Arkansas: The Final Full Day

Greetings! Today, we technically survived "The Village." Creepy, isn't it? Anywho, after our yummy breakfast, we had to do some chores around the village like taking care of the animals (including goats, chickens, and rabbits) doing dishes, and picked up trash. After our lunch (which was awesome!!!! compared to yesterday because we didn't cook it) we went to our High Challenge, and rock climbed and did the "flying squirrel." Then, we went to Sonic where we got some ice cream and drinks. That was about it, nothing else but packing tonight for us! Well, thanks for reading.

This blog was brought to you by Team A - Katie, Cameron, Ryan, Jacob, and Heidi.

God Bless!

Arkansas: Night of Terror!

Greetings! we are group C. By far, the coolest group ever. The members of our team include: Carly, Erin, Colby, Carter, and Megan.

Well, yesterday morning we played games that helped us build trust in each other and "community." We had a delicious breakfast consisting of pancakes and bacon (that was from the ranch). Next, we learned a lot about GDP (Gross something something) and about population distribution. Then the night began.

In the "lottery," we had four pregnant mothers, Erin, Heidi, Mallory, and..... Carter :) We thought that was funny too. The babies were represented by water balloons that could not be popped. If they were popped, the entire family had to spend 30 minutes in mourning for the baby. Next, we distributed in to our family groups:

Thailand ( garden and elevated sleeping quarters) - Carter, Denver, Ben, Jacob, Walker, and Mandy
Zambia (vegetables and fire wood)- Colby, Mallory, Katie, and Randall
Guatemala (controlled water and richest) - Heidi, Madi, Ryan and Kendra
Urban Slums (less fortunate of all)- Megan, Erin, Carly, Cameron, Terri, and Weston

It was a very interesting night. First, Thailand was stealing the food from the other families and left the Slums with nothing. Then, after a series of agreements and bargains, all the families gathered around the Slums to eat dinner. (we had to do a lot of walking). We put all of our food together to make stew, cornbread, eggs, and rice (yuck!!!) For the rest of the night, before bed, the pregnant mothers and pregnant father gave birth.

Only two survived - Carter's "Jacob Jr." and Erin's "Xavier."

Sleeping was the worst part. Guatemala was the only place that had any type of bedding. Zambia had to sleep on concrete floors while the Slums and Thailand had wooden floors. (We'll show you pictures later). The next morning, the Slums were in charge of making another fire and cook breakfast for the other families. We had oatmeal and raisins.

Well, that's about it for now. We will post you in about five minutes from another group! Adios!

Awesome Team See.

Arkansas: We Finally Arrive

We woke up at 8:45 at the Grand Country Inn. We loaded up on the bus and went to McDonalds for breakfast. Then on our way to the Heifer Ranch, we stopped along the Buffalo River and played outside. We had our devotion, and then got on the bus again. For lunch, we went to Taco Bell and Denver and Weston had hot sauce race!! Technically, Denver won because he took a drink last. Finally, around 5:00, we made it to the Heifer Ranch in Perryville! There wasn't a lot on the way except a few small towns. We were introduced to Melissa and Becca who were very polite. Today, they are going to give us a tour and orientate us with the ranch. Going back to yesterday, the boys were playing with the football, the frisbee, and the dodge ball, but we lost all three of them in fifteen minutes. The girls did something very interesting: they slept within the same bunk, even thuogh we had plenty of beds... Well, that's about it for us:

Today's blog was brought to you by: Group B - Madi, Mallory, Ben "Jammin," Walker, and Denver

Thanks everyone for reading and checking up on us wonerful children!

God Bless!

Middle School: Arkansas!

Greetings! Well, the title can be a little misleading. We are actually just in Branson, taking an overnight pit stop. At 6:00 am, we left for our journey to the Heifer Ranch. On our way, we stopped in Marionville, MO at the Ozarks Methodist Manor, which is a very nice nursing home for residents of a nursing home. 

( I realize that's redundant, but stimulates the point)

 Anywho, after we washed chairs and tables, helped a guy sort through his papers, cleaned stairs, and played BINGO, we came to Branson, where we swam all evening until around 9:30ish? Tomorrow we are heading to our final destination which is..... You guessed it! the Heifer Ranch! Well, that's it for me and just like last time, we are going to have small groups writing in the blog instead of just me. I hope that's okay.... haha.

Weston

it's the end of the Mission Trip

Greetings! The sun came up about 5 a.m. -- as usual on the Spirit Lake Reservation in July. We slept in until about 6:30, finished packing our stuff and loaded the bus, then a final breakfast with Mike, Libby and Michelle at 7:30. We hit the road at 8:30 and took the scenic route to Sioux City, IA.

Before leaving the reservation, we drove through Tokio, ND--so we could say we've been to Tokio--and learned that it is one of the poorest communities on the reservation. We then headed south on 281, a lesser high way. We saw beautiful prairies and rolling hills, and we took a quick detour to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Memorial Society in DeSmet, SD. We didn't take the official tour, but we looked at an old school, a learning center, and of course we stopped in the gift shop. Mr. Nowland was in 7th heaven with all of the surrounding agriculture.

