From the Hot Sun to the Holy Man!

         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 progress continuing the work of a couple of engineers that started it before us. We installed most of the supports throughout the ramp and have had to adjust some wrong measurements. Connor dropping pieces of wood on Lance's toes, Howard rubbing his sunscreen on Connor throughout the day, and lot of dogs and puppies hanging around us was just some fun highlights.

         After our hard work today, we relaxed to a 5 o'clock dinner consisting of spaghetti, meatballs, and salad; even though Lance was not on the dinner team today, he still helped prepare dinner.(He is indeed an amazing and outstanding gentleman) After dinner, the chief came and talked to us about his religious experience. Then we did devotions. Today's devotion was about the parable, Lazarus and the rich man. Next, we did a six (or was it seven?) step talk to help us understand the parable better. We had a good day today with nice, cool weather tomorrow! [nice, if you like 90+ degrees and high humidity...) good night.

Chief Duane Hollow Horn Bear (google him...he's famous and amazing) spoke to us of his upbringing, surviving Catholic boarding school and being forced to abandon his native culture. His grandfather and grandmother raised him and insisted on imparting wisdom, language, history, dance and culture of the Lakota Sioux people. For a time in his life, he didn't maintain his cultural heritage until the mid to late 1970's realizing his place was with his people, now becoming a globally recognized elder, engaged in creative training and teaching of young people in Lakota language and culture. His grandfather is a revered figure, as is Duane. He shared that next week Janet Yellen, secretary of the Treasury, will be coming to visit the reservation, and has set aside one and a half hours to visit with Duane to learn from him. Since his move to fully embrace his culture, he no longer votes for any political position, even in local reservation elections, preferring to make himself to anyone who seeks his wisdom or assistance, even politicians. Recognized as a true Holy Man amongst the Lakota, he engaged our group with pleasant, engaging stories and wisdom. As he said, he considers himself to be in relationship with all life and all creation, even sharing much knowledge from our own Christian faith. Needless, to say...it was an awesome experience and privilege to spend time with him.

I'm inclined to believe we will ramp our work in the next few days, although it's a slippery slope...

 

Connor, Caleb, & Howard