Can't Take Home for Granted

It was good to be back home, despite the good time we had in South Dakota. 

One of the biggest blessings was that Jonathan and I could sleep in our own bed. The camper bed we had slept in while in SD was quite firm and it was difficult to get to sleep, so we don't want to take even our bed for granted!

Carrie and Rose had come home three days earlier and the house was so neat and clean.

Sourdough bread was rising on the counter.

And good well water was in our spigot! I'm so grateful!

Before the girls left South Dakota, the Lord did something special for Carrie and her leaking tire. We kept trying to air the tire up (difficult since the gas station on the reservation did not have air). We were all nervous about letting the girls drive seven hours back to Colorado with such a low tire. They wanted to leave early Monday morning. 

Jonathan requested prayer in church Sunday night about the situation. 

After the service, Keith Lavery’s brother Kevin came to Jonathan. Kevin had noticed the make and model of Carrie’s car. The crazy thing was, that a guy who had gotten into trouble with the law and was now in prison had been in a front end wreck with his car and just recently GIVEN that car to Kevin. The problem was that Kevin has no title to it, and it is just sitting in the grass a few blocks away, waiting to be junked. It had some decent tires on it, not new or anything, but decent shape. Kevin pulled three of those tires off, and Monday morning Carrie left for Colorado with a good tire!

When we arrived home, we discovered that the lightning strike that happened shortly after the girls arrived home Monday had ruined our kitchen chandelier light! At least that is what we thought until Benjamin, the electrician from Ohio, did some testing and discovered that what had happened was that the bulbs had all been blown out, but the light fixture itself was fine.

We found some new bulbs from somewhere and we have light again!

We discovered the lightning had burnt out a GFI, too, and when Jonathan came home the next night with a new GFI, Benjamin quickly replaced that.

The young people had all gone for a hike up Mt. Hermon Friday since Benjamin didn't have to fly home until Saturday. And then they made homemade icecream for supper.

I was thankful for the example to my children of a young man with a disciplined lifestyle, getting to bed early, being on time when the crew would leave in the morning, being focused on his work, exercising discipline with his smartphone, careful with his speech.

I never heard an unkind or negative word. Instead he had a knack of diffusing any awkward moment by not making an issue of it. He was so easy to get along with.

Yet he could have fun, too!

The young people all played Pit Friday evening. What a racket and what a blur of hands!

 Benjamin decided that it was his turn to slop the pig the next morning before Sam took him to the airport!

He was such a blessing.

When Shattered Legs Can't Bend

A couple years ago, Bro. Poff shattered his lower leg, resulting in a long metal plate, various screws and such, and a doctor's orders not to do much of anything that isn't totally safe, lest he ruin the leg all over again. That includes getting up and down for various projects.
This leaves him feeling so helpless to take care of projects around the mission.

So when Sis. Poff heard that our crew was coming up to SD with an electrician, she wondered if we might have time to do a couple small electrical and other jobs for them. Their mission was on our way back to Colorado, so Jonathan and Timmy changed out their old dishwasher for a new.

She was so happy for that!

Meanwhile, Benjamin and Sam wired a new outlet, a different circuit, and wiring for a new security light on the front porch.

That meant wiring in the basement and under the porch!

But it was wonderful to have this lovely new light out front now, plus another one over the back porch which Jonathan  put in.

Inside, their little dog made friends with all of us, even jumping up into my lap!

Over at the church, the windows are still sealed with blue tape to keep the weather out. 

New windows have been bought, but who will help install them?

Pray that someone will come to help.

New flooring has also been purchased and is stacked in the basement. 

Who will install it?

This is what is left of the firewood, and in just a couple months, fall and winter days are coming.

There is a man in the church who has a pickup and trailer and who helps get wood, but firewood is also needed at Mission, SD, to heat the mission office building which also houses Sunday School classes now that the church basement has been flooded earlier this year 

and the church toilets are not working due to plumbing issues. 

More work teams are needed.
There are shattered legs, shuttered windows, and no end of work projects needing help.
It's a mission in our own back yard.

Fires and Floods in South Dakota

We experienced first hand the very literal fire and flood that the missionaries face who work in the native American reservations of South Dakota. 

