Native American, local youth participate in P.U.M.P. Camp
By MATT SCHORR
Messenger Staff Writer
Chase Cursey from Paducah and Summer
LittleWind from Spirit Lake in North Dakota worked side-by-side
painting a stairwell while Larry Brown from Mayfield stood atop a
ladder nearby scraping old paint from the ceiling. In a
nearby room, Antoine LaVallie, Jace LittleWind, and Zane Ross,
all from North Dakota, stripped plaster that had deteriorated
from the brick walls. And amidst the construction chaos,
Napoleon Longie, also from North Dakota, proudly paraded
throughout the building showing off his pink Scooby-Doo socks.
The youths' work is part of a major
renovation project for the Hispanic United Methodist Ministry
building in Mayfield. The building was originally the
Fuller-Gilliam Hospital but now exists to establish a Hispanic
ministry for the increasing Hispanic population in the area.
The renovation project involving youth
from Western Kentucky and North Dakota is sponsored by the
Paducah Urban Mission Plunge (P.U.M.P.) Camp, a week-long youth
project. Greg Waldrop, a director of P.U.M.P. Camp, said
the organization's aim is to connect local people with local
missions as well as missions work abroad. P.U.M.P. Camp and
the Hispanic U.M. Ministry are both projects involved with the
Paducah District United Methodist Churches.
The teens from North Dakota are Native
Americans of the Dakotah Sioux tribe. Their home, Spirit
Lake, is a Native American reservation in the middle of the state,
roughly a two day journey from here.
Western Kentucky youths first met the
Dakotah Sioux on a mission trip to North Dakota last year. Last
summer, 57 teens from the Paducah district traveled across the
country to Spirit Lake, where they stayed in the reservation's
school for a full week. During that week, alongside the
Dakotah Sioux teens, they painted the schoolıs cafeteria and gym;
they helped paint the outside of a senior citizensı center that
had been damaged by a fire; and they did electrical, concrete,
and carpentry work at a small Presbyterian Church in the area.
It was there that the Paducah District youth met Bob and Ada
Lower, a husband and wife missionary team from Minot, N.D., who
work with Dakotah Sioux in both North and South Dakota.
When the time came to return home, the
youth of the Paducah District, amidst bittersweet farewells,
invited the Dakotah Sioux teens to visit Western Kentucky to do
local mission work in their area.
One year later, after raising $3,000
selling Indian tacos and fried bread in the biggest fundraiser
theyıd ever had, the Dakotah Sioux, along with the Lowers, made
the two-day journey to Western Kentucky. 33 of them (28
teens and five adults) made the trip, and they're staying at
Broadway Methodist Church in Paducah. Theyıve split into
three separate groups, with one group working in the Hispanic U.M.
Ministry in Mayfield, one group helping with relief efforts in
Marshall County after last year's tornado, and one group working
with a Vacation Bible School program in Paducah.
The Native American teens' work in
Mayfield has involved painting, scraping, busting out walls,
separating clothes, sorting and sanitizing toys, and being what
Bob Lower called "a spiritual presence."
"They are the hands and feet of
Christ," Lower said.
While the cacophony of hammers and power
tools banged and howled overhead, roughly a half-dozen people,
both young and old, worked tirelessly separating clothes for a
thrift store that is planned to open within a month in the
Hispanic Ministry. Proceeds from the store would help
support the ministry.
And the Dakotah Sioux teens arenıt the only
ones involved in P.U.M.P. Camp this year. Greg Waldrop said
a total of 75 teens, including the Dakotah Sioux, were here from
across the country, and they'll work tirelessly here, in Marshall
County, and in Paducah until the end of the week.
"Part of the Methodist core philosophy is that when you live the mission God has given you," Waldrop said, "everything fits."
Chase Cursey of Paducah (left)
and Summer LittleWind from Spirit Lake in
North Dakota (right) paint a
set of stairs in one of the stairwells at the
Hispanic U.M. Ministry
building as part of a major renovation project
sponsored by PUMP Camp and the Paducah District Methodist Churches.
Brandon Paul, a Dakotah Sioux
from the Spirit Lake reservation in North
Dakota, chips away old
plaster in one of the many rooms being renovated in
the Hispanic U.M. Ministry.