Oh South Dakota, or as I like to say, state #41. As we
get closer and closer to the end of our trip, expect to hear in every state
what number it is and how many we have left! Seven! So we honestly expected
Sioux Falls, South Dakota to be a lot like Wyoming-a vacant ghost town where we
couldn’t find a soul, but it was actually the opposite! I would say it’s
probably the size of my hometown, Moreno Valley, CA.
Let me just start by saying, that we did not make it to Mount Rushmore. Sad day indeed.
Let me just start by saying, that we did not make it to Mount Rushmore. Sad day indeed.
So anyways, we left our previous state of Missouri,
St. Louis to be exact, on Wednesday morning, August 28th around 8:15
am and made the drive all the way to Sioux Falls, SD, just over 600 miles.
this was our route, as well as it can be
drawn on Paint by a non-professional
drawn on Paint by a non-professional
We
finally arrived at Calvary Chapel Sioux Falls at 6:50 pm, a mere 10 minutes
before church was due to start. It was hot, I was a liiiiitle bit cranky, and
it was yucky humid outside, but I was glad to finally be there. We were
welcomed warmly and greeted kindly, and we took our seats. The whole time
during worship and even the message, there were about 8 kids sitting in the
front row causing all kinds of a ruckus-whispering to each other, passing notes
back and forth, and just not paying any kind of attention. I thought to myself,
“Where are their parents? Why doesn’t anyone say anything to them?” but almost
as soon as I did, I knew that this would be one of those times were I was going
to be a jerk for thinking something, that there had to be some sort of
circumstance that I was unaware of, so I tried to put it out of my mind and
focus.
After church, we hung out for a minute and talked to the pastor, Tom Yount, and then a few of the guys from the church, Quinton, Josh, and Michael (but everyone calls him Mickey). They gave us direction on where we could go to find people and they kind of gave us a rundown of the city and what to expect. And then I learned about the kids. South Dakota is home to the top 3 poorest counties in America, with a 4th in the top 15. Most of the reason for this is because of the Indian reservations. For whatever reason, these reservations are worse than the typical ones with the amount of gangs, violence, and, sadly, suicide. In South Dakota, the percentage of people who attempt suicide is 150% higher on the reservation when compared with non-natives. From what we’re told, everyone on “the res,” as they say for short, knows someone who has committed suicide or at least attempted it, whether it be friends or family members. For a lot of them, even off the res, life is bleak. It’s quite uncommon for kids to have a father in the picture. There is, many times, no discipline and the kids do whatever they want. This is where the church comes in. Since Pastor Tom took over the church a couple of years ago, God gave him a vision to reach out to the natives and really embrace them in the church. A transportation ministry was born and every week before church, Quinton and Mickey (not sure who else) drive around and pick up whoever wants to come to church. This is what we witnessed on Wednesday-people in the church that have a heart for the lost. They give up their time and their gas to get these kids to church, even when some people would prefer they not be there.
That night, they invited us to stay at the house that they rent. As we got there, Josh took us inside while Mickey and Quinton drove kids home. We walked up the stairs to the main house and saw a guy laying on the deck. Josh invited him in and he sat at the table while he waiting for Quinton to get home. There was a family in the living room who had gotten there around 3 am the night before. Apparently their apartment got flooded and they needed a place to stay until Friday. We walked out and went to the small house where Josh lived, and Marc asked about all of the people. He responded that most of the time, there is someone sleeping on the deck or below the porch. Quinton has done so much ministry with the homeless in the past that they know they can come sleep at his house if they have no place else to go. As for the family, they had no way to validate their story and they knew there was a possibility they were lying, but they gave them until Friday. How awesome, to serve the poor despite their motivation, even if they’re lying or abusing your niceness, it’s up to the Lord to judge the intent of their heart-it’s up to us to be obedient to the Lord and His word, so when it says in Isaiah 58 to bring to your house the poor and to clothe the naked, they do it. Mickey and Quinton got back and we sat around while they told us more about the city and their ministry to the kids and the natives. It was awesome.
