Week of July 28
After a relaxing and fun weekend, a good part of which was spent at Powwow, two teams arrive today. Team Chicago, comprised of three groups, (Broadway UMC, Euclid UMC and Out of the Box) arrives this afternoon. They will spend the afternoon at Powwow.
Auburn UMC (Alabama) will arrive late tonight. Their plane is late; they will not land in Fargo until 6:30. They'll arrive at the Ministry Center around 10:00 tonight. Their team is comprised of children and their parents. The children are elementary and middle school age. Each child has a parent with them. A couple of them were here last year as well. We will meet Team Auburn Monday morning. We will also hold orientation at that time.
We'll have 30+ this week.
After two days spent in the vans, Team Chicago really enjoyed walking around Powwow. A great game of volleyball was a perfect way to end the evening...
After orientation, we gathered painting supplies and headed to Old Fort Totten. Old Fort Totten is the oldest housing development on the Reservation. It is also the one that is in need of the most repairs. We will be scraping, priming and painting the outside corners of the homes...
Part of Old Fort Totten housing development...
Circling up for directions...
Getting ladders and
and taking them to the job site...
the scraping begins...
Hey, what are you doing at my house??
Keeping an eye on things...
Shake that paint can!!!
While the adults were scraping and priming, the kids from the Auburn played with the kids at the playground in Fort Totten...
Heading to the playground..
We'll be heading to St. Michael's for Sidewalk Sonday School today...
Tuesday morning we awoke to lots and lots of fog. Thankfully, it didn't take the sun long to burn it off. Work will continue in Old Fort Totten today...
While the teams carried their tools to their site, the rest of the team walked across the street to the playground and waited for the children to show up...
Scraping continues...
Fresh paint always looks nice...
Holding the ladder while she climbs
higher and higher...
Getting over his fear of heights...
Teaching the youngest team member how to paint...
Time to play...
Story time...
Even the Rez dogs were having fun...
While work continued in Old Fort Totten, work began on a pole barn here on the Ministry Center grounds. Kim, who is a local contractor, was hired by Mike and Libby to do the work. When completed, the pole barn will house the tractor, lawn tractor, gator, six-wheeler and other equipment for the winter...
This afternoon, part of the two teams will head to Tokio for Sidewalk Sonday School. The remainder will unload the furniture and mattresses from the trailer here at the Ministry Center. They will then go and collect more furniture and mattresses to be given away next week.
Libbey has wanted corner benches on the deck in front of the Christian Life Center. This deck has been a good gathering area for team devos. So, this afternoon a couple of team Broadway members decided that they would make them for her...
Cutting the boards...
Work continues today on all projects. Painting will continue this morning. In the afternoon, part of the two teams will remain and work on the corner benches and the remainder will head to Rolling Hills for Sidewalk Sonday School. It's a beautiful day today on the Reservation...
Four young men from Tribal Youth Works joined in the fun...
Waiting for the kids to come and play...
Bubbles!!!!
Work continues on the corner benches...
the youth from Tribal Youth Works also lent a hand...
Work is also continuing on the pole barn...making progress!!!
Dr. Russ McDonald stopped by to chat after dinner...
Russ spoke to us on a multitude of topics. He gave a bit of the history of the tribe, he spoke of the housing shortage, unemployment, lack of businesses on the Reservation as well as a bit about the tribal government. The Tribal Council is made up of four representatives (one from each of the four districts), a Financial Secretary and a Tribal Chair. The four District Representatives are the only ones who may vote on any issue. In case of a tie, the Tribal Chair will cast the deciding vote. Thus,, the power truly lies in the hands of the people.
Russ sang and drummed for us...
As always, it was good to see Russ and to hear him speak.
Thursday the morning, the teams finished up their projects. They spent the afternoon visiting the Fort at Fort Totten as well as Sulley's Hill.
Tonight, after devotions, the team finished up the corner benches...
And we're done!!!
It's been another great week here on the Reservation. Much was accomplished this week, with lots and lots of fun along the way.
A beautiful sky to end a great week...
No comments:
Post a Comment