If you were following my Facebook today you know it was a crazy morning.  I had planned to shovel sand today.  We are taking 2 of those molded plastic kiddie pools to the Rez along with a lot of sand left over from a project here at our house and making sand boxes for the little ones.   So after 3 cups of coffee (it was a short night) I got to work putting the sand into bags and when the strong bags were filled I filled garbage bags inside 5 gal. buckets.  I'm still not sure how to load them onto the truck since the buckets do not have lids.  Someone suggested duct taping them but we can't stack them that way ... so I'm not sure but I am sure we'll figure something out.   

 I got almost all of them finished when I got a call from Walmart ...

I've been buying school supplies from Walmart for Backpacks For Pine Ridge for 8 years now.  I have asked many, many times if they would let me order the supplies since I buy so many but until yesterday, never found anyone there willing to help me out. 

Yesterday I was there and happened upon a lady putting tissue on an endcap near the school supplies ... so I figured, "why not ... doesn't hurt to ask again", and what do ya know ... she not only was willing to help me but she went the 3rd and 4th mile to do so.   She got on her computer and found out that they had 6000 folders in the back (they usually tell me there aren't any back there) and that a truck was coming in later with notebooks on it.  She wrote down what I needed and then stayed after her shift - on her own time - and pulled 2400 folders and put them on a skid with a note for no one to touch them.  Then today was supposed to be her day off ... but she went in and pulled 2400 notebooks for me and then gave me a call to make sure I got them.  Amazing!  Its hot here today.  The heat index is up over 100 degrees and she was supposed to go swimming today but instead went in to take care of our school supplies.  Wow .... Yeah, her boss is going to get a letter from me telling him to do whatever he has to do to keep her. 

Since plans changed so fast I posted a request for help picking up the 4800 notebooks and folders, but then had to run out really fast because some folks at Walmart were giving my friend there a  hard time about holding them till tomorrow.  So off I ran...

And after Brian and I loaded one load into his car and my Jeep, Dewayne Hitsman showed up with his SUV to help load the rest.  THANK YOU Dewayne!! 

 

1st load

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.