rd First Church of God. Winton Rd. is located at:

6200 Winton Rd.
Fairfield, OH

If you have interest in going you really need to be at this meeting to find out what you're signing up for BEFORE you register in January. Once you register there's no backing out so come and find out what you're in for. :)

The date for the trip is July 30, 2011 - August 8, 2011

The deadline to register is January 2, 2011 (all registration forms and a non-refundable fee of $100.00 will be due at that time.)

There will also be mandatory monthly meetings on the first Sunday of each month from Jan - July to prepare for the trip.

More Pics by Crew Memebers

The Village of Allen, SD (Pine Ridge Reservation)

Update on Sick/Injured Crew

Fred
Just got a call from Judy to let us know about Fred. He is still in the hospital and will be for a bit longer. He's pretty sick. They've determined that he does have pneumonia but there are other issues as well. They've called in a heart/lung specialist and are looking for blood clots. They are also trying to determine what the spot on his lung is ... perhaps asbestos or perhaps a fungal infection. He's in a fair amount of pain today. Fred knows everyone loves him and he would love to visit with each of you but he really needs his rest so please hold off on visits. You all know Fred would sit up and visit with everyone that came in and he's really not in condition to do that. Send him a card and pray for him but the last thing he needs is people dropping by to visit.

Rhonda
Rhonda has two cracked ribs. Not sure how she did that, the doctor says she could have just turned the wrong way and done it. She's in pain and will be for a while as it takes 6 weeks for bone to heal. Keep her in your prayers. Of course she's not slowing down at all and is already at work.

Charles
We're still waiting on word from Charles. They've done a CAT scan on his head/neck and he is being monitored. Perhaps later this week we'll know more.

Stories of God's Provision

One thing about mission trips is that you almost always have an opportunity to see God at work in undeniable ways. Your faith is built and strengthened as you realize anew that God is in control of every little detail.


This trip was no exception. And it began the first day on the road.

The Tire Issue
We were traveling to Sioux City to spend the night and were somewhere between DesMoines and Sioux City when Jeff Smith came to ride in our van. Jeff is one of the 3 truck drivers for the trip and since the truck drivers take shifts driving and sleeping it was Jeff's turn to rest in one of the vans. Chrissie, Jeff's wife, was riding in the other van and normally he would have chosen to ride with her, but for some reason this particular time he climbed into our van and hunkered down in the back seat to get some rest. After a bit he sat up and said that "something was wrong with the back tire". No one else had noticed it, but Jeff did. At the next stop he checked it out and discovered that we were about to blow a tire. A Walmart was 3 miles away so we made an unscheduled stop to get a new tire. Jeff later said he didn't think we would have made it to Sioux City. We weren't one day out and God was already showing up by having Jeff, for whatever reason, ride in our van long enough to notice a tire problem before it blew out at 70 mph on the freeway.

What? No Brakes?
After making it to Sioux City we got a decent night's rest and headed out early the next morning. The truck and two vans had pulled out of the hotel parking lot when the last van radioed and said to hold up, that they were having problems. Turns out, they didn't have any brakes on the van. So we spent a few hours waiting for a parts store to open so that Charles, Jeff and Dennis could get the problem fixed. Again, it was odd, and good, that it happened in the safety of a hotel parking lot rather than on the freeway where we may have had a van full of people involved in a bad accident.

Last Year's Schedule and Cement
We arrived safely to the Reservation later that day. On Monday morning Fred called the cement company near Allen and was told that he had lots of time to help us that week ... but if we had come a week later he wouldn't have had any time at all to help us out. Even last year when we scheduled the trip God was at work long before we even knew what we needed, making things come together in just the right way to allow us to accomplish what we needed to accomplish.



Sumo Suits and UPS
And on Tuesday I had been looking for the arrival of the Sumo Suits. I wasn't sure if they would come on Monday or Tuesday so all day Monday I kept checking in with the post office to see if they had arrived via UPS. I'm sure I must have annoyed the lady at the post office. She ended up telling me that UPS usually didn't arrive until after 3:30 ... and that the post office closes at 4pm. I decided to stop in on Tuesday at 3:30 when I took the kids back after VBS but at 2:15 on Tuesday Shelly asked me to run to the post office to pick up kids that had been in Summer School. I went to pick up the kids and resisted checking in again to see if the package had arrived. I figured we would wait till 3:30 when we were back there again. When I got back to the church with the van full of Summer School kids, Cathy met me and said that a parent had called because they're child had been at the post office but had just missed the van - could I go back and get them. I climbed back into the van and headed for the post office again. When I arrived there was no child in sight. In fact, there wasn't an adult in sight either. It was deserted. I got out and walked around the building to see if I could see anyone. Just then a UPS truck drove in. The driver got out and walked up to me without even asking who I was and said, "I have a package for you". He hadn't even gone into the post office so I'm still not sure how he knew the package was for me, but it was odd that he seemed to just know.

