South Dakota - Day 2

Pastor Jim shared with us this morning about the importance of just being a good neighbor and building relationships - this is what they have focused on for many years here at Bethel and over time they are beginning to see progress because of their efforts to reach the community here in North Rapid City.

There's a lot to be done here at Bethel! They too are in the middle of a building project! Their project will provide some much needed space for an after-school program. Pastor Jim took us through their new addition and shared with us the vision of the center that they are building. When complete, the center will house a gym, game room, sitting area, snack shop, locker rooms, and a youth group area. This will help them to further reach their community and partner with local agencies, such as the YMCA! Below you can see some of the lower area that is being built.

This morning we worked on the Duplex that the church owns. Team members continued tearing out paneling that had been ruined during a recent flood. Tomorrow we will spend a great deal more time continuing to remove damaged paneling and hopefully begin the process of fixing some of the damaged areas.


This afternoon we took a couple hour break and headed toward the Black Hills before returning to Bethel to prepare for Global Expedition. Jim and Pat suggested a neat place called Bear Country, so we headed there for about an hour or so. We were able to drive through an area that had many types of wild animals - including lots of bear! Since it was the middle of the afternoon, most of the bears were taking afternoon naps, but they were still fun to look at!

We wrapped up this evening by traveling to China for our second night of Global Expedition. The kids here are really enjoying the videos that we brought which have the same drama on them that we did in Carmel. The kids are so excited to learn more about Moses and Bob and Charles each evening! Pastor Jim has also been doing a great job with the object lessons - one child tonight even congratulated him on having his shirt buttoned right tonight :-) Since he had trouble getting it started during last night's object lesson!