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. — Like most Southern Baptists over the age of 50, my first taste of missions came at the hands of Sunbeams and Royal Ambassadors. Missions was summed up in three words — pray, pay and send. Missionaries made it a career, mostly outside the United States.
This changed during the final quarter of the 20th century. We added a fourth word — go.
Missions volunteerism, a.k.a. partnership missions, is an accepted fact. We don't want to watch someone else's photographs and hear another person's stories. We hunger for the experience.
Virginia Baptists linked up with Baptists in New England about 30 years ago. A few churches made connections with sister churches in what Southern Baptists called “pioneer” areas, but it never scratched the missions itch.
Then came a partnership with Tanzania. This featured a tangible goal — build 100 church buildings in three years across this nation in East Africa. Virginia Baptists got excited.
Later came simultaneous revivals in Costa Rica, construction projects in the Czech Republic, Seeds for Croatia and Bible distribution among the Kuna Indians in Panama. Partnership missions was here to stay.
This missions partnership with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is different than most of those undertaken by Virginia Baptists in the past.
For one thing, the population numbers are small. Only 17,000 people live on the reservation, 10,000 of whom are enrolled in the Sioux Tribe.
For another, there are only two Baptist-related churches on the reservation — Tipi Wakan in Cannonball and First Baptist Church in Fort Yates. Only Tipi Wakan has a full-time pastor, and he and his wife live off their retirement income and the modest support provided by some generous friends. The work is difficult, and the traditional measures of success — bodies, bucks and buildings — are almost non-existent.
So what are Virginia Baptists doing here?
Making friends.
Bob Hetherington, who came here for the first time over 15 years ago, says this partnership is “about people, not projects.”
How do Virginia Baptists go about making friends 1,800 miles away?
Simple deeds. Acts of kindness.
Here's what's been happening this week. Hypertension and diabetes are common among the Native American population, so a medical team is taking blood pressures and testing glucose levels. They are giving away toothbrushes and toothpaste, doing eye tests and reading glasses to those who need them. At seven sites they are serving free lunches and dinners to anyone who shows up. They are leading recreation for children and youth, teaching a Bible story each day, reading aloud and giving each person three books a day. They are doing woodworking and teaching computer skills. They are learning names, entering conversations and smiling a lot. They are fitting children and adults with shoes donated by Middle District Baptist Association churches and winter coats from Poplar Springs Baptist Church in Richmond.
Elizabeth Boone, a May University of Richmond graduate who moved here for a two-year appointment as a Virginia Baptist Venturer, said it this way: “Virginia Baptists go where the spotlight isn't. We are here because there is a need.”