I just got back from the men's staff retreat. While I was away, Jannie kept busy doing some exciting things.
Jannie met with our friend on Wednesday night. We will call her "Dawn". Jannie was prepared with several pages of Scripture dealing with topics like: What is Heaven Like; and, God's Plan of Salvation.
Native culture is responsive to ritual. So, it would be easy for a Native person to go through a ritual of saying a "sinners prayer", if going through those motions earned salvation. The problem is that the person is saying the words as in a ritual, and in a ritual, the ceremony is the effectual thing. The persons faith is in the ritual, not in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This explains some of the reasons why some people "fall away" who were thought to have gotten "Saved", because they said some prayer. It sounds good for the evangelist to write home and state with rejoicing that a certain number of "decisions for Christ" were made, and sinners got saved; but three months later, where are they?
Salvation is not earned, so we have to avoid pushing the easy believism fostered by a quick offer of a "sinners prayer." Jannie started where the Bible does, in Genesis, with a perfect world, and then how sin entered and wrecked our relationship with Creator God. She unfolded God's plan for reconciliation through the Lord Jesus.
After every step, Jannie checked to see how Dawn was taking it in.
Dawn was grateful for all she heard, but she said she needed to read it over again and think about it. She got a lesson on how to find passages in the Bible, and received a loaner Bible to use, and she was as happy as she could be! She went home with the Scripture, the plan for salvation, and a desire to meet again soon.
Please keep on praying for the salvation of Dawn. The Holy Spirit is truly touching her heart. ~HJ
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Answer to prayer
Yesterday, Friday, a friend of ours from a local Reserve asked a question. It was a question which all of us have been waiting for. She said, "I want to come to your Bible Study." This has been five years in the making.
May I ask you to keep praying?! With a victory comes an attack.
Now that the enemy of our souls knows what God is doing, there will be opposition. I ask that you stand in the gap and pray for not only this friend, but for others which God is surely calling to Himself.
Rejoice, and pray this matter to victory.
With a Grateful heart,
Howard
May I ask you to keep praying?! With a victory comes an attack.
Now that the enemy of our souls knows what God is doing, there will be opposition. I ask that you stand in the gap and pray for not only this friend, but for others which God is surely calling to Himself.
Rejoice, and pray this matter to victory.
With a Grateful heart,
Howard
Friday, January 05, 2007
More on culture
As a Christian, and a missionary, I (and many other Believers) are naturally ethnocentric. We really do believe, at our heart of hearts, that we are right. That is the problem with culture! It is learned and perpetuated. We don't naturally think to assume that we are lacking, and need to look from different angles.
I have learned something that has become a huge blessing for my life. It is an attitude that I approach each day, and it is: God wants to use me to be a blessing to others, and, God wants to use others to be a blessing to me.
As a missionary, with a heart burning to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I can easily approach each day with, "How can I be a blessing today?" Not a bad thought, but lacking, I think. It starts with a presumption that I am in a position to be a blessing. It assumes that I am a tool, properly shaped and sharpened to God's work.
It begins with me, and it begins with pride.
I believe that God will use me, but also that He is still shaping me. At 54 years of age, I have just become a student, and one who can be shaped and sharpened. God sent me to the Shuswap People to be a blessing, but He also loves me so much, that He wants to conform me to the image of His Son, and He uses the Native people, my friends, and circumstances to do that. :)
The Scripture tells me that when I am conscious of my weakness, then I am strong. I am in a position to be a blessing, as long as I am humble. I need to die to self and my cultural values and beliefs, in order that I might be shaped by His Hand. This realization hurt when I first owned it. I thought, "Oh, if only I could have been called to be a pastor of a white church! There, the church actually sends you to Willowcreek to learn how to be more in touch with your culture." In cross-cultural ministry, I have to kill my cultural preferences. For five years, I chose not to listen to my favorite music. That music is based on a European cultural value for time and belief of what good music is composed of. Native music has different values about time and beliefs of what music is. In order to have a heart understanding for Native culture, I had to "put on" their values, and that meant to die to self in a more profound way than I ever imagined. I have to put on their language, study their way of speaking and story telling.
