Pine Ridge, SD Update - Kids Club and Snow

  For those of you chomping at the bit to know what's been going on in the cold, snowy hills of South Dakota's Badlands, I am sorry, things have been nonstop these last couple of days, and this is the first time I have been able to stand still since Tuesday night. To sum it up for me...I've been playing with kids. I realized this morning that every mission trip I've been on, the "real" adults get to build buildings, lead prayer meetings, feed the hungry and do medical relief while I play with the kids. I'm not sure what they're trying to tell me, but it's still fun.

   We kind of have a three pronged attack here. There's guys here at the Dream Center trying to build on a site that will be a multi-purpose building. Yesterday they got quite a bit done.  In the pictures, you might see that in 4 days they've only gotten the pole up to start framing, but if you've ever put up a building in the middle of a blizzard, then have the blizzard stop for a day only to have the snow melt and make all the dirt turn into pudding, then the snow start back up again so that the pudding is now cold and icy...then you can relate.  But as it stands, given the conditions, these guys are owning the elements of South Dakota right now.

    There's also the sports guys that have been going out to the 3 communities and pretty much just playing basketball.  Doesn't sound like much at first, but when you factor in that they've been going door to door inviting people, and playing with gang members then praying with them afterwards, and all this in weather not exactly fit for basketball (now you know why the Minnesota Timberwolves play INside) then you find out this is no small task.

    Then the REAL ministry happens on my team - The Kids Club.  We've been doing balloonanimals, painting, music, puppets and karate demonstrations at the same neighborhoods, and it has been loads of fun.  It takes a little bit, but the kids really warm up to you, and I've been seeing a lot of our students really step up and show everyone the love of Jesus without any attitude or complaint.

    Right now is our last full day of ministry, and it started snowing last night, so we're going to try to do anything we can.  Some of the kids clubs are indoors, but the sports teams have the real challenge, because all of the courts were outside.  As well as the construction team, because they're operations have come to a halt.  So they're seeing if they can go to some of the homes and do some maintainance.

       Some highlights have been that at a concert we gave last night, we saw 10 natives pray to recieve Christ, and today we baptised 2 OUTSIDE, and it was great to see people who had just believed climb into a tub in snow and freezing temperatures and dunk thier head in water.  Think about your baptismal experience, and see if it compares.  Mine pales.

    Again, thank you for your prayers.  The worst part of any party is the clean up, so pray that goes well, quickly and that no one gets stuck going home like we did trying to get here.  God bless.

Peace
Juan

Some Links to Consider

Wings As Eagles Ministries
Photo Gallery of Pine Ridge