Sunday, June 21st--Day 2 Mission Trip

Sunday, June 21st—Day 2 
We all woke Sunday, June 21st—Day 2 
We all woke up early and packed everything. We had a choice of eating honey buns, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and doughnuts. I ate a few tiny chocolate doughnunts, a honey bun or cinnamon roll and drank orange juice. We climbed into the vehicles and headed off. We did devotions as a group, and some of us took naps. 

Next, we stopped around 10:30 for church. The church actually started around 11. It was a small church and had a traditional service. It was quite different. We sang hymns from a hymnal and when the soloist had finished singing, some of us wanted to clap but were informed not to. Between the singing and sermon, the fathers were acknowledged. It was Fathers' Day, and none of us needed to forget or skip over that. 
The pastor of their church wasn't there that Sunday, so someone else spoke. He preached about materialsim and the desires for success. He was reminding us all that we shouldn't be as worried about earthly treasures and our life on earth as much as planning for the life ahead. It is so much more important to plan for the eternal life ahead of us. I thought it was a wonderful sermon. 

We ate lunch after the church service. I went to Taco Bell once again. 

In the afternoon, the VBS teachers practiced teaching their own Bible stories. (I was one of them). We practiced the songs and their motions another time. We also watched a few movies on the way to South Dakota and back. 

When we were informed, "We have arrived." All of us were excited and ready to get out of the vehicles. We were so grateful to have made it to our destination. 
We went inside the school that we were staying at. The headmaster of the school and pastor of the church we were serving welcomed us and gave us some precautions. There had been three stabbings at the school lately. We were also told to stay in groups when walking outside. Women and girls were to have a male in the group if any of us wanted to go somewhere. We were advised not to give money to people who might ask. It would've been hurting them instead of helping them as well as gaining more people who wanted money too. A majority of the Lakota people drink. They are very poor as well. 

After all of this, we unloaded the luggage, VBS materials and decorations, and food. We ate subway sandwiches for dinner. After we ate, we went into the church sanctuary and were given more info. The Lakota are strong in art and are weaker in communications. The VBS teachers were afraid we had to change the way we were going to present our stories. We were planning to interact with them. The pastor had warned us that they might just sit there and not respond. He told us, "That doesn't mean they don't understand you though."

Next, some of our team decorated the church for VBS. 

Lastly, we came back to the school and got our luggage and sleeping arrangements fixed. There was a hall designated for the girls and one designated for only boys. We had a short team meeting, and the boys went to the church to take showers. The girls had the two showers at the school. There was only one shower for the girls and one shower for with boys, so we ended up having the girls shower in the two while the boys showered at the church. We were all tired out and ready for bed. It was another long day, but we all pulled through.