FYI
Some one needs to make a Mai/Zuko vid to Wish You Well by Thousand Foot Krutch. Srsly.
And I'm back from Montana. If you want to know anything else, let me know. It's late right now.
Hungry Horse, Montana is an interesting place. It was described as the white trash of the area, a place called Felony Flats because most of its residents have at least one felony attached to their name. Many pedophiles make their home in the area to lay low. And yet young ladies will dress, frankly, like whores (because you have to have a man) and yet complain when a pedophile gawks at them at 11:00 at night when they choose to be outside in a tube top with their chachas hanging out and in booty shorts. There is apparently a lot of incest and inbreeding there. It was very sad a lot of the time. There is a family there of a mom and seven children by six different fathers. If they have jobs, they blow all their money getting fireworks for the 4th and Christmas is pretty much nothing to those kids. There were so many stories. Children coming to the bus in the dead of winter for church from sleeping in a car outside their trailer and realizing that they didn't have shoes, so they went and knocked and knocked at the door until the pastor finally went ahead and opened it to find their father face-first in his own vomit and their mother stoned out of her mind. A family of three daughters, a mom and dad. One of the daughters is 17 and on her second baby, the other in addicted to drugs, and the last daughter is the one we're praying will graduate. There was a man whose three sons would steal his pain medications for his cancer so that they could get high. There was a father and son, Wolf and Jacob, who came to the church that have lived in a tent in someone's backyard for two years. There was a family in which the father raped both of his daughters for two years until one committed suicide and everything finally came out into the open. There are little to no police because they simply don't come to Hungry Horse because they'll have fireworks shot at them, or they'd just prefer not to mess with it. The adult pastor's daughter, who had been in advanced classes back in Tennessee, was placed in remedial classes in Montana simply because of her zip code. Fortunately they were able to fix that.
But God is good and he allowed me and a team of eleven others to come from Mississippi to go and love on those children and to witness his beauty in a way that we had never seen. We worked at Canyon Baptist Church for a week and it was amazing. Monday we cleaned up their storage closets and organized them, washed down their playground, and made apple turnovers out the wazoo. Tuesday we washed all the church vans and staff cars and cooked more food. During the washing, an elderly gentleman drove by and asked if he could just use our hose to wash down his car, but we said no, but we would wash it for him. It turned out to be the original pastor, the man who had ridden horses through the town to find children. That night we entertained the children that came with the adult to bible study with music, games, and a quick devotion. Wednesday we cooked like 20 apple pies and set up for the night's children service and lock-in (for jr. and sr. high girls). The service went really well. There is a major difference between the way that they worship and the way we do it down south. These kids have had little to no parental intervention, so most simply don't know how to behave in church. The lock-in was my favorite thing. We had about 10 girls show up and we made bracelets, did nails and hair (we got the pastor and his son with the pink and glittery hair spray), and Carlie and I led a Bible study that I am quite proud of and they really seemed to understand it. It was about beauty and self-worth, which was a message that I think that they needed to hear. I can get it to y'all if you'd like a copy. Anyway, we watched One Night with the King to close out the night. Thursday was one of out free days and we rode horses and chilled at the cabins (I took the best nap of my life). Friday we got up extra early to go to a Baptist-run camp ground and we helped pick up LOTS of sticks and move them to a woodpile. The mosquitoes in MT are like no other. They swarm and we used at least four bottle of OFF between all of us. Anyway. They missionary couple at the campsite were very, very sweet and encouraging. Kelly and Erica have three children (under 6 years old) and are on an income of $800, and even though they have housing taken care of, that is certainly not much. Erica told us that she has simply learned to rely on God. We canoed that afternoon and some of the girls tricked Mr. Lloyd (the pastor) into getting into a canoe with them and then they promptly flipped it when they got out to about 30 ft deep. Saturday was the fourth and we set up cotton candy, pop corn, sno-cone, face painting, and craft booths at the local volunteer fire department. There was a family that came from France and they were on a 6-month bicycling tour of the US. The mother had gotten injured along the way and had to follow in a truck since then, but they had the four most beautiful children I have ever seen in my entire life. They spoke little English, but three of the four got American flags painted on their faces and did everything they could to celebrate the 4th. It was incredibly cute. After that, we hung out at the church and played Taboo and Apples to Apples (our favorite games of the week).
