Got a little catching up to do. Train trip uneventful except for spending an extra hour in Milwaukee waiting to cross a bridge, and being about two hours late overall. Oh yeah, they lost my luggage, which as of this writing, has not shown up yet.
Saturday was all it took to paint the entire gym, the kids really dug in and did a great job. We've tried a couple of times to go to Indian days. Saturday night, the skies opened up and dumped amazingly large hail on the group. Jon and I were driving to the emergency room in Cut Bank for a couple of stitches compliments of some barbed wire earlier in the day, and could see the massive storm cloud over Browning. All are safe and sound.
This is the 18th year St. Pets has been doing mission trips. Seniors on this trip were born the year we started going on mission trips.. Sometimes I feel like I have more questions than answers though. What are we accomplishing? Is painting some walls and fixing a few leaks changing lives? I suppose that would be a little arrogant. To think that what we can accomplish, even as a group, would make any kind of difference in a place where problems are generationally deep. Poverty, and all the issues that come along with it, are not something that can be solved in a week. I think the best we can hope for, is to learn, and do our best to be the face of Jesus; to those we serve as well as each other. I've done a lot of soul searching over the years, and have come to only one concrete conclusion. God is here, in this place.
In a book I'm reading, it offers the following hypothesis. That people in poverty have a closer relationship with God, even if they don't know it, because the have to count on Him much more for daily needs. We who are more materially blessed, maybe only turn to God when we really need Him. We seem to think that blessings only come in a material way. We are blessed because we live in a nice town in a nice house, etc. We sometimes forget blessings come in a lot of other forms. Blessings of beauty of surroundings, blessings of time, living life at a slower place, more time with family. Blessings of being unencumbered with the need to always have more. Earlier I asked if we are changing lives with these trips. I can answer absolutely yes. My life is changed forever!