PINE RIDGE, SD – Last-minute Christmas shopping is putting a financial pinch on many now that 2013 has rolled around, but for Cross Timbers Baptist Church, a last-minute Christmas outreach to a congregation in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is the gift that keeps on blessing.
Terry Gentry, pastor of Cross Timbers Baptist Church, 20 miles south of Warsaw, heard through the grapevine that there was a great need in Pine Ridge for necessities such as warm coats and gloves. Cross Timbers had been looking for a Christmas ministry project, so they began gathering what they could along with other churches in Fellowship Baptist Association to take up to Lakota Baptist Church in Pine Ridge.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, unemployment on the reservation hovers between 80 and 85 percent, and 49 percent of the population live below the federal poverty level. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewage systems.
“It’s a tough area,” Gentry said. “South Dakota needs a lot of work and they need the gospel.”
As they were collecting, Cross Timbers’ youth minister ran across a young lady from another church that had been collecting toys and other gifts meant for the reservation, but was without a way to transport them.
“They had more stuff than we could carry,” Gentry said. “I spent half a day worrying how we were going to get everything in our church van.”
Larry Raul, a member of Freedom Chapel Baptist Church in nearby Urbana called and said he wanted to go on the trip as well. There was not enough room in the van to begin with, but Gentry told him he was welcome.
“He stopped me and said he’d like to just take his truck if he could,” Gentry said. “That’s the kind of God we serve,” Gentry said. “He had a camper shell and when we pulled out it was completely full.”
After a 750-mile Dec. 18 trip to South Dakota, the Cross Timbers team gave out their coats and hats, as well as hosted three evangelistic messages at Lakota Baptist Church.
“The people were distrustful at first,” Gentry said. “We just had to smile a lot and convince them we were there to love them.”
They collected enough money to leave Lakota Baptist Church with a check for $600 to fix up their broken down church van.
For Cross Timbers, seeing God work just to get the trip off the ground was as much a blessing as the final mission project.
“We weren’t sure we’d have enough to take, but while God had us collecting things, He had another church collecting too,” he said. “They needed transportation, and we needed more transportation than we had. God just provided it. He’s amazing! Only God can do that.”