And I'm back from Montana. If you want to know anything else, let me know. It's late right now.
Hungry Horse, Montana is an interesting place. It was described as the white trash of the area, a place called Felony Flats because most of its residents have at least one felony attached to their name. Many pedophiles make their home in the area to lay low. And yet young ladies will dress, frankly, like whores (because you have to have a man) and yet complain when a pedophile gawks at them at 11:00 at night when they choose to be outside in a tube top with their chachas hanging out and in booty shorts. There is apparently a lot of incest and inbreeding there. It was very sad a lot of the time. There is a family there of a mom and seven children by six different fathers. If they have jobs, they blow all their money getting fireworks for the 4th and Christmas is pretty much nothing to those kids. There were so many stories. Children coming to the bus in the dead of winter for church from sleeping in a car outside their trailer and realizing that they didn't have shoes, so they went and knocked and knocked at the door until the pastor finally went ahead and opened it to find their father face-first in his own vomit and their mother stoned out of her mind. A family of three daughters, a mom and dad. One of the daughters is 17 and on her second baby, the other in addicted to drugs, and the last daughter is the one we're praying will graduate. There was a man whose three sons would steal his pain medications for his cancer so that they could get high. There was a father and son, Wolf and Jacob, who came to the church that have lived in a tent in someone's backyard for two years. There was a family in which the father raped both of his daughters for two years until one committed suicide and everything finally came out into the open. There are little to no police because they simply don't come to Hungry Horse because they'll have fireworks shot at them, or they'd just prefer not to mess with it. The adult pastor's daughter, who had been in advanced classes back in Tennessee, was placed in remedial classes in Montana simply because of her zip code. Fortunately they were able to fix that.
But God is good and he allowed me and a team of eleven others to come from Mississippi to go and love on those children and to witness his beauty in a way that we had never seen. We worked at Canyon Baptist Church for a week and it was amazing. Monday we cleaned up their storage closets and organized them, washed down their playground, and made apple turnovers out the wazoo. Tuesday we washed all the church vans and staff cars and cooked more food. During the washing, an elderly gentleman drove by and asked if he could just use our hose to wash down his car, but we said no, but we would wash it for him. It turned out to be the original pastor, the man who had ridden horses through the town to find children. That night we entertained the children that came with the adult to bible study with music, games, and a quick devotion. Wednesday we cooked like 20 apple pies and set up for the night's children service and lock-in (for jr. and sr. high girls). The service went really well. There is a major difference between the way that they worship and the way we do it down south. These kids have had little to no parental intervention, so most simply don't know how to behave in church. The lock-in was my favorite thing. We had about 10 girls show up and we made bracelets, did nails and hair (we got the pastor and his son with the pink and glittery hair spray), and Carlie and I led a Bible study that I am quite proud of and they really seemed to understand it. It was about beauty and self-worth, which was a message that I think that they needed to hear. I can get it to y'all if you'd like a copy. Anyway, we watched One Night with the King to close out the night. Thursday was one of out free days and we rode horses and chilled at the cabins (I took the best nap of my life). Friday we got up extra early to go to a Baptist-run camp ground and we helped pick up LOTS of sticks and move them to a woodpile. The mosquitoes in MT are like no other. They swarm and we used at least four bottle of OFF between all of us. Anyway. They missionary couple at the campsite were very, very sweet and encouraging. Kelly and Erica have three children (under 6 years old) and are on an income of $800, and even though they have housing taken care of, that is certainly not much. Erica told us that she has simply learned to rely on God. We canoed that afternoon and some of the girls tricked Mr. Lloyd (the pastor) into getting into a canoe with them and then they promptly flipped it when they got out to about 30 ft deep. Saturday was the fourth and we set up cotton candy, pop corn, sno-cone, face painting, and craft booths at the local volunteer fire department. There was a family that came from France and they were on a 6-month bicycling tour of the US. The mother had gotten injured along the way and had to follow in a truck since then, but they had the four most beautiful children I have ever seen in my entire life. They spoke little English, but three of the four got American flags painted on their faces and did everything they could to celebrate the 4th. It was incredibly cute. After that, we hung out at the church and played Taboo and Apples to Apples (our favorite games of the week).