OVERWHELMED ..........SUCH AN AWESOME RESPONSE!!

Once again we went out to the JDC (Detention Center) for our Thursday night meeting. We had decided to show the "Jesus" film (for children). Some of the girls groaned when they were told that we were going to watch a movie tonight ...."oohh! we've watched movies all day!!!" But once it started all eyes remained on the movie....(attention would drop if the guard stepped out for a moment...). At the end of the movie there is an invitation to accept Christ as your Savior. We asked that if they had prayed that prayer....would they please remain in the room afterwards. NO ONE LEFT! When we asked for them to sign their name so that we could know who they were some of the boys didn't sign...... but 6 boys did give us their name and 2 new girls. (So there is some question about the ones who didn't sign....but we leave that in God's hands.)

WELL, we were overwhelmed by the numbers and time was marching on....the movie had taken more than the hour that we are given and it's so hard to make it personal with a large group and so we promised the kids that we would have Bibles for them on Sunday.

On Sundays we have been able to meet with 8 kids in the 2 hours of visitation time. Now we have 16 possible kids to meet with. ???How do we do it???

So we made a call to Director Petite.........told him our problem. What an awesome conversation we had with him!!!! He is also a believer!! PRAISE GOD!!

He told us that the kids have to eat their supper at 4:00 on Sundays and there are rules that it has to be consumed while it is at a certain temperature....but after that we can stay for as long as we want. He was so grateful for our involvement with the kids. Most of them never get any visits from family and they crave that love.

I then mentioned the "Book of Hope".....a book put out by the Native American Fellowship --"by the natives....for the natives". We had used this book in the past at PLYC and feel that it is very well put together --- it has "lives changed" stories, the Plan of Salvation, and the 4 Gospels put together into one continous story of Jesus. I said to Director Petite....."is there any way we could make that required reading?? YES! We sure could. ...........

Can you imagine our excitement! He said they had some funds for education material and anything we wanted they would order for us.

We don't have words for how we feel about this.....

Your prayers are so very important.....

THANK YOU!!!

Gary & Barb

Back --- and the dust is flying!!!!

Marti and Tim....






















Sawyer and his "puppy"....




















Holly....looks happy with her new slipper sox!!

























Came with lots of snow to play in.....




















and left with flood warnings!!

Brennan, Colton and Trenton opening gifts.....

We had a good trip back from Michigan. Quite uneventful and that is good!! It was great to see everyone again and to be able to enjoy our grandkids and family at Christmas. The weather was really something. From coming in with a "blizzard" right behind us and dumping a pile of snow to leaving with all the snow completely gone and flood warnings out. But that's Michigan.....it was said that they had more sunshine the afternoon of the 4th of July than they had had all the month of December.

Gary came to the house this morning and said --- "you better come and see what's going on --- you don't want to miss it". Well they are trimming the angus bulls for the sale in February. They get a hair cut that really beats all!! We'll have to tell you all about it some time.

Last night we awoke to the sound of the wind......and it's been blowing the dust all day. I was reminded of the dust storms during the Depression. We have dust seeping in by the windows right now and this house is pretty solidly put together...... I can see how terrible it must have been back then --- how badly the dust must have been in the houses back then. I'm told that the walls were full of dirt --- not insulation --- but dirt. I can believe it!!!!

The sun is shining nicely and it's really not too cold out but I just heard on the radio that we have wind gusts of up to 65 mph. No wonder it's coming in the house. The snow (that is left) is black with dirt! We've decided that a trip to town for some caulking is in order!!

We are preparing for our next visit to the JDC..... we hope to show them the "Jesus" film. We will be contacting the Director concerning this film. Pray that everything will work out and also pray that hearts will be touched by this special film.

Thanks again for all your support and prayers.

Gary and Barb

Never know where to begin......

We haven't updated this for a while so there is so much to tell......

The Christmas party was very chaotic ---- we had approximately 42 kids working at the tables.....making their gift jars and decorating their bag to take all the goodies home in. But we had great help and even though panic struck a couple of times...."oh no! we don't have enough oatmeal.." it all turned out good in the end, and we are pretty sure the kids had a good time. It's possible that some heard the Christmas Story of Christs birth for the first time that day.

Our grandsons are still having a great time. They do admit to being homesick "a little bit at night". They had a blast playing in Dwights big round hay bales. Going in and through where they weren't stacked tight and so on. However, when they came in from the cold they weren't so happy. Those hay bales are full of "cheek grass" and the seed heads stick to everything they come in contact with. So their hunting suits and stocking hats are FULL and it takes hand picking to get them off!!! Not exactly their idea of fun.

We visited the JDC on Sunday and met with 7 kids. One gal, Winter, was hurting inside because her favorite uncle had just passed away from lung cancer and no one in her family told her --- the funeral was over and she didn't get to go. Another gal, Gina, will be moving to Oklahoma and going to an Indian boarding school in January. She said she was glad to go because she would get away from all the trouble on the reservation. Another gal, Jalynn, had been released a week or so ago but was back in. She had sassed ?? a judge (probably more to it than that) and ended up back in the center. We told her about the passage in the Bible that says we are to obey those in authority over us. We tried to do this instruction in a "fun" sort of a way but assured her that it was something she needed to do. Another gal admitted to alcohol abuse...... We also heard that one of the boys was told he "had to leave". (The guards have told us that some kids don't want to leave.) He had been there for 200 days. He was one of the boys who knew the answers on our review time and also one that we had so much fun with.....he also loved our snacks and always asked for more. We are very concerned for him.....where is he now --- are things OK wherever he is...... We can only leave him in God's hands....but we do hope that as we drive through St. Francis that we might spot him and be able to make contact with him.

