Warning! The route you are taking has unpaved roads. Do you want to continue?

After completing my first two years of seminary, I've begun my year-long internship to complete my Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.  I was accepted to serve Pine Ridge through the Horizons Program.  This program is designed to place interns at sites that may otherwise be unable to afford an intern.  The program was also established to serve communities with pastors who are women or people of color.

Being in Pennsylvania prior to the start of internship, I drove roughly 2,000 miles over the course of a week to arrive at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  The people of Pine Ridge are Oglala Sioux and they speak Lakota and English.  My official assignment is to be the intern for an ELCA pastor at the Pine Ridge Retreat Center, which is a joint Presbyterian-Lutheran ministry.

I pulled up to the retreat center on Wednesday night, August 23rd, to see a hoard of children running around.  My supervisor happened to be standing right in front of the parking spaces and yelled, "Are you Meredith?"  I nodded and she told me to pull in to a narrow spot between two vans.  She couldn't remember which night I was arriving, but recognized me because of Steve (my faithful puppy) in the backseat.  We got out of the car and spent the next few hours surrounded by the group of kids and a retreat group from Chicago.

Thursday morning came early, since daily devotions are at 7am.  After devotions, we traveled with the retreat group to meet with Robert Two Bulls, the Episcopalian priest at St. John's Church in Oglala.  When I left St. Paul, one of the stops on my way to South Dakota, I turned on my GPS, plugged in the address for Pine Ridge and the warning message came up saying, "Warning! The route you are taking has unpaved roads.  Do you want to continue?"  I nervously laughed and clicked yes.  Now, Pine Ridge Retreat Center (PRRC) is located on a main road--no problem.  We drove this road for awhile to meet with Rev. Two Bulls, until we slowed down and turned right onto a dirt path that went steeply up a hill and into oblivion.  We drove this path through a large field, until we reached a spot with an outhouse and a bench.

We listened to Rev. Two Bulls tell us his story, ranging from his baptism to the work of the church today.  I did my best to listen to him, but I was also looking across the Black Hills, seeing miles and miles of gorgeous landscape and hearing absolutely nothing, aside from his words.  The silence was fantastic.

After he spoke, we drove to the church across the field.  Now, remember the GPS warning?  We were on unpaved roads at this point.  No, I'm lying.  These weren't unpaved roads; it was driving through a grassy field.  At one point, a huge smile cracked across my face as I realized how FANTASTIC this year was going to be.  As we rocked and jostled and shifted in my supervisor's SUV across this field, watching for rattlesnakes, and wondering how we'd get to the church, I fell in love.  I fell in love with this year, with this place, with this people, with the experiences ahead of me.  As we got closer to the church, we had to wait for the herd of cattle to split, so that we could find our way to the church driveway.  Steve, I don't think we're in Chicago anymore.

Later in the evening, I experienced my first "Kids' Program" night.  We host the kids' programs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, the former for the younger kids and the latter for the older.  This entails worship, a meal and then playtime.  Every other day of the week, we just host playtime, and it's called "Sanctuary."  During the worship service, the kids spoke the different parts of worship, including the prayers of the people.  I heard one girl pray for the "health and wholeness of all children here."  I think achieving "health and wholeness" is a lot harder for a community with such poverty, alcoholism, suicide, gangs, etc, etc, etc.  Worship concluded with learning a few Lakota words.  One word that stuck out to me was "su," which means "seed."  I pray that this worship service or meal or playtime plants a seed of hope for these children, providing them a safe sanctuary for them to be healthy and whole.

I'll do my best to share a variety of stories and experiences on this blog.  I'll probably have plenty of moments where I'm trying to understand the poverty and pain in this community, but I want to share the fun, joyous moments too.  It does no justice to the people here if I paint another picture of only suffering.

Thursday concluded with a trip to feed the buffalo.  Yes, feed...the...buffalo.  We got into the back of two pick-up trucks and drove through another winding field, climbing steep hills and praying that the trucks didn't roll, to end up in the middle of a large pasture of rolling hills, looking off at the sunset.  We were quickly surrounded by a dozen or so buffalo of all ages, who were waiting for "buffalo cake," which are hard pellets the diameter of a quarter and roughly four inches in length.  Buffalo stick their tongues out, reaching for the pellets, then kinda swirl their tongues back in once they've gotten the cake.  Most of you probably know that I am a bit of an adventurer, especially seeking new experiences and taking risks (safely).  There's a diaconal minister candidate here at PRRC who will be here as long as she can keep getting donations to live (she doesn't have a salary).  As we were getting into the trucks she said, "Who's going to kiss a buffalo tonight?"  Well, the adventurer in mean isn't going to say no to something like that!  Once I had hand-fed a few of the animals, I decided to take the plunge and kiss one.  "Kissing" a buffalo involves placing buffalo cake in your mouth and leaning out of the side of the pickup (we stayed inside the truck the whole time--don't worry, Mom!) and letting the buffalo eat it out of your mouth.  My first buffalo kiss was a little sloppy, since he ate the cake, then seemed to lick most of my neck and side of my face.  I plan to practice a bit more though.  :)

And that was my first day in the "office" for internship.  Let's do this! :)