On a less spiritual note, Josh had rescued a batch of baby bunnies from the lawnmower. It looked like their mother had abandoned them, so he picked them up and now they were chillin in a box in his living room. They were so small that they literally fit in the palm of my hand! Of course, I was super excited because I was about to get a new pet! I named him Walter Bishop and started researching how to best take care of him. Unfortunately for me, everything I read said to release them close to where you found them and that their mother had likely not abandoned them. I still pondered keeping one, but apparently cotton tail bunnies don’t ever really domesticate, they just get irritated and are bad house pets. At the end of the night, we released them back outside where they were and hoped that their mom would come. In the morning, most of them were gone, so hopefully they’re doing well.
After church, we hung out for a minute and talked to the pastor, Tom Yount, and then a few of the guys from the church, Quinton, Josh, and Michael (but everyone calls him Mickey). They gave us direction on where we could go to find people and they kind of gave us a rundown of the city and what to expect. And then I learned about the kids. South Dakota is home to the top 3 poorest counties in America, with a 4th in the top 15. Most of the reason for this is because of the Indian reservations. For whatever reason, these reservations are worse than the typical ones with the amount of gangs, violence, and, sadly, suicide. In South Dakota, the percentage of people who attempt suicide is 150% higher on the reservation when compared with non-natives. From what we’re told, everyone on “the res,” as they say for short, knows someone who has committed suicide or at least attempted it, whether it be friends or family members. For a lot of them, even off the res, life is bleak. It’s quite uncommon for kids to have a father in the picture. There is, many times, no discipline and the kids do whatever they want. This is where the church comes in. Since Pastor Tom took over the church a couple of years ago, God gave him a vision to reach out to the natives and really embrace them in the church. A transportation ministry was born and every week before church, Quinton and Mickey (not sure who else) drive around and pick up whoever wants to come to church. This is what we witnessed on Wednesday-people in the church that have a heart for the lost. They give up their time and their gas to get these kids to church, even when some people would prefer they not be there.
That night, they invited us to stay at the house that they rent. As we got there, Josh took us inside while Mickey and Quinton drove kids home. We walked up the stairs to the main house and saw a guy laying on the deck. Josh invited him in and he sat at the table while he waiting for Quinton to get home. There was a family in the living room who had gotten there around 3 am the night before. Apparently their apartment got flooded and they needed a place to stay until Friday. We walked out and went to the small house where Josh lived, and Marc asked about all of the people. He responded that most of the time, there is someone sleeping on the deck or below the porch. Quinton has done so much ministry with the homeless in the past that they know they can come sleep at his house if they have no place else to go. As for the family, they had no way to validate their story and they knew there was a possibility they were lying, but they gave them until Friday. How awesome, to serve the poor despite their motivation, even if they’re lying or abusing your niceness, it’s up to the Lord to judge the intent of their heart-it’s up to us to be obedient to the Lord and His word, so when it says in Isaiah 58 to bring to your house the poor and to clothe the naked, they do it. Mickey and Quinton got back and we sat around while they told us more about the city and their ministry to the kids and the natives. It was awesome.
On a less spiritual note, Josh had rescued a batch of baby bunnies from the lawnmower. It looked like their mother had abandoned them, so he picked them up and now they were chillin in a box in his living room. They were so small that they literally fit in the palm of my hand! Of course, I was super excited because I was about to get a new pet! I named him Walter Bishop and started researching how to best take care of him. Unfortunately for me, everything I read said to release them close to where you found them and that their mother had likely not abandoned them. I still pondered keeping one, but apparently cotton tail bunnies don’t ever really domesticate, they just get irritated and are bad house pets. At the end of the night, we released them back outside where they were and hoped that their mom would come. In the morning, most of them were gone, so hopefully they’re doing well.
look at how little it was!
Welcome to South Dakota!
Falls Park, Sioux Falls
guy on a buffalo! (youtube it)
statue time
That night, Pastor Tom and his wife Wendy had us over to stay with them. As we made our way to their house, we heard this guy yelling in our direction. Marc couldn’t understand what he was saying, so he slowed down to hear him. “Let me get a ride to the bus stop,” was essentially what the guy said. I looked at Marc like, “What the heck, who does that?!” But we let him in and started driving him. Of course, Marc began with the 20 questions. He, too, said he was a believer but was looking for a good church in the area. Marc told him about Calvary and then we got to the bus stop. What a strange encounter indeed. Then it was off to the gym then to Tom & Wendy’s house.
