Delivering on the Christmas spirit
Part of the mission of the members from Broken Grounds is to honor and understand the traditions and history of the Lakota Indian people.
What is the true meaning of Christmas?
Many people have different views on what Christmas is and means to them, ranging from the celebration of the birth of Christ to Santa Claus and gifts under the tree.
For the members of Broken Grounds Church and their relationship with the Lakota Indians in Allen, South Dakota, it’s all about the opportunity to allow the Christian initiative to define what Christmas means to them.
Pastor Herschell Hargrave said when they first began making the 24-hour trip to the Lakota Indian Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota seven years ago, they were doing so knowing they faced a challenge in connecting with a people who have been disappointed by numerous Christian organizations who had come before them and failed as they tried to bring the Gospel to the Lakota people.
However, for Broken Grounds, this mission wasn’t about inundating the people with the Gospel as much as it was about developing relationships and building trust, proving to the Lakota people this was about a partnership where the Broken Grounds team was going to invest heavily in getting to know and understand the culture of the people with no judgement, only love and understanding.
What grew out of that decision was something truly unique.
“There are wounds there that go back hundreds of years,” Hargrave said. “So the one thing we knew we needed to do was to allow them to see us as people who wanted to connect with them personally. We wanted to show a willingness to learn about their culture without placing any judgement. We knew it was important for us to be mindful of who they are and where they came from.”
Thus, when they first arrived, the people there asked them where they were going to stay because other groups would work during the day and then retreat to a hotel outside the reservation.
The Broken Grounds crew made a commitment to develop relationships, and their answer stunned the Lakota people.
“We said we weren’t going anywhere,” Hargrave said. “We brought a bunch of tents and made camp right there on the reservation.”
Their commitment was genuine, and it was so unique that the question posed to them was “Why are you doing this?”
“I love those types of questions,” Hargrave said.
Hargrave said the idea was to overwhelm the people with love and compassion, allowing their presence to impact others and allowing God’s love and grace to shine through rather than to inundate them with literature.
Over the years the Broken Grounds groups have built a youth center. They have developed a program that has reintroduced buffalo herds to the area and created a herding program that will supply meat and jobs to the people in Allen. They have provided goods and services, built cabins, and shared their lives and their faith, and Hargrave said patience and allowing God to work rather than trying to do everything their way has been instrumental.
Eventually, Hargrave said they heard a message that floored them.
“They told us we started out as friends, and now we are family,” Hargrave said. “That will touch your heart in a major way.”
Fast-forward to the present, where recently a group of Broken Grounds members volunteered to take 450 boxes of gifts to the reservation to present to the kids for Christmas.
Pine Ridge Reservation is the poorest in the country. The poverty level there is 98%, with an average family income of $7,000 per year. Its teen suicide rate is 150% higher than the national average, with limited sewer and electricity.
For a people whose children are largely forgotten and overlooked during Christmas, this was a big deal.
Hargrave said they started with a fundraising auction. They had donations pour in from various individuals and groups. Millersburg Christian Church donated the use of its facility for the auction. Harvey’s Market donated dehydrated and fresh food and had many people from the community come in to help prepare the packages.
People from all over Holmes and Wayne found ways to invest in the mission.
“It was an incredible community effort,” Hargrave said. “This wasn’t just a Broken Grounds mission effort; it was a community effort.”
With the 450 gift boxes filled with toys and other goodies and 50 boxed gift sets built for 50 community elders, the Broken Grounds mission group headed for South Dakota on Wednesday, Dec. 14.
What they hadn’t planned on was running into a mammoth winter storm that made travel slow and dangerous, but they trekked onward, finally arriving at Pine Ridge Reservation to celebrate Christmas with their friends and family there.
On distribution day they gathered in a parking lot, the only place large enough to present the gifts. Children age 1-12 received gifts. There were infant gifts as well. Hargrave, who didn’t make the trip, said he received word that it was an inspiring event.
“Our people said the gratitude was incredible,” Hargrave said.
Christmas means many things to many people, but this Christmas the people of Pine Ridge Reservation realized Christ has a lot to do with the season.
“Christ died for us all, and above all we want the people there to recognize that they are essential to us, and we love them,” Hargrave said. “The people in our community here who made this happen have two things in common: one, their faith, and two, their willingness to reach out and help others.
“It’s not enough to just say Merry Christmas. It is the story of love coming down to us in unexpected and redeeming ways. It’s us embodying the Christ in Christmas. We had people who left their families during Christmas to drive in a blizzard. That is the epitome of faith at Christmastime, and it only comes from the care and compassion of this community.”
To learn more about this effort and other ongoing missions at Broken Grounds, visit www.brokengrounds.church.