Do you want to know a shocking truth? The Native philosophy of the Medicine Wheel has been teaching this for ages. The Medicine Wheel is symbolized by a circle with a line going down and a line going from side to side. It resembles a wheel with four spokes. There are four different colours in each section, and each color has a different meaning. I discovered a complex philosophy in the Medicine Wheel. Simply put, the goal of a real human being, is to move from what ever starting point you have, on the outside rim of the wheel, and move towards the center. So, a person that is inclined to be a thinker and love wisdom must move towards innocence. A person who is inclined to be introspective must move from that comfortable presumption towards illumination (outward).
I apologize for bringing up something as complex as the Medicine Wheel and trying to deal with it here, in such a limited time frame, but it actually correlates with Scripture. 2 Peter 1:5-9 tells us to do this, in our cultural manner. Some Believers are incline to do good deeds. Such people need to move towards knowledge. Those who are inclined to love knowledge must move towards good works. Then we must move towards self control, then to perseverance, and so on.
I have to sit down and work it all out on paper sometime, but I believe I have found a wonderful way to link the revealed truth of Scripture to Native ears, by showing how the Medicine Wheel agrees with the Bible. The goal is to validate that God has revealed truth to the native culture in the past, and lead them to embrace the Bible and the Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of His revealed truth.
I have learned something that has become a huge blessing for my life. It is an attitude that I approach each day, and it is: God wants to use me to be a blessing to others, and, God wants to use others to be a blessing to me.
As a missionary, with a heart burning to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I can easily approach each day with, "How can I be a blessing today?" Not a bad thought, but lacking, I think. It starts with a presumption that I am in a position to be a blessing. It assumes that I am a tool, properly shaped and sharpened to God's work.
It begins with me, and it begins with pride.
I believe that God will use me, but also that He is still shaping me. At 54 years of age, I have just become a student, and one who can be shaped and sharpened. God sent me to the Shuswap People to be a blessing, but He also loves me so much, that He wants to conform me to the image of His Son, and He uses the Native people, my friends, and circumstances to do that. :)
The Scripture tells me that when I am conscious of my weakness, then I am strong. I am in a position to be a blessing, as long as I am humble. I need to die to self and my cultural values and beliefs, in order that I might be shaped by His Hand. This realization hurt when I first owned it. I thought, "Oh, if only I could have been called to be a pastor of a white church! There, the church actually sends you to Willowcreek to learn how to be more in touch with your culture." In cross-cultural ministry, I have to kill my cultural preferences. For five years, I chose not to listen to my favorite music. That music is based on a European cultural value for time and belief of what good music is composed of. Native music has different values about time and beliefs of what music is. In order to have a heart understanding for Native culture, I had to "put on" their values, and that meant to die to self in a more profound way than I ever imagined. I have to put on their language, study their way of speaking and story telling.
Do you want to know a shocking truth? The Native philosophy of the Medicine Wheel has been teaching this for ages. The Medicine Wheel is symbolized by a circle with a line going down and a line going from side to side. It resembles a wheel with four spokes. There are four different colours in each section, and each color has a different meaning. I discovered a complex philosophy in the Medicine Wheel. Simply put, the goal of a real human being, is to move from what ever starting point you have, on the outside rim of the wheel, and move towards the center. So, a person that is inclined to be a thinker and love wisdom must move towards innocence. A person who is inclined to be introspective must move from that comfortable presumption towards illumination (outward).
I apologize for bringing up something as complex as the Medicine Wheel and trying to deal with it here, in such a limited time frame, but it actually correlates with Scripture. 2 Peter 1:5-9 tells us to do this, in our cultural manner. Some Believers are incline to do good deeds. Such people need to move towards knowledge. Those who are inclined to love knowledge must move towards good works. Then we must move towards self control, then to perseverance, and so on.
