Our family has been blessed by our sending church each year as they send their youth group up here to Minnesota to do a VBS with children on the reservation.  For the past eight years, they have made the 12 hour trip from Illinois to spend the week with us and put on a VBS.  This July we once again enjoyed a sweet time of fellowship and ministry together.  We are so thankful for our church family that partners with us in the work that God has called us to do.

Mornings started out with group devotions and then a work project.  Evenings were a time to pray, recap, unwind, and enjoy a relaxing time of fellowship and games.  The afternoons were the busiest part of our day with the 45 minute drive to and from the community, and several hours spent playing with the kids and running the VBS.  Here’s some pictures from our week of ministry up there:

We saw the Lord answer prayers throughout the week as the place where we were ministering can often be challenging and difficult. One of the prayers that was answered was that there would be adults from the community that would come out to the Thursday night picnic. There was an incident that took place earlier in the week, and we knew that it could very likely keep people from coming. We also were dismayed to see rain in the forecast.

Not only did the Lord work out the situation and bring out adults from both of the families that had been affected by the incident, He also used the pouring rain to cram everyone into the little chapel for the picnic where some great fellowship with the community members took place. Some of us also went outside and played with the kids in the downpour and saw relationships strengthened because we were willing to get soaked!