That's life, but that's one of the things about life that sucks.
I just got back from the reservation for the last time this year and it really, really, really stinks.
I already miss it.
Sigh... So yeah I don't really have time for anything else, I should really pack up now.
God Bless
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
ONE MORE DAY! =:(
Aghhhhhh... One more day of Bible Club left!
I hope people know about this blog, it would be fun to have some comments if you do read it! (hint, hint lol)
I don't have much time to write today, but I just wanted to say thanks for the prayers -- the skit went really well. So did the song -- we did the skit first, then Monica shared a bit of her life story and testimony, then Haines played a music video for a LeCrae song, which got one of the girls teary-eyed (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then I sang Amazing Grace, which was also pretty good, Haines played guitar, and then Haines played another music video that hadn't worked a couple days ago =) So that took up a lot of our time but I would say it went really, really well.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
Mrs. Heisler & Elise both went to the hospital last night, and have strep throat, but Elise (& Benni) stayed home and are both feeling way better. I think Mrs. Heisler is too -- she didn't have to do a whole lot, we tried to take over for her, so I hope she's feeling better but I haven't seen her yet. She looked pretty good at supper.
I would write more about that but Heidi already did (http://thoughtsofheidi.blogspot.com ) so you can just read that.
Pray nobody else gets sick though! I'm glad I've been feeling so good so far becuz I've been sleeping in the same bed as Elise & Benni's been my buddy for the past little while so lots of snuggling & all that =)
Anyway I have to run
KEEP PRAYING!
We want to go out with a bang =)
I hope people know about this blog, it would be fun to have some comments if you do read it! (hint, hint lol)
I don't have much time to write today, but I just wanted to say thanks for the prayers -- the skit went really well. So did the song -- we did the skit first, then Monica shared a bit of her life story and testimony, then Haines played a music video for a LeCrae song, which got one of the girls teary-eyed (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then I sang Amazing Grace, which was also pretty good, Haines played guitar, and then Haines played another music video that hadn't worked a couple days ago =) So that took up a lot of our time but I would say it went really, really well.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
Mrs. Heisler & Elise both went to the hospital last night, and have strep throat, but Elise (& Benni) stayed home and are both feeling way better. I think Mrs. Heisler is too -- she didn't have to do a whole lot, we tried to take over for her, so I hope she's feeling better but I haven't seen her yet. She looked pretty good at supper.
I would write more about that but Heidi already did (http://thoughtsofheidi.blogspot.com ) so you can just read that.
Pray nobody else gets sick though! I'm glad I've been feeling so good so far becuz I've been sleeping in the same bed as Elise & Benni's been my buddy for the past little while so lots of snuggling & all that =)
Anyway I have to run
KEEP PRAYING!
We want to go out with a bang =)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
3rd last day of Bible club!???!!!!!!!
Man... I'm scared of this ending. I really do NOT want to leave.
A couple random things... Well today we went swimming. Some of us. Haines, Jay, Monica, Lee-bee & Molly stayed at the gym with Selena, Sophia, & Chelsea, while Mosher, Melany & I went with a bunch of the kids to Mission pool to swim. I haven't heard much about the others' day but ours was good. Besides getting burnt we towed Braillei (ok that is NOT how it's spelt but =P) and Mallory and a bunch of other little kids around the pool, and hung out. Melany & I got to meet a bunch of other girls who know the Okreek teens and some of them might be coming tomorrow. Which would be awesome! We talked to Chelsea, another Chelsea, for a while and I really hope she comes. She is a sweetheart.
So yeah it was a good day.
And for anybody who is wondering about my blog description, I am now Frodo. Last year I asked Slugz to give me an Indian name, and thus I was White Buffalo, or White Buffalo Calf, and this year I'm Frodo. Don't ask me how that happened I can't remember. I just know Slugz came up with it and I think every single one of the Okreek guys has (at least at one point) called me Frodo. I don't know if Slugz remembers what my name actually is anymore. lol
It's great =)
So anyway I would like to ask for LOTS and LOTS of prayer for our skit tomorrow. We practiced it for the first time all in a row today, and I think it's going to be good. This is heavy stuff we're getting into. I'm pretty hyped for it but I'm also quite nervous becuz I feel like I'm under a lot of responsibility becuz of my part. I know God can work through me so I really want lots of prayer!!!!! For all of us.
Oh and I'm singing too, after it. We need to decide which song, and we need to practice it cuz Haines is playing guitar. So I would love prayer for that too! I don't know when we're going to have time to practice =S
God be with you!
