Blessings in Faith and Capturing those Moments in Life : July 2013

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Heart Butte, Thursday

Today was our last day of service in Heart Butte, MT and as we headed out to work projects, the sun was shinning and it was another great day in the mountains.
We are so grateful to have such wonderful weather all week. It has been sunny and no humidity everyday.(We know we lucked out and missed a hot week at home).

Our Marvin and Tom crew headed to Tom's house again to help finish build the sweat lodge. I went with them today and got the privilege to see first hand the beautiful landscape and hear Tom and Marvin's stories. The youth enjoyed working side by side with these men and I watched as they listen intently and observed their cultural and traditions.

Our other painting and work crews finished the houses they had started this week. The crew that was painting the house with graffiti was happy when the little girls who lived there came out and kept them company as they painted.

At kids club it was water day and both our youth and the kids at kids club enjoy the fun with a hose and water balloons.

Our evening activity was the Community picnic: I love Thursday night because it's when we see the community members we have work alongside all week. And our youth sit and share a meal,with them and continue to share stories together.
A wonderful woman from St. Andrew share with our group dresses and shorts she made for kids and we share them with the little girls and boys at the community dinner. Their were so many little happy faces. Thank you Lois for your gift!

Thursday Night Club we read about how Jesus' washes his disciples feet. We are restored in Jesus' love for us and empowered to share His love with others.

We had amazing week in Heart Butte, MT and has we prepare to head home tomorrow. We are still taking in every moment together.

Tomorrow, Friday we head out to Bozman and we will go see Palisade Waterfalls.

Blessings ~ Mel

Almost home

We are in Alexandria MN

We will be home soon!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Back in MN

Tonight we arrived back in MN. We are resting at good shepherd Lutheran tonight and heading home tomorrow .

Sunrise in Montana

We made it to Bozeman last night(Friday)

We are up and moving today even watch the sunrise over the mountains.

Today we head back to MN.

More blogs coming of our last days in Blackfeet.

Blessings

- Mel

Friday, July 19, 2013

Heart Butte, MT... Wednesday

It is Wednesday and today our crews switch. Those who have been doing Kids Club for the last two days are now moving to work projects and the work project crews will experience Kids Club.

Marvin and Tom: We have another crew who experienced time with Marvin and Tom as they have shared their knowledge and traditions of the Blackfeet Tribe with our youth.
Today's crew went with Tom to pick rocks for the sweat lodge he is building. They headed to a dried up river bed to collect rocks. However, you do not just collect any rock. As I said yesterday all things are done in tradition.

Again here is what today's crew share with me about the collecting sweat rocks. Sweat rocks are grey sparkly rocks that do not shatter when heated up and have water pour over them. These rocks are used in the ceremonial sweat lodge, which people attend for healing and prayers for others. Sweats happen multiple times a week from anywhere from 2-4 hours a round, and a total of typically 4 rounds. The sweat lodge can get up to 400 degrees. Blankets and traps are place around and over the the top of the sweat lodge. Sweat lodges for the Blackfeet people is a place of worship.

As the crew thank Tom for the experience of the day and learning about sweat lodges, they asked him how they could pray for him and his family. Tom shared with him that he was so thankful for their help, that what they did was "worth more then 1 million dollars." He usually goes alone to collect sweat rocks and this was the biggest load he has ever had once. Our youth were touched that Tom said he would pray for each of them. Tomorrow they will get to go out and help finish building the sweat lodge.

Browning: Our other two crews headed to Browning to work on houses there. One crew went back to the neighborhood the crew had worked at on Monday, painting door trim and cleaning up lawns.They also work on building a deck. The other crew began painting and cleaning a house that had been covered in graffiti.

Kids Club: The other half of our group spent the morning prepping and being oriented to the afternoon filled with kids at kids club. The music was again a big hit, and making butterfly's out of tissue paper. Each day I hear our youth saying how much respect they have for Jackie, the YouthWork's Staff who leads Kids Club. They admire her patience and love for the kids of Heart Butte.

Wednesday's Evening Activity: GLACIER NATIONAL PARK!!!!
We have been excited to head back to up into Glacier National Park. Rain has been in the forecast all week for Wednesday night and we have been praying for clear weather so we can have worship in the mountains. As we packed up to head to Glacier, rain was heading towards Heart Butte. But the rain stayed away from our Glacier experience. We went to Running Eagle Waterfalls, which was a great sight. (I know we keep sharing about the beauty of the landscape, but I cannot help it. It is so breath taking I can not get enough of it.) Then we headed to Two Medicines lake where we had dinner and worship. It was so humbling to sing and praise God surrounded by the mountains at the foot of the lake. Especially has we thought about the theme of today: Restored, we are restored by God's love.

Another great day of both sharing love and being loved!

Shout out: Today Madi and John's Unlce Dan and his Godson, Colter camp up to visit us from Bozman. They will be with us until tomorrow afternoon.

The YouthWorks area director, who oversees all of the Montana YouthWorks sites arrived at our site today and to our surprise it was Peter who was on YouthWork's Staff when we were in West Virginia in 2011. It was so good to see him and I was so impressed that he remembered so many of the names of the youth that were on that trip. We have amazing group and we leave a great impressions on the many people we meet and that was true for Peter.

