Browning, Day 5, De La Salle, March 14, 2025
Today was our final day with the De La Sale Blackfeet school. Throughout this week I had the pleasure of being with the Little Flower Academy, the 4th and 5th grade classes combined and the youngest age group in the school. This experience has been amazing. These kids are amazing. One of the most remarkable things to me was the ease and freedom with which they are able to be children. Earlier this week we learned from one of our speakers how one part of the Blackfeet culture is this ease with which they are able to acknowledge the unpretty and mournful realities. They have a natural and cultural inclination to share with one another in their mourning and suffering as opposed to hiding it from another, and just within one week I have been able to see the ways in which this makes many of them a people who are easy in openness to relationship and easy in giving their love. And so I think despite all of the compounded trauma and adverse childhood experiences these kids have inherited, they are so resilient and kind and childlike at least in part due to this part of their culture. I was blown away by their love, their joy, and their strength in the classroom to struggle to learn new things.
One particular joy from today was just in saying our goodbyes to the kids. One of them gave me a goodbye note today in the morning, saying I wasn’t allowed to open it until later. She had given it to me while in the middle of a giant game of Sharks and Minnows with the 8th graders so I couldn’t understand when “later” was, but it worked out alright. When we did leave that afternoon and began taking pictures and giving our hugs and saying goodbyes, she gave me a hug and then said ever so quietly that I could open the note now. She had thanked me for helping with math, “the other things,” and wished us save travels back to college. All of my goodbyes were every bit as precious and surprising in how much the kids already cared for us. It is a remarkable touch of the hand of God in this community to have so many wonderful kids who truly get to be kids, and who get to embody the love the Creator has for His children.
Macie Frans
Senior, Carroll College
Browning, Day 3, March 12, 2025 De La Salle Blackfeet School
March 12, 2025 – Day Three in Browning
The third day at De La Salle started wonderfully. I woke up to Roy singing and I knew immediately that it would be a blessed day. This whole week has been an incredible blessing and I am so very excited to be able to partake in it with friends and strangers who have now become my friends. I have experienced many graces over the short three days and today was no different.
The 6th graders, which is the class that I am assigned to, have started getting more comfortable with us in the class and I have felt more of a laid back and open presence in the classroom now. An example of this was at lunch today, multiple students asked if I could sit with them and we ended up conversing about life. They told me about their families and siblings and what they liked to do in the free time off of school. It made me feel more of a friend to these kids rather than just another immersion student. I think that my experience here has been very different than I thought. When I came here, I imagined these kids to be so incredibly different from me when I was their age. But that could not be further from the truth. The people at this school are just normal kids, who laugh and cry have fun exactly as I did in school. Some have a different family life aspect and are living in a very impoverished place, but they are still kids nonetheless. It is very powerful to see that these kids are not much different from others and that they still are very much worthy of love and attention as anyone else.
Last night we were asked about moments in the trip where we have loved as God loves, seen as God sees, and/or done as God does and so that question was on my mind and my heart all throughout the day today. I think that just being with these kids and being a part of their lives has really allowed me to almost enter in to their struggles. Obviously, I have not seen or experienced many of the things that these kids have, but being able to see them and get to know them has really opened my eyes. My first couple days here, I found myself getting frustrated some of the kids not wanting to work and wanting to just converse with their friends and goof off. But after reflecting on that and the context of their lives, I came to the realization that this time at school can almost be a get away for these kids. This may be the only time where they actually get to spend time with their friends and just be able to be themselves. If I was in their position, I would want to just spend time with my friends and just be a kid as well.
The last thing I want to say is that a lot of these kids are not where they should be school wise. When talking about the question above in reflection on Tuesday night, one of the fellow Carroll students spoke about how God doesn’t love us for the things that we do or accomplish, He loves us for being us. I think this is a perfect reflection in being here this week. A lot of these kids are not good at math or good at science, but that isn’t why we should love them. We love them for being creations of God and being part of the family of Christ. So it has been an incredible grace to be able to try and love as God loves in that way.
I can’t wait to finish the final two days and I will be sad when my time here comes to an end. This trip has exceeded all expectations and I recommend doing something similar to all people who truly want to experience the love and grace of Christ.
Chuck Markham, senior, Carroll College
Browning, Day 2, March 12, 2025, De La Salle Blackfeet School
So far, the trip to Browning has been a blessed time. Since the beginning of the trip, I have been amazed at the sense of community Browning clearly exhibits. In the first mass, during the sign of peace, everyone spent nearly two minutes giving peace and even during communion, continued to shake hands and exchanged signs of peace throughout the pews. Being able to play a part in the community of Browning has been so pleasant as I came in with the mindset that the community would have been more broken in the poverty that is present. However, the poverty seems to drive a real love between the people in uniting in their sufferings. Many of the people I have encountered suffer well, and this is something I wish to take into my own life.
In a reflection we had tonight, Roy, the campus minister of University of Providence (who is also joining the trip with us,) asked the question: “What does it mean to do what God does, see what God sees, and love as God loves?” I have been reflecting on this question tonight and the answer reflects a lot of my outlook on the trip thus far. For one, the answer to this question revolves around love, as He is love, sees through the lens of his love, and what he “does” is love. Seeing through a lens of love and charitability must then be the lens we tend to strive for in our own lives. But how do we actually learn to do this?
I have found that my perspective on how to view others has changed even in the two days we have been able to spend with the students here in Browning. Many of these students deal with real struggles, such as alcoholic parents, abuse, or other stresses that make the ordinary life we take for granted much more difficult. In this way, when in the schools and a student is paying attention, or struggling to pay attention, I find myself have a different reaction that I normally would, one that is more understanding and charitable to what may be going on in their lives outside the classroom. Rather than seeing them for what they do or how they present themselves, I have seen them in a more real and clear light, as children of God who suffer. Though their wounds and sufferings come out in different ways, they clearly love God and love each other, and as St. John of the Cross said: “In the evening of our life, we shall be judged by love alone.”
I have been blessed to see so many smiles on students faces as well as my own as I have been able to see the beautiful humanity that is here in Browning. I ask for prayers for these students, their families, and the many immersion trips that will take place in the future at this school. These students are our family in the Church, and suffer just like us, just in a different way. I am very happy I came on the trip to see this new perspective and am very excited to continue to learn to love and see these students as God sees them.
Ryan Frampton, Senior, Carroll College
Carroll College Campus Ministry 