Thanksgiving is over, but there is still much to be thankful for. Just ask IVCC student Kim Souba.
Over the summer, Souba went to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota to help teach Bible School.
Accompanied by two nuns from the Catholic Diocese of Peoria and a young woman studying to be a nun, Souba traveled to the northwest corner of South Dakota to a parish that serves Lakota Indians, other Native Americans and Caucasian rancher families.
"I was touched by the hardships faced by the Indians – including poverty, fetal alcohol syndrome and the unemployment," Souba said. "But I also learned a lot from the people and the culture."
She explained that the trip was not hard physically, but it was hard emotionally.
"The children required a lot of you," she said, adding that she especially recalls one young Indian girl. "She broke my heart when she asked me to stay forever.
"One of the lessons I learned from my trip was that my purpose was not only to give what I had, but to just be with the kids. Many times we would just sit there next to them and color."
As Souba faces the holidays, she is finding much to be thankful for: a loving and caring family, a warm house, clothes suitable for winter, and a summer that, she said, tops her list of things to be thankful for.
12/10/98