So How Did it Go?

So, How Did It Go?

Dear Heart of the City Friends,

I wanted to write you and give you a follow-up about our recent Heart of the City Band outreach trip to the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations in South Dakota.

We packed up two Fridays ago with seven of us, our luggage, instruments and a portabel sound system in our rented 15 passenger van.

We were blessed to have a new Nigerian/American vocalist, Helena Adjei, join us for the first time along with her husband, Koffi, who came along to help us with our equipment set up and tear down. Our other singers - besides Sandy and I, were Karen Austin BraveCrow and Edwin Adorno (who flew up from Florida to join us). And last minute, we heard from our Lakota friend, Theresa Eastman, out at the Rosebud House of Prayer, that her sister, Marietta, was looking for a ride from the Twin Cities so that she could be a part of the tent meeting at the Rosebud House of Prayer. So, since we had the room in the van, we contacted her and she was able to ride with us out there and we also picked her up from Rosebud on the way back from Pine Ridge to the Twin Cities as well.

We drove a tall,15 passenger van - which was great, but the whole trip was really windy and I found it pretty exhausting white-knuckling the steering wheel the whole trip as the wind kept tossing us around the road. But thankfully, we stayed totally safe. And in spite of having several us who had never met before this trip, we all got along great and worked well as a team and that was a big answer to prayer!

On our long drive out West, we took a couple of extra hours to visit the 1880's Town along the freeway and then drive through the Badlands on the way down to Rosebud.

Our first concert was in a big tent meeting at the Rosebud House of Prayer on Saturday night. The weather was nice and there was a nice sized group that turned out. That concert went well and we were so happy to reconnect with our Lakota friend, Theresa Eastman - whose story and song is featured on our We Speak Life CD. We were also able to give away quite a few of our We Speak Life and A New Kind of Warrior CD's to those who attended. Many Native Americans in attendance were anxious to share them with family and friends. This concert was part of a week-long tent meeting sponsored by Legacy Fishing Retreats, River Hills Fellowship in Chamberlain and the Rosebud House of Prayer. While we were there, we got to meet another couple who do Native American music ministry called "Worship Rebels". They were great and even helped run sound for us! We were blessed to be able to partner and work together with all these great people and ministries toward the same goals!

The next day we drove to the Rosebud Jail and performed three, one-hour concerts there. The inmates were very welcoming and attentive to what we said and were very excited to hear that the officers there were going to give them each copies of both of our CD's when they were released from the jail. We're not allowed to show any photos of inmates, but we made a real good connection with so many of them!

On Monday, we drove several hours from our hotel in Valentine, Nebraska to Pine Ridge Reservation. Just south of Pine Ridge, on the Nebraska border, we stayed at a wonderful couple's little farm that we've stayed at for many years. John and Linda Hotz feel like family now. Linda makes us amazing food and in our free time, we got to drive 4 wheelers around that beautiful area a little bit and enjoy the goats, donkey and chickens. Linda even made Karen, whose birthday was during our trip, a birthday cake! How sweet!

On Monday, after stopping at the Hotz's farm and getting something to eat, we went on to Pine Ridge and briefly visited a ranch and radio station that has been donated to our friend Janet Napper, from Memphis, and her ministry "Overcoming Abuse God's Way". It's a big, beautiful place with great potential that is going to be a safe-house for battered women from Pine Ridge. The need is enormous!

From there we went over to a Catholic community center in the center of the little town of Pine Ridge, where we put on a concert for the public while "Overcoming Abuse God's Way" team gave out free food and an evangelist from Memphis, spoke after we were done. Many individuals stood up at his invitation to receive Jesus as their Savior!

People tend to think that maybe when we are performing in jails, that those are the hardest and maybe most scary places to perform. But they're not. In the jails, the inmates are sober and are actually remarkably respectful and grateful for us being there.

But it's in these public concerts that we do each year - especially in Pine Ridge - that things are especially tragic and overwhelming and sometimes a bit scary.

Towards the beginning of the concert there, while we were singing, a younger Lakota man, who was high or drunk, and a woman who were sitting at a front table, walked right up between us singers and he wanted my microphone. It was very tense and awkward. He didn't like what we were saying about Jesus and he wanted to speak. We had a tense back and forth for a while as I told him that this wasn't the time. Finally, another older Native American woman who seemed to have some authority over him told him that it wasn't the time and he backed down and left. That's nerve wracking and you're never sure if it could turn violent. Thankfully, it didn't. It made me think of Paul in the book of Acts chapter 19 when he was telling the people in Ephesus that worshipped an idol goddess named Artemis about Jesus and they got angry at him for speaking against their goddess and they rioted and tried to kill him. In America, we don't think about such things happening when we share Jesus with other people, but we are confronting dark spiritual forces and they don't like it and it could happen. Thankfully, that day it didn't.

