Final Thoughts on the Week

We made it safely home Friday evening - about 2 hours ahead of schedule.  Of course, we left 2 hours early, so that helped.  Here are final thoughts on the week from everyone, in no particular order.

Molly:  Aw, it's all over!  This trip has been so amazingly "unforgettable"  (ha ha ha).  But, seriously, I have grown so much closer to God this week, and have had so many experiences, and met people I will never forget.  It's been an indescribable time.  Can't wait to see what next year brings.  Now, I can go visit my cat! (Yay!)

Susan:  I am so thankful to have had this opportunity, to be able to meet so many individuals and have a hand in helping someone else's life.  I've learned more about myself this past week, along with John Wesley.  (=  Let's see where the path leads from here!

Alex:  I am grateful for the opportunity to aid others that we were given.  It was an honor and a privilege to represent LUMC at the reservation.  Our mission had a tangible impact on a man's quality of life and provided an opportunity for many lessons to be learned.  This trip was most worthwhile.

Howard:  Final Mission Blog thoughts from the pastor…
Once again I’ve had several core understandings about life and faith reaffirmed.

·        All people are in need of love and grace, no exceptions…no matter their life circumstances (rich, poor, good, bad, weak, strong, popular or unpopular, ethnically different or mainstream)

·       When people of faith work together to care for people they don’t know and move their focus from self to others, they actually learn more about themselves and their faith than they could have imagined

·        God forgives because God loves… the hard part is letting go of your own internal judgment of yourself (a Christian favorite) or others…

·        Traveling, working, eating and playing (especially hacky-sack) together builds community…

All of these things happened on our trip to North Dakota! Thanks be to God!!

Jillian:  On this trip, I have learned so many things I feel like I have a new perspective of things.

Frances:  I am so thankful I had the opportunity to come on this trip.  It was a great experience and I grew closer with so many people through the work we did.  I grew closer with God and learned so many new things.  Thank you to everyone who made this possible.  I hope I am lucky enough to join you next year.

Delane:  We shared the week with an outstanding group of young people from our church.  We had fun, but we also did some intense work.  It was a blessing to see God each day in the faces around us, as well as the beauty of the Spirit Lake land and weather.

Kate:  I'm very thankful I had the opportunity to come again this year and learn how to do a different kind of roof with different scenery and dogs.  On these trips, I learn so many new things and have had so many different experiences.

Elizabeth:  This was an amazing week!  I am so proud of everyone who went on the mission trip.  Everyone was amazed at what great kids we have.  Roofing was an adventure with the rain.  At times I wondered if it would get done but in the end, God prevailed and a man was happy to have a roof that didn't leak.  Later this month, another group will put a deck on his house.  Through our project, our kids learned what it meant to be the body of Christ.  They were all needed and not one skill was more important than another.  Some ripped off shingles some picked them up, while others cut edging.  During our devotion time, we connected back to our Methodist roots and learned about John Wesley's life.  Our group left this week knowing that God is alive and at work in North Dakota and in each of them. 

Barbara:  I get the advantage of writing after reading everyone else's thoughts and with a good night's sleep in my own bed.  :-)  I wish I knew how to portray how rewarding and fun and wonderful these mission trips are so that others would be encouraged to come along.  By my count, this is my 9th youth mission trip.  I'm so grateful that God sent Linda Z to give me the shove in the back to go on the first one and that I signed that "lifetime" contract.  Each year brings different tasks, challenges, lessons, and people.  This year, we met people from North Dakota, of course, but also people from Ohio and Texas.  Each person touched us in different ways.  To me, the trip ended perfectly with the trip back.  We had our final devotion at a rest stop along the way.  As part of it, we all received a rock to keep where we see it everyday to help us remember that each day we have a choice to follow Christ.  We left one on the table at the rest stop - it would be interesting if we could follow it's journey.  Now, it is time to start thinking about heading back to the "corn bread" world on Monday morning.  (Thanks for the van giggles Frances, Kate, Jillian, and Delane.)

Until next year's trip, your mission team is signing off.  Don't forget to ask us about our week.  You might be moved to join us wherever next year takes us.

