The Log of the Guinston Gutters Second Mission to the Sioux Nation, Fort Thompson, SD April 18-26, 2015 In September 2014 the Guinston Gutters Volunteers had traveled 1500 miles to build an outhouse at the Iron Nation Messiah Church and to help with repairs to 2 other small churches on the Lower Brule and Crow Creek tribal reservations. We found a poverty-stricken reservation where many Lakota families live in decrepit shacks, and where the Christian churches suffer from long-term physical neglect and popular mistrust. The community infrastructure is similarly decrepit, permeated with chronic unemployment, widespread poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, dysfunctional families, suicide, and political corruption. We intentionally limited our service on that first mission trip to the 3 churches in order to develop trust and personal contacts within the reservation community; a century of bad relations and mistreatment at the hands of mainstream government, business and church institutions has created a cultural barrier which makes simple Christian service and witness into a real challenge. A Request for Help In February 2015 Willie Wood asked if we were planning any additional mission trips and if we could do anything to help the Gonzales family; Grandma Charlotte and Grandpa Ray were unexpectedly tasked with raising their 3 young grandchildren in a ramshackle trailer. Pastor Kim Fonder and several elders from the churches we had helped in 2014 also requested our help for some other senior residents in Crow Creek tribal housing, and for a deck and handicap ramp at the Iron Nation church. After considering the winter weather in South Dakota, the Easter holidays and previously-scheduled events at Guinston, we planned our second Sioux mission for mid-april. The Iron Nation Church Our mission team of 12 arrived at the Habitat for Humanity volunteer quarters on Sunday, April 19 after mercifully uneventful travel to Fort Thompson by road and air. We spent Monday morning planning our work, then started the Iron Nation Church entrance deck and handicap ramp. We removed the original entrance steps, laid out the footprint for the deck, and dug holes for the supporting posts. 1
We then placed the supporting posts in their holes, adjusted their position, and set them in concrete. We screwed the main deck beams to the posts and used gravity, string, tapes and a laser to make the framework plumb, square and level. The joists were then laid across the beams and fastened. We laid the decking boards across the joists and secured them with screws. 2
The salvaged front steps were moved to the side of the deck and attached to the revised main entrance. We constructed the handicap ramp by the same method as the entrance deck. As a finishing touch, we put up railings to prevent accidental falls. With some help from Pastor Kim and several of the Lower Brule church elders we provided greatly improved access for church services and a snake-free deck to keep the younger kids out of danger. 3
Hymn Sing in Lower Brule Monday we were treated to an evening casual dinner at the Holy Comforter church, followed by a hymn sing with some of the congregation. We sang familiar hymns from hymnals with the words in Lakota, as Willie accompanied us on the the organ. We did our best with the Lakota phonetics and the congregation were gracious in apprecciation of our efforts. The highlight of the evening was a traditional Lakota song done a capella by three tribal elders, with an emotional intensity rarely encountered in any kind of musical performance. The Gonzales Trailer The Gonzales family includes Grandma Charlotte, Grandpa Ray and their 3 grandchildren (ages 2-7), who live in a ramshackle trailer south of Fort Thompson. Their daughter has been in prison since last year; the grandchildren's father is not Lakota, not present, and not supporting his kids. Ray had been earning a few dollars by doing backyard auto repairs in a lean-to shed built against the back of his trailer - until a winter storm picked up his shed and deposited it in the Missouri river. Their trailer is located on a high, windswept bluff overlooking the Missouri River; the beautiful view is the only good thing about it. The trailer was purchased used in 1984; decades of exposure to extreme weather have taken a heavy toll, and chronic poverty has not allowed much money for repairs. In addition to marginal weatherproofing, semi-functional heating and hazardous electrical wiring, the roof was parting company with the front wall of the trailer. 4
In Pennsylvania the trailer would have been condemned; on the reservation the only thing to be done was to patch it up as best we could. Ken, Dennis and John pulled the roof structure down and secured it to the trailer frame, then coated the roof with sealant, patched the damaged fascia and caulked multiple open seams. Walter worked on the electrical wiring, replaced burned-out receptacles, repaired rat-chewed wires and disconnected lines with unrepairable short circuits. The rest of the team repaired damaged siding, fabricated skirting from salvaged tin roofing, and caulked drafty doors and windows. After a day of attention from the Guinston Gutters, the Gonzales trailer was noticeably less drafty inside, better weatherproofed, and less likely to lose its roof in a strong wind or to catch fire from faulty wiring. Three Little Old Ladies in Eastside Tribal Housing We drove to the Eastside tribal housing project just south of Fort Thompson to build a short handicap ramp for a little old lady named Phyllis. She had her own little house and had trouble using the front steps. She had asked the tribal housing people who maintain the houses for a little entrance ramp and waited over a year with no action due to lack of money and manpower. We hauled a few pressuretreated posts and boards from the builder's supply place in Chamberlain, dug some footing holes for the uprights, and 2 hours later she had her ramp. 5
Phyllis was delighted with her ramp; she told us her sister Sandra would be terribly jealous. It seemed that Sandra lived in a similar house across the street and had similar difficulty navigating her steps. So with another couple of hours work, sister Sandra had a matching entrance ramp. Another old lady named Audrey in an Eastside house had been waiting over a year for a wall-mounted handrail to help her get up and down from her front door. We installed a railing for her, but discovered that her storm door was hinged on the wrong side for easy access. We considered switching the hinges, but the door structure was too rotted to re-use. We installed a new properly hinged storm door so that Audrey no longer had to face a challenge entering and leaving her home. 6
Simone's Story While we were working on Audrey's storm door, we were approached by a young woman in obvious distress who was barely coherent enough to ask for the use of a cell phone to call her family in Chamberlain. She said she had just awakened in bed with a sleeping man she didn't know, in a strange house in a place she didn't recognize, with no recollection of how she had gotten there. She claimed she had gone to a party in Chamberlain with a girl friend the previous night, and had no memory of anything after that. She was terrified of being seen by the man with whom she had awakened; Willie took her in hand and attempted to contact her family by cell phone without success. Curt and Willie drove her to her aunt's house in Chamberlain. We can only speculate on the rest of her story. A Friday Un-Labor Day By Thursday evening we had finished all of the work projects in our week's plan, except for the repair and re-installation of a handicap stair lift at Christ Church in Fort Thompson. We then were informed that a 65-person volunteer group had just been scheduled for arrival in June, and they would need some challenging work projects. We were happy to leave the stair lift for them, and declared Friday to be a day off for sightseeing and recreation. The following photos are a small sampling from our day off. 7
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On the Road 11
The Lakota people are as deeply in need of help as the Hurricane Katrina victims we served in New Orleans. We should not presume that we can heal the major misery there, but we can extend our effort to serve those in need. The Sioux reservations are at the practical limit of our road travel with vehicles, tools, equipment and volunteers for 1-week mission trips. We expect to cope with the tedium of road travel, week-long manual labor, rudimentary volunteer quarters, lack of supporting infrastructure, and an unfamiliar native language and culture. The economics of what we do as a long-distance amateur construction crew are far from competitive with what a competant local contractor could provide. But our objectives are outreach, understanding, development of our own faith, obedience to the Great Commission, and a demonstration of the love of Our Lord, and these may be done only with our own hands and hearts. Our mission team for this trip included: Walter and Sue Blumenfeld, Tony Deller, Jenette Dunlap, John and Judy Flaharty, Becki (Tompkins) Krug, Nadine Ruth, Dennis Tompkins, Ken Tome, and Curt and Willie Wood. 12