It feels like forever since I have been on here with you! I am not tech-savvy enough to be able to post while on my adventures, so here is a nice sum up of it all!
This past week we spent on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation with
Diamond Willow Ministries. In an extreme nutshell, we spent the week loving on children. Diamond Willow is an organization that provides a positive place for the kids to be. It is a big playroom that contains ping-pong tables, fus-ball, carpet ball, a tv center, and a kitchen. The kids in the area come from difficult life situations. They are able to come to Diamond Willow and get away, get support, and just get some real Christ-centered love. Besides just a great organization, Diamond Willow is nearly the only Christian presence on a reservation of approximately 6,000 people. When groups like ours come in, they are able to multiply the number of kids they can have out and influence.
Our days went sort of like this: We would wake up in the morning and make breakfast. We would then spend the morning hours doing chores around the site. About 11:00 they would drive to pick up the kids and spend the whole afternoon with them, including making them lunch. About 4:30 the kids would be taken home and we would get about an hour before teens would filter in and we would feed them dinner and spend the evening with them. Sounds easy, but we were all worn out to the max from carrying kids, running around, swimming, pushing swings, and on and on! It was wonderful exhaustion!
We encountered several "hiccups" along the way. The biggest for me (besides being away from my babies) was that I got a skin infection from poison ivy on my face and had to go to the hospital. Yeah, ick! I got the treatment I needed and it got rapidly better. I don't believe one can ever go on a trip like this and not encounter something. Satan doesn't just hand over his ground without a fight.
There are many,
many things that I learned on the trip, but one in particular that I would like to share with you today. Whether on the mission trip or just in your normal life, we tend to say that you get out of it what you put in. However, when you are working in God's Will, you get out a
lot more than you put in. All it takes is for you to give a little to get a lot. I was so proud of our team. They gave a
lot. I know that they walked away with a lot more, though. They already want to go back. They formed relationships and bonds that will impact them forever! But just think if we lived our everyday lives like this. If we gave every ounce of ourselves for others. If we unhesitatingly shared God's Word every opportunity that presented itself. If we purposely made life changing relationships. If we gave just a little. Here is what the Bible says would happen:
"Truly I tell you," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life." --Luke 18:29-30
Basically, if we give a little, we will get a lot. In what way can you give more today? Is there an area in your life that you can do more, share more, or love more? If there is...just do it!
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