A couple random things... Well today we went swimming. Some of us. Haines, Jay, Monica, Lee-bee & Molly stayed at the gym with Selena, Sophia, & Chelsea, while Mosher, Melany & I went with a bunch of the kids to Mission pool to swim. I haven't heard much about the others' day but ours was good. Besides getting burnt we towed Braillei (ok that is NOT how it's spelt but =P) and Mallory and a bunch of other little kids around the pool, and hung out. Melany & I got to meet a bunch of other girls who know the Okreek teens and some of them might be coming tomorrow. Which would be awesome! We talked to Chelsea, another Chelsea, for a while and I really hope she comes. She is a sweetheart.
So yeah it was a good day.
And for anybody who is wondering about my blog description, I am now Frodo. Last year I asked Slugz to give me an Indian name, and thus I was White Buffalo, or White Buffalo Calf, and this year I'm Frodo. Don't ask me how that happened I can't remember. I just know Slugz came up with it and I think every single one of the Okreek guys has (at least at one point) called me Frodo. I don't know if Slugz remembers what my name actually is anymore. lol
It's great =)
So anyway I would like to ask for LOTS and LOTS of prayer for our skit tomorrow. We practiced it for the first time all in a row today, and I think it's going to be good. This is heavy stuff we're getting into. I'm pretty hyped for it but I'm also quite nervous becuz I feel like I'm under a lot of responsibility becuz of my part. I know God can work through me so I really want lots of prayer!!!!! For all of us.
Oh and I'm singing too, after it. We need to decide which song, and we need to practice it cuz Haines is playing guitar. So I would love prayer for that too! I don't know when we're going to have time to practice =S
God be with you!
Monday, June 23, 2008
...
So today was another good day, not as great discussion-wise, but Haines' teaching went really good, and Sophia & Bobbie were there again... we played a whole lot of basketball, which probably contributes to my being sooo sleepy right now at only 7:30 =) That and the awesome Indian tacos we had again... Whew. They're sooooo filling. And I had 4 or 5 pieces of watermelon & half a piece of cake too. (Benni used the icing on the other half to decorate his mom's face ...haha)
So yeah we pretty much played basketball all afternoon, then we stopped for a snack, then split up into guys/girls and I think the guys played cards while us girls did some more jewelry with Monica's beads. The girls really like that, and Monica has great stuff cuz she does that as her business. I personally really like that becuz of the chance it's given us to talk about serious stuff.
So we did that for a little bit and then we went back in, had a drink & Andrew did his teaching. It was good -- short, and concise, and easy to remember, and especially, powerful. And for the most part they were all very attentive. One of the girls' younger brother, I think, was there, and he was making weird noises through a lot of it, but despite that I thought it went really well.
PLEASE pray that these kids would make the decision. They are hearing the gospel, and they're really receptive. It's time now for serious changes. And I'm sooooo hoping it will happen NOW. Like tomorrow afternoon.
Please pray HARD!!!!!!
Also pray for Hannah to get better, she's been really sick. There's a bunch of other people who've just been under the weather for a long time -- Sarah, Katie, Molly... I don't even know who all. Pray for them too.
Pray for Site two, all the things I've said, and the skits we're doing -- the heart one I was talking before could be REALLY powerful. But it's really hard too. We need time to practice and control over our emotions and total focus. So prayer for that would be very much appreciated.
Alright, that's it! I mean not really but that's all I'm going to write =)
God bless!!!
Lizzi
So yeah we pretty much played basketball all afternoon, then we stopped for a snack, then split up into guys/girls and I think the guys played cards while us girls did some more jewelry with Monica's beads. The girls really like that, and Monica has great stuff cuz she does that as her business. I personally really like that becuz of the chance it's given us to talk about serious stuff.
So we did that for a little bit and then we went back in, had a drink & Andrew did his teaching. It was good -- short, and concise, and easy to remember, and especially, powerful. And for the most part they were all very attentive. One of the girls' younger brother, I think, was there, and he was making weird noises through a lot of it, but despite that I thought it went really well.
PLEASE pray that these kids would make the decision. They are hearing the gospel, and they're really receptive. It's time now for serious changes. And I'm sooooo hoping it will happen NOW. Like tomorrow afternoon.
Please pray HARD!!!!!!
Also pray for Hannah to get better, she's been really sick. There's a bunch of other people who've just been under the weather for a long time -- Sarah, Katie, Molly... I don't even know who all. Pray for them too.
