We've entered the last month of our service here in Juneau, and things are really starting to pick up. The native american outreach was a success on several levels. I went to Angoon on Admiralty Island. It's very different from the last native area I visited (Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island, BC) in several ways. It's not a reservation at all. Years ago, the locals were given the option of taking land or money. Most took the money, and lost it, the ones who took land fared better. The community was overall in better condition than Port Renfrew in my opinion. There was a lot less litter, and a lot more family structure (the residential schools happened here too.). Spiritually, there wasn't much difference. There were two churches here, a presbyterian church and an assemblies of god church.
The people were friendly, but talking about spiritual things was difficult. They were very hesitant to even tell us what they believed, and had almost no interest in our faith. You may recall in the support letter that I sent out, I said I believed the native american community was neglected by the christian community. I was wrong. The Native people group is the most ministered to people group ever. It's simply a difficult missions field, owing somewhat to the culture, but also because missionaries tend to attempt to "make them white" instead of figuring out how to fit their cultural traditions in with Jesus.
In Juneau, a lot of contacts were made to be used to find service projects in future years. Mostly, our project was put on the radar screen of the Native American community.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I feel like God is teaching me to be more intentional with my faith. As much as divine appointments are nice, sometimes it's just looking out into the community of unbelievers and seeing where we need to minister, or looking into the community of followers and seeing who is hurting that we are called to do. I feel, more than anything, this project is providing me with a pattern of Christian living to continue when I come home, forming habbits and finding ideas for growing and helping others grow as Christians at Mines, and in Conifer.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Native American week
First of all, I'm sorry I didn't update last week, it was simply deathly busy, and by the time I got around to it, the camping trip had started. We camped on a beach that we had to boat to, as there were no roads, and no trails (that I'm aware of) in the area. A local and friend of the project named Ron offered to take some of us fishing, so that's what we did on Friday. We caught some halibut and rockfish. I'm anxious to see the rockfish, Craig (project staff) says its very flavorful. The fish, however, is very, very, ugly, and I have yet to find time to cook it and confirm my suspicions.
On Sunday, we returned to Juneau. Ron wasn't around anymore, so we required several trips to get everyone to the harbor. I volunteered to take the last trip and help clean the boat with the understanding that my reward would be to see some sea lions on one of their local hangouts. We did, but as a surprise reward, we went snagging for chums (another type of fish.) The only problem was I had only bought a one day fishing license as I thought the day with Ron would be the only time I would fish. It worked out, however, as Craig was planning on driving the boat while someone else fished, and instead, I drove the boat while he fished, and the others fished from the shore. The thing is, all I really enjoy about fishing is hanging out with people, and eating the fish, so this way, I got to hang out and drive a boat, so no complaints there.
On to more serious matters, my mom brought to my attention that I haven't been talking about what God has been doing in me spiritually. I think I would be correct in saying my supporters did not send me here to catch halibut and climb mountains, and I apologize for not talking about it sooner, as God has been moving in my life.
One major thing I am seeing is a renewed respect for God's grace. I read back through a little bit of Hosea this last week, and it's basically a huge grace story. For those of you who may not recall, Hosea, a prophet and man of God is asked to marry a prostitute. This woman runs from him time and time again, and every time he goes out and buys her back. At the same time, (and throughout the rest of the old testament for that matter) Israel is turning her back on God, and God continually takes her back.
It's become evident that I hold the same pattern at times. Granted, I try not to sin, but at the end of the day, my heart can be easily swayed, and I find myself revisiting sins previously conquered. I realize grace is about the first thing a new Christian learns about, but I'm constantly amazed that even though I keep sinning, and I can remember most of the occasions, God has given me grace for all of it, and remembers none of it.
Moving on from grace, there is one major prayer that has been on my heart. It's a line from a praise song (I can't for the life of me remember which) that goes, "Break my heart for what breaks yours." I feel like there's people all over Juneau who don't know Christ, and I will be a more effective witness if I feel the same pain Christ feels at their rebellion, and their state of ignorance from Him. It's been coming true. I feel pained to see the people in downtown, the homeless, the people coming off of the cruise ships, my coworkers... it's all become very real.
