Hello Everyone,
I have been asked by several people about what life is like here on the reservation, it is hard to answer until we were living here for a little while, I feel I can answer that a little better after being here almost 4 months. This email is to share with you some of our experiences here over the summer. Some of it is not very pretty but that is why God has us here I believe.
When we first set out to come here we didn't know where we were going to live. Our original place to stay was going to be in a barn loft that I was going to add some water to make a little apartment out of. That fell through in the last few weeks before we came and God opened another place for us to stay, which was the parsonage beside the church. I am so grateful for this, we could not have asked for a more practical place to stay. It is spacious and in really great shape. it needed a lot of cleaning up and some minor work with holes in the walls and such, but I just so happen to be gifted in that area as well as there was a wonderful church around 2 hrs north of here that wanted to be a blessing to us and came one Saturday and helped me paint and all before Amanda got here back in may, and such a great blessing they were.
It is directly across the street from the busiest gas station on the entire Reservation at an intersection called Sharps Corner. Sharps Corner is considered the most central place here not so much because of where it sits geographically but because of the convenience to get to pretty much anywhere here.
The back door had a sticker on it that says "We do not give out gas money" That should have bee a hint as to how many people we would encounter on a daily basis that come by our house asking for anything you could possibly imagine. Because we are at the parsonage we have people stop that need to get in the pantry for food and baby supplies. Baby supplies, such as diapers, wipes and formula go faster than anything else. We have a lot of teenage moms that come by needing help. We are blessed by people that put boxes and such together to help keep this pantry stocked. We have been working on a clothes closet that has plenty of room to be able to stock clothes and coats for winter and such, it has already been put to use but is still a working progress.
The weather has been a crazy thing to experience here. It can be totally sunny and over 100 degrees outside and within a few hrs be seriously cold and hailing. The wind is always blowing, 60 mph winds are nothing here. we have experienced several days of winds around 80 100mph. I told them, where I'm from we call that a hurricane! It is a constant job cleaning trash and such that the winds blow all over the place. We keep a ratchet strap on the trash can to keep it at a minimum.
Rapid City is the closest city to us. It has around 80,000 people and has everything you could need. It is home to the busiest wal-mart in the world is what am told at least, and I totally believe it, there has never been a slow time to go to that store. it is because it is the only one for so many miles that people use that one from so far out. Rapid City for us is about 80 miles away,so we are learning to make good use of our trips to town. I am becoming a much better list maker!
The people here are very passive and easy to get along with. Most of them have light hearts and cut up all the time. When you are talking to them about something might not agree with at all, they will just shake their head and smile and probably agree with you just to not have any argument at all. It gets aggravating sometimes when you are trying to teach them because you don't know if they are getting it or just shaking their head for fun, so I am learning to ask them a lot of questions.
I believe we have been well received here by most. There are some that just look away from you and you can tell some bitterness and hate with "white people", but even then they just wont talk to you or even look at you I have noticed, never any words or other actions to show that.
Gang activity is pretty much in every community here, there is graffiti on pretty much every house and playground in every one of the government housing communities.
Drugs and alcohol are a huge detriment to this society. There have been several cases I have gone out in the morning and heard from some of our neighbors about all the things that have transpired the night before and I didn't hear or see anything. That confirms for me once again that God has a hedge of protection over our house and family. some of the things I have heard that have happened even in the last few months that we have been here are too grotesque to share in this email and are very upsetting, but just know that it is not pretty things.
Last Saturday morning I had gone to a friends house in a community down the road that they have nicknamed "mini Baghdad" (I think that is a little stretched but it still gives you the idea) as I was coming in, there were people out standing in the streets and something seemed a little out of the norm. I had asked my friend what was going on and he had told me that a 24yr old a few houses down had hung himself that morning. I don't know if any of you have looked at or remember us sharing some of the statistics here before we came, but the suicide rate is insane here. This was the most recent but I have heard of so many more in the last weeks and all are of young people. In Rapid City at the Lakota housing there a few weeks ago they found a 12 yr old that had killed himself and while the coroner was still there they had gone back in the house and the boys 8yr old brother had done the same. Even as I write this it grieves my heart sharing this with you, but I do feel the need to let you know of the condition that is here. People ask more than anything else "what do you think is the main #1 problem here, is it the drugs, gangs, alcohol?" I have heard Pastor Mike say - You cant one dimensionalize a problem this big, there isn't just one thing, all of these problems are symptoms of a much deeper problem I believe.
We have had a little boy about Jacob's age named Daryl come and hang out at our house for a little while and he would eat lunch with us after church, I have never met his parents or anything and he had kind of disappeared, when I had asked around about him I was told the other day that his mom had abandoned him and his 2 other siblings and they had put them in separate foster homes because nobody wanted them all together. I hear of this quite often, even with the teens they are always being moved around to different relatives to stay with.
All of this to say, we know without a doubt of why God has us here. These are a people that God loves and He likes them. He chose a very similar culture to call His own, so much of the culture here is so close to Hebrew culture, and I don't believe they are far off from the truth from what they believe, but you can have almost the whole Gospel without Christ and you would have nothing. Pray for the ministry here. I am sad to be leaving next month but it is something that we have to do. I feel that we are going to have to almost start over building relationships here when we get back in March.
Pray for our family, for continued protection. I have had to explain so many things to Jacob that he has heard and seen and doesn't fully understand, I pray that God guards his little heart from things that he shouldn't be exposed to, as well as Leah. We are getting ready to make our journey home leaving here
September 14th heading to Chicago for that
Sunday the 16th. from there hopefully going to Columbus Ohio, Louisville KY, Radcliff KY, Nashville TN, Huntsville AL and then home. if you are in any of these areas please give us a shout we would love to come see you. God's people have been so gracious in opening their homes to us and we are excited about making new friends along the way.
Thank you all for your prayers and support for us to be able to minister to the Lakota people.
Learning to serve the Lord in all we do,
Matt, Amanda, Jacob and Leah Hadden