Pray for Site two, all the things I've said, and the skits we're doing -- the heart one I was talking before could be REALLY powerful. But it's really hard too. We need time to practice and control over our emotions and total focus. So prayer for that would be very much appreciated.
Alright, that's it! I mean not really but that's all I'm going to write =)
God bless!!!
Lizzi
Friday, June 20, 2008
One week...
That fact is
really weird...
And sad... And exciting...
but mostly sad and weird.
I am sooooo ready for the weekend though.
I was yawning all the way back home this evening =) I'm so tired. But it's a good tired. We've been fighting hard but we are winning and we are seeing some amazing stuff happening!!!
I'm looking forward to hanging out with people though, there's been virtually no downtime. Even devotions have been rushed, but next week that should improve. Heidi explained how we were competing with room-cleaning in the mornings (http://thoughtsofheidi.blogspot.com) but that was getting a little too much with trying to fit devotions and showers and everything so they're not competing again next week, we'll still have inspections but since it's not a competition hopefully people won't get so stressed out about it.
So... There's so much to talk about, but I want to go hang out with people, and I need a shower eventually (my hair feels really strange, but more on that later) so I'll just tell you about today...
This morning we got up, ate breakfast & did devotions, tried to get into the bathroom (I waited half an hour lol) cleaned up the room, and had our morning meeting at 9, so first worship and then prayer, then normally we have small groups, this time we took half an hour off our small groups for extra quiet time, which I REALLY appreciated -- I needed it =)
Then we had 15 minutes for small group, which ended up going into half an hour, at least for my group. My group is Haines (Andrew Haines), Kramer (Andrew Williams), and Jonathan Burdick, who wasn't on the team last year for those of you who're trying to place him. Oh and me. It's a fun group, keeps us all laughing and on our toes (trying to remember what we were talking about before Krames started talking about the girl with the weedwhipper). Not to mention it's very encouraging.
Then we met briefly in the suite again, split up into site meetings, ate lunch, and left.
At our site today we got a lot of people, I didn't even know everyone's names. There's often kids who only come for part of it, which doesn't help that way =)
We had, to start with, about 6 girls and I think 3 boys or something like that. Sophia was there again, for the second time, and Bobbie was there for the first time. It was SO great to see them!!! They're two of the girls I've been writing every monthish. Cassie was the third, and I've seen her every day at supper. (She goes to site 1.) The other girl I wrote to I saw once, on the first day, but she didn't come to talk to us.
So anyway today we started with basketball, the usual (I think that's how we've started every day so far) while a bunch of us filled up water balloons. We filled up a cooler and a big bin, cuz today was special =)
Then we had snack, which Leah-beth normally makes. Today she was going to make nachos, but she forgot the chips =S BUT of course, God provided -- Mrs. Heisler just happened to have 20 chocolate muffins left over from the day before so Haines went & got them =) And we had lemonade and Sprite with it. The snacks are really nice, I think the kids like it a lot. We all sit down together and eat, and this gives a GREAT opportunity for teaching. Last year we had two guys who did it pretty much, and the kids had to sit down for it and be quiet with nothing else to occupy them... You can imagine how that went. These kids are not brought up going to church and they hate school.
I've been blown away every time by the peace and the attentiveness to the teachings, God's really been answering our prayers that way!!! Most of them weren't obviously teachings, like Jay, Lee-bee & Daniel's skit on Thursday (I guess it was Melany & Andrew's too, they narrated =D) and on I think Wednesday Andrew sang "Set Me Free" (Casting Crowns) for them and talked a bit, that was so powerful... Wow. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
Anyway today was the first real "teaching" -- Leah-beth did it on the Path of Life & the Path of Destruction. It was definitely like a lesson, she used a whiteboard and everything, but the kids were still totally attentive. Praise the Lord!
Then... Well, it was a nice warm day... We started out with a sponge relay, to fill a pop bottle (which we won! =) ) and then we basically had an all-out water balloon/shaving cream war =)
It was awesome =) So great. Melany got some pictures, which I can't wait to see. We were all totally soaked and covered in shaving cream. Except Sophia & Lee-bee, they didn't want to get wet so they stayed in the gym, and they filled up buckets of water for us to rinse off with afterward. All the guys were dumping water on us, and my hair still feels really strange... I smell funny too.
We were maybe going to have a hotdog eating contest too, I don't even know if that happened. We were also oging to duct-tape Mosher to the wall, but we ran out of time. Maybe next week =D
So then we went to the community center for supper, which we eat all together and some of the kids come too. Supper was so stressful last year, trying to hurry up and keep the kids out... It's great now. I'm getting to know some of the younger kids too. I get to talk to Cassie lots, and I made friends with Mallory, Heidi's "best friend" =) I lost a game of basketball 4 -1 to her so now she likes me =D
Anyway that was pretty much it, we had supper and headed back. The cleaning team is back now, and we're going to McDonalds, so I should get off. Krames is bugging me to get off too.