From there, it was 3 hours to our Baymont Inn in Sioux City. We arrived about 8:30, did some swimming in the hotel pool, and ate pizza. The "C" team is preparing our nightly devotions as I write. Devotions will begin at 10:30--which is why I'm blogging instead of students. While my narration is much less entertaining, I'm hoping we'll be in bed before midnight!!

We're planning to leave here by 8:30 in the morning, putting us in Chillicothe about 3:00. We'll call parents when we're close. Thanks for keeping up with our adventures and keeping us in your prayers. We've had a great experience.

The Final Day at Spirit Lake

Greetings! Weston B here... I think Laura is going to fill you guys in on what we did over the past TWO days because we were so "busy." haha. Well, that's it for me, Laura?

July 8th, 2009

Yesterday was very busy, so we have a lot of stuff to cover. We had many jobs to do yesterday. We had group A that continued with drywalling the duplex. The other two groups split between the two jobs of putting a 8 foot window in a 4 foot hole and the other group also worked at the duplex picking up trash outside, which I had to do. There were many things that we picked up in the pile; old wet drywall, various rocks, random boards with nails still in them, and other miscellaneous objects. Lily, Donald, and Mr. Venner drywalled the living room. The dining room was drywalled by Weston, Steve-O, Kelsey D., Mr. Nowland, Kelsey Hinton, and Ariel. Frisbee, the cat that lives by the duplex, is loved by everyone. She was especially loved by Emmy, who then decided to craddle Frisbee and show her to everyone until Frisbee gave Emmy a tick. Emmy then threw Frisbee across the yard and stomped inside. The window crew consisted of: Trent, Madeline, Daniel Riekena, Kevin McCullough, and Dale Thomas. They had quite a challenge with putting a window in that was 2x the size of the original hole. First, they put it in upside down. Then, they took it back out to put it in properly. Corny jokes about shims then followed leaving the other groups wondering what they were talking about.

Something hilarious happened yesterday. Kelsey Duvall is always tired, asleep, or complaining about not getting enough sleep. So on the bus, Kelsey decided to fall asleep. Weston Baker decided to scheme up a plan to get Kelsey awake, which is very hard!!! So he decided to have everyone yell in unison to get her up. When it finally happened, Kelsey jumped very high out of her seat, screamed something which is not known, and then she put the hood over her head and fell back asleep.

That afternoon, we had a great time at Sidewalk Sunday School in the Rolling Hills neighborhood. One of our favorite things was Jayden making his little Chihuahua/Wiener Dog chase Whitney and Weston. It was so hilarious watching this tiny, freakishly shaped dog chase them!

Mike and Libby Flowers held church and talked about how they got involved with missions. Then group B held devotion about listening and everyone went to sleep with more mosquito bites than they could count.

July 9th, 2009

Everyone in the girls cabin tried to make Kelsey jump again in the morning and get it video taped. Regretfully, this operation fell through. Daniel Nowland, me, and Kelsey Hinton got to mow the yard at the "Little Ghost's" house. Mr. Little Ghost is the Spiritual leader of the community, and he is currently in a nursing home. Even though we had some technical difficulties because of the storm that passed through last night, we finally finished her yard with her very pleased. The groups stayed the same as they were yesterday. Team A finally finished sheet rocking the duplex and group C finished putting the window in. Then we took victory pictures!

After we got finished eating lunch, we went to Fort Totten. Fort Totten is a military fort that has been renovated close to its original state. It had many buildings to peek into, and it had many amazing artifacts to look at. We then went "shopping" and tried to find a way into Devil's Heart. (Devil's Heart is a ginormous mound that Native American boys go to for 3 days on their vision quest and then perform a sundance and tell everyone their calling.) A few people decided to embark on the journey up to Devil's Heart. First, we had to get over the barbed wire fence because we couldn't find a road. This was probably illegal, although we did have permission from Mike Flowers. Huge weeds and grass greeted us, and we had to navigate through it without stepping in fresh cow pies. Finally, we got to the base of the heart. It looked a lot harder than it seemed because there wasn't a path. All of the few got up to the peak and were amazed at the view that was before them. We now realize why the boys stayed up there for 3 days, because it was very tiring getting up there. Everyone took pictures and then went down the mound to the bus.

When everyone got back from their adventure, we went back to the camp. We then ate hamburgers and hotdogs, grilled by the brave Daniel Riekena, Daniel Nowland, and Trent Putnam. After dinner, we got treated to music from Skylee (a girl from Sidewalk Sunday School) and her dad, Chad. They performed some traditional Lakota music, and we all participated in a "round" dance. This dance is a social dance used to greet family and friends.

We had our final devotion then started packing. We are sad to be leaving because Libby cooks such good food, but we are all running out of clean clothes. We are on the road tomorrow and will blog from the hotel. (end Laura)

Sorry this is so long, but I wasn't really paying attention. You know how these girls like to talk. Please pray for us on our travels back to you all and I hope you enjoyed reading the blogs everyone's posted.... so far... God Bless!