On Friday we headed back to Falls Park to once again take the trolley, this time to meander around downtown. As we waited for it to arrive, we found ourselves talking to a couple from out of town. That’s the nice thing about touristy places-you automatically have a normal, noninvasive icebreaker question to ask. “Are you guys from around here,” started the conversation. Nope, they were just there to ride the bike trails, which spanned about 25 miles around the city and were well known for being gorgeous. We told them a bit about what we were doing and asked them if they go to church. They do, so we got to talk about that for a little bit. By this time we had boarded the trolley and were at our stop, so as we said goodbye to them, they said, “hold on one second.” The guy reached into his pocket and pulled out a $50 bill and gave it to Marc. How amazing is our God?! Look at how awesomely He takes care of us. We never have to ask for money or even allude to it with people, and God puts it on the hearts of strangers to provide for us to continue what we’re doing.
So we walked around their downtown strip for a little bit. It was mostly touristy shops and things, nothing overly exciting, although we did go into and Irish gifts shop, where we talked to the owner (I think) for about half an hour. He told us stories of Ireland and answered questions that I had as to the stories behind certain symbols. It really was a super awesome conversation that made me desperately want to know more about my heritage.
Around 2 o’clock, we headed out of town about 15 miles to a music festival called Life Light. If you’re familiar, it’s similar to Spirit West Coast, except its a little bit bigger and it’s FREE. That’s right, it cost $0 to park, $0 to get in. Of course, the vendors charge you an arm and a leg for everything, but if you bring your own food and water, you’re set! It’s actually the country’s largest free Christian music festival. They used to hold it in an abandoned water park, but when they outgrew it, someone graciously donated ACRES of land. If I had to guess, I’d say that had at least 20 acres. They have enough space for the main stage, which on the final night will draw about 130-150,000 people, then another less popular but directed at the youth stage that gets plenty of people, and about 3 other, smaller stages. All that, plus two large structures where the merch is set up, a strip where all the food vendors are, and then backstage areas, and parking for everyone. The place is just massive! So we walked around for a bit then headed over to the prayer tent to ask if we could be one of the prayer people. They invited us back at 10am to take the small training class, so we had the rest of the night free. We walked up and down the vendors, checked out all of the causes, and hung out. As we approached one booth, Marc told me to read the back of this shirt. It said something like, “55 Million Shot Down Before Delivering Their Cargo. SAVE THE STORKS.” We got to talking to the people at the table and what they do is seriously amazing. They’re a fairly new non-profit organization (2 years old) that raises money to build buses. What is so special about these buses? Well, they’re NICE on the inside. They do the interior with all leather, there is a bed, a massage bench, a restroom, 2 chairs and 2 TVs. The point of all of it is to promote life. How, you ask? They park their bus outside of an abortion clinic and as women go to walk in, they kindly invite them in their bus to have a free sonogram. That’s right, their bus has sonogram equipment. As they give the woman a free sonogram (or pregnancy test), they share with them the love of Jesus and about the options that they have, to parent or to have their baby adopted. One statistic that really stuck out was that 84% of post-abortive women felt as though abortion was their only option. The Storks program is there to let them know that that isn’t true, that they will support them, and they do! Because the buses, once finished, are given to a crisis pregnancy center, the women who work it are local and can stay in contact with the pregnant women. Amazingly, three out of five women who go into a storks’ bus outside of abortion clinics, choose life. What a great testimony love can be. Because they’re only 2 years old, they only have 3 completed buses right now, but are always raising money to build more. Check out their website, even buying a shirt helps fund the cause. http://savethestorks.com/
After spending a good amount of time with the storks, we walked around and watched some bands perform. Marc was pretty excited to see For Today, a Christian hardcore band that seriously brings the gospel to the shows that they put on. Flyleaf was playing after them, but we didn’t stay for most of it because I didn’t want to deal with fighting traffic after it was all over. On the way to drop off Mickey and Josh who had been abandoned by their ride, we made a pit stop at this restaurant called “Fryin’ Pan,” which we had driven by the day before and I told Marc, “Man, I wanna eat there.” See how good God is to us? Mickey was gracious enough to buy our food, so we hung for a good little while and then went home.