So... Pray for:
Health (everybody's tired, and a lot of people have been on the verge of sick)(God is giving grace that way though!)
A relaxing weekend (we all want to catch up with eachother and have some downtime!)
Wisdom, Joy, and Strength for next week -- we're going to be getting into some heavy stuff teachingswise, and I really believe there are going to be lots of questions and discussions. Also personally I'm going to be singing something at some point, please pray about that becuz we already know how powerful that can be, with Set Me Free the other day... Whewwww... And I'm really excited about it. Pray that it would impact them, and that we'd pick the right song. Also the drama stuff we're doing... That can really have a huge impact. Apparently I have the main role in the next one. Pray that we'll have enough time to practice it and learn it well!
Ok I really have to go!
Lizzi
really weird...
And sad... And exciting...
but mostly sad and weird.
I am sooooo ready for the weekend though.
I was yawning all the way back home this evening =) I'm so tired. But it's a good tired. We've been fighting hard but we are winning and we are seeing some amazing stuff happening!!!
I'm looking forward to hanging out with people though, there's been virtually no downtime. Even devotions have been rushed, but next week that should improve. Heidi explained how we were competing with room-cleaning in the mornings (http://thoughtsofheidi.blogspot.com) but that was getting a little too much with trying to fit devotions and showers and everything so they're not competing again next week, we'll still have inspections but since it's not a competition hopefully people won't get so stressed out about it.
So... There's so much to talk about, but I want to go hang out with people, and I need a shower eventually (my hair feels really strange, but more on that later) so I'll just tell you about today...
This morning we got up, ate breakfast & did devotions, tried to get into the bathroom (I waited half an hour lol) cleaned up the room, and had our morning meeting at 9, so first worship and then prayer, then normally we have small groups, this time we took half an hour off our small groups for extra quiet time, which I REALLY appreciated -- I needed it =)
Then we had 15 minutes for small group, which ended up going into half an hour, at least for my group. My group is Haines (Andrew Haines), Kramer (Andrew Williams), and Jonathan Burdick, who wasn't on the team last year for those of you who're trying to place him. Oh and me. It's a fun group, keeps us all laughing and on our toes (trying to remember what we were talking about before Krames started talking about the girl with the weedwhipper). Not to mention it's very encouraging.
Then we met briefly in the suite again, split up into site meetings, ate lunch, and left.
At our site today we got a lot of people, I didn't even know everyone's names. There's often kids who only come for part of it, which doesn't help that way =)
We had, to start with, about 6 girls and I think 3 boys or something like that. Sophia was there again, for the second time, and Bobbie was there for the first time. It was SO great to see them!!! They're two of the girls I've been writing every monthish. Cassie was the third, and I've seen her every day at supper. (She goes to site 1.) The other girl I wrote to I saw once, on the first day, but she didn't come to talk to us.
So anyway today we started with basketball, the usual (I think that's how we've started every day so far) while a bunch of us filled up water balloons. We filled up a cooler and a big bin, cuz today was special =)
Then we had snack, which Leah-beth normally makes. Today she was going to make nachos, but she forgot the chips =S BUT of course, God provided -- Mrs. Heisler just happened to have 20 chocolate muffins left over from the day before so Haines went & got them =) And we had lemonade and Sprite with it. The snacks are really nice, I think the kids like it a lot. We all sit down together and eat, and this gives a GREAT opportunity for teaching. Last year we had two guys who did it pretty much, and the kids had to sit down for it and be quiet with nothing else to occupy them... You can imagine how that went. These kids are not brought up going to church and they hate school.
I've been blown away every time by the peace and the attentiveness to the teachings, God's really been answering our prayers that way!!! Most of them weren't obviously teachings, like Jay, Lee-bee & Daniel's skit on Thursday (I guess it was Melany & Andrew's too, they narrated =D) and on I think Wednesday Andrew sang "Set Me Free" (Casting Crowns) for them and talked a bit, that was so powerful... Wow. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
Anyway today was the first real "teaching" -- Leah-beth did it on the Path of Life & the Path of Destruction. It was definitely like a lesson, she used a whiteboard and everything, but the kids were still totally attentive. Praise the Lord!