I have to sit down and work it all out on paper sometime, but I believe I have found a wonderful way to link the revealed truth of Scripture to Native ears, by showing how the Medicine Wheel agrees with the Bible. The goal is to validate that God has revealed truth to the native culture in the past, and lead them to embrace the Bible and the Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of His revealed truth.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Different Values
Dr. Robert Priest of Trinity International University has a definition of culture. It goes: Culture is composed of beliefs and values that are taught, learned and perpetuated.
Yesterday, we hosted a pancake breakfast on a reservation. Kids were still out of school, and we thought we could really serve the community by giving them a nice breakfast and a chance to gather on happy circumstances.
We did one about six months ago and it went very well. It did get off a little rough, since the person assigned to open the building didn't show up with the key. We got a late start, but managed to be ready enough by the time the people arrived.
We made sure that a key holder would be there on time for yesterday. We called ahead the day before to make sure the arrangements were in place. They were, we were told. So, we arrived at the building and it was locked. We waited,...and waited....and finally called our contact person on the cell phone. The contact person was also expected to be at the building at 0915 hours to make the coffee and the juice. We learned that they had just left to go to town to buy the juice. We were told to go to "so and so's house, they will have a key." So, Jannie went to the house and asked for the key. She was told that just the day before, someone had borrowed the key and hadn't returned it, but perhaps "so and so" down the road has a key, so try there. Jannie hiked to the next house. A young boy still in wearing underwear and his hair disheveled opened the door to greet the sight of a tall white woman looking down at him. "MOM!!...There is someone at the door!!!" His mother appeared around the corner and rescued the boy from the door job. No doubt a relief for him. She found a key and gave it to Jannie. We lost forty minutes of start up time just waiting to get into the building. We needed that time to get a head start on the pancakes and sausages.
The key we were given only opened up the front door. It didn't give access to the storage closet with the tables and chairs. That door was securely locked. (I could have popped the hinge pins and removed the door, but rejected the idea...). So, the eating area had only two tables, and three chairs. As ten o'clock arrived, so did the people. We had enough food prepared, and made the coffee, but the lady with the juice hadn't arrived yet, though it had been forty minutes since we talked with her and the distance from town was only four minutes.
Some of the people that came were known to us. We hadn't seen each other in months, so the breakfast seemed worth it in just reconnecting with those people. We also made a few more new friends, which was a blessing.
An hour and a half "late", the contact person arrived with the juice. She announced that there was a hockey game between the USA and Canada, and they HAD to see it. She opened up the closet and we set up the tables and chairs. Nothing more was said, as that declaration carried the weight of the culture.
So, even though we had an arrangement, and the success of the breakfast depended on opening up the building, setting up the tables and chairs, and getting the food and beverage ready "on time", somehow...that came secondary to seeing a hockey game on TV. In the eyes of the community, it was a success. They saw a hockey game and had a good breakfast.
Culture is made up of values and beliefs that are taught, learned and perpetuated. Our "white culture" puts a high value on the use of time. Starting on time is a value. I remember one time, a pastor telling me that I had four minutes to make a ministry presentation in church; if I went over that, a trap door would open and I would drop from behind the pulpit. Sometimes the "white culture" lives under a tyranny of the clock. It that right? Our culture says it is. Native culture does not live under the tyranny of the the clock. Artists, philosophers, and photographers understand this. You can't create an event, you have to show up and be there when it happens. Sounds a bit like the story Mary and Martha, doesn't it? (Luke 10:38-42) Martha is busy trying to create and event. She is filled with stress and distress as time ticks away. Mary is content to "show up and go with the flow."
I have to tell you the truth, because I know someone is wondering, "Doesn't the Native view of time bug you?"
