Thursday July 29th (Shamattawa Team)

It’s a beautiful Morning in Shamattawa today! Yesterday was an eventful day, by the time the last light went out here in Shamattawa, all five of us were exhausted. Today is a new day in the Lord we are anxious to see just what is store for us.

An update on the condition of the teenagers involved in the 4-wheeler accident on Wednesday: The two girls are okay with only bruises, but the boy suffered three fractures and was sent out by medi-vac flight for treatment.

An Arial View of Shamattawa

It was a little later for some to get going today, Lori had been up late writing Wednesday’s blog. Dave made his famous pancakes for breakfast today. As always they were great!. Before lunch many of the kids came over to play ball etc. Dave loves to play outside with the kids, he is so good at that. The kids so crave that one-on-one time with adults. I don’t think that happens much in their everyday lives. We had a light lunch before heading over to the school for VBS. The children congregate here at our door as we eat lunch, they stand just peering through the screen waiting patiently for us to say, “OK, we are ready to go.” They walk with us, holding our hands as we walk. The older kids carry our materials, books, or whatever they can do to help.

A Typical Trek.. Sharlene and Friends

We arrived at the school classroom today a little early, set up for the day, got song lyrics on the board, etc. Registration begins when the children start arriving. Most are there shortly after the start time of 1:00 but a few drift in until maybe 1:30 – 2:00. The lesson for today is about how we need to trust God in all that we do. The Bible story was the story of Jesus calming the storm. Today the children received the beaded bracelets that we made for them earlier in the week. The coloring page for today was the image of Jesus and his disciples out in a boat, in a raging storm. For a fun craft, we also made paper airplanes with the kids. We had a total of 53 kids today, 14 of them were new attendees and still have 19 of them here all 4 days so far.

The Airplane Factory

We sang “I Am Trusting Thee Lord Jesus” as our main music for the day, but the kids have many other favorites that we do over and over again. Just before snack time today, we went outside with the bubbles that we had brought with us. We used the outside playground for this event. When the children returned inside, it was snack time. Today it was goldfish crackers and juice. The crackers were a hit.

Once again, some of the youth stayed behind to help clean up, pick up, and get organized for the next day. Back at the apartment by4:30, we regrouped and discussed going to a memorial for a community member Marcia (Marcee-a), a 25-year old woman who had been raped and beaten to death about five years ago, leaving behind 3 small children. The plan was to all walk together as a group to the spot out in the woods (the location of her death) and then return to the Crisis Center for a “community feast” (round trip distance of approximately 4 miles) We decided that this would be a good way for us to be a part of the community and to more visible and accessible to the adults here in Shamattawa. All five of us went on the memorial walk and attended the community meal following. Lori will write about the details and her experience next.

Hi, this is Lori...just to give my impression of our experience on the memorial walk, the memorial service in the woods, and the community feast following the event. The community has been planning this event for the past few years, but this is the year that it finally came together. The Crisis Center gave out T-shirts for everyone with Marcia’s photo on them, decorated the Crisis Center with balloons and photos of Marcia and her three boys. The Crisis Center used this opportunity to bring awareness of domestic violence to the community.

This event has been especially painful for the community, as the person who committed this crime has still not been found and justice has not been served in this case. It appears that the investigation has stalled; the family feels this may be due to the fact that she was aboriginal. It was good to see the entire community gather together for one purpose, to support the family in their pain of loss.

When the group arrived to the site in the woods, they formed a circle and the family and pastors said a few words to the crowd. Then the pastors asked people who wanted to pray to come forward. Soon, they were motioning to those in the back of the crowd, asking the “missionaries” to come forward. Dave and I were the only two left in our group, as the rest of our group headed back because the bugs were so bad. I looked at Dave, he looked at me, and we both turned around and looked behind us. The people behind us pointed to us and said, “They mean you.” So we worked our way to the opening in front of the crowd and stood with the church and community leaders. I immediately started praying that the Holy Spirit would give Dave the words to speak, the message that He wanted His people to hear. After Dave’s prayer, Pastor Daniel prayed in Cree…a very moving and emotional experience for all in attendance.

The family then posed for photos of their signs, domestic violence intervention, memorial signs for Marcia, etc. Marcia’s sister shared her pain, how they were not allowed an open casket at the service due to the extent of her injuries, etc. After she spoke, I slipped my beaded cross off of my neck and as I did, the girl next to me handed me another one. Dave had taken his off as well and passed it to me through the crowd. I went to Marcia’s sister, expressed our sympathy to her and her family, and put the necklace around her neck. I handed her the second cross necklace and she placed it on Marcia’s memorial cross. People then placed flowers on the cross and the crowd walked back to the Crisis Center for the meal, where we mingled with the adults and children. We felt very much a part of Shamattawa and its people, sharing their pain and sorrow, their ups and downs…very fitting, as our theme for Vacation Bible School this week has been “JUMP – Jesus Understands My uPs and downs”.

What an opportunity, to be accepted as brothers and sisters in this community; it was a huge honor for us, and very humbling. God continues to amaze us this week; He has made His presence known in many ways.

Again, thank you to our faithful Prayer Warriors back home; you don’t know how much we appreciate your faithfulness in lifting us up this week.