Life Update...

Summer is officially just started, buy my summer has been screaming by for weeks now - and the relaxing part of summer is still far away.

We just returned from our annual summers missions trip to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. We stay in Wood in the Native American Community Building (a gym with a kitchen and bathrooms) - population 70. We love on kids all day long and do a Kids' Club. We also try to develop relationships with anyone we can in town. We saw God work in a variety of ways - in our lives, in the children's lives, and in the lives of people in the community. I'll share more on this in a later post.

We've already been to one wedding (cousin - Etienne) - in Dixon, IL. I am doing 2 weddings on back to back weekends for students who graduated from our youth group here. I'm missing out on some weddings of friends and former youth back in Michigan.

I am speaking at Senior High Camp at Hidden Acres this summer (6 sessions). I have preached twice and will be preaching again in one week.

My kids are amazing. They are well behaved, a joy, and incredibly cute. There are new stories nearly every day. Benjamin joined us on our missions trip - and that was great. My wife is amazing - she just keeps going and going - with so much to do.

I should mention we've had a little water in our basement - seeping through the walls - but we don't have padding under the carpet and only some of the carpet got wet - so we just lifted it up and aired it out - now we are trying to put our basement back together.

We are looking forward to 2 family vacations. First - Branson - with a family from Church. Second - near the Wisconsin Dells. Both vacations were found/booked through VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner). Unless you have tons of money to throw around, a vacation of 3 days or more should be booked through them (assuming they have a location where you are going). The price is about the same, sometimes less, than a hotel, and you end up with a beautiful house or condo or cabin. You gotta check it out (we've used them many times and have had many friends start using them - and everyone has loved it).

God continues to provide for us in wonderful ways. He gets the Glory!!!

Missions Trips - More Than Just A Week

Mission’s Trips – More than just a week.

Our youth group goes to the Rosebud Reservation each summer on a mission’s trip. We also try to visit at least once during the year. This will be our 6^th summer going. We were told early on that this is no “love ‘em and leave em’” kind of trip. That doesn’t work well anywhere, and is especially true with Native American ministry. So we have built relationships that continue to grow over the years. On our last visit I received my own key for the Native American Community Center in the town we visit. That was amazing to me.

Our national youth conference (Challenge) is every other year. It is a challenging thing to do both a Mission’s Trip and a $500+ national conference during a summer. I am prone to think that the Trip ($200) is worth more – and... – if we don’t go every summer, we’ve wasted years of relationships. We are still offering both this summer, but I can say that I am not sure it’s a great way to do it – especially if I want to be purpose driven.

I’m done Rambling.

Rosebud Visit

I took a few students out to Wood, SD, to visit the kids we work with every summer. We left early Friday morning and returned on Sunday. It was a bit disheartening. The student we had the most hope in tried to commit suicide, stole from a bar, and is now in Oregon for school (probably a good thing). Other students we've known for years have been removed from their homes (some for counseling and a safer home; others because they've started the abusive practices that they formerly endured). So few Native Americans were there.

There was some good. A kid who was gone last summer but who we knew from previous summers was back - and we thought he was doing better. I now have a key to the Native American Community Building (to keep). There were some relationships that were strengthened.

We trust that God, in His sovereignty, still has plans for each student we've spent time with. We plan to head back this summer - and we'll see who God brings our way.