Preservation Hall

This summer St Luke's Youth will be joining over 35,000 youth in New Orleans for the ELCA Youth Gathering. Over these next few months as we prepare for the trip we'll use this space to share our thoughts!

Watch this video and let us know what you think! Why do you think these stories need to be told? Why might it be important to the storytellers that YOU heard their story?
http://tinyurl.com/6o23nbf

closing time....

continuation of thursday

at the end of kids time we passed out free snowcones to the neighborhood kids. it was very popular and the whole community came out. word spreads very quickly and people of all ages came out. pinky chipped in $10 for ice and syrup for making the snow cones. it was a great way to end our week with the community.

as we were making dinner 3 relatives of pinky's appeared at the house. pinky had asked them to come talk to us. sonya is pinky's niece and she brought along her boyfriend brendan and brendan's uncle ettison came. sonya talked with us about life at red cloud indian school, her commute to school, taking lakota, and life on the res. she asked us about our school and communities. there's a lot of similarities between us and several differences as well. sonya is a gates scholarship winner: all her tuition for college up through a phd if she chooses to go to graduate school is covered by this scholarship. it's a really prestigious scholarship and 9 students at red cloud got it this year. ettison talked about people who leave the res to live in bigger cities but they always come back for spiritual rituals. he was away from the res for 10 years without coming back at all and now he makes sure to come back more frequently. he has lived in nyc and la working in the film industry doing hair and make up for natives and now is in art school in santa fe. he wanted to make sure that we realized that while the res is very rural in most places people do frequently travel to hang out in bigger cities. he was very surprised to hear that park ridge has such little cultural diversity being so close to chicago. brendan was really quiet. ettison had really cool looking eyes: blueish and different shades in places with very small pupils...its hard to explain...ben thinks its like looking into blue mist.

mary the program director from lutherans outdoors in south dakota and pinky came to dinner. they were both very excited to see the progress on the basement. we took a group picture with pinky and the kitten before she left!

we had worship out on the deck of the house. we led the scripture reading and wrote the prayers. the kitten slept in jeannine's arms during the whole service. the stars were amazing and we could see the milky way!!

after we got ready for bed the youth had some planned bonding time and got very little sleep.

we left right after breakfast and had a closing conversation at wounded knee. we talked about what we think it means to help people and what we had done this week to help. we decided helping is more than just what the community sees us do. we dont have to build something to make a difference, we helped build character and spiritual health both for the natives and ourselves. we talked about how most natives we met asked us if we had been to the reservation before. it means a lot to them that we take the time to visit and they hope that we will come back. building relationships is often more important than anything else. listening is really important.

then we had a long drive. we had dinner at china restaurant in albert lea jenny's fortune read "someone is interested in you" and ben's was "good things will come to you in due time." for the record jenny is still with us. then we had ice cream at dairy queen while we waited for delaney's mom to pick her up.

we're staying at bethel lutheran in rochester. the church is huge and awesome with an amazing youth hall - we might actually sleep in the nursery though.

as a closing prayer we'd like to say "the badlands were awesome. good job with that one God."

the work begins and the learning continues

tuesday

we drove through the badlands to get to red shirt table and meet with Reverend Two Bulls. any time we got to flat land Ben would ask if we could go back because the rock formations are so amazing! it looks and feels like an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Rev and some of his relatives spoke to us for about an hour. they explained their 10 year plan to open a coffee shop and have a walk from the coffee shop down to where Thin Milk was killed during the Wounded Knee Massacre.

then we had lunch with a big group of people who came from california and minnesota in order to work on the old episcopal church and the 10 year plan.

we bought crafts from women in Rev Two Bulls family. they have workshops on making dream catchers! they’re really funny.

we met an artist in residence at the Oglala Lakota College and listened to an audio presentation as we learned about the history of the Lakota people through art work and photographs on the wall of the gallery. and then we bought the most comfortable noodies on the planet from the bookstore.

at kids time the kids decided to start throwing water on us and danielle passed out “ants” for ants on a log. henrik and gerry found out how many kids could stand on this one giant rock and many of the kids took pictures of it!