Saturday was back to LifeLight. We got there around 10:15 (oops) and went through our training seminar. Then it was off to the secondary stage, where we spent a huge chunk of the day waiting. Our job was to sit under the tent and listen to whatever was being said from the stage, in the event that someone needed prayer, or they did an alter call, we were there to follow up. Most of them didn’t do an alter call and the ones who did didn’t send people over to us, but we were able to walk around a bit. Quite a few people came into the tent throughout the day, mostly to get out of the shade, but that opened doors for us to talk to people. I probably got to start almost as many conversations about Marc, but his always seemed to be more fruitful. For some reason, he has that weird thing about him where he really knows exactly the right question to get into people’s lives. I just don’t have that, as much as I try. But the day went awesomely-he got to talk to a few people who told him that they were in sin, so, in love, Marc rebuked and corrected them and they always thanked him for it and said something to the effect of, “I needed to hear that.” God is faithful, as always. What a mighty God we serve! On the way home, there was a crazy awesome lightening storm! There was literally constant lightening for the whole time we were driving home! It was beautifully stunning.
Sunday morning brought church, of course, and it was awesome. Pastor Tom taught
from Mark 12 where the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus by asking him about the
resurrection which, of course, they didn’t believe in.
It kind of reminds me of a common skeptics question nowadays. Many people will ask questions like, “What about the people who live in the bush and have never heard of Jesus?” Well, if they were really concerned about them, they would be converted and go be missionaries to them.
Anyways, shortly after church was over, we headed out of town with Josh & Mickey to Mickey’s parent’s house where we helped them with some construction they were doing on their house. I suppose destruction would be a better word, but we ripped up some carpet and I worked on scraping up the glue while the boys hammered up tiles and scraped that glue off of the concrete. It wasn’t the hardest work I’ve ever done, but it was far from easy and we were glad to help. Not to mention the delicious food they fed us! Mmmmmmm mmmmmm!!!!
So Mickey’s parents are super awesome! We spent a long time listening to their stories, mesmerized by the awesomeness! They spent 13 years travelling the country, if I remember correctly they were hitchhiking hippies for Jesus, but their stories were great. They said something that really struck a chord with me-they have a hard time with “church people,” if you will, because they spent so long being completely sold out for Jesus-He was their life. They lived and breathed to serve Him, so to go from that kind of mentality to the typical church go-er mentality was rough. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are plenty of awesome people who go to church and I’m definitely not trying to ruffle feathers, but I noticed the same thing. Back in September 2012, we made a trip home for 3 weeks. While we were there, I noticed that nothing had changed, but I had. I had spent every day of the past seven months relying on the Lord for my very existence. I couldn’t eat, drive, or buy anything unless God provided for me. It was the way it was and I enjoyed it. I started every day with the Lord because if I didn’t, my day did not go right. I needed my marching orders or at least to check in and it made me so close to the Lord in an amazing way. Then I went home and was reminded of how life was for me when I was there. I hung out with friends A LOT and didn’t really do much for the Lord. I woke up whenever I wanted and usually had something to do right off the bat, which didn’t leave the relaxed time that I usually had to sit and take my time with the Lord. Well, I did have time, but I didn’t prioritize right. There were other issues, as well, but I don’t feel like going into all of that. Bringing it back, Mickey’s parents were awesome, but he was pretty great, too, so that’s to be expected.
Monday was a kind of chill day, for me anyways. I worked on my blog and uploading pictures and things. Marc had asked Tom if he knew a good mechanic because we had a belt that was making a noise, so they took off to go get the oil changed and look at the belt. After an hour or so, they came back, oil changed, and thankfully the belt was good and didn’t need replacing. We did, however, have a big problem-we needed new tires, badly. A lot of the wires were showing through and it would have been impossible to drive to North Dakota, which we were supposed to be doing in 2 days. Let me preface the next part of the story by saying that I normally don’t talk about money-I don’t like to at all because I don’t want anyone to think that we’re asking for money or hinting that we need it or anything, so please don’t, but for this story, it’s vital.
