SOUTH DAKOTA...STATE #27

Good evening, everyone...

We were welcomed into South Dakota by a transparent sunset greeting us under the South Dakota marker. We are excited to be in the land of the faces. We spent the day driving through Iowa and Minnesota on our way to Sioux Falls. As we were leaving Iowa, we took a side trip to the Little Brown Church in the Vale, a place that we kept seeing on the map. For such a small place, it was swarming with activity.

As we were making the rounds taking photos, some people in formal attire were hovering in the back waiting for a wedding party to arrive. As we were leaving the building, we saw a gaggle of motocycles pull up across the street. My first thought was that they were attending the wedding, but come to find out, they were stopping for a photo op. I got to play photographer for them and handed out some our project cards.

Yesterday, we went to Burr Oak, Iowa to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum. It is the only place where she actually lived that is still standing. I read all of her books and was an a huge fan of the tv series, many of my little girl fantasies spurred on by those episodes. I found the site in our Explore America book about four days ago and begged the girls to go see it. They were in agreement and so we made our way from St. Paul, Minnesota to the farm lands of Iowa.

We passed a few Amish buggies on the way and tried to get some pictures, but were only able to get a picture of a parked buggy at the lumber store.

We had not had an on-camera interview since Michigan, so that morning I was praying that God would slap us up side the head with someone that He really wanted us to speak to. As we were in the gift shop of the museum, a gregariously spry gentlemen of the young age of 90 started talking to me about his family, his hometown, and anything else that came to mind. When I gave him one of our cards and told him what we were doing in town, all the people, including the shop attendants, paused to listen.

I asked my new friend if he would be interested in giving us an interview and he said, "Sure, let's go." We wandered out of the once bank, now gift shop and started setting up our gear out front. Mr. Roy Ask and I sat on the park bench in front of some lovely flowers with a white wooden church in the background, and we began the interview. I didn't even have to ask any questions. Mr. Ask started giving us his fascinating life story, the highlights, of course, before we even got the camera rolling. He told us about his ten children, his wife Persus of 64 years that he lost last year to a stroke, and how he came to be a Christ follower when an evangelist came to the little Baptist Church that he attended. The only reason he went to that church was because he played chaffeur weekly to a little widow woman. He later served as a Sunday School teacher for fifty years. Mr. Ask told us about how he could still have faith in God after losing two of his children and his wife. He said that he believed that it was their time and God's will for each to leave when they did, and he said that he knew where they were and that there would be a sweet reunion someday. He had great marriage advice for Laura, our bride-to-be. He said to never go to bed angry and always give them a little kiss right before you went to bed.

After sometime, he grew tired of talking and wanted to know if we were through. I asked him what his favorite hymn was. He said "In the Garden" and he started quoting the words. I watched tears roll out of the eye that I was sitting next to and helped him pull up the few words that escaped him. We ended with a big hug and exchanged contact information. I am so glad that we went to Burr Oak. Thanks God for letting me not only live out a childhood dream, but most especially for slapping me gently upside the head with the unforgettable Mr. Roy Ask.

Sweet dreams,
Princess Angela