Swift Bird and White Horse

So I got home last night around 11:30 after a very long return trip from a Native American Reservation in South Dakota. All in all, I spent about 70 hours in the car getting up there and getting back down. The ride was brutal.

Still, I want to go back.

We did VBS with the kids up there, each of us at two of five locations. The communities consisted of a few streets each, small clusters of houses, dogs roaming everywhere. But those kids...It was awful telling them goodbye. I didn't want to leave them. I entered a sort of preemptive grieving period while we were still there, but before we left God gave me a sense of peace about it. I can't be everything, do everything, be everywhere. I cannot help everyone and give them all they need. But He can. And in the meantime, I can pray.

I definitely want to go back, and stay longer this time. I want to really have the time to get to know those kids.

I still don't know what I want to do with my majors, what kind of career I want to pursue. But wherever I end up, I want to invest myself in the community. I want to make myself available to help, to encourage, to guide. For the first time, I could see myself being a teacher. I still don't know if that's what I really want to do, but it doesn't seem like such an impossibility anymore. I think I would enjoy it.

During the trip, I traveled through multiple states I had never previously visited: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and of course, South Dakota. It was interesting to watch the terrain gradually change. It was incredible to be able to see for miles and miles all around you, to see the hills rolling endlessly before you, to watch a sea of grass ripple under a gust of wind. I saw buffalo for the first time, as well as prairie dogs and antelope. We stopped by the Badlands on the way up, which was an experience in itself. I saw huge windmills and terraced farm land and wild horses. Life up there was pretty different from life in Florida, or even in Auburn. They were so isolated in such small communities, surrounded by such vast space.

I liked it. All of you praying folk out there, keep those kids up there in your prayers. And keep your eyes open to the needs of those around you. Suffering and pain are ever-present. You don't have to travel 1500 miles to find someone in need.

There. That's my advice of the day. :)