A daily Vacation Bible School in the morning at the park keeps a record number of children busy with games, crafts, Bible stories, puppets and activities. They are served lunch and then come in the afternoon and evening be part of softball, volleyball &  football games with the team. Relationships are forged so that these children and youth will listen to “the good news” of the gospel. On Monday, they had made 64 lunches which was more than  what they felt they needed. 66 lunches were actually served which included a family with four children who came late and were hungry. Our team made sure they had something to eat.

The Tuesday group was even bigger because on Tuesday and Thursday family food boxes are distributed to families represented by the children from the VBS.   The rest of the boxes are being given to the reservation Food Bank.  Vestal Smith, pastor’s wife, says we are the only organization who brings them food and that they haven’t had any food given since last year at this time when we brought a truckload. 

This morning (Tuesday) part of the crew went to a local seniors’ residence to do some "spruce up work" which included washing windows, weeding of flower beds, and putting down bark chips. Another group went to the Food Bank and helped organize the food that we brought for them.

Jan Cousins, thrift store manager, tells the story of a boy named George who is 13 or 14 yrs. old. On the first day, he wouldn’t come very close to team members. He watched from as far away as he could be but still know what's happening,  wouldn’t talk and seemed quite shy. He warmed up enough to get noticed and eat plenty of food and then three hrs. later was tossing a football with his new friends.  Thomas, Jan’s son, came to his mom the next day to introduce his new friend…George, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Thomas also wanted to know why he had “just” a normal name and wanted his name to be something like “Grizzly Bear” or “Wounded Knee”…let’s see if by the end of the week he may have a new name. Jan also said that the outreach is “so much more than I ever thought it would be…it’s so deep and so personal”. The team is already sitting down and talking about how they can make next year’s outreach even better.

While talking to Rick McPherson today, he said that they had been interviewed and pictures taken for the local tribal newspaper.  

Theme verse for the week is Acts 16:31 “…believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household.”