????? Is there more you should be told about. Time goes by so fast ....what have we forgotten.....

Oh Yes! School in Todd County was canceled for Monday and Tuesday of this week because of the bitter cold (the buses wouldn't start).....so that meant we didn't have Release Time this week. We feel bad because we had a special little gift for the K-4 kids and now they won't get it until after Christmas. Plus our lesson was about the Wise Men.... Those are disappointments that the kids also share because we know they love to come to "Promised Land".

We hope to leave here for Michigan on Friday morning. Gary has been watching the weather reports and it looks like a storm will be going in front of us. So please keep our travels in your prayers.

Thanks!!!!! Gary and Barb & Trenton and Austin

So much to share!!!!

We took our two grandsons - Trenton and Austin - back with us from Michigan and we have been busy ever since!!! They have totally taken to hunting everything that flys or hops.....pheasants, turkey, grouse and jackrabbits. Grandpa is having as much fun as they are!!! And I stay busy cooking ---- we have eaten wild game every night for a week now!! NO!!! not the rabbits! I draw the line there.....plus it's reported that some have a disease.

Release time has gone well....everyone has enjoyed an Ice Cream Sundae for good behavior.......topping of choice, whipped cream and a cherry for good measure. We will be having a Christmas Party for the older kids that we are involved with this coming Saturday - the 13th. We have a lot of help for this and it should go good. The kids will be putting together a "soup in a jar" and "cookies in a jar" for their familes and receiving some type of family fun game.....along with the donated blankets and slippers, and could be more that I'm not even aware of. So many people are sharing the love of Christ with the kids. :-)

Saving the best news for last....... We went to the JDC tonight. The lesson was on Noah and it is a powerful lesson ---- maybe you'd like to hear it sometime :-)
We had about 17 kids tonight - 6 girls and the rest boys. All 6 girls stayed to ask Christ into their hearts. Cheyenne had already prayed the week before and she remembered but it's good to have her stay --- reinforces it for the other girls. It is so awesome to see their smiles knowing they are now a child of God. It is ALWAYS a joy to go to the JDC --- we have a lot of fun with the kids.....many have been there from the beginning of our time there. We always get handshakes from the boys. The guard who prayed to receive Christ has been there for the past few lessons. He said some of the guards don't want to be there but he enjoys it.

As we left tonight for the JDC the sky looked VERY threatening!!!! And as we got just north of St. Francis it started to snow. The roads became terrible!! But it was a short storm and by the time we got to the JDC it was done...but had left 2 inches of snow behind. The trip home was on VERY icy roads......no salt trucks out here. They do put down some sand on the steep hills near town. We got behind a couple of cars going 5 miles an hour. Gary couldn't stand it!!

We ask you to pray for the girls. We never know how long they will be there -- but we talked about the fact that God knows their hearts (and they nodded in agreement)... and we leave them in the hands of a loving heavenly Father.

Gary and Barb

So much to share!!!!

A Sweet day -- in several ways

We had a grand day at Promised Land again this Tuesday. As you can see the K-1 kids get just as close to me as they can. (a side note for my relatives.....does that look like mom sitting there or what!!!??? Knew I looked like mom but not that much!) Anyway....... We had another little boy - Kendall - ask Jesus into his heart. He was sitting right next to me and I could just about feel the Spirit at work in his heart. It is so amazing to be used by God!!!!

This was the day that we were all waiting for.....ice cream sundaes.....this was a treat that was promised the kids if they were all good--all the time. This was the first day for the little gal - Liv - on the left. She wanted to come all along but her mom never got the permission slip back to school....FINALLY she got to come. And on the best day too yet :-).


Thanks again for your lavish support!!! Keep lifting everything up in prayer!!
Gary and Barb

to Michigan and back again.........

We had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving visiting with our whole family.....Yes! even Rick was home from the Netherlands. And a nice bonus was meeting Tim's (Marti's financee) parents who came up from South Carolina.

Meeting with our church family was also GOOD! Such awesome support from everyone!!! And a special thank you to Sally Hulsman's Sunday School class for the big cards for us and the bookmarks for the kids out here. They put 6 REAL special verses on a "spot" of paper and hung them from ribbons. It will be so much fun to share these with our group of the same age.

Traveling back to South Dakota was something......!!!! We started out after dinner with snow right away, but nothing too worrisome. We got through Chicago in fine shape....and we were very happy to be heading west because the east bound traffic was tied up for about 9 miles. We continued on with sloppy wet snow --- Gary drove all the way and that made me very happy!! By evening the temperature stayed at 34 degrees so we felt rather confident that ice was not forming. We made it to Iowa City and decided to stop -- driving at night is not something either one of us enjoy. Oh! and if you did know --- we took our two oldest grandsons (Trenton and Austin) along with us -- they will stay until Christmas...... So the boys were real happy to know that we had landed at a motel with a pool.

Morning brought BAD roads. All the slop had frozen and there were spots that were awful!! From Iowa City to Des Moines we counted 70 cars in the ditch....some were in worse shape than others.....some had rolled....some had gone down into steep places and so on. We KNOW that God was watching over us once again because we made it through all the bad stuff and on through to dry roads where I could take over driving.

The boys got to bed rather late because excitement is high :-) so this morning has started rather slowly. And now they have gone "down the hill" with Grandpa to have a tour of the ranch. It looks like it will be a beautiful day as you can see with the glorious sunrise.

At Release Time today we will have the younger groups and we will be having ice cream sundaes today. This is the treat that was promised for good behavior.

We cannot say Thank You enough!! All the prayers that are being lifted!! We praise God nightly for his faithfulness.

Gary and Barb