My day started pretty much the same as it has the past couple days, though, I was running particularly late on my way into work this morning. When I got in, Eric was starting a quick meeting with the guys to talk about the projects that were in progress, the projects that needed to be started, and the time lines we were working with.
When the meeting was over, our day was basically prioritized for us. We had to pick up a trailer that had been welded for us, finish the work in the Rosebud dam, finish our fence job out at Soldier Creek, and help Percy with the shed again. I was pretty excited to have a solid list of things we needed to knock out today.
To start the day, we went to check on the trailer. Turns out the job will be more than we expected. We headed back to the office to wait for Ferg to show up. Then Ferg, Ernie, Marky, and I went out to Soldier Creek to finish that fence while the other half of the crew went out to help Percy, and one of the youth workers stayed behind to stain a picnic table.
We got out to Soldier Creek just in time to meet the sun peeking out from behind some of the storm clouds that were just leaving, so it started to get hot. We powered through the last hundred feet or so of that fence job though! It was beautiful by the time we were done-- we even finished a section that somebody else had had some trouble with-- and it was so great to finally have a finished job under my belt, after a month with the program.
On the way back from the fence program, God gave me another opportunity to talk about my faith and the Bible, as one of the guys asked me straight up what I thought about alcohol and drugs. It was really cool to be talking about real stuff that God must have put on their heart to ask my opinion of. I love being real with them.
After we finished the fence, we all decided we would take a lunch today, so we went our separate ways and met back up around 1pm. When everybody had gotten back from lunch, we had to run out to Mission to grab a cell phone that was left behind, so we spent a good amount of time just cruising.
When we finally made it back to the office, Marky was loading up some wood to take it to a Sun Dance, and the rest of the guys were going to load up to go to the Dam. They asked me if I wanted to go with Marky to help him unload all that wood, and I thought it would be a really cool opportunity to learn something about Sun Dances and Lakota Spirituality, so I went with him.
Marky and I had a pretty legit heart to heart on the way out to the Sun Dance grounds. We talked about all sorts of stuff, but we got pretty deep in regards to Lakota spirituality, the experiences he has had with Sun Dances, and what I believed about God in regards to those topics. I enjoyed my time with him so much, because this was the first time I really got to talk about God on a deeper level than I'm a Christian and I love Jesus. Legit.
Unfortunately, when we got to the Sun Dance grounds, nothing was going on. I say unfortunately, because I was hoping to learn more, by seeing everything that was happening, but from what I had learned from Marky, I'm sure it would've been unnerving, so I'm glad that nothing was going on when we got out there. Monday it all starts.
As we got back to the office, Nixson caught us and had us move a picnic table out to a gentleman's house. There was a little bit of an discrepancy between what the guy paid for and what he got, since we hadn't had a chance to stain the picnic table yet, so we told him that we would come out Monday and take care of that for him.
I wanted to make sure Nixson got the memo, so when I got back to the office, I went down to Nixson's office and checked in with him to make sure he knew what was going on with that table. He knew, so all was good. I also wanted to talk to him about some of the questions he had about how long it was taking his crew to finish jobs. This is what I had been waiting for.
We spent close to an hour talking to him about his crew and things that I had observed in my short time with the office. God's provision is incredible. I've wanted to be able to help Eric with some of the stresses he has been having, and when I least expected it, God provided me with the opportunity. I left the office practically beaming. I was so thankful for all the blessings God had poured out on me today.
After I got back home, all of us went out to Parmalee to hang out with a church group that was out there this week. Their group was a lot of fun, and it was a pleasure meeting them! I hope that they continue to make it a point to spend a week out here in the coming years. Consistency is so important.
We ended the night with a discussion about some of the excerpts we have been reading for the past couple weeks, which went well. Now we are bonding over the movie Batman Begins. Pretty sweet.
Thanks for keeping up with me!
Goodnight,
Brenden
Things I learned today:
1. When the guys first saw me, they thought I was some church kid coming to tell them about God. They know I believe in God, but they don't feel like I've been shoving it down their throat, which I think is important.
2. There is some crazy stuff that goes on at a Sun Dance. It has been really hard for me to think through all the information I learned from Marky today regarding those dances.
3. Acts 3
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