It's been a little while since we've been on the blogging warpath. We had a "snow day" at our house as the wind and snow pretty much shut traffic down around our area today. We got back late last night from an adoption class in Sioux Falls and were ready for a down day around the house. The above picture may have to be our next vehicle if we end up adopting many more kids-too bad it's a Dodge! Actually we saw a Suburban like this and didn't get a picture of it. We happened to see this one at the gas station that is out in the boonies. It is for hunters.
The girls are getting into the Christmas spirit and love reading stories about Jesus being born. We've decorated 2 small Christmas trees at our house, went to the capitol (2x) to see the Christmas trees there, and spent last Thursday night in Miller for Christmas on the Prairie. All the shops open up at night and they give hayrides around town as well as have a story reading time for the kids at the museum.
We've enjoyed spending many Sunday afternoons with our friends the Sargent's in Pierre. Doug and Trish have 3 kids and our girls love going over there to hang out. We adults hang out and the kids rotate between dressing up in costumes and playing out in the backyard.
The following pictures highlight a trip I (Andrew) took in November with our junior class. Each class goes on a trip to various areas. The juniors are in charge of getting firewood to a ministry on the Native American Reservation. First, we went down to Platte to cut, split and load firewood for Eagle's Nest Ministries in Wanblee. The school has been connected with the ministry for 5 years now and we have enjoyed being able to come alongside them and help provide their heat for the winter. Church groups in Platte do all the prep work cutting down trees and organizing equipment (tractors, and log splitters) for when we arrive. Our job basically entails splitting the firewood and loading it into trailers and then stacking the firewood at the ministry center in Wanblee. It is awesome to see God's faithfulness as well as the body of Christ working together in projects like this!
We loaded a side dump semi-trailer (above) as well as an old dump truck and 2 other trailers full of firewood. The students all worked hard and worked together as a team. Some of the pieces of wood weighed as much as the students before we split them. They had to wrestle them up to the log splitter.
Here is a picture of the firewood stacks at the ministry center in Wanblee. The students were pretty tired after we get done stacking all the firewood. They get to handle every piece of firewood at least twice (loading and unloading). Our goal in these trips is to teach students to serve with the love of Christ and bond together as a class.
Gus and Terry Craven have lived at the Eagle's Nest Ministry Center for 5 years and they heat the buildings with an outdoor wood boiler. Gus constantly gives praise to God for meeting needs in their ministry. They are a joy to work with and they share the vision that God has given them with the students so they can see the bigger picture of the ministry. Working on the reservation is challenging and they are honest about the discouragement as well as the opportunities that the Lord has given them.
This is a picture of most of the junior guys on our trip. We stayed in an old bunkhouse with a wood stove. We spent a couple of hours that night telling stories and cracking jokes around the fire. There is something about fire that is captivating to men. The other male leader and I concluded at the end of the night that not much has changed about boys since our high school days!
Darcy and I were able to getaway to Sioux Falls for a weekend in November and here is a real professional photo taken by me in our hotel room. Long arms are good for something!
We have a busy two weeks of school left before the Christmas Break and then we head to Michigan for the holidays. Please let us know if you would like to get together with us back in MI-we will do our best to figure out something that works. Happy trails to you wherever you go for the holidays and thanks for tuning in!
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