Around this same time I was feel bogged down by the competitive nature of my home based business Mama Bucks Designs. I was striving to be the best and I knew that was not the Woman God was calling me to be. Instead, he was saying, "I don't want you to strive. Leave the results up to me."
Brad knew that connecting my business to some sort of Mission Work was on my heart and that I had felt God's whispers toward it. He, also, knew that the Children of Pine Ridge were near the top. He set out researching on how we could help the children from our home. He found a site that connects people to Agencies and Contacts on Pine Ridge. We found their needs were great and the choices were many. I felt plagued by "Analysis Paralysis" and couldn't see a clear cut direction to take with the project. So, I just continued praying.
In July, while at a concert for a group called Boiling Point. I heard them sing this song called, "If Love":
The Lyrics are:
What walls would fall if love ruled our hearts?
What scars could heal with time?
Swallow hard and think about this thought.
What have you done with your life?
Chorus:
Have you loved with compassion?
Kept yourself from hate?
Have you loved like a Savior who gave it all?
Have you looked upon your neighbor with grace in your heart?
Do you know why the greatest is still love?
Verse 2:
What stones would fall if love consumed our hearts
What words could lips find to speak?
What have we done to show the world God's love?
How have we worked for peace?
Chorus:
Have you loved with compassion?
Kept yourself from hate?
Have you loved like a Savior who gave it all?
Have you looked upon your neighbor with grace in your heart?
Do you know why the greatest is still love?
Bridge:
God teach us to know,
the differences between are so temporary
I still believe in love
Chorus 2:
Have we loved with compassion?
Kept ourselves from hate?
Have we loved like a Savior who gave it all?
Have we looked upon our neighbor with grace in our hearts?
Do we know why the greatest is still love?
And Tears fell, and the name "MLoved" popped into my head. I want every child to know:
You are Loved
You are Worthy
You are Enough
MLoved by Mama Bucks Designs
Fast Forward to this Fall. I knew I needed to go to Pine Ridge I needed know the hearts of it's people. But, also, knew I needed Brad to go, too. We went to a meeting about the trip a couple weeks ago and learned that we would be delivering the school supplies our church Trinity Lutheran had collected (and collects every year) to Wounded Knee School. There was so much familiarity in that name. Brad and I rushed home to look the school up on our Friends of Pine Ridge Website and sure enough it was listed as one of the agencies that accepts donations from afar. But more than that this is what I read.
Donate Student Store Incentives
WKDS students earn Warrior Bucks for participating in class, exhibiting Lakota values, completing homework, and good behavior. They can spend those bucks at the Warrior Store. They school can use donations of all sorts of small items for the store--art supplies, craft supply kits, matchbox cars, greeting cards and stationery, bubbles, paper dolls, jump ropes, sketchbooks and drawing pencils, watercolor sets, coloring books, glitter glue pens, activity books, toiletries for the teens, zippered cases, hair accessories, small games and toys, index cards, fun pencils and gel pens, novelty erasers, stickers, notebooks, journals, Mad Libs, university branded pencils/pens, and more.
HAIR ACCESSORIES!!!! This was my AHA moment, hair accessories. This is were Mama Bucks meets Warrior Bucks.
Within days after our initial Pine Ridge Trip meeting, we learned about Thrivent Action Teams. A Thrivent Action Team starts with an idea powered by your passion. Bring a team together to make an immediate impact on a cause you care about and Thrivent helps you get a start.
But we need YOUR HELP. We know our timing is short, but God's timing is always perfect. We know Trinity Lutheran Church has done an amazing job collecting school supplies, but we feel God's calling to do something more and different as well!
We are asking our family, friends, community, church and even strangers to assist us with the Love for the Lakota project in the following ways:
1. Donate non perishable snacks - Did you know that 100% of the children at Wounded Knee School are on the free lunch program. Many often come to school hungry. Can you imagine trying to learn when your focus is on your hunger or when you might get your next meal or snack?
2. Donate prizes for the Warrior Store. Children are awarded Warrior Bucks from any staff member for participating in class, completing assignments, adhering to Lakota values and for modeling good behavior. The children can redeem the Warrior Bucks for prizes in the Warrior Store.
3. Donate Diapers, Wipes and Formula for the FACE program. The Wounded Knee School Baby FACE (Family and Child Education) is a program that teams educators with mothers as well as pregnant women and teen girls to ensure that their babies are healthy and to teach them how to ensure their babies are prepared for school as they grow into toddlers.
Baby FACE provides in-home visits as well as parenting classes, screening for vision and hearing, and developmental testing to engage new parents in early childhood learning practices.
I know our family loves and has benefitted greatly from the ECFE program here in MN.
We leave for Pine Ridge on Thursday, October 15th, so please provide donations by Oct. 14th. Donations can be dropped at our home. Or mailed to The Love for the Lakota Project C/O The Meier Family, 609 S. Lincoln St., Owatonna, MN 55060. This can be done by mail or via Amazon. Donations can also be brought to the Tee Pee at 609 S. Lincoln St just inside Trinity Lutheran Church. Thank you for your time and consideration for this project!
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