I woke up this morning ready to start the day, I had breakfast crew which meant I had to wake up at 6:20, which wasn’t too bad especially since it was 7:20 back home. We made breakfast for the adults because us, high schoolers, went to the school for breakfast. They encourage us to eat at the school because when we eat over there during the summer breakfast program, it means they get more meals for the school year.
We came back after breakfast and did devotions, then we played the blanket game. It was a game that explained the history between the United States and the Natives. How the game works is we stood on blankets, which represents land, and we represented the natives before Europeans came over to the New World. The staff would come around kicking our blankets, which represented how natives were being forced into smaller and smaller areas of land. As the game went in so did the amount of people and the amount of land. The game ended with Peyton, Reese, and I shoulder to shoulder on a small blanket. When the staff said let’s play the blanket game, I thought “oh yeah a fun little game to break the ice, kinda” I was wrong. This game told us what history books leave out. These beautiful, interesting people were forced off their lands, forced to change their culture and values, forced to assimilate to the culture of these new people and forced to follow their rules. For 150 years kids were sent to boarding schools, where they had to give up there native language, families, and lives. Some died and these schools, some never game back, and some were banished if they did.
I had the opportunity to go with my group to Bob & Mary’s! Bob & Mary are a couple from Wisconsin, who moved here two years ago. Mary, a retired nurse, had a heart of missions and traveled to places like Guatemala, Mexico, and the Philippines but her heart is in Wanblee. While we were at their house/community center, we painted walls and floors, cleaned, but I think our favorite thing was listening to Mary tell her stories. She talked about all her mission trips, how the kids her call her grandma, how she met Sunshine, the love she has for this community, how she has the kids sleep over during blizzards and so much more. She has the gifted the kids here with bikes, a playground coming in July, and a sense of hope for the future. The kids don’t get it for free though, she has them go pick up trash or sometimes sell eggs, to give them the experience of earning something. When she learned of the kids going without meals over the weekend, she made sack lunches for them to take, she was determined to do this even if it came out of her own pocket, a few weeks after she received action dollars from Thrivent Financial, she said “God provides”. God saw what she was doing here, she was determined to provide these families with food and hope. Around 3 we had to leave Bob & Mary’s, I think of we had the choice we would have stayed as long as we could.
When we got back to the TNT building (where we are staying). We got to take an ICE Cold shower, I don’t think anyone realized how cold these showers actually are. But a large percentage of Wanblee doesn’t have hot water so it seems fitting we shouldn’t either. Next was dinner and the food isn’t to bad here. After dinner it was gathering time, we drove to a 38 ft cross, no that’s not a typo it’s a 38 ft cross made out of reclaimed objects. We took pictures and sang 1 worship song, we only got to sing 1 song because it started down-pouring on us, so we came back to the TNT building and finished worship. But we also left with a beautiful rainbow in the storm.
Church big group time, is one of my favorite parts of the day, it’s a time for us to reflect on our day all together. First we talked in our small groups, Bryce told us about some high school boys who he played basketball with. He asked them how they like these groups coming here and they said they like it because all people do around here is drink and do drugs. We also were told about Heath who lost his mom, step dad, and 2 year old brother in a tragic accident with a drunk driver, he had to go and identify their bodies, he then ended up going to live with his dad but now lives with his aunt in Wanblee and comes to kids club.
This day challenged me in so many ways- emotional and spiritual...it gave me perspective on how materialistic we are but it also showed me God’s love for us and how he provides for us. This place has already had an impact on my life and i can’t wait to share more when I get back home!
Makenzie Enderson
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