My goodness, these stars are
beautiful. I can already tell that this mission trip will be full of ups and
downs and full of emotional hardships.
Let’s start with he good things. Well,
let’s just start out by saying that today, I learned how to use a power saw
which I really shouldn’t have been trusted with. I didn’t end up sawing anybody
in half, so I would say the power saw adventure was a success.
Today started at 7 am, with me
sleeping on a top bunk under an air conditioner. All I know about this morning
is that I thought I was still in Texas, and hadn’t even registered that I was
in South Dakota on a Native American reserve. For all I knew, I was having a
sleepover with about 20 of my friends and we had gotten in trouble and forced
into staying in a dungeon. Then I realized that I was in fact in South Dakota,
and not in a dungeon at all. It was in a nice bedding facility with my friends
and family for the week. I ate breakfast, and it seems like they were trying to
channel our inner Texan with biscuits and gravy. It was good, but it would’ve
been more enjoyable without me almost falling asleep again about three times.
As we all impatiently awaited to find out what our worksites were, I ate my
biscuits and talked to Heather, Amy, Jessica, Isaac, and Wakie, about the
ukulele and how we were upset that we didn’t have pillows. We were assigned our
worksites, mine being building outhouses for a couple of the people on the
reservation, and we were off.
I was blowing my eardrums out on
the power saw, putting up siding, and nailing down wood with my worksite group,
when I got the ultimate sunburn. Literally- everything is sunburned. Sorry mom…
I’ll have an epic sunglass tan at the end of the week though, so there are some
upsides. I think the most fun thing about my worksite was that we got a chance
to work with a Native American who lived on the reserve, and while he didn’t
tell us much about his childhood, he did tell us how he found God again. This
was one of the most inspiring stories I have ever heard. He has had such a
difficult life, and I never thought that someone could persevere through
everything he had gone through to find Jesus again, and even after he had
finished his story, he got right back to work as if nothing had ever happened.
He remained the hard worker he was without ever looking back. The worksite
turned into my safe haven today, where I always felt safe to share, and to
blindly trust in others without worrying about myself.
Tonight was a whirlwind of
emotions. We played games for a while, including a bunch of card games that I
did not know for the life of me. Let’s just say that I did not win anything. I
ate dinner, where we had tacos, and then we had a guest speaker. Let’s just say
that I didn’t agree with what he had to say. I think the way he said the things
that he said was off-putting in the way he put it. I honestly didn’t think
about how much I wouldn’t agree with him, until the youth group from UPC and I
started talking about it. We all pretty much agreed on the same general idea,
which is now what is making me think more about our religion. Now, as I sit
here, with Lizzy playing the guitar, Reilly gazing into the beautiful South
Dakota sunset, and Jackson staring off into space, I realize that we are so
much more than we think we are, and that we are just a little piece of area
that takes up a small chunk of the world, which eventually brought me more
peace than I have ever experienced during a mission trip… and this is only day
one.
-Mikayla, UPC
