Whirlwind/ Day 55-60

To write a blog post for each of the last couple days I had on the Reservation was almost impossible. As soon as I ended my time with the SNETP, it quickly hit me that I really only had four days left to see people, as Wednesday was going to be spent debriefing and Thursday would be spent driving home.

So most of our last couple days on the reservation were spent in Saint Francis. We hung out in SF all day on Saturday, we went to Amanda Arcoren's birthday party on Sunday, then on Monday and Tuesday I split my time between building a porch with Greg at his house and spending time in Saint Francis. It was such a great last couple days. 

On Wednesday we spent all day cleaning, packing, and organizing, then around 4pm, we started debriefing. Debriefing was just a time of reflection for the interns as we considered how well we met the areas that we were required to be conscious of during our time in our professional, communal, and spiritual areas of development.

Wednesday was a great way to end our summer as we all spent the day together reflecting and encouraging each other in the ways we had seen God working this past summer. It ended even better as we all headed over to Greg's for some ice cream to finish out the night.

By the time we were ready to leave Greg's it was already around 2:30am, so Emily, Jonny, and I decided we should just finish packing up our belongings and head home. We were already planning on being up by 5:30am so we could be on the road by 6am, and it was 4am by the time we were finished packing, so we really didn't see the point in staying another night just to sleep for 2 or 3hrs.

We had an awesome drive home, and we are all back in Minnesota now for a couple weeks before school and other jobs start up again. So I guess that's that. My blog has officially come to an end, as my time on the rez has as well.

We are all very thankful for the support you gave us in our ministries this summer, even in something as little as reading my blog posts throughout the week. And now that we are back, please ask us about our experiences out on the Rez, because there is still so much I couldn't fit in the blogs.

You are all wonderful!


God bless,
Brenden and the Interns 

The Lakota People Don't Say Goodbye/ Day 54

Friday. My last day of working with the crew. Since I started working with the crew, I obviously knew this day would come, but I never really knew how everything would play out. I had ideas of how I would say "bye" (although the Lakota people don't say goodbye, so I would say "See you later"), and the different thoughts or ideas I would want to leave the guys with, but it didn't really play out how I had thought it would.

I woke up early this morning. Earlier than I have all summer. I had an alarm set for 6:30am and 6:45am, I woke up at 6:45am. I ate breakfast and did devos while I was waiting for a call from Fergie. He was supposed to call when he was headed into Mission, so I could meet him at RBP and help him load the new attachment onto our trailer. 

He hadn't called by 7:30am and he said he was going to be coming through around 7:15am, so I went over to check everything out. I gave Fergie my number, but he hadn't given me his, so all I could do was wait. I waited until 7:45am and still nobody had shown up. I wanted to be at work on time (8am), especially since I hadn't been at the office at 7am like everybody else, so I left. On my way out, I actually saw Fergie pulling in, but he had a passenger to help him, so I kept driving towards the office.

When I got to the office, I was one of the first ones there. Once some of the directors showed up, I was able to get into the building, grab the keys to open the sheds, and get everything ready for when the guys got back with the new attachment. 

The guys got back and had to leave again to grab another tool that we were going to need at the pow-wow grounds, so while they were picking up that tool, I put some air in one of the tires on the tractor and one of the tires on the trailer so that both would be ready to go as soon as we were ready to move everything over to the grounds. 

We got everything moved over to the ground around 8:30am, and we got to work! We spent the morning raking the pow-wow grounds with the landscaping rake, moving the dead grass/weeds and excess dirt off the pow-wow grounds (I got to drive the bob cat for this--pretty sweet!), unloading the dirt from the trucks/trailers at a dump site, then doing it all over again. I had a ton of fun. Not gonna lie. 

Around 12pm, Nixon called me and told me he wanted the whole crew back at the office for lunch. We had to finish up what we were doing so we didn't get back until 12:45pm, but when we got back, I saw a kitchen full of Indian Tacos, and the bosses told me that they had made all of these tacos for me! 

They treated me so well on my last day! When we were done eating, my crew and I were sitting around a table, and the bosses came in and told me how much they appreciated the work I had done these past eight weeks and they gave me a certificate of appreciation along with a sweatshirt from the office! 

They also told me that they wanted my address to send me a jacket after I got back home, and they wanted me to give them email addresses for my coordinators so they could send a letter to them as well. I was so thankful for them! 

After I thanked them for allowing me to work with them over the summer and trying to tell them how thankful I really was, we all went outside and took a picture together! Words just can't express how incredible that time was for me. 

When we were done with lunch and the pictures, I headed out with Marky to deliver a picnic table for Percy. We had to drive out to Spring Creek which was 1/2hr-45min away, and we had to pick up Nixon's son on the way so we had a lot of time just chilling in the truck. 

While we were driving back from the house that we delivered the picnic table to, Marky, Eric, and I had an awesome conversation about God, Religion, and the Bible. I was really happy that God led our conversation in that way, while we were just cruising around. 

When we got back, we loaded some dirt and hay onto the trailer and went back out to the Rosebud Pow-Wow grounds. We had to start seeding, laying dirt, watering, and laying hay on top of everything in the last couple hours of our day. 

We ended up only having enough seed for half of the fair grounds and we barely covered that area with hay. Nixon stopped by and told us that there was going to be a meeting on Monday for all of the crew, then he said we could pack everything up and call it a day. 

I ended up giving Ernie, Ferg, and Kels a ride back to Ernie's house, then I went home to take a shower and change before heading over to JC's house to hang out with him and Nixon for a little bit before my last day with the program was over. 

The rest of my night was very interesting. I had a ton of good conversations with some of Nixon and JC's friends and I was really thankful for the fact that they invited me to hang out with them, and that God used that time through me to be a witness for him. 

Thank you for reading! 

Things I learned today:

1. I didn't need to make a big deal about leaving the program. Goodbye's don't need to be said, because I will see them all again next year!

2. God can use any situation for His glory. You just have to be ready and willing to let Him use you.

3. Romans 2.