Building Relationships in South Dakota: 20-Year Commitment Completed This Summer

Since 2001, groups from Second Baptist have traveled more than 700 miles each summer to the community of Bridger, South Dakota. Bridger is located on the Upper Cheyenne Reservation, and the Lakota people who live there have become dear friends to many 2BC members.

Our partnership with the families in Bridger began 23 years ago and was started through Together for Hope, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowships rural poverty initiative. We made a 20-year commitment to Bridger in 2001. We typically take two to three week-long trips to Bridger each summer — one with our middle schoolers, one with our high schoolers, and a third churchwide trip.

This summer marks the final two trips we’ll take to Bridger. Our 23 years visiting Bridger have been meaningful, and we have learned much from our Lakota friends. Unfortunately, our friend Byron Buffalo (a United Church of Christ minister) passed away in 2018. He was our primary connection to the people in Bridger.

Projects this summer will include replacing the long-overdue roof on the fellowship hall, repainting the inside, repairing the floor in the bathroom, and expanding the deck between the fellowship hall and the church (a very popular gathering place). We will also gather with the community to celebrate our long history and time together.

Our trips are very different than a typical short-term Christian mission project. Since the beginning of our time in South Dakota, we have been focused on building relationships and coming alongside the people who live there.

“To be able to call someone from another culture ‘friend’ has had an immensely transformational effect for me and for our congregation,” said Mike Lassiter, retired associate pastor here at 2BC. “It has helped me to understand Scripture better and to understand my own spirituality by having it filtered through their culture.”

We are thankful for our Lakota friends and for the opportunity to share our lives with them. We will leave Bridger with full hearts, knowing we are better people for having known them. We look forward to forming a new long-term missions partnership in a different place in the near future.