Amazing!

When we left Lemmon, SD yesterday morning, I realized that we were not very far from LaPlant, SD, which is where a group from the Guilford Community Church, both youth and adults, including our pastor, Lise Sparrow, is currently on a two-week trip working with the Lakota tribe there to help provide a program for children. This is something that they have been doing every summer for several years. I thought it would be neat to see if we could find them. I sent Lise an email, giving her a heads-up that we might visit, and we set out. LaPlant was about two hours  away, but on our way back east, so we headed there to see what we could find. I checked my email, but no response from Lise. We drove into LaPlant, a tiny town, and stopped at the first place where there seemed to be people - and there they were! The whole group! Part of the group, including our friend, Terry Sylvester, was just about to leave on a swimming trip in the nearby Missouri River, but Lise stayed behind and gave us a quick tour. We learned a lot which I will try to share in future posts, but basically they are working alongside Lakota adults, helping to enable a very positive, nurturing experience for Lakota children whose families are desperately poor and dealing with multiple issues. They have helped build a beautiful playground, a greenhouse, enlarged the community building, and now a village of six houses is being built which will house Lakota children who would otherwise go into foster care with white families, but in this village will live with Lakota "parents and grandparents" and thus be raised in their Lakota traditions. The UCC denomination has played an important role in this (a UCC church will be a part of this village), including returning land to the Lakota tribe which had been acquired a century ago when the Congregationalists first started to do mission work among the Lakota people. The village will be built on that land. Another inspiration for this village is the work and philosophy of Geoffrey Canada, and the Harlem Children's Zone - more on that later.

I got some pictures, but my iPhone camera suddenly started acting very strangely. Images were faded out and blurry, and the phone would start taking scores of pictures all on its own without my even touching it! Weird!  And on top of that, my blog refuses to recognize those photos in the iPhoto archive. I've salvaged a few and enhanced them.

Terry Sylvester on her way for a swim

Pastor Lise

The new greenhouse

The dorm where the group lives. The mural is a work in progress and was designed by Terry Sylvester

We spent the night last night in a Microtel Inn and Suites in Sioux Falls, SD. On to Bartlett, IL!