Cheerleading Picture

Internet access was slow.  Now that we are safely back in Kansas, here is the promised cheerleading picture of the proud group and the new roof.

Today is Thursday

Molly- I'm proud to announce my accomplishment for today (as many of you I'm sure will be thrilled to  hear *cough cough* Courtney) is, I became a professional cheerleader (see picture later). Today was our last day, and like always we started out with wonderful breakfast. For me that usually means something hot, cereal, tea, and coke...for caffeine only (the tea is decaffeinated...trust me I'm not proud but if you were in my shoes you'd all understand). Before I left on Saturday, the chances of rain here were low, but it has ended up raining everyday. So, we ended up waiting an hour or so for the rain to stop until we left to finish our roofing job (no one needs to slip...that would be tragic). In the mean time we played Four Men on a Couch (Kansas vs. Ohio addition, Kansas won 3/3 FYI). But, when we finally got to the worksite we finished up out roof by 2pm, and were very proud, and Fred the man who owned the house was just as happy. Then our new favorite person, Barbara, treated us all to some DQ. Now after that I planned to clean up and pack...instead napped, and missed an exciting mouse chase while I was slumbering... unfortunately. Anyway we ended our night with an amazing service and a hike to the burial mounds (it was cool). They are about to kick us out of the only place with WIFI, so I'll try to end this quickly and hope everything is spelled correctly. I've had the most amazing time and have grown and learned so much, I'm so lucky I got to come and follow out Christ's work and teach and show God's glory. Not sure how to end this now so... see you guys soon! *waves and goes to bed*

(edited for typos)

Wednesday Pictures - Slow Internet

First Trip to the Dump

And here are the rest of the selected Wednesday pictures.

Wait - are we allowed to have fun on a Mission Trip?

Culture Evening - She'll wake up when the drum starts.

Stripping the old roof off the last little section of roof.

Mike at the dump - he got a shingle to make it all the way to the far water hole.

First trip to the dump included work - with help from Texas.

Dumpster Frisbee and Walmart

Jillian- This morning we got up an extra 50 minutes later, so I already felt "refreshed". I ate breakfast but after that, we had to wait for the rain to pass in order for us to work on the roof. We waited about 30 minutes until we went to the work site. Once we got to the worksite Delane, Alex and I worked on taking the shingles off the roof. I then watched a little puppy sleep, which was by the house we worked on,  and went to take stuff to the dump. Frances and I took turns throwing stuff into the huge dumpster pile. We got to the Spirit Lake Campus just in time for lunch with the kids at day camp. I spent the rest of day camp helping with crafts. I rode on the big van to drop kids off and they showed me their pet bunny. Susan, Frances, Barbara, and I made a trip to Walmart so I could get some more chex mix and other necessities. When we got back I immediately took a shower and went to dinner. After dinner, we did devotions and I actually knew most of the songs. Therefore, I kind of knew what I was doing.

Frances- Even though the (unintentional) extra fifty minutes of sleep this morning was much appreciated, I still took an hour nap this afternoon instead of showering (sorry everyone). At 9:30, we headed out to the worksite after waiting patiently for the rain to pass. There, we worked with the much more experienced group from Texas, who had already completed their own roof. We scraped shingles off, put shingles back on, and collected shingles from the ground. After about three hours at the worksite, Jillian, Barb, Susan and I drove to the junkyard to throw shingles away. A game was soon created that went something like: throw the shingle like a Frisbee and try to hit the water, pile of dirt, chair, etc. It involved many giggles and loud exclamations of joy when any said target was hit. Our trip to the junkyard was followed by a drive to Walmart to purchase candy (because we don't have anywhere close to enough of that...) and other necessities. Walmart was followed by an hour nap and a delicious dinner. Devotions and another fun game of Four Folks on a Couch ended yet another exciting and wonderful day here in North Dakota. Hope all are doing well back home!!

