With 10 vehicles, a U-Haul truck, 80 some people and 2 sick leaders, we headed out of the church parking lot, Montana bound. We traveled in two “pods” to cut down on bathroom breaks and long lunch lines and stopped overnight just across the Montana border. The next day we completed our 15 hour drive to Fort Belknap, Montana. After some minor setbacks and schedule changes, we settled in for the night. I ended up in a tee pee which was great fun until early morning. See, tee pees have a slight design “flaw”. Since they are made to let the smoke out of the top, they have holes. So when the rain started coming down early the next morning…well, you can guess what happened. We had a lake in the middle of our tee pee. But it didn’t stop there. It rained. And rained. And rained some more. Our projects for the week were supposed to be painting houses, mowing lawns and building fences. All quite difficult to do in the rain. But, we learned that this reservation had been in a drought for close to 15 years. This rain was, in fact, an answer to their prayers. So on our first morning we gathered in the big tent and sang our hearts out. We sang “Grace Like Rain”, “All Who Are Thirsty” and every other song we could think of that talked about water. And when we were done singing, we gathered in our family groups to pray together. And as I led a group of 9 high school students, the Lord impressed upon me that this was why we were there. For some reason, the Lord seems to use mission trips to grow students in unbelievable ways. And that morning these students prayed out loud, with confidence, with intentionality, with boldness. Little did we know that was just the beginning.
After dinner that night, the rain really started coming down. And as the evening wore on, the wind picked up, the heavens opened up and before we knew it, tents were blowing over, our stuff was soaked and it was freezing. And as we all wondered where we would sleep that night, the Lord provided a gym floor where we would be warm, dry and at least moderately comfortable. And once we moved all our stuff, we continued worshiping, praying and celebrating the great God we serve.
But the highlight of my trip came during our last work day. The sun was finally shining and we left camp ready to finish up projects. However, everywhere we went, doors were closed. The building we were sent to clean was locked up and no one was around. The house we were siding already had 12 workers and couldn’t use anymore. The list of homes we called had no answer. So I took my van full of students to the gas station to buy snacks while I regrouped. The weather was finally cooperating and yet, we had nothing to do and the long day was stretching out in front of us. And then the Lord reminded me what He had impressed upon me that first night. We were there to pray for this reservation. So, I loaded up my group full of students and told them our plan for the morning. We were going to drive through the reservation and pray fervently for the land and the people. I told them that as one person prayed, the rest of us were going to agree with their prayers. And that when we couldn’t think of anything to pray, we were going to ask the Lord what we should pray next. And then I started driving, wondering how many stretches of silence I’d need to fill, if I’d even make it all the way around the reservation before they ran out of things to pray.
Well, of course (because why else would this be the highlight of my trip), they blew me away. We had such a sweet time of unified prayer, crying out to God on behalf of these people and this reservation. And when I finally pulled back into the parking lot, an hour and 45 minutes had gone by. The students were amazed that they had prayed for so long. They shared how they would think of something to pray for and next thing they knew, someone was praying out loud specifically for that very thing. And again, the Lord showed up and showed us that He could use weather, locked buildings and any other roadblock to accomplish His purpose.So when everybody asks me how mission trip was? I simply say, “It was nothing like what we had planned. But it was wonderful.”
**I didn’t take any pictures during the rain, but don’t be fooled by the blue skies in these pictures! They were taken during the few breaks or at the end of our trip when the sun did begin to shine. 🙂