Weston

Day 3 at the center

Hey, sorry but we were really busy. I'll be sure to have the teams fill you guys in on what's been going on. Goodnight!

Day Dos

Greetings! He hani washsta! (Good day in Lakota)

The second day on the reservation was just as exciting as the first. We woke up this morning to a rain only described as a "lazy" rain. It could not be categorized under a sprinkle rain or even a spitting rain. The rain was very irregular and very cold. That is also something us Chillicotheans have to get used to. We woke up this morning to a very very chilly July day.

Many of us traveled to breakfast in our sweat pants and sweat shirts.

After breakfast, we split off into our "teams". One team went back to their orginal worksite to continue drywalling and completed another wall. They also made a new friend named Frisbee who was a cat that lives in the crawl space beneath the home. The second team went to a new worksite to panel a room. By the end of the day, the entire room was completed except for a trim piece that was not available. It was the home of a chairwoman of the entire reservation. The third and final team stayed on the ministry center grounds and continued their work from the day before. They finished hanging the doors in the chapel and helped the intern (Michelle) prepare for the Sidewalk Sunday School this afternoon.

After lunch, the drywall team and the ministry center team went back to Rolling Hills to play with the kids of that neighborhood. The turnout was a little less today due to the "lazy" rain that continued into the afternoon. Although there weren't as many kids, it was just as eventful and fun. Donald had a boy cry, laugh, and then cry again all the way home, all within 20 seconds. Steve played with the neighborhood dog, Buddy, who somehow tackled Steve-o to the ground. There was plenty of swinging, sliding, crafting, eating, smiling and overall craziness for one day.

The Sidewalk Sunday School (SSS) teams arrived back at camp around 4 and the paneling team arrived around 5. When the paneling team got back to the camp, the girls cabin was silent. Every single girl from the SSS teams were sound asleep. The best part of rainy days are definitely the naps. The boys, however, were still full of energy and an intense game of extreme Jenga was in full swing.

We are being spoiled here by Libby. Tonight she made us brisket, mashed potatoes and baked beans. It was very delicious. After dinner, we were treated to ice cream. While many of us were enjoying our ice cream, Laura Turner had a slight America's Funniest Home Videos moment. In the excitement of chasing Daniel Nowland, she forgot about the obvious screen door. Even though Dale Thomas and Kevin McCullough had spent 30 minutes getting the screen door back on its track this afternoon, Laura's 90 pound body succeeded in completely removing the door in her hurry and taking it across the lawn with her. This resulted in many laughs. Many, many laughs. Which eventually turned into tears. Many, many tears. Dale, once again, placed the obvious screen door back on track.

We are having tons of fun, making lots of memories, and working hard as ususal. We all have plenty of stories to bring back home already and its only Tuesday. Don't miss us too much :)

Love,

The A-Team (aka the plumbers, the drywallers and Madeline)

Ah, North Dakota...

Greetings friends! Weston here, at Spirit Lake Ministry Center. We arrived yesterday, but I'll start on the day we left.

6:00 AM and we left the sweet town of Chillicothe and ventured to Sioux Falls in South Dakota (not the final destination). We went to an incredible water park, (forgot the name) but I didn't swim because the water was around -100,000 degrees. (just kidding, but it was really really cold). There were many things we could do other than swim or go on the slides. They had batting cages, go-karts, putt putt golf (had two holes-in-one), and sand volleyball. I am pretty sure that every one of us had a "funderful" time. Later that night, we went to sleep at a Days Inn where Steve, Trent, and I had some good "manversations."

The next morning, we all went to church, that was a football toss away from the hotel. Next, we took the final leg of the trip to the wonderfully amazing North Dakota, where our friends, the Flowers' put us up here in the Ministry Center. It's located on a Dakota Indian reservation.

There are three important rules here:
1.Be flexible
2. Be flexible
3. If you can't follow rules 1&2, take two steps back and be flexible.

TODAY! (I know, but we didn't have internet for awhile. Sorry for the slacking)

Madeline, Daniel, Steve, and I took a run this morning and I found the landscape to be captivating. I showered up and went to my worksite. We split up into 3 work groups. One group was supposed to be plumbing, but the lady was not there to let them in! So they came along with my group, and helped lay drywall and do some lawn work. Say what? The final group stayed on the reservation and worked at the ministry center. Say what? (sorry, a group of us just got a high score on Say What?) After lunch, two groups went to a playground and helped with Sidewalk Sunday School. (I'll explain later). Tonight, we had a devotion and sang a couple songs then hiked to a burial mound where they say a chief and his horse are buried. Oh! Look at the time! It's almost 10 o'clock, and I'm spent (tired).

WARNING! On this mission trip, I'm not going to be the only one posting. Instead, we are trying a new system where each team will be able to post something on this blog. I know, it's a little disppointing, but it's only fair to everyone else haha... Except Dr. Dale???