Speaking of work, I have a prayer request. I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I'm working at the local Fred Meyer, a huge Super Walmart style store. It's been difficult to do workplace ministry, a big focus of this project, because they have mostly Crusade guys working together, and things became more difficult as my job description changed this week. I've started working in Basic Store Matinence, and I spent all of today outside, alone, pulling weeds. I don't mind pulling weeds, but working alone took its tole, and there was zero opportunity to minister. Now, I won't be weeding for very much longer, but it's quite possible that all the jobs I will be given will see as little ministry opportunity as this. Please pray that God would make opportunities, and that I would recognize, and have courage to act on, the opportunities He presents.
Finally, I'm going to be in the Native American village of Angune (I'm not sure about that spelling, by the way,) on Thursday through Sunday morning. The Native American ministry is something that I feel that God has laid on my heart, and I'm getting pretty nervous and excited as the time approaches. Please pray that God would use me effectively.
Sorry about the novel-size post, thanks for reading this far. Hope all is well where you are.
On Sunday, we returned to Juneau. Ron wasn't around anymore, so we required several trips to get everyone to the harbor. I volunteered to take the last trip and help clean the boat with the understanding that my reward would be to see some sea lions on one of their local hangouts. We did, but as a surprise reward, we went snagging for chums (another type of fish.) The only problem was I had only bought a one day fishing license as I thought the day with Ron would be the only time I would fish. It worked out, however, as Craig was planning on driving the boat while someone else fished, and instead, I drove the boat while he fished, and the others fished from the shore. The thing is, all I really enjoy about fishing is hanging out with people, and eating the fish, so this way, I got to hang out and drive a boat, so no complaints there.
On to more serious matters, my mom brought to my attention that I haven't been talking about what God has been doing in me spiritually. I think I would be correct in saying my supporters did not send me here to catch halibut and climb mountains, and I apologize for not talking about it sooner, as God has been moving in my life.
One major thing I am seeing is a renewed respect for God's grace. I read back through a little bit of Hosea this last week, and it's basically a huge grace story. For those of you who may not recall, Hosea, a prophet and man of God is asked to marry a prostitute. This woman runs from him time and time again, and every time he goes out and buys her back. At the same time, (and throughout the rest of the old testament for that matter) Israel is turning her back on God, and God continually takes her back.
It's become evident that I hold the same pattern at times. Granted, I try not to sin, but at the end of the day, my heart can be easily swayed, and I find myself revisiting sins previously conquered. I realize grace is about the first thing a new Christian learns about, but I'm constantly amazed that even though I keep sinning, and I can remember most of the occasions, God has given me grace for all of it, and remembers none of it.
Moving on from grace, there is one major prayer that has been on my heart. It's a line from a praise song (I can't for the life of me remember which) that goes, "Break my heart for what breaks yours." I feel like there's people all over Juneau who don't know Christ, and I will be a more effective witness if I feel the same pain Christ feels at their rebellion, and their state of ignorance from Him. It's been coming true. I feel pained to see the people in downtown, the homeless, the people coming off of the cruise ships, my coworkers... it's all become very real.
Speaking of work, I have a prayer request. I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I'm working at the local Fred Meyer, a huge Super Walmart style store. It's been difficult to do workplace ministry, a big focus of this project, because they have mostly Crusade guys working together, and things became more difficult as my job description changed this week. I've started working in Basic Store Matinence, and I spent all of today outside, alone, pulling weeds. I don't mind pulling weeds, but working alone took its tole, and there was zero opportunity to minister. Now, I won't be weeding for very much longer, but it's quite possible that all the jobs I will be given will see as little ministry opportunity as this. Please pray that God would make opportunities, and that I would recognize, and have courage to act on, the opportunities He presents.
Finally, I'm going to be in the Native American village of Angune (I'm not sure about that spelling, by the way,) on Thursday through Sunday morning. The Native American ministry is something that I feel that God has laid on my heart, and I'm getting pretty nervous and excited as the time approaches. Please pray that God would use me effectively.
Sorry about the novel-size post, thanks for reading this far. Hope all is well where you are.
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