Monday and Tuesday we worked on projects around the church in the morning. We worked cleaning up around a shed that needs the siding replaced, setting posts for a trellis entryway to a prayer garden, and framing in for a concrete pad that will be poured tomorrow. We also cleaned up around a fire pit to make a seating area for our club of older kids and set up a volleyball net. This morning we finished up the posts for the trellis, repaired a flatbed trailer donated to the church, and hauled some landscaping rock donated by the city for the prayer garden.
Tuesday night we had around 45 kids split into the three clubs. It has been a little bit of challenging managing all of the kids in the same location, as opposed to having individual clubs in different parts of the community, but it has also been good to work as a team all together. It has been a little more difficult to spend one-on-one time with kids because of the size of the group, but we have had a few opportunities and hope for more.
We have enjoyed getting to know Pastor Harold, his wife, Mathel, and their grandson, Nathan, thirteen, who has been staying with them for part of the summer.
We moved our sightseeing day from Saturday to yesterday to alleviate some driving over the weekend (we are three and a half hours from Rushmore this year), and we will have clubs tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday. One group went to Rushmore and Wind Cave (fourth largest cave in the world), while a smaller group had the opportunity to return to Sharps Corner and reconnect with many of the people we met over the past two years. We discovered that Roy Cooper is working with the church now. He and his wife are living in the parsonage, and he is leading a Sunday morning Bible study, an addiction recovery group, and caring for the needs of the people. While this a new role for a cowboy, Roy feels this is where God wants him to be and he has been uniquely prepared. Praise God for this huge answer to prayer!
On behalf of the team, we all appreciate your prayer for us and the work God is doing in South Dakota. Here are a few prayer requests:
1. Opportunities for one-on-one conversations with kids and developing relationships with people - our time in clubs is precious, and we want to use it effectively; we also have a barbecue planned for tomorrow evening where we hope to be able to meet more families.
2. Clear communication of the gospel - we have been spending quite a bit of time for the past two days in planning ways to keep the kids engaged in the stories and memory verses; also, about half of our teaching students are new to 5 Day Clubs, so pray that they will continue to become acclimated and gain confidence.
3. Pastor Harold's health - he is a jack of all trades around the church, but he has low blood pressure and blood sugar level, which makes it hard for him to keep up with his rigorous schedule. He also looking to find a younger man to serve as an intern and share the ministry.
4. Additional opportunities to see God work - pray that distractions will be at a minimum and that we will be sensitive to God's leading and able to clearly see Him at work in and through us the rest of the week.
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