SATURDAY - The day we were supposed to set up the tent, a funeral for a brother in the Lord took place so there was no one available to help. I did about 5 hours of work getting the prep work done, unloading the 3 sections of the tent and all of the materials from the trailor and measuring and roping the plot for the tent, and driving about a fourth of the stakes. Then I injured my right hand (I accidentally blistered and peeled about a half-inch circle) so I couldn't continue driving stakes but I could continue placing everything around the plot while waiting for the crew to arrive. Due to a misunderstanding on the time of the funeral and its distance from Rosebud, I found out later that the crew was unable to come at all that day. I finally called it a day because I could go no further by myself.
SUNDAY - On this day, which was to be the first day of the meeting, 3 young men showed up in the afternoon to help set up the tent. The wind was up a bit, 20 mph or so. We rolled out the tent sections and were just about to finish lacing the 3 sections of the main canvas together when, low and behold, along came a windstorm with a constant wind of 35-40 mph and gusts up to 60 mph or better. It pulled one of the knots loose and half of one section of the tent unlaced. By then it was impossible to finish setting up the two center poles to raise the canvas- in fact, the wind pushing against the canvas as we were trying relace it acted like a sail and the preasure was jerking all of us around and nearly off of our feet. I was afraid the the canvas might shred in the wind, so I decided we couldn't continue erecting the tent. By then the wind was gusting to 60 or above and the preasure in the billowing canvas became so strong that it literally exploded one of the 2 X 4 corner posts. It turned about 2 feet of the middle of the post into kindling and toothpicks as the center of the post explosively gave way. After that, we wrestled the canvas to the ground and relaced the separated section and then we laid the other posts and the center poles plus the heavy roles of the side canvas' and other things on top to keep it from billowing up in the wind. The corner ropes and a half-dozen or so other spots were tied to the stakes that were already in the ground, so we knew that the tent would be safe through the night and we could return the next day and finish setting up the tent. - That night, Sunday night, was to be the first night of the meeting, so we held it in the Church building and it was well attended.
MONDAY- I went out at 3:00 pm, which was when the crew was to show up, and finished placing the rest of the stakes and then removed all of the articles that we had placed on top of the canvas. While working I was attacked by fire ants and after a few stings I had to go in and remove all of my clothing and shake the ants out so they couldn't sting me any more. Talk about ants-in-your-pants! To top things off, the crew had been detained and didn't arrive until after 4:00 pm, which put us more than an hour behind schedule. After they arrived, we erected the tent without further trouble. By the time the tent was up and the interior fixtures, chairs, lights, etc., were in place, Monday night's meeting actually got underway around 7:45 instead of 7:00. Praise God, the people didn't show up anyway until around that same time (for those of you that are familiar with the reservation, they call that running on "Indian time") so the Lord worked things out just right and that 2nd night was also well attended! (CONTINUED)