At 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, while it was still dark, we were rudely awakened by Timmy banging on the camper door where the girls and Jonathan and I were staying.

"The house next door is on fire!" he hollered.

We jumped out of bed and into our clothes and rushed out. Police and fire trucks were already there.

It was a vacant house belonging to Keith and Tasbah Lavery, who had hoped to fix it up. 

The neighbor across the road was missing a gas can, and Keith was quite sure he knew who had set fire to the house, someone who within three hours was in custody already for another crime.

Keith asked Sam to put on a fireman's suit and run the fire truck pump panel, but before long, the decision was made to just let the house burn completely down. It wasn't worth fixing after it was burnt this much.

So we watched it continue to burn.

We had arrived Thursday evening to work at the church in St. Francis, SD, which had also burned down two years ago and been rebuilt by Hutterites. We had picked up a young electrician friend, Benjamin Sanders, at the Denver Airport, and driven another 7 hours and stopped in to see the church and figure out what needed to be done. 

Here Jonathan and Benjamin are unscrewing the plywood that has been put up in the doorway.

A "before" picture. Later the basketball hoops would be gotten out of the way so we could work and frame up walls, etc.

The weather was beautiful most of the time, not beastly hot as it had been the last two times we went to South Dakota. Crystal, Sam and Carrie arrived to South Dakota from back east about the same time we arrived. Sam and Carrie had attended my niece Katie's wedding in Ohio, and then gone further east to visit other relatives.

Crystal had spent a week in PA helping Elon and Anita's family before and during the time of Anita's mother's funeral.

Now we could be all together again working as a Mission Helps team with others.

The girls helped all they could in between cooking in the fellowship hall in the background of this photo. Rose especially loves to find ways to help her brothers. 

 

The first long wall going up across the front of the church, to separate two Sunday School rooms and furnace room from the sanctuary area.

We ladies helped with that part.

Timmy loved helping Benjamin work with the electrical. Here they are working on conduit outdoors.

Benjamin spent several days wiring the entire church, putting in all the receptacles for lights and fans and outlets and switches.

Benjamin and Keith Lavery

 Friday evening we were invited to a missionary/community/youth get-together at Laverys in Mission. There were snacks, fellowship, and music.

On Sundays, the church folk meet in a hall that has been graciously allowed them by the Catholic campus a few blocks away. I quickly captured this sweet picture of Becky Patton with Bruce Stevens' daughter and a Sunday School girl. There had been a bug theme for that week's VBS.

Ron Patton leading the children's choruses.

Crystal shared a children's story and had children take turns holding up the illustrations for her.

We ladies enjoyed cooking meals for the crew except for Sunday when the Pattons invited quite a number of people to their home for dinner. South Dakota Sunday dinners are unforgettable!

Sunday night we attended back at Mission where we stayed every night. I liked this decoration at the corner of the platform.

Monday evening Paul Light, Jr., arrived from Mitchell to help. Thanks to him, the job of nailing up plywood for the ceiling went a lot more easily than it would have with just our two boys.

The boys (or should I say, young men now!) had a great time working together and then visiting together in the evening.

I baked extra batches of granola for breakfasts.

Danny and Hannah spent most of their time hunting for birds to snap pictures of for their bird notebooks and ripsticking or scootering. But Danny helped, too, like vacuuming the sawdust out from the frame of the platform before the particle board was nailed down.

Keith Lavery kept buying and bringing in materials.

The Mission Helps crew. Benjamin Sanders is on the back left, and Paul Light on the back right.

Benjamin working high up with electrical.

Serving three meals a day kept us ladies busy.

One day one of the Smith boys invited Timmy to ride horse with him later in the afternoon. Timmy made a new friend!

Six windows were installed with security grating.

By Wednesday evening, the work was winding down, and the young people were pretty excited to be done with those long, hard days of work.

While the Pattons grilled delightful, ranch-raised rib steaks for us, 

Benjamin and Timmy celebrated the work being done by racing around on the concrete floor on Hannah's ripstick or Danny's scooter! Looks like Danny's scooter needs to grow up to fit Benjamin!

And we enjoyed fresh ice cream that the Pattons churned for us from their fresh cream.

 I hope to post more pictures later of the work we did for Poffs the next day at Martin, SD.