Thirteen members of First Baptist Church, Mobile, traveled to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota May 30–June 6 to minister among the Sicangu Lakota. The group, led by Senior Pastor Chris George and Minister of Education Howell Easterling, partnered with Tree of Life Ministry, a nonprofit, multidenominational ministry of the Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
While on the reservation, the group worked in the ministry’s thrift store, which provides food and clothing at a low cost; helped serve breakfast and lunch to the homeless and those living in poverty; and did construction work on some of the homes.
“Our desire was to find a place in the U.S. that had some of the greatest need,” George said. “This place is almost like a Third World country.”
The reservation is located in one of the nation’s poorest counties.
This was the church’s second trip to work with Tree of Life, which has maintained a Christian presence on the reservation of more than 20,000 people since 1985.
“These are our neighbors and we wanted to minister to them. It can be difficult to minister here because churches have exploited these people in the past. However, there is a recognition even among the people that what we are doing here really matters,” George said.
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