As we sang, at least 10 Native Americans who were in the room were sadly quite drunk or high. Two women especially, just sobbed and sobbed. Thankfully, while we sang, there were several women and men from the other ministries who moved around the room to talk and pray with these hurting souls. Towards the end, one drunken, sobbing woman came up front and Sandy and Karen and Helena put their arms around her and prayed. She was homeless and had been raped and in the hospital the night before... After this night, she and several other homeless men and women would just go back out on those same streets again... It was shocking and heartbreaking.

On this trip, we heard about a young woman at Wounded Knee who, in the last week or so, had walked home from a Bible study and her body was later found raped, murdered and horribly mutilated. And in a house just down the road from the Rosebud House of Prayer, body parts were found from some other hideous murder. These are horror stories, and yet you'll probably never hear about any of this on the news! It's a heavy, dark spiritual place where women go missing all the time. But God loves these people and the Gospel is the hope for healing for both victims and perpetrators! That's why we go there and make these CD's to give away.

We left that event with heavy hearts that have stayed with us ever since. We are so thankful for Janet Napper and 'Overcoming Abuse God's Way" for the future place that will offer for poor women like these who have no where to turn. We are praying with them that all the funding and staffing they need will come in to build the housing for women that is so needed.

On Tuesday, after some more great food at the Hotz farm, we traveled back to the Pine Ridge Jail and performed two, one-hour concerts there.

The concerts were really powerful and the inmates were so very respectful and receptive! The first group was all women and the second group was all men.

In the men's group, we had an opportunity to ask if any of the men wanted to choose to repent and put their faith in and begin to follow Jesus. Four of them said yes!

Afterwards, one tall Native American man with a big bandage on one side of his face told me that he is a Christian but has really backslidden and asked if I would pray with him that he could be strong when he gets out and be the man of God he wants to be. He was so sweet and vulnerable... I just started crying and eventually pulled it together enough to pray with him. Right after that, another young man who had been one of the more animated guys in the group, got very serious and asked us all to pray for him. He said that he feels no strength to change and that he is getting out in a couple of days and feels like he will just fall right back into the darkness. It was so sad and painful to hear that and we felt so bad for him. We all gathered around him and prayed for him. Sandy and I also got his number and contacted a local pastor to reach out to him. We hope that connection is made. Once again, the officers at the jail agreed to put both of our albums in the personal belongs of the inmates for them when they leave. They were all excited to know that! We hope and pray that these CD's and the songs and stories on them will give them hope and strength.

Almost 600 CD's Given Away!

We were so excited for all the opportunities we had to give away our two Native American outreach CD's "We Speak Life" and "A New Kind of Warrior" that contain great music and 13 testimonies of Native Americans whose lives have been transformed by Jesus!

Besides giving the out for inmates at the jails, at one convenience store in a small town in Nebraska, after having a fun encounter with a young Lakota woman and man who gave us a couple of free sweet rolls, we ended up telling them about our CD's and they offered to take a bunch and give them away at their store. Then, Karen and Sandy had the chance to pray with that young woman working there! We were also able to give a bunch of them to the main convenience store, "Big Bats", right in Pine Ridge, who also wanted to have them on the counter to give away! That was amazing! So, all tolled, we gave away just under 600 of those CD's on this trip and we continue to pray that the music and messages that they carry will encourage those who are already followers of Jesus and bring others who aren't into His Kingdom! THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO DONATED TO FUND THIS TRIP AND HAVE DONATED TO PAY FOR THOSE CD'S SO THAT WE CAN GIVE THEM AWAY!! WE COULDN'T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!

JUST ONE CONCERT AT THE MUSIC FACTORY THIS SUMMER!

Don't Miss Honeytree on July 10th!

Nancy Honeytree helped pioneer what we now recognize as contemporary Christian music. As a singer-songwriter, Honeytree has a gift for taking everyday moments and giving them meaning. Her lyrics are not lofty; they are honest. In her vulnerability, there is power. Her faith is not a distant theology, but a lived experience – sometimes tender, sometimes humorous, always anchored in Jesus.

Like the Heart of the City Band, cross-cultural singing is a passion for Nancy. She speaks Spanish and has 3 albums in Spanish and is involved daily in an online grief recovery ministry in Spanish. She also has 2 brand-new releases in the Urdu language of Pakistan.

Tickets are $30.00 in advance and $40.00 at the door (if any are left!) Seating is general admission and doors open at 6:30 PM. Concessions, merch and Mr. Chipper's fresh-baked cookies will be available for sale during the concert. Scroll down to the link below to order your tickets.