Changes

A comment was advanced that "if the devil didn't want the missions team to come, and I voted to cancel the rest of the trip, then who's side was I on?"

It was my view even before the team was formed, that two or maybe three people were all that should come. Why? Because the non native culture tends to be insensitive to native people. Non natives are fixers, doers, planners, and they really do believe that they can make it all work. They run rough shod over native values and culture. Precisely why the church has failed in the past 150 years to actually share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with native people in North America. Too many non-native volunteers would likely overwhelm my friends here, and make it too easy for the team members to fall back on their own culture, rather than try to adapt to the new one here.

I believed that two of the people that should have come, were cut out from coming. Maybe one more could have come but was stuck in the mix of the other volunteers. The ones that used office politics and manipulation to eject those who should have come, were not the ones I wanted exposed to my friends here.

So, whose side was I on? I was on the side of my Shuswap friends. I didn't want them exposed to another ethnocentric group that didn't value unity or reconciliation. We have enough of that already on the Rez. We don't need to expose them to a religious version.

On another note, positive things are developing regarding this team issue. So, prayers are being answered.

On a different subject, we got a phone call at 11:15pm last night. The voice on the other end was choked with emotion and we understood, "This is _______, please come over right away."
We shrugged off what was almost sleep, and efficiently got dressed, and out to the car. We prayed as we drove the two minutes to the house. When we got there, we learned of a death in the family. That would make the fourth death to that family in the past year!
We stayed and offered comfort and support till 3:00am, and then came home for a nap. We began again at 7:oo am and stayed there till 8:00pm, fixing breakfast, lunch and supper.
We had many good conversations with friends and family members. It was obvious that people were shaken by yet another tragic loss.

Death wasn't part of God's original plan. It came as a result of Coyote (Shuswap mythology) tricking our first parents in one act of rebellion. Ever since, every generation has walked with sorrow and grief. There is hope in it all this pain. Psalm 88 reveals that God is aware of our pain. 1 Corinthians 15:25 reveals that Christ will put all enemies under His feet, and the last enemy will be death.
Revelations 21 show us that Jesus has a plan to "make all things new" and even the memory of sin and death will be wiped away. But until then, I remember 2 Corinthians 1:3-5,
Blessed by the God and Father of our lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Because we have received comfort from Christ, we are vessels of that comfort to our friends during their time of loss. Notice too, that the source of all true comfort, lasting comfort, hope giving comfort, is God. He is the God of all comfort. So, as jars of clay with a precious glorious message, we go and share.

Now, having written this, I wish I could get to sleep. I am really tired. It is 11:00pm and I still can't go to sleep.