Day 4 - June 19, 2013

This morning is so quiet, both outside and inside. Not so sure about the outside, but the inside quiet is because we have a lot of sleepy youth. After two full days on the reservation we had some tired puppies last night. Add that we had one youth turn off her alarm (that went off at 6am) the rest were able to sleep in a little longer. Of course that meant we had more to wake up and Claire helped out today. As the girls came upstairs, one asked Claire, how could you help Fr. Tom with morning wake up, we thought you were one of us.

With a good night’s sleep under their belt, it was a great start to the day. Things just seemed to come together and quickly. We had time to kill before we could load and go and the kids used that time to spruce up the place for tonight’s dinner with the parish. By the time we gathered in the sanctuary for morning prayers the place looked really nice. When we arrived on the reservation there was still a bunch of prep needed for the day, because we had accidently left some supplies at the community center overnight. The kids built an assembly line and before we knew it the work was done and we still had an hour before we needed to pick up kids. During that time, Greg, Tom, and Claire went to check out a nearby museum for tomorrow; then it was out into the neighborhood to pick up our new friends.

The numbers swelled again today. Between pick-ups and drop offs, we had 40 kids today. It made the community center feel a little crowded, but in a good way. Lunch went well except for one thing, as we began serving, the city showed up to work on the street between the community center and the church. Not a big deal, but they laid a fresh patch of asphalt that offered us new smells and a new challenge, not tracking the tar and oil used into the church or center. As always, God is good and we were able to avoid tracking it into the buildings.

After the kids finished hearing the story of the great banquet, it was outside for some play time. While they were in the field, we had even more kids get dropped off as they saw what was happening. Fortunately, we had plenty of craft supplies and snacks for everyone; today’s story should have been the story of fishes and loaves because we even ended up with some left over. Our time together today was really great and in the evening our team noted how much more welcomed we were today. Friends introduced friends to our youth and it really seemed like a party. It looked like one too, the main craft was making and decorating party hats.

When everyone headed over to the church for the final skit, something happened none of our kids expected. There was an invitation for those sitting in the pews to join the skit crew at the front of the church for the final celebration. The team expected about 6-8 kids to come forward, instead almost all them came forward. The area in front of the altar was packed with kids and it looked like a real party. That night we just figured it was a God thing and gave thanks. When it came time to say good bye for the day, there were hugs and lots of waves, and numerous promises to see each other tomorrow. I wonder, tomorrow, what it will be like when we say good bye until next year.

When we arrived back at St. John’s, the team quickly got ready for the pool. Nobody wanted to miss out on some Pool Time knowing that we had to be back a little earlier to get ready for tonight’s dinner. It was then that Fr. Tom noted he could not find his phone. He began to worry he had left it on the bumper of the trailer when we left Rosebud and Sharon said she did see something fall about 20 miles back but just thought it was something on the road. So after dropping the team off at the pool, Fr. Tom took off in search of his phone. All he found was the camera, so tomorrow he is going to leave a little early and drive farther up the road.

As the folks of St. John’s began to arrive, the team finished their preparations, in the worship space and in the kitchen. Here’s another God thing, despite the turmoil we just went through, things came together effortlessly and everyone enjoyed worshipping together and visiting over dinner. Our youth did a great job mingling at the different tables and the folks of St. John’s really had a great chance to visit with some of them. After dinner was the usual clean up and evening schedule and the entire team spent a good bit of time working on a really big skit for tomorrow. After Compline, there was no delay as very tired kids headed off to bed and before we knew it, we were back to where we started this morning, resting in the silence of God’s house.