after dinner will peters, a “NAMMY” award winning artist and his daughter came to speak to us. Ben thought he was the most motivating person he’s ever heard speak. he encouraged us to respect our elders and look out the for youth among us. several of us bought his cd and he autographed them for us! he was extremely honest about life on the reservation and we all really appreciated that.

wednesday

today was our first work day. we did a lot of painting: of satellite dishes, picnic tables, walls, and dogs. the girls used this as an opportunity make their hair all pretty by adding highlights...with paint.

we made lunch for a group of people working with a local organization called Earth Tipi. we shared lunch with them and jumped on the trampoline. they also had a pet wolf that Sol walked each day. they were building a house of all used materials from within 5 miles of the project site: pallettes, clay and sand, even used nails they pulled out of discarded wood! they were REALLY grateful for us bringing them sandwiches. and it was about 105 degrees with no shade to be found.

delaney keeps having dreams where we’re all in the girls room and talking to her - now we’re all in the room talking to her!

at kids time henrik gave several of the 12 year old boys girl advice - they were very attentive! over 25 kids came and like most days several didn’t want us to leave.

after dinner we went to wounded knee. a woman named Karen spoke with us about the massacre of 1890 and the occupation of 1973. she told us about Lost Bird, a baby who was found under her dead mother after the massacre. she also told us about how she got involved in the occupation in 1973. she was chosen to be the secretary of the Oglala Lakota Nation and is one of the few people still with us who were involved in leading the occupation. she expressed that the occupation needed to happen and although it was hard for the community to lose property and a few lives it brought much needed change. now the community is working toward bringing the Lakota language and culture back.

thursday

today we did work projects all day. more painting. and we organized a room full of donations for Pinky. Pinky wanted us to drive to Pine Ridge to deliver t-shirts to the prison because if someone is picked up without a shirt then when they are released they can at least have a shirt with them. jodi called the prison and they didn't want the shirts. but they would take books. a group of us would have gone to a bookstore to buy some and bring them to the prison, but there's not one around here. at home for us it is to leave our homes and within a few minutes be able to get just about anything we need - but sadly that just not the reality that people on the res deal with.

at kids time we all gave out the friendship bracelets we made on the drive here and then Pinky donated supplies to make snow cones for the community kids!

tonight Pinky will come to dinner and bring fry bread that someone in the community is making for us.

it’s been an amazing and long week and we’re exhausted! it’s hard to believe that tomorrow we start driving back home!

more thoughtful reflections of our time on the res to come when we’ve had more rest!

first experiences

sunday

we went to the traditional worship at Our Saviours in Sioux Falls. we chose traditional over contemporary, which happens at the same time - and the pastor darts back and forth between both services preaching a total of four times!

we hoped to leave right after but when you are visitors all wearing the same mission trip t-shirt everyone wants to talk to you :)

then we met Senator McGovern - this was particularly exciting because on the drive to Sioux Falls Gerry told us that Senator McGovern was the first person he ever campaigned for!

on our journey we stopped at the corn palace in mitchell. danielle thought it would be a field and there would be a castle made of corn that we could play on. it’s actually in a town on the main drag and the locals take pride in the changing facade each year. they had cool hats and we took some pictures - one with a complete stranger who thought we were joking that we wanted to take a picture with her. correction - she wasn’t a stranger she was the woman with the sunglasses. we talked to “cornelius” who was struttin’ around in a corn costume.

we drove through the very tip of the badlands.

upon arriving in manderson we were slightly disappointed that didn’t meet pinky right away - we therefore decided that she’s even more of a mythical figure. the guy behind the counter at pinky’s store was about 7 feet tall - delaney thought this was pinky at first.

once at the house we’re staying at we met our counselors from lutherans outdoors in south dakota (jodi, brian, and hannah), played screaming toes and WHOOPAH! heard the rules, got settled in, and worshipped before heading to bed.

monday

five alarms each about a minute apart woke us up just so that brian, henrik, and danielle could go for a run.