Tomorrow is Thursday our last day in Heart Butte,MT.

Blessing ~ Mel

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Heart Butte, MT ... Tuesday

Day two in Heart Butte, MT...

Marvin's House:
Our crew that went to Marvin's house were excited to head back. Once they arrived they got to work quickly to finish the painting project they started yesterday. They anticipated time with Marvin and a tour of his beautiful mountain range once they were done with their work. However, they began to find themselves disappointed when Marvin had not returned from home after lunch. As the crew cleaned up thinking they were heading back without the culture lesson they had hope for, Marvin's brother Tom came by. Tom had come to his brother's house to begin setting up the Sun Dance Lodge. Tom asked our crew to help unload some porta potties then he invited them to join him in seeing the Sun Dance Lodge.

Here is what our crew shared about what they learned about the Sun Dance Lodge:
Any race, religion or anyone is welcome to come and dance, pray and participate in the Sun Dance. People come from all over the world to be apart of the Sun Dance Lodge. People dance and pray for those who are sick, those they do not know it is place that burdens are laid down for those in needs.

At the center pillar of the lodge participants put gifts in order to participate in the Sun dance.
The eagle nest is where prayers go and at the end of time it fly's away and brings them to your creator.
The lodge is made of 12 Y shaped logs and they represent the 12 disciples. 12 pillars connect to the center and the prayers travel up.

8 ribbons are visible to represent different items: The white ribbon is for the creator, the yellow ribbon is for the sun, the light blue ribbon is for the sky, the dark blue ribbon is for the mountains, the purple ribbon is for the buffalo, the orange ribbon is for the moon, the green ribbon is for mother earth and the red ribbon is for the rain and thunder.

Everything used in the Sun Dance Lodge has to be gathered in a ceremonial manner, it is consider one of the Blackfeet highest ceremonies.
Those who dance wear bracelets around their wrists, ankles and head that represent the nails on the cross. The Sun Dance last 4 days & nights you dance from sun rise to sunset. They believe that all your prayers are answered if you dances the 4 days and nights.

Heart Butte: Our other work crew that was in Browning yesterday, stay in Heart Butte today. They painted and fix up a trailer house down from the school, it was a teacher's home. They did not get to meet anyone but their act of love showed through in the hard work they did. They also had a good time playing, laughing and being with each other as a crew.

Kids Club: Our crews at kids club today loved on many kids today and they showed amazing patience as it was a harder day. We processed as a group how important our love and attention we give is to these kids because many of them do not receive it at home. One highlight of Kids Club today was our group used the gift of music the kids club kids loved singing "Radical God" and they went home singing many of the songs we taught them.

Tuesday Night Evening Activity:
Tonight a handful of our group stay with Denise,a woman who comes in each week to teach traditional Blackfeet beading. She taught the group how to make a traditional beaded bracelet. She family has their own pattern for beading and it is something that has to be past down through the family. Denise received the tradition of beading from her grandmother.

The rest of our group headed out to Lake,(which is on the way to Marvin's house) it sits at the base of Heart Butte mountain. We all enjoyed the view (lots of pictures were taken) and while we were there we prayed for the people we have met and for the community of Heart Butte. It was a beautiful evening.

Shout Out: "Happy Birthday Sam Heath", We celebrated throughout the day. He even got sung to by an a native boy in Blackfeet tradition.

Tomorrow, we switch... those who have done kids club move to work protects and work protects move to kids club. Tomorrow night we head to Glaicer Mountain which we are all excited about!

Blessings ~ Mel

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Heart Butte, MT.... Monday

Today we set out on our first day to serve in the community of Heart Butte and Browning, MT
3 of our crews played with kids at Kids club and our other 2 crews headed out to work protects. Today our actions of love in this community were painting, lawn clean up and playing with kids. "We loved because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19.

Marvin's House
One of our crew's headed to Marvin house. It was bumpy ride, but the view was worth it, as his house sits at the base of the mountain. He has a fresh mountain spring water that runs in his back yard and fresh berries everywhere. The crew got to work quickly painting his home.

Browning: Our other work crew headed to Browning, this group worked in a neighborhood painting front and back door trim and yard clean up.

Kids Club:
Kids Club is held at the Heart Butte elementary school, Kids club as around 60+ kids ranging from age level 3 to 13 years old. The Kids Club kids loved our youth. Our youth jumped right in and show them love and patience, even in the more challenging times. Our kids sang songs and prayed with them (they really like the Radical God song). We read books, played on the playground, and did arts and crafts with the kids. It was a beautiful site to see our youth unconditionally loving the kids of Heart Butte and sharing their gifts with the Kids Club program.

Monday Night: Culture Night:
For our Monday night activity Jolene and her family (sons, daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren)came and share their traditions of the Blackfeet Nation. They spoke to us about Blackfeet beliefs, and they sang and danced for us. They even taught us some traditional PowWow dances.
We invited them to stay for our church time and share our worship time with them. They were very grateful for the invitation as we were the first group to ask them to stay.

The Theme of YouthWorks this summer is UNDesirable. Jesus desires a relationship with us and also wants to seek to be in relationship with others. We find ourselves sinners and broken,and we need Jesus. But through the amazing love of Jesus and the gift of his death on the cross, we are forgiven and a child of God. We are loved and we share that love with others!