So Marc came home and told me that we needed tires. Pastor Tom called a friend of his who sold tires and he found us some very lightly used tires for $100. At the time we had $110 between our 2 accounts and $50 in our pocket. So technically we could afford it, but that would leave us with $60, not to mention that we had a bill coming out of our bank account for $40 in the next few days AND we needed at least $75 worth of gas to make it to North Dakota. We were just about on E. So really, we didn’t have any money to spare for tires, and yet, we needed them before we could go anywhere. BUT, if we went anywhere, there was a good chance we wouldn’t make it, especially now that we’re back on the West Coast, where states are HUGE! As Tom was calling around, I told Marc, “Why are you having him call? We don’t have the money for that right now.” He replied, “Well we need tires.” And I said, “How are you going to pay for them?”
As Tom got off the phone and told us that it would be $100 for 4 of them, Marc told him, “well, we only need two.” Then Tom replied with something like, “just take 4 of them, you’re not paying for them.” And that was that. I don’t know if Tom paid for them or if his friend just donated them or what happened. I think it’s better to not know so they still get their crowns in heaven, but what a blessing. I couldn’t help but smile at God’s goodness. It’s seriously crazy this whole time that we’ve never asked for money, we’ve never had to ask for anything, but God gives us what we need, sometimes before we even have to ask. So Marc and Tom took off to take care of the tires, and I sat around doing I don’t know what.
On our last day in South Dakota, we weren’t really sure what to do, so we headed to a nearby park. There wasn’t really anyone there, but Marc practiced his guitar and I crocheted. We got up to get ready to leave, and as we walked towards the van, we noticed a man who had ridden his bike over and was sitting alone at a table. Marc talked to him for at least half an hour. He believed in God but had a fickle relationship, so Marc explained some things and encouraged him. He even emailed Marc the next day to say thank you! What a great encounter!
From there, we went on to another fallback hangout, the mall. There were next to no people there, but as we rounded a corner, there was a guy sitting with his head down on the table. Marc likes to ruin people’s naps, so went and talked to him. He was a believer but had a similar story to the first guy-he just wasn’t really walking the walk. He seemed in good spirits when Marc left him, so that was pretty great.
A little while later, Josh and Mickey invited us out to dinner where we had an awesome time of fellowship and some stinkin good Indian food. They were great guys and awesome brothers. So we said goodbye to them and went back to the house to do laundry and spend time with Tom and Wendy on our last night in South Dakota. And that was that! The next morning, we packed up, stopped off at Wendy’s place of work where she blessed us with some bread and granola, and we were off to Fargo, North Dakota!
It kind of reminds me of a common skeptics question nowadays. Many people will ask questions like, “What about the people who live in the bush and have never heard of Jesus?” Well, if they were really concerned about them, they would be converted and go be missionaries to them.
Anyways, shortly after church was over, we headed out of town with Josh & Mickey to Mickey’s parent’s house where we helped them with some construction they were doing on their house. I suppose destruction would be a better word, but we ripped up some carpet and I worked on scraping up the glue while the boys hammered up tiles and scraped that glue off of the concrete. It wasn’t the hardest work I’ve ever done, but it was far from easy and we were glad to help. Not to mention the delicious food they fed us! Mmmmmmm mmmmmm!!!!
