Tuesday

The morning began with a rousing rendition of “Rise and Shine, and give God your glory, glory”. It was rousing, not in the quality of the vocals, but in its effectiveness in waking up our youth. As they slowly pulled themselves together, there were high hopes that our previous day’s efforts would attract some of the local children to our VBS program. Unfortunately they did not. We did however attract the group from Denver who joined us for breakfast and worship. As we ate, we modified our plan yet again, this time to include helping the Denver group with their late afternoon VBS program.

After worship, we broke into teams and began working around the facility. We added a second coat of paint to the walls, we pulled weeds, and we cleaned the outside of the facility. The transformation was impressive. Not just in the building, but in our teams also. Today marked a real sense of teamwork as our youth began to bond, form friendships, and even begin to give their teams names to reflect their personalities. Unlike yesterday when our youth mingled with those from their own church, today they worked and traveled as part of a new group. It is a real blessing to see how they are rapidly becoming a community of one.

After lunch, the teams split up, two teams remained behind to help the Denver group and three teams returned to Valentine. Ne team headed to a nearby assisted living facility to pull weeds, one team scraped paint around windows, and the other finished cleaning up from lunch. The only disappointment was the pool’s closure again today. But, some of them headed back down to the campground in anticipation of another cold shower only to be rewarded with enough hot water for them all; other explored Valentine’s main street finding a coffee shop that served ice cream, Dollar General, and Subway.

Tonight will be a quiet one (we hope). After the other team returns, we will have dinner, a little free time, and Bible Study before crawling into sleeping bags for a good night’s sleep. It has been a long hard day and some are feeling the effect. Tomorrow promises to be another busy one. Weather looks like it will cooperate and allow us to begin painting outside. There are some post holes to be dug on Rosebud and more windows to be scraped and painted in Valentine. We have offered to sing at a senior center near the Bishop Jones facility and visit kids at a crisis center in the nearby town of Rosebud. We also plan to visit the Rosebud cultural center tomorrow in hopes of seeing displays and artifacts described by Fr. Two Hawks. Tomorrow evening, we will gather with the members of St. John’s to celebrate the Eucharist and enjoy a dinner of Olive Garden Lasagna. While our hope is to minister to some local children, we are confident that what we are doing is what God intended for us all along. Please keep us in your prayers. I hope to post a few pictures later this evening.