Leawood UMC Mission Trip 2022

Good evening AGAIN people!!!! We hope to have a smooth blog tonight (no part 2...) This is Molly, Pam, and Gene once again bringing you our EXCITING, FUN, SILLY, INSPIRING, daily recap!  Breakfast started off exciting (or should I say scary) this morning with a visitor... a bug visitor... we had excitement with a spider in our kitchen to really wake everyone up this morning. Then the whole crew headed off to work at the thrift store again (no splitting off into groups today we all worked together on the same project for the first time this week!). Before we began working, we met with Mike again (from last night, the artist who brought all the native Lakota games) and shopped some of his art pieces and made some great purchases! Some of which he even made last night! Then we all started unpacking more amazon shipments and donations for the thrift store. We organized in-coming items, re-loaded another truck, broke down boxes, collected trash, built more furniture to sell, and can claim t

HaHa... just wanted to see if you were watching! Soooooo revisiting the previous blog, after a long prepared dinner, we had a delicious potato bar. As we cleaned up, Mike Marshall, our guest, arrived to share his artwork and to play lots of historic games that the Lakota played. We played a lot of games that involved running, endurance, and aim. After playing 2 games that involved accuracy, Molly beat us TWICE. Who would of guessed that?! We came back inside for a good devotion with a snack prepared by Barb that consisted of BOB shaped sugar cookies. Then did a half blog for fun. (They are being kind - I lost half their blog.  Barbara) In that blog we summarized deep insights into the theology and purpose for our lives together with the Lakota people and our mission team (like we are "in mission" in Mission, South Dakota....coincidence? I think not...) Well...this morning we can recall none of those deep insights except to say that we did experience Joy and connection togethe

      It was a calm and quiet morning. as usual Howard was up early, duh. We had the normal breakfast of cereal or eggs. However, Lance taught Connor how to properly scramble an egg for the first time. After breakfast, we went to help unpack crates and put together things that will eventually be sold in the store. At 10 we split up. The girls stayed to help out around the store. Molly was excited that she got to build a bookshelf (Molly is a huge book nerd and has many bookshelves herself). Meanwhile, the boys went to Saint Francis to help clean up a food shack for a powwow arena. Those activities included weed whacking, painting, roof building, and wood/metal scrap clean up. Lots of tall grass and we were provided with lunch! The guys headed back to the thrift store to help the girls finish up organizing and building items. Some visited with others, stocked the store, and shopped around to see what the store had in store for us. We headed back to shower. Dinner crew cooked up a long d

 Today was our 'fun day' and we packed it in!  A float trip down the Niobarra river started the day... Our canoe/kayak trip started out cold and cloudy, but quickly turned sunny and fantastic.  There were some minor coordination issues - some teams decided to try going down the river backwards, sideways...  and almost upside down.  We also detected many rocks with our canoes!  (There were quite a few.)  One of our team members was very attracted to the water - like a magnet!  We hiked to some really cool waterfalls and paddled up to some as well.  The river was pretty warm compared to those waterfalls!  A cold shower in Nebraska's biggest waterfall was much needed for the stinky team.  The boys want to say that there were many splash battles and no one stood a chance against Connor and Lance.  The girls want to say that the scenery was beautiful.  Concensus is that we'll all be sore tomorrow.   Tonight's dinner was the revered Ginger Lime Chicken, chosen by Howard,

Good Evening people!!!! This is Molly, Pam, and Gene bringing you our day 2 recap from Mission, South Dakota!!!  We started our morning bright and early with breakfast again at 7:30am with FANTASTIC scrambled eggs (by Gene). The boys played some morning hacky sack before heading off to our work sites just a short drive away. Our groups split up once again after Linda (our supervisor at Tree of Life Ministries) gave us our work choices for the day. The girls (Pam, Molly, Barb, and Melanie) once again were finishing up de-cluttering, cleaning, and organizing their main office/storage room, and the boys were continuing their project of working of the ramp from yesterday. The girls were happy to finish cleaning out the storage room and the ministries 2 racks of prom dresses and 2 racks of suits were able to have a new place to be stored and saved. The boys were thankful that the weather had backed off from hot and humid to something that was much more comfortable to work in outside! They f

           Started off bright and early this morning with Howard brewing coffee at 6:00 am and breakfast at 7:30. We had eggs, yogurt, cereal, and made our lunches. Soon after that, we headed to the Tree of Life's main office to get the lay of the land of work opportunity and what they provide to the community. Had a tour of the thrift store and their soup kitchen. They are well on their way to get them open soon! Barb, Melanie, Pam, and Molly stayed in the main office and cleaned and organized prom dresses that would be put in the thrift store. A lot of box sorting and pile making. Not to mention Molly screaming at a cat holding a dead bird in it's mouth outside the window. Howard, Gene, Connor, Lance, David, and Caleb went to a near by house to build a deck/ramp for a recently injured gentleman in the community. We went to his mother's house since he was going to be living there with injuring his knee, losing part of his leg and being in a wheelchair. We made a lot of pro