For several years, Virginia Baptist mission teams have ministered on the Standing Rock Reservation, the fourth largest Native American reservation in the U.S, straddling the border of North and South Dakota. Michael Clingenpeel, pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, is with a mission team there this week and is sending daily impressions of the work.
FORT YATES, N.D. — There was a time when law-enforcement officers granted ministers the opportunity to join them for a shift in a squad car. Pastors got a close-up-and-personal view of life on the right and wrong side of the law. A night on the beat never failed to supply perspective.
My job on the mission trip to Standing Rock is to “ride-along.”
WMUV's Maria Lynn speaking to volunteers at Tipi Wakan, a chapel/church in Cannonball, N.D.(Photo by Michael Clingenpeel)
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For one week I get to go from one mission site to another, observing, asking questions, taking pictures and, on occasion, making myself useful by toting a box or talking to a child. To justify my existence, I tap out this blog each day, and maybe a story or two at the end of the week.
There are no awful jobs on this mission trip, but mine has to be the best.
Yesterday I talked my way into the van of Maria Lynn, adult missions coordinator for Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia. People refer to the late George Steinbrenner as “The Boss,” but they have not met Maria. When it comes to Virginia Baptists at Standing Rock, she is “The Boss.”
The Standing Rock partnership landed on her plate when she was hired by WMUV a little over two years ago. The partnership was expanding to gather in volunteers from outside the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association, where it originated under the vision of Bob Hetherington and his late wife, Judy. WMUV saw it as a project they could promote, and Maria was the logical person to coordinate the statewide emphasis.
Missions is a family affair for the Lynns. A little after 9 a.m. yesterday, Maria's husband and two daughters climbed into the WMUV van, along with me, and more boxes than a Federal Express jet. We drove north to Cannonball, a community of about 850 people on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. There we off-loaded about half of the boxes and Maria's family, who joined other volunteers at that site.
Joe Teefey, a member of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, organizes medical supplies to be used by a team that is traveling to all seven communities in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to conduct health checks. (Photo by Michael Clingenpeel)
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Cannonball is the location of Tipi Wakan, a chapel led by Pastor Boots Marsh and his wife, Jackie. Before we left, volunteers had already begun sorting medical supplies and the many dolls, jumpers and shoes contributed by Virginia Baptists. Others were slapping primer on the single-wide trailer which soon will house two Virginia Baptist Venturers.
From there, Maria and I spent the day driving to the remaining six communities on the reservation where some of the 240 or so volunteers were deployed. Fort Yates. Porcupine. McLaughlin. Bullhead. Little Eagle. Wakpala.
We started in North Dakota and, by early afternoon, we were in South Dakota. We passed prairie dogs, buffalo herds, horses, grasslands, buttes, amber waves of grain and two places where Sitting Bull is buried, one in North Dakota and the other in South Dakota. Don't ask.
At each site Maria handled lots of logistics with skill. Need more people to help with the traveling team. Check. Need transportation for seven people to a work site. Check. Boxes were mistakenly sent to the wrong site and need to be moved. Check. A child arrived at one site with a personal crisis — what do we do? Check.
Over 200 volunteers don't show up in North Dakota, deploy and get something done without coordination. Maria Lynn is the one who makes it happen for Virginia Baptists.
We returned to the hotel 10 hours and well over 200 miles after we left. This is a big reservation, with big needs, and Virginia Baptists are doing big work here.