So Mickey’s parents are super awesome! We spent a long time listening to their stories, mesmerized by the awesomeness! They spent 13 years travelling the country, if I remember correctly they were hitchhiking hippies for Jesus, but their stories were great. They said something that really struck a chord with me-they have a hard time with “church people,” if you will, because they spent so long being completely sold out for Jesus-He was their life. They lived and breathed to serve Him, so to go from that kind of mentality to the typical church go-er mentality was rough. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are plenty of awesome people who go to church and I’m definitely not trying to ruffle feathers, but I noticed the same thing. Back in September 2012, we made a trip home for 3 weeks. While we were there, I noticed that nothing had changed, but I had. I had spent every day of the past seven months relying on the Lord for my very existence. I couldn’t eat, drive, or buy anything unless God provided for me. It was the way it was and I enjoyed it. I started every day with the Lord because if I didn’t, my day did not go right. I needed my marching orders or at least to check in and it made me so close to the Lord in an amazing way. Then I went home and was reminded of how life was for me when I was there. I hung out with friends A LOT and didn’t really do much for the Lord. I woke up whenever I wanted and usually had something to do right off the bat, which didn’t leave the relaxed time that I usually had to sit and take my time with the Lord. Well, I did have time, but I didn’t prioritize right. There were other issues, as well, but I don’t feel like going into all of that. Bringing it back, Mickey’s parents were awesome, but he was pretty great, too, so that’s to be expected.
Monday was a kind of chill day, for me anyways. I worked on my blog and uploading pictures and things. Marc had asked Tom if he knew a good mechanic because we had a belt that was making a noise, so they took off to go get the oil changed and look at the belt. After an hour or so, they came back, oil changed, and thankfully the belt was good and didn’t need replacing. We did, however, have a big problem-we needed new tires, badly. A lot of the wires were showing through and it would have been impossible to drive to North Dakota, which we were supposed to be doing in 2 days. Let me preface the next part of the story by saying that I normally don’t talk about money-I don’t like to at all because I don’t want anyone to think that we’re asking for money or hinting that we need it or anything, so please don’t, but for this story, it’s vital.
So Marc came home and told me that we needed tires. Pastor Tom called a friend of his who sold tires and he found us some very lightly used tires for $100. At the time we had $110 between our 2 accounts and $50 in our pocket. So technically we could afford it, but that would leave us with $60, not to mention that we had a bill coming out of our bank account for $40 in the next few days AND we needed at least $75 worth of gas to make it to North Dakota. We were just about on E. So really, we didn’t have any money to spare for tires, and yet, we needed them before we could go anywhere. BUT, if we went anywhere, there was a good chance we wouldn’t make it, especially now that we’re back on the West Coast, where states are HUGE! As Tom was calling around, I told Marc, “Why are you having him call? We don’t have the money for that right now.” He replied, “Well we need tires.” And I said, “How are you going to pay for them?”
As Tom got off the phone and told us that it would be $100 for 4 of them, Marc told him, “well, we only need two.” Then Tom replied with something like, “just take 4 of them, you’re not paying for them.” And that was that. I don’t know if Tom paid for them or if his friend just donated them or what happened. I think it’s better to not know so they still get their crowns in heaven, but what a blessing. I couldn’t help but smile at God’s goodness. It’s seriously crazy this whole time that we’ve never asked for money, we’ve never had to ask for anything, but God gives us what we need, sometimes before we even have to ask. So Marc and Tom took off to take care of the tires, and I sat around doing I don’t know what.
On our last day in South Dakota, we weren’t really sure what to do, so we headed to a nearby park. There wasn’t really anyone there, but Marc practiced his guitar and I crocheted. We got up to get ready to leave, and as we walked towards the van, we noticed a man who had ridden his bike over and was sitting alone at a table. Marc talked to him for at least half an hour. He believed in God but had a fickle relationship, so Marc explained some things and encouraged him. He even emailed Marc the next day to say thank you! What a great encounter!
From there, we went on to another fallback hangout, the mall. There were next to no people there, but as we rounded a corner, there was a guy sitting with his head down on the table. Marc likes to ruin people’s naps, so went and talked to him. He was a believer but had a similar story to the first guy-he just wasn’t really walking the walk. He seemed in good spirits when Marc left him, so that was pretty great.
A little while later, Josh and Mickey invited us out to dinner where we had an awesome time of fellowship and some stinkin good Indian food. They were great guys and awesome brothers. So we said goodbye to them and went back to the house to do laundry and spend time with Tom and Wendy on our last night in South Dakota. And that was that! The next morning, we packed up, stopped off at Wendy’s place of work where she blessed us with some bread and granola, and we were off to Fargo, North Dakota!
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