Our Grace teams to the Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservation have found great needs among native Americans over the last three years, and we go once again this year to support the ongoing outreach of Boots and Jackie Marsh at Tipi Wakan in the town of Cannonball, ND.  The ministry this year will have two elements.  A Basketball Outreach team will put on an evangelistic basketball camp to reach out to the native young people, and a Care team will bring the gospel and biblical principles of spiritual care to the many emotional and spiritual needs on the reservation.

MONDAY, JULY 7
A very quick note to thank you for your support and prayers. We are leaving for LAX tomorrow morning and have seen God move in many people's hearts during our trip.

Team members have become unified, loving and caring toward each other to the extent that a beloved new friend named Tim Swimmer, a Native American former pastor, decided that our visible fruits were the precipitating factor in his decision to return to pastoring. We prayed for him in our worship service at TipiWakan this morning (probably while many of you were praying back in CA!), recommissioning him to the Lord's service. It was a very moving time for all of us.

Please continue to remember Boots and Jackie, as we return to our lives in CA, they will be staying with their commitment in Cannon Ball to the Native Americans. We feel encouraged that the Lord has used each of us to support their efforts and to show love to their flock.

Many blessings,

Marcy for the team

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2

Hello Faithful Prayer Warriors,

Thanks so much remembering our team in North Dakota this week. We've been busy from sun-up to sundown (about 16 hours a day!) counseling the Native Americans, playing basketball with children, presenting crafts, cooking for the 19 of us, and doing repairs and fixups around the church.

The basketball camp has had a small following of children and youth each day learning new skills, hearing a testimony from a team member, and playing 3 on 3 or 5 on 5 games with our team. A young gal named JoElle has enjoyed the company of our team's girls and she wanted to attend a Bible Study dinner with us last night. As Pastor Dan was giving a clear presentation of the gospel, she leaned over to our girls and asked if they would pray with her to receive Christ! What a wonderful testimony of our girls' living out their faith and being as kind as Jesus would have been to her. We enjoyed dinner with 24 Native Americans in South Dakota last night, fellowshipping with them and finding we have much in common. Spiritual warfare and sin is the same in Cannon Ball or in Santa Clarita.

Our Grief Share counselors have had a small number of people wanting counseling each day. The training they provided last Saturday at an area church has initiated some discussion with Boots from some area believers about how they might provide support to his ministry here. That's one reason why we are here - to find ways to facilitate on-going support for him and Jackie.

The Grief Share people were invited today by the Native American tribal council to attend a suicide awareness roundtable discussion. What an opportunity to share the love of Christ with those who are struggling with earthly methods to address spiritual problems.

The kitchen crew has been cooking for 19 each day with much support from the team. We were able to purchase and have delivered a commercial refrigerator and freezer, along with a barbecue (which we will use at the basketball camp's tri-tip picnic on Saturday), a load of shelving for storage and some repair supplies for the church projects.

Each member has contributed mightily to the effort to meet the needs of the people here daily. Please pray for our continued faithfulness, flexibility, and soft hearts toward the residents of Cannon Ball. The unity of our team has been a blessing, and we work together nicely.

Grateful for your support of us!
Marcy for the team

Hello Faithful Prayer Supporters,

We've arrived in North Dakota and have definitely hit the ground running!!

We were able to have dinner with Boots and Jackie Marsh and Matthew Knapp, their summer intern on Friday night so the team could get the framework for the week from our missionaries.

On Saturday the Care Team provided training in GriefShare counseling for some Native American Sioux folks from both North and South Dakota and some people from area Bismarck and Mandan churches, about 25 in all. The participants were so interested to begin GriefShare counseling at their churches, and one woman expressed a desire to become trained so she could offer counseling at TipiWakan with Boots and Jackie! That was our prayerful goal - for the Christians to see the overwhelming need just 50 miles south of here on the reservation.

The Basketball team helped me (Marcy) all Saturday at TipiWakan by unloading the groceries for 21 homecooked meals and making both lunch and a picnic dinner for the rest of the team. Also, we fit in time to see the facilities for Basketball camp, which begins on Monday morning. We traveled back to Bismarck to Ft. Lincoln, General George Custer's headquarters, to have a picnic dinner together, share our experiences of the day and to see a silly melodrama. How much fun to unwind and laugh together!!

Please continue to pray for our safety and protection (only one trip to urgent care so far - a bad sore throat!), the willingness of the Native children to participate in Basketball Camp, and for the older folks to come to take advantage of the Grief Share counselors who will be available all week long at TipiWakan to lend listening ears.

We have a great team who is bonding well and enjoying the fellowship of each other.

We'll update you again as the week progresses,

Marcy