Wind, Work, and Culture

Molly, Frances, Howard (aka the best group) - We started off another day with Elizabeth's rendition of "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!!" (arkie, arkie, twosies, twosies, KANGAROOSIES! -- yeah, that song;)) Then after breakfast, we headed off to work where we completed 3/4 of a roof in extreme conditions (hurricane force winds). Half of the group (Frances, Jillian, Molly, and Barb) came back at 11:30 and made crafts with kids (Molly got hugs, Jillian (re)discovered her unartistic abilities, Barb got beaten like a drum* in puzzles by Ethan, and Frances got ignored by all children).

*See how drums play a positive role in our day by reading on

Howard, the one member of our group who actually did work (in his "considerable" opinion), had a wonderful day working on a windy roof with Susan, Kate, Alex, Delane, and Elizabeth. Miraculously, we all returned to the campus with no broken bones or wind-roof related injuries (except for windburn). We had dinner (taco Tuesday), followed by a performance by traditional Dakota singers, dancing, and drumming (this is where the drum reference plays in). We all joined in at the end, and held hands while rhythmically dancing in a circle. *Slight pause for a deep talk about friendship and autocorrect (edit: who we now don't like)* Then devotions led by Barb, Kate, and Jillian ended another eventful day.

Hope this is entertaining enough for you Mom...
Connor, I found a group who kids who had the same favorite song as you... Please don't eat all my candy this time... thanks...
Hi Dad! *waves* hope you are "working" hard on the other-ish side of the world, (Please return the two calls you did not answer, thanks...) -Molly

Hi Mom, I hope Nonna's is more comforting than our empty house and that the moving isn't causing too much trouble... say hi to Radish, Seamus, Dad, and Catherine for me. I love you guys :) -Frances

Well... since my mother is dead, I guess I'm writing to my kids' families, my spouse Lois and my dog, Chloe... oh yeah... and all you church people eagerly reading this blog...
Here's a quick update though... my knee is doing 'swell' (not frightening small children)... and we are obviously having a great trip...  Having a nice time, wish you were here... -Howard

Molly and Susan

Four Folks on a Roof

The Four Freshman

His dancing was better than ours

Monday - First Work Day and An Opportunity to be Flexible

This morning, rain was in the forecast.  So instead of heading out to start on our roofing project, we did our Thursday afternoon sightseeing.  We headed out to a state park where we saw bison and prairie dogs.  We then toured Fort Totten.  It started as a military fort and was then converted to a boarding school. We came back to home base at 11:30.  Molly, Jillian, and I stayed to work at the day camp and the rest went to start the roof.  We got to help with crafts, games, and stories.  There was time to clean up before dinner.  After dinner was over, we had devotions - led by Delane, Susan, and Alex.  The rain came during devotions so we adjourned to the Christian Center for fellowship, blogging, and a competitive game of Four Folks on a Couch.                     Barbara


Jillian- Today I saw bison and mini bison (we called the prarie dogs mini bison). I also took a picture next to a cow patty!! Once we climped up 191 stairs I was pooped- haha get it? As you can tell I also rode with Howard. We went to an old military base and it was super historical. I learned a lot. Once we got back, Molly, Barbara and I, went to day camp. I met some many wonderful people who have really changed me and made me have a new perspective on life. We spent the day with many children. It was crazy, but such a good experience. A little girl, Shandley, also made me a necklace. After the kids left, Molly and I decided to play the ukulele and draw. We had dinner with the rest of the group. Francis and I taked to this wonderful guy about Colorado and how beautiful it is too! After dinner we went back to do devotion. Susan, Alex and Delane shared wonderful stories. We came back and played a few games after that. That brings me back to here. I had such a fantastic day!

Kate- Today in the morning we went to see bison and prairie dogs, and climbed lots of stairs. We also went to Fort Totten and got to see some history. Then we went to the worksite and did some roofing. Also at the worksite, there were a total of five dogs. There was one that looked like a German Shepard, and then two yellow labs (I think?) who had two older puppies. After dinner, we played four men on a couch and the incoming freshman dominated (three times out of three).

191 Steps - Alex did them 3 times.

Delane got to see her bison.

They found their prince at Ft. Totten

The rain is coming in.

Four Folks on a Couch