Well, we've had two sets of groups so far, and we are full swing with our third one. The youth have been awesome and they have really from a long way to serve in Rosebud. We've had groups from New Mexico, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Michigan (it was so good to have some Midwesterners around!), Illinois, Virginia, Wisonsin, and Missouri! By the end of this week we will have

-cleared an old church lawn to prepare to plant a community garden
-painted 5 houses
-helped start a mural beautification project with local Lakota youth at the Sicangu Lakota Youth Center
-set up and organized a church rummage sale in three days and raised $700
-helped custodians at Todd County High School
-spent time at soup kitchens, food distribution center, tutoring at elementary schools
-offered meals to community members at our Thursday night cookouts
-helped clear rocks and tree brush at a Nazarene Church in White River, SD.
-shared the gospel and opportunities for hearing the Truth and for spiritual growth to nearly 200 senior high students from around the country!

We met Pastor Jack, the pastor at the Nazarene Church, on Friday while we were on our way to Pierre. He has been at WRCOTN for only 3 years, and they have done so much! The church building was in shambles, but now it only needs a little bit of inside work done and some painting. They have a thriving children's ministry (which is rare for small churches near the reservation), 5 Sunday School classes, and over 95 attendees on Easter Sunday! The church is mixed between non-Natives and Natives, which is incredible! Many churches tend to have homogenous congregations. Pastor Jack is definitely being a good steward of the resources that he has, and he has an incredible vision for his church, and he may be one of the most humble men that I have met! They are transitioning from being a mission church where they are always being served, to being more self sustaining in their ministry. They are beginning to offer opportunities for the church to serve others. With a little more help, they will be able to have clothing donations, a food bank, and the women's ministry wants to begin sewing head scarves for women with cancer. However, the church has the people willing to help, just not the financial resources to fund the ministries.

Funny story from last week: We went hiking in Nebraska and a really bad storm moved in within ten minutes of us leaving the trail (storms move in all the time here, and really fast! You can definitely see them coming across the plains and it's really eerie!) We are 30 miles from TCHS and the lightning, wind and rain were too much to drive in. So, the only place to stop was the Rosebud Casino! We camped out there for half an hour, and the teens were stoked to say that they went to the casino on their mission trip!

It has been an awesome experience to see churches from all different backgrounds, places, and denominations become united to serve God this summer here in Mission. I'm so excited to see what the rest of the summer holds. Even though we're doing a lot of awesome things and getting a lot done, it's more important that we are building relationships with others in our groups that come and with the community. In this way, we can share the love of God-it's great!

This next coming week we have off! We plan on cooking out this weekend and going floating on the Little White Rive (floating is what we call tubing here....) and attending a pow wow at the Rpsebud casino. I personally plan on catching up with some journaling, reading, working out, baking, and of course, sleep! We also want to visit a ranch, go fishing, and horseback riding. The next weekend I'll hopefully be able to visit the Black Hills, Badlands National Park, and Mount Rushmore.