Backpacks at Calico
Before we left for the trip I had contacted the president of the Calico Community to see if they needed backpacks again this year. They did, so I set up a tentative time to deliver them on Friday, July 16th, telling her that we would probably be there around 10am but that I would call when we were close to give her a closer estimate on time. Friday morning we all headed out with 600 backpacks in the truck for delivery. When we got fairly close to Calico I phoned my contact there - no answer. I had 4 different phone numbers for her but after trying all four of them several times and getting no answer I decided to chance it and drive on to Calico. If worst came to worst I could walk around and try to find someone to ask if they knew her or where she lived. Knowing that God would work something out, we drove on. When we arrived at the building where we deliver them I tried to call one last time - and she answered!

Its crazy how God gives you just what you need at the exact moment you need it and not a minute before. I have a hunch that He does that just so we can marvel at His provision and learn to trust that He will come through - even if we don't see it ahead of time.

What Its All About

Delivering 611 Backpacks

On Friday morning we delivered backpacks to the Wounded Knee school and to the Calico Community on Pine Ridge Reservation. Friday afternoon we distributed backpacks to the kids in the village of Allen.

While in Calico we again talked with Dawn Frank, president of the Calico Community. She explained how they distributed the backpacks we took out last year. What a fantastic lady! Be sure to check out the video below to hear what she had to say.

Sumo Wrestling

For one of the "Teen Nights" we rented inflatable sumo suites and they were a BIG hit!
I'll try to get the other videos up soon - if my computer cooperates. :)

The Work Project

Here are some links to 360 pics of the work project both before and after. Your computer must be Java enabled. Then just click on the link. In the box there is a pull down menu that you can click on and choose the "before" picture and then the "after" picture. Use your mouse and scroll to get a 360 view.

http://bburiff.com/tour/2010PineRidgeWorkcamp/index.html

Back Home

Well, we arrived back home late last night. Today one work camper (Charles) went to the doctor and is being monitored for possible blockages in his neck. He blacked out while driving and veered into the wrong lane while taking the teens to Gordon, NE for pizza last Thursday night. We've been very concerned about him and are glad his doctor is on top of it. Fred is also in the hospital with possible pneumonia or possibly a collapsed lung. Rhonda is still in a lot of pain too. So, while the trip is over we still need your prayers. I'll be posting stories about the trip as I have a chance to.

Not making real good time getting home. We didn't make it to DesMoines last night. Pray for Rhonda who is sick. Should be home late tonite

They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Weary Workcampers

Packed up. Waiting for church then we're ready to head for DesMoines!

Checking out Pitman checking out Rushmore is way more fun than checking out Rushmore

Checking out Mt Rushmore.

Fred & Dennis were dehydrayed but ok now. Pitman sunburned, all of us bruised & sore but very blessed.

On our way to Custer State Park for horseback riding, Jeep rides & to see some BEAUTIFUL country

Wow...what an amazing week! went to a PowWow tonight & saw several of "our kids" receive their Indian names at a naming ceremony. Perfect way to end our week.

Backpacks delivered! No time to go to White Clay...maybe next year.

It seems the hardest part of having two churches work together on this trip is knowing that we will part company when we go back home.

Please pray for Charles. He has been having some physical symptoms which cause us concern.

Pray for us tomorrow. Going to deliver backpacks in 3 villages & going to White Clay to give bottled water to the alcoholics there & show them some love

The floor of the theater is finished and walks are going up.

Aome of the crew from last year went to visit Melda. The room looks great & she was very happy to see us

Two former VBS girls who are now grown up stopped in for a visit yesterday! It was grat to see them!

The two churches really are one team. We have new friends and it has been a blessing to work together

Last cement pour this morning, then ley railroad ties, then VBS, then take teens bowling. Everyone doing well