Once we arrived in Montana it was nice to know that everything was planned for us; all we had to do was show up! The church went through a program called Youth Works, so there is already a staff who designs and runs the program throughout the summer. Another addition was that not only was our Lutheran church attending, but two other churches from Minnesota were attending as well; one Non-denominational and a Catholic church. By far, we were the smallest group.
Anyway, the staff split up the churches, and even I was with a different chaperone. In my group the first day we helped this elderly man with his house. You have to realize that this house was holding not only him, but the rest of his family: two sons and grandkids. When we arrived we weren't too sure what to do because he didn't know what he wanted us to do. There were piles of wood, cars, refridgerators, tires, clothes, toys... if you can imagine an item, it was out in the yard. So we just started cleaning. We ended up with 18 full-size garbage bags out of the yard.
The second day we painted the living room and hallway for this couple. The most interesting part was actually talking to the couple about their beliefs, traditions, and having them ask questions about Christianity.
The last two days we were there we helped with a Vacation Bible School. Talk about chaos, but these children just wanted the attention and love. It was three hours to prep for Vacation Bible School and then three hours of it occuring. At the end of each day these kiddos needed to be walked home. The walk home was always interesting for me for two reasons (1) Being a chaperone I had to make sure the teenagers were attending to the little kids (2) I had to make sure the little kids were not doing things they weren't supposed to be doing. More times than not the little kids wanted piggy back rides, so it was easy to make sure the kids were running in the streets.
In between this serventhood was time to grow in your faith. They had designated times for kids to talk with their church groups, devotional times, and a service each day. It was great seeing the kids grow in more ways than one.
As for the title of this blog Matthew 10:38 was the theme of the trip for the church: and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Take it as you will.
The big skies of Montana. Believe me when I say that was not a fun leg of the trip. I was definitely gripping the steering wheel.
I had a small Nissan Altima car, so I had only three other people in my car. The three girls decided to call the car White Ninja (starting left on top: me, Jamie, Stephanie, and Rachel).
That is most of the group (from what I can tell) and a couple additions. The kids were able to sit on the ground a lot- lucky them.
That is part of Heart Butte on a sunny day. It took a couple days for it to get sunny! 
Another part of the reservation.
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