Coming along slowly...........

We have to remember that we are on the reservation and time is a bit different out here. Sometimes that's good.....sometimes that's not so good. We were hoping that Promised Land would begin next week....but we are beginning to wonder if that will be the case or not. The gal in charge is "checking out the policies of the other schools"..... So it sounds like no permission slips will go out this week......and we feel that we need those in order to take the kids off the school grounds. The teachers were talked to a while back and everyone was excited about the program..... But the powers that be have to get all the ducks in order......and that moves slowly...........

Meanwhile, we are staying busy working with the local ranchers as they work with their cattle.....getting ready for fall. The other day we helped as 171 cows were given an ultrasound check to see if they were AI (artifical insemination) or bull bred. Quite interesting..... What did we do??? Well I (Barb) was the secretary ---- recording the cows new ear tag number and whether AI or bull bred. Gary put fly spray on each cow as she came through the chute. It got very exciting as one cow decided to go out the side (where the vet was working)...bounded into the tent where the ultrasound equipment was stationed....and then went out the side door of the tent. Thankfully the vet and his assistant and the equipment were spared any injury. The cow??????? Well that ended up being quite the rodeo getting her back into the chute.....but the cowboys won!!!! (on this note --- a prayer request----- A couple of weeks ago this vet accidently dropped one of those large round bales on his son....breaking his back. So far the son has phantom feelings in his legs but is paralyzed from his waist down.)

We were asked to help the same crew tomorrow (Friday) again....This time an hours drive to the west.

Please pray that our Release Time will begin soon. We are ready!!! And getting excited ----but then those let downs when it doesn't happen....

Thank you so very much for your prayers and support!!!

Gary and Barb

Prairie Winds

Have you ever heard that the wind howls......well it is howling right now on the prairies!!! We have had wind for the last few days.....about 20 mph with gusts up to 40+- . I took a walk this morning and YES the wind DOES howl. Makes us wonder just what it will be like this winter.....-20 degrees with winds at 40 mph????? But we take each day as it comes.

Yesterday morning we watched a doe leave her twin fawns behind in the weeds in the pasture just west of us. We could see them off and on during the day so we knew they were staying put. At dusk we got to see the doe come and retrieve the two. Mama made a graceful jump over the barbed wire fence and we wondered how those little ones would make it. Well, the fence is 3 strands.....so inbetween the bottom and middle wires.....no problem.

The land really needs a good rain....things are getting very dry. But it is still a beautiful sight.....all the hay bales and the cattle "on a thousand hills".

I have been preparing a lot of "stuff" for the beginning of Release Time which we have dubbed "Promised Land". It really seems that God is directing my thoughts and preparations are coming along very nicely.

We will really cherish your prayers once "Promised Land" begins. Thank you for your support!!

Love, Gary and Barb

Week of Visitors

This past weekend we were blessed with visitors from Michigan. Hazel and Paul VanKoevering - Gary's sister and her husband came to visit with us. We always enjoy giving new comers directions to our home. There are no street names, no house numbers.....you just follow the directions we give and come in faith. But so far everyone has found us with little difficulty. Luckily everyone has arrived in day light. I would even hate to have to find our road from the west entrance in the dark.....and that's the way everyone comes in.

We have sent a "letter of intent" to the school concerning Release Time, and we are told that the teachers are excited...."oh boy, one more hour to plan". We have asked to have the kids on Tues. and Thurs. afternoons. There are 4 classrooms in Lakeview Elem. ----- Kindergarten through 8th grade. So we will take 2 classrooms on Tues. and the remaining 2 on Thurs. We have asked for at least an hour each time (doing only 1 classroom at a time --- So we will be doing our lessons 4X). We forsee this as a very busy two days with preparation days needed also. Please keep Release Time in your prayers. We are just so thankful that we had the "Teaching Children Effectively" class through Child Evangelism Fellowship. We truly feeling this was a wonderful blessing from God!!!

We did have more girls over for scrapbooking and they really seem to enjoy it and ask when we will do it again. The hard part is not being concerned with the miles that we have to put on to accomplish this......I put on 160 miles for the round trip getting the girls and bringing them home. (And then the next day we had a flat tire.....) Oh Well, "comes with the territory" we are told.

Our days remain full (for the most part) helping my cousin with his ranch work. Moving cattle, fixing corrals etc.......but it's rewarding work and they do need an extra hand. Gary also was able to fix a four wheeler that was stuck in 5th gear. He found the broken part and was able to get the parts needed in a couple of days.....and succeeded in getting it all back together and running again.

We DO have long distance service now!!!! Thank you for prayers concerning that. That was quite the task ..........

For those of you who haven't heard ---- we are grandparents again. Holly and Dennis had a baby boy born on August 15 ---- Sawyer Marvin Kroeze. A real cutie!!!!! :-) Mother, baby and family are all doing well and have returned home again.

Thank you again for your support !!!

Gary and Barb

Back from Colorado

We had a fun time in Colorado with everyone. We did some hiking in the beautiful area around Leadville. Would post a picture but as of right now things aren't working as well as we would like. Our camera is being sent out for repairs and ......................



We have been called on several times by one of my cousins to help out with cattle work.....moving them to different pastures, vaccinating calves, etc. It's always an interesting job getting the cattle through the chute. Tomorrow (Monday) we will go out again with a different rancher to round up a herd and vaccinate and spray cow and calf pairs. We enjoy being of help to all of these ranchers as there is always a shortage of help out here.



We haven't worked with the kids since we returned from our trip. Things go rather slow because our phone problem is still unresolved. However, we do have plans in the works so hopefully these will all work out. School on the reservation starts in a couple of weeks. But there is also a fair and rodeo in Rosebud this coming weekend and so that will involve a lot of the kids.