I found myself like Martha, getting frustrated and edgy. This event was planned, confirmed, and once again, "they" couldn't even show up on time. So I prayed and turned it over to the Lord. It was like the Lord quieted my spirit and said, "Howard, your cultural values on time are driving you nuts. Don't worry about it! You showed up, and you are doing the best you can, so guard your heart and your attitude so you won't miss the opportunities when they happen." We did, and the "event" ended up as a blessing for the community and for us, too. :)
Yesterday, we hosted a pancake breakfast on a reservation. Kids were still out of school, and we thought we could really serve the community by giving them a nice breakfast and a chance to gather on happy circumstances.
We did one about six months ago and it went very well. It did get off a little rough, since the person assigned to open the building didn't show up with the key. We got a late start, but managed to be ready enough by the time the people arrived.
We made sure that a key holder would be there on time for yesterday. We called ahead the day before to make sure the arrangements were in place. They were, we were told. So, we arrived at the building and it was locked. We waited,...and waited....and finally called our contact person on the cell phone. The contact person was also expected to be at the building at 0915 hours to make the coffee and the juice. We learned that they had just left to go to town to buy the juice. We were told to go to "so and so's house, they will have a key." So, Jannie went to the house and asked for the key. She was told that just the day before, someone had borrowed the key and hadn't returned it, but perhaps "so and so" down the road has a key, so try there. Jannie hiked to the next house. A young boy still in wearing underwear and his hair disheveled opened the door to greet the sight of a tall white woman looking down at him. "MOM!!...There is someone at the door!!!" His mother appeared around the corner and rescued the boy from the door job. No doubt a relief for him. She found a key and gave it to Jannie. We lost forty minutes of start up time just waiting to get into the building. We needed that time to get a head start on the pancakes and sausages.
The key we were given only opened up the front door. It didn't give access to the storage closet with the tables and chairs. That door was securely locked. (I could have popped the hinge pins and removed the door, but rejected the idea...). So, the eating area had only two tables, and three chairs. As ten o'clock arrived, so did the people. We had enough food prepared, and made the coffee, but the lady with the juice hadn't arrived yet, though it had been forty minutes since we talked with her and the distance from town was only four minutes.
Some of the people that came were known to us. We hadn't seen each other in months, so the breakfast seemed worth it in just reconnecting with those people. We also made a few more new friends, which was a blessing.
An hour and a half "late", the contact person arrived with the juice. She announced that there was a hockey game between the USA and Canada, and they HAD to see it. She opened up the closet and we set up the tables and chairs. Nothing more was said, as that declaration carried the weight of the culture.
So, even though we had an arrangement, and the success of the breakfast depended on opening up the building, setting up the tables and chairs, and getting the food and beverage ready "on time", somehow...that came secondary to seeing a hockey game on TV. In the eyes of the community, it was a success. They saw a hockey game and had a good breakfast.
Culture is made up of values and beliefs that are taught, learned and perpetuated. Our "white culture" puts a high value on the use of time. Starting on time is a value. I remember one time, a pastor telling me that I had four minutes to make a ministry presentation in church; if I went over that, a trap door would open and I would drop from behind the pulpit. Sometimes the "white culture" lives under a tyranny of the clock. It that right? Our culture says it is. Native culture does not live under the tyranny of the the clock. Artists, philosophers, and photographers understand this. You can't create an event, you have to show up and be there when it happens. Sounds a bit like the story Mary and Martha, doesn't it? (Luke 10:38-42) Martha is busy trying to create and event. She is filled with stress and distress as time ticks away. Mary is content to "show up and go with the flow."
I have to tell you the truth, because I know someone is wondering, "Doesn't the Native view of time bug you?"
I found myself like Martha, getting frustrated and edgy. This event was planned, confirmed, and once again, "they" couldn't even show up on time. So I prayed and turned it over to the Lord. It was like the Lord quieted my spirit and said, "Howard, your cultural values on time are driving you nuts. Don't worry about it! You showed up, and you are doing the best you can, so guard your heart and your attitude so you won't miss the opportunities when they happen." We did, and the "event" ended up as a blessing for the community and for us, too. :)
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