Then... Well, it was a nice warm day... We started out with a sponge relay, to fill a pop bottle (which we won! =) ) and then we basically had an all-out water balloon/shaving cream war =)
It was awesome =) So great. Melany got some pictures, which I can't wait to see. We were all totally soaked and covered in shaving cream. Except Sophia & Lee-bee, they didn't want to get wet so they stayed in the gym, and they filled up buckets of water for us to rinse off with afterward. All the guys were dumping water on us, and my hair still feels really strange... I smell funny too.
We were maybe going to have a hotdog eating contest too, I don't even know if that happened. We were also oging to duct-tape Mosher to the wall, but we ran out of time. Maybe next week =D
So then we went to the community center for supper, which we eat all together and some of the kids come too. Supper was so stressful last year, trying to hurry up and keep the kids out... It's great now. I'm getting to know some of the younger kids too. I get to talk to Cassie lots, and I made friends with Mallory, Heidi's "best friend" =) I lost a game of basketball 4 -1 to her so now she likes me =D
Anyway that was pretty much it, we had supper and headed back. The cleaning team is back now, and we're going to McDonalds, so I should get off. Krames is bugging me to get off too.
So... Pray for:
Health (everybody's tired, and a lot of people have been on the verge of sick)(God is giving grace that way though!)
A relaxing weekend (we all want to catch up with eachother and have some downtime!)
Wisdom, Joy, and Strength for next week -- we're going to be getting into some heavy stuff teachingswise, and I really believe there are going to be lots of questions and discussions. Also personally I'm going to be singing something at some point, please pray about that becuz we already know how powerful that can be, with Set Me Free the other day... Whewwww... And I'm really excited about it. Pray that it would impact them, and that we'd pick the right song. Also the drama stuff we're doing... That can really have a huge impact. Apparently I have the main role in the next one. Pray that we'll have enough time to practice it and learn it well!
Ok I really have to go!
Lizzi
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Okreek 2008
Hey everybody, if anybody =)
This will be my first update of hopefully a couple. I was just planning to update the the On Call blog (http://blog.oncallforchrist.com) but I forgot that we have to censor that one in case any of our Lakota friends are on it.
So... Not much time right now, so:
Things are going amazing.
God is AWESOME.
I really believe this year, the tenth anniversary of the mission work in Okreek, is going to be special. There are so many signs that way. The oppression the leaders were under in preparation is one of them. Praise God, now that we are here they seem to have been given extra grace.
GOD IS TRULY HERE!
This is the devil's own territory. It has been for many years. But we, in God's army, are breaking through. It was really encouraging to me to see the little changes from last year -- mostly evident in things like maintenance, little improvements in the gymn and the community center, that kind of thing. And the kids -- I remember last year the first couple days were a little scary for me becuz they were so hostile and afraid to trust us. Kids they'd worked with the year before, and gotten close to, were calling us "stupids" and swearing at us and...
It is nothing like that this year. I mean some of them pretend to not remember us, but they've been very open so far, it's awesome. We've had some awesome conversations already and it's only been two days!
Please keep praying for us. I have to get to meeting right now, but most of all pray that God would keep us
joyful,
healthy,
and on guard. Things like this very likely won't last. Especially if we let our guard down.
Ok gotta run now
in Christ
Lizzi
This will be my first update of hopefully a couple. I was just planning to update the the On Call blog (http://blog.oncallforchrist.com) but I forgot that we have to censor that one in case any of our Lakota friends are on it.
So... Not much time right now, so:
Things are going amazing.
God is AWESOME.
I really believe this year, the tenth anniversary of the mission work in Okreek, is going to be special. There are so many signs that way. The oppression the leaders were under in preparation is one of them. Praise God, now that we are here they seem to have been given extra grace.
GOD IS TRULY HERE!
This is the devil's own territory. It has been for many years. But we, in God's army, are breaking through. It was really encouraging to me to see the little changes from last year -- mostly evident in things like maintenance, little improvements in the gymn and the community center, that kind of thing. And the kids -- I remember last year the first couple days were a little scary for me becuz they were so hostile and afraid to trust us. Kids they'd worked with the year before, and gotten close to, were calling us "stupids" and swearing at us and...
It is nothing like that this year. I mean some of them pretend to not remember us, but they've been very open so far, it's awesome. We've had some awesome conversations already and it's only been two days!
Please keep praying for us. I have to get to meeting right now, but most of all pray that God would keep us
joyful,
healthy,
and on guard. Things like this very likely won't last. Especially if we let our guard down.
Ok gotta run now
in Christ
Lizzi
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