we visited Red Cloud Indian School. our tour guide Ron, a graduate of the school, told us about the history of the school and about the chapel on campus. they won an architectural award for this chapel! it’s made out of pine and is directional located according to the movement of the sun. at one point in the day the sun will shine through the stained glass image representation of Jesus and all of God’s children to the window on the opposite side of an Indian Madonna and Child. in the stations of the cross, commissioned by alumn of the school, the soldiers depicted are Crow or Calvary Soldiers and Jesus is a Lakota Indian. jeannine was totally impressed by the doors of the church - so we took a group photo in front of it.

we got to see Red Cloud’s grave site. danielle saw the biggest dandelion of her life in the graveyard. and we learned about the importance of smoking a pipe and that the smoke is never inhaled.

then we visited the art gallery in the heritage center. they have several original warrior shirts and there’s a gallery set up to look like a classroom at a boarding school with photographs of the wounded knee massacre on the wall. some us thought that some of the pieces should be sold for more and other should be sold for less.

we had a picnic lunch at daron’s buffalo farm. then daron took us out to feed the buffalo. delaney, henrik, and brian kissed a buffalo. buffalo tongue feels like sandpaper. they’re eyes are on the side of the head to they can’t really see what they’re eating.

daron brought us to the shade by his house to smudge and he told us the story of the white buffalo calf woman. we also found out that daron is a sundancer - we were very impressed.

then we led kids time. all the kids were very willing to come with us to the park. one kids drooled all over henrik. we played duck duck grey duck. they were very excited to make bracelets.

driving to sioux falls

ben learned technology skills from Jesus.

we hit a delightful little storm which caused us to drive about 20 miles an hour on 90.

we stopped in lacrosse wisconsin for lunch and the restaurant we hoped to go to was out of business. we didnt see a starbucks therefore it has been decided: this must be a ghost town.

we did madlibs in the car - jenny read one, this is the reason she spoke more than 10 words.

delaney is awesome and showed us her skills at getting pizza out of a pan.

there was a cuddle train in the back seat.

we made balloon flip flops and friendship bracelets for the kids on the reservation.

ben is our entertainment for the trip: he turns into the hulk after eating and he sang from the choir loft in the fancy sanctuary for at least 10 minutes.

the church we're staying at in sioux falls is amazing! we ran the labyrynth and did cartwheels on it, played basketball in the ginormous gym, and they have showers next to the youth lounge!!

tomorrow we get to the reservation and we are excited to meet pinky (we're trying to guess what she looks like, and how old she is).

we'll see if we have an internet connection on the reservation and if not we'll post a week after the trip!

where are we going this year

so a group of us talked last fall - it was pretty official, we had a meeting and everything

and we decided at first that there's a lot of stuff to do in Minnesota. then we thought "there are a lot of Indian Reservations in Minnesota!" and it would be cool to go there!

gerry has been to south dakota a couple times and is a big history buff - he's told us a lot so far about Native American history.

danielle and delaney are excited to see how the Lakota live and see their art!

jeannine has always felt horrible about how the early English and European settlers treated the Natives and is interested in this "cultural immersion program" in order to learn about the Lakota and share with one another.

have we mentioned yet that we will be spending a week on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota? well, that's what we're doing. we'll learn about the Lakota culture, spirituality, and history. in thanksgiving for sharing with us and teaching us, we will do some maintenance and repair on the reservation and then lead game time with community kids each day!!

we ALL are excited to visit Wounded Knee and learn from the Natives their perspective on what has occured at that cultural site.

well, we're off to watch a PBS documentary about Wounded Knee called "We Shall Remain." we hope you check back at this blog and journey with us this week! (well, technically we're going from July 23 through 30 - if you don't see new posts that's just because we had no internet access on the reservation and you can check the week after)!

peace,
the youth at st. luke's

dairy air

the goats are SO beautiful.

the goat milk coffee ice cream was amazing!

eating too much honey can make you sick, proverbs 25:16 contemporary english version, henrik reading us the proverbs again.

we expected that the barn clean up to be worse! after we set out fresh bedding and straw we enjoyed watching the goats roll around in it!

danielle really liked the fat goat.

we learned how distinguish between hay and straw.

we all milked buffy. delaney set the bar high with catching on right away, but we all followed well in her footsteps.