Hey guys! This week I’m going to be talking about my first mission trip to Lodge Grass, Montana (out of 2). This took place at the end of July in 2016, so I was 14 at the time. This is a very interesting one because Lodge Grass is a town that’s part of the Native American Crow Reservation. While I was in Montana, I got to encounter Native American culture, which, as you may imagine, is much different from American culture. This made the experience even more enriching and impactful than the other mission trips I had been on. This post is going to include more details than normal, so just a fair warning, it may be quite long compared to the others (I encourage you to read it all though because this is one of the trips I am most passionate about. I think it’s worth the read).

First, I would like to talk about the general conditions I encountered at the reservation. Overall, Native American reservations are often extremely poor. None of the dwellings that I saw in that town were in very good shape at all. I often saw dirty children roaming the streets in groups, and I rarely saw any adults who could be considered supervisors. I stayed in the town’s school, which encompassed grades K through 12. The school was extremely run-down. Windows were broken, paint was chipped, desks and chairs were falling apart, and electricity was sketchy in each of the rooms.

Next, I will talk a little bit about the culture at the reservation. One really amazing thing that the Chief (Chief Whales) did for my work team is that, after one of our work days, he and a few Elders gave us a little presentation of a purifying ritual that they do using a sweat lodge. I am going to attempt to explain this ritual a little bit, but I may not do it justice. They explained that in this sweat lodge (which is a tent with multiple layers of blankets and cloth which keep heat in), they spend hours meditating. They generate the heat in there by pouring water on heated rocks. The Elders strip their clothes, close the tent, and spend upwards of 4 or 5 hours praying, singing, and meditating. This ceremonial sweat bath is meant to cleanse them of toxins and negative energy and stimulate vision and insight. After Chief Whales explained this ritual, we got a chance to go into the sweat lodge briefly.

Then, Chief Whales and an Elder named Adrian (who was a very sweet old man who did janitorial work at the school) did a presentation on spear throwing. This is a very specific and effective Native American tactic for hunting bison. They aim to hit a specific soft area of the throat at a very specific angle so that the spear shoots straight through the bison. This allows them to be able to reuse the spear. They emphasized the fact that they use every single part of the bison and reuse the spear, because they are not wasteful people. We then had the opportunity to try throwing these spears. The following picture is of some of my team with Adrian (in the middle).

Another activity that we did after one of our work days was that we hiked up a small mountain to see the sunset over the water. Here is a picture of my team from the top of the mountain! I am all the way to the left. My old youth pastor Christina (whom I mentioned in my last post) is next to me. Then it’s my twin brother Jeremy, my dad, and my friends Emma and Abby.

You can find another picture from this trip on my blog home page. It’s the picture in the little circle that’s over the description of my blog.

Finally, I will now describe the work that I did in Lodge Grass throughout the week. My team spent all 5 days working at the kids’ club on the reservation. At the kids’ club, we spent the week doing Bible lessons, playing tag, giving piggy back rides, and playing basketball. Basketball was a HUGE sport on the reservation. All the kids played it in their free time, and it was very competitive. Needless to say, I got my butt kicked many times when I played. The children we encountered here were much different from children from the other mission trips. For instance, they were far more independent at younger ages. Many of these children did not have strong parental figures, or they had parental figures who were consumed by alcoholism. I met one 12 year old girl named Malia who took full care of her younger sister Ariya and her cousin. Since the Crow children did not have strong parental figures to rely on, they quickly attached themselves to us. We developed close relationships with these children. Here is a picture of me with Malia (above) and Ariya (on my lap) when we reconnected the following year when I came back to the reservation for my second trip.

This mission trip was among the most impactful that I have been on. It currently holds as my second favorite mission trip, next to my other mission trip to Montana (which I will talk about in 3 weeks). The culture was the thing that impacted me most about the trip. It was also striking to learn of the conditions everyone on the reservation lived in, especially the children. I have a strong desire to go back to the reservation at some point in my life, because the Crow people left a strong imprint in my heart.