Today was my first day back with the employment training office, since before LJ Week. Pretty exciting stuff. Today was also the hottest day of the week-- 105 degrees. Not so exciting.
The wonderful thing about going to work with the particular crew that I work with every day is that I never know what's going to happen. I never know how my day is going to look. And I never know if my day is going to be stressful, enjoyable, or particularly exciting. Today was no different.
I hopped right back into my daily routine of breakfast, time in the bible, devos, and prayer, which was awesome. I was kind of worried that LJ Week was going to throw a wrench in that habit, because often my devotional times didn't happen at a consistent time throughout the week of LJ.
I got to the office around 8am to sit around per usual. However, today sitting around wasn't all bad, because I had a chance to talk to Eric again for the first time since LJ Week, and I was excited to hear all that had been done in my absence. Unfortunately, it wasn't too impressive. I had big dreams, but it's okay to be disappointed every once in a while.
We got going around 9am. We had to make the grounds ready for the Children's Appreciation Day tomorrow, so that meant mowing a large plot of land and making barricades for parking or something of the sort. Half of us loaded into a truck to start the mowing and the other half stayed behind to make the barricades out of pallets. I was part of the crew that stayed behind.
God definitely worked that one out. I could have easily been sent to mow, I feel, but there happened to be just enough people already willing to go out there that I was able to stay behind. It's incredible to reflect on this moment, because I know that God had a reason for me to stay behind with only four guys, so I'm hoping that I was a blessing to them throughout the day.
We spent probably half an hour making a couple barricades but we didn't need many, so we were done fairly quickly. Most of the guys I was left with wanted to go down to the Rosebud Dam to finish work on a job that they had going down there, but it took us a while to actually get the okay and make our way down there.
When we actually got down there, it was quite the experience. We had a small fishing boat, power tools, lots of wood, and a platform that needed to be rebuilt. You will never experience anything like this. I had to use every muscle in my body the entire time we were out there pulling the boat around the platform, drilling, using an electric saw, and balance during the process. Crazy. But awesome.
Throughout the day, I obviously spent a ton of time with the guys, which was actually a lot of fun. I know that the reason I am in this place is to build relationships with the guys in the crew, so I'm trying my best to be a blessing to them in their work and in the conversations we have together. It's still a weird dynamic, because I'm still the new, white boy, but I know that after about four hours out on a lake fixing a platform, some good relationship building definitely happened.
So that was most of my day. I had to leave around 3:30pm, because I still needed to pick up the parts for Emily J.'s car in Valentine. We got back around 4pm and Greg and I went down to Valentine. It was a pretty long drive. We were both tired, especially from the heat, but Greg got McDonald's so everything was good.
We came back and we decided that we shouldn't go down to his shop to work on Emily's car until around 8pm, so I had some time to check on some things in my own car. My air conditioning hasn't been working since I arrived on the rez and other electrical things have steadily been failing. I needed to check all of my fuses, and I replaced a relay, but nothing seemed to be fixed. Really disappointing.
I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life, as I did during that hour or so that I was trying to fix my car. So afterwards, I figured it might be good to drink some water, and get something to eat. I didn't want to use the oven since it was already 100 degrees in the house, so I just made myself a sandwich.
While I was eating, I realized I didn't have my debit card, so that was a scare. But I found it in Greg's truck. I chilled for about an hour until 8:30pm, and I decided I should try to take Emily's car down to Greg's garage and start working on it. That idea didn't stick around, because I realized that if I started work on Emily's car, and I ran into issues with it, then I would be stuck in White River. No fun.
So instead, I decided to go play catch with Jonny and Stephen. That also didn't last long. I can't remember the last time I played catch, and I have become pretty bad at throwing a baseball in the that time. Lame. But now I have time to rest. It's been a long hot day. Hopefully, tomorrow is cooler.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed yourself.
In Him,
Brenden
Things I learned today:
1. The best work-out routines involve a boat, power tools, lots of wood, and a platform.
2. Relationships are super powerful things.
3. James 5
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