A couple of prayer requests:

We would ask for prayers for the Lakeview Church as they continue to search for a new pastor. Pastor Leiter will be leaving at the end of this month for retirement. He will, in fact, be moving to the Hudsonville area.



Also pray for Kathy Tinant (a member of LCRC) who was just diagnosed with colon cancer. They have caught it early but it is of the type that does not respond well to treatment.



I believe that's all for now. Thank you again for your interest, support, and prayers. They are all important to us.



Gary and Barb

Week of July 27-31

Gary has been helping my cousin with some ranch work lately. He enjoys getting dirty again! He helped take some of Dwights corrals down --- they are wanting to put in railroad ties as posts and then the new fencing. It's hot work and they have plenty of time to get it done so it gets put aside for more important work. He has also been helping Rob (Dwights son) tinker on some mechanical problems.

You heard (via prayer chain)about my problems with the long distance service out here. It has not been resolved as of today. If you aren't up to date on that problem......it has to do with having a South Dakota phone and a Nebraska address. The other problem is that we are keeping my Aunts phone service (keeping the old number) and so we are not on the account and can NOT make any changes to it. Robbi and her husband don't know the password either so that makes for more time consumed resolving that...... I tried to get a "reservation phone" but you have to have proof that you are living on the reservation and we really don't have that. That would get us a cell phone that can call any South Dakota number for free but nothing outside the state....which would really solve our dilema....... So keep that in your prayers. Every kid we want to call is long distance and it is costing us about $.26 a minute.

On Wednesday we had 2 girls over to do some scrapbooking. We had hoped for 4 but ended up with only two. But we had a real good time. They were here at our home from 2:00 until after supper. We had burgers and homemade potato salad and zucchini from our garden. They had never had zucchini but were willing to try it -- and they said it was good. They are both real sweet girls...very polite and well mannered. They were Miki Colombe and Diondra Bordeaux. They asked when they could do it again.....I think next time we will go to the Community Center at church and hopefully have more girls next time. I wasn't sure how it would work and wanted to keep the first time small......but it went great so we will move on to bigger numbers. Oh! and by the way if you want to make potato salad the Native way you only put potatoes, eggs, and chopped pickles in it - dressing is mayo, mustard, sugar and a little pickle juice.

We will be heading to Colorado this Friday. Bruce and Glenda are "babysitting" Jamie and Amy Peters children ----- and they need LOTS of help :-) so Ken and Sally Krueze went with them and we will be joining them until next Thurs.

That's all for now. Thank you for prayers and support!

Gary and Barb

The week of July 21-26

We have decided to up-date once a week now unless things really get to hopn' around here.

Wednesday evening we went with Pastor Leiter (of Lakeview CRC) to St. Francis. He has been visiting some of the Native families in the area and he asked us if we would go along. He is concerned with the fact that he is leaving (retiring as of Sept.) and the contacts he has made might get lost. We stopped in at 5 different homes. We were invited into John Swifts' home - Pastor had never been there before......... At another place we visited with Anthony. He was a Vietnam veteran and had just had shoulder surgery. He was very friendly and Pastor Leiter said he and his wife had a lot of questions about God. We also stopped in at Lynelle Hairy Shirts home. Her grandson Jon Knox lives with her and he was one of our campers. They go to church in St. Francis but have expressed an interest in a Bible Study. Lynelle's sister wants to come also but she has a very busy schedule working at the hospital.

On Saturday evening we took 10 young people to a "Rap Concert" in Mission. It was put on by "Life Light" - a Christian organization out of Sioux Falls. The message the rapper gave was really good and 5 people answered his invitation to receive Christ into their lives. I guess we really aren't "rappers"!!! but the kids really like to get out and this was a good place to take them. We had the 4 Lakeview girls stay overnight and then we all went to church this morning. They are all members of LCRC and also my cousins girls.

Some of you probably still have your "kids pictures" from last year. The ones we took with us to the concert were: Mark and Tyler Left Hand Bull, Jesse and Timothy Cordier, and Jon Knox. We are hoping to have a scrapbooking party with some of the girls but that date hasn't been set up yet. We do hope to get a new set of photos sent out to you ......I just have to get busy and do it!!!! It is a wonderful way for you to be involved in the lives of these kids and we hope you will continue praying for all of them!!!! So if I fail to do this REMIND ME!!!

Thank you for your continued support and prayers!!
Love. Gary and Barb

A try at posting some photos...

A storm was headed our way. This is taken from our back porch. We never had rain during the two weeks of camp. And it was a very good thing because it doesn't take much rain for the roads to get just terrible. As Gary says "like driving on snot".

Joe really didn't want to make the picture frame....but once he got started he did about the nicest job of anyone. Actually there were 3 boys who did an awesome job!! This was a frame that stated "Jesus Loves Me"



Captain Nemo -- when you see Kirk ask him about it.....everyone was in stitches!!



















Kids all lined up for the bag races. Seemed like Kirk kept coming up with more instructions :-)















Gary, Barb and Chris had their faces covered with shaving cream and then the kids (teams) got 10 shots each with a squirt gun to see which team could wash our faces the fastest. Barb's team won..










David Marshall, Lakota Pastor of a little church in Horse Creek - just south of White River. He spoke to our 7-8th graders. What a powerful message he had for everyone!!! Pray for him and his church.









Rocket Launchers......It was a very windy day but they were able to hit a target several times and really had a "blast".












"suck hard and run"......relay game





















Sue helping Jailyn with her belt. The kids really did a nice job on the belts and were able to take them home the same day.