Tales from the Road... Wachinyeya Fest

After all the fun we had at Audiofeed the MAM team were keen to get back on the road and add a few more states to our list of places we have been this summer. We were a little apprehensive approaching this trip as we really didn't know what we were heading into. The majority of our team (Jenna, Emma, Gabriel, Neal and Corinne) got packed into the van early in the morning to take on the epic drive to North Dakota.

Nearly 2000 miles, much coffee, several redbulls, one Super 8 and a lot of cornfields we arrived on the reservation at Fort Yates where Christy and Alex joined the team. We arrived in the dark to take residence in a church and a tiny house but looking around in the morning what we saw was fairly bleak. We had travelled through all the hype and advertising of majority America and arrived in this small town that was reminiscent of the developing world in many ways.

The next two days were spent hanging out with the young people attending the festival - there weren't lots of them so we were able to really get to know those we met despite the short amount of time. We had several opportunities to share our stories and the heart of MAM and lots of the people there got involved in our #beyondcompare campaign too.

In the midst of some great music, swimming in the river and games of frisbee we heard stories of abuse, addiction, self harm, suicide, rape and more. MAM's message of love and value in the eyes of our Father had never felt more relevant or powerful when faced with the reality of life for so many of the young people of the reservation. Please read Alex's blog to read more about the reality of life on the reservation.

We met some amazing people who are living there sharing God's message of hope who inspired us with their determination to bring love and a sense of belonging where so many families were broken and separated. But the workers are few. MAM is working on ways we can support them and we are hoping to return to Fort Yates later in the year.

It was an extraordinary time for each of us on the team and our very long journey back (including a night by a bonfire while visiting Mount Rushmore) gave us plenty of time to reflect on what was a very challenging experience in many ways. God gave us amazing opportunities, lots of fun with the youngsters and a real sense of his heart for the people of the reservation. It won't be an experience we forget quickly, that's for sure.