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A "NORTHERN
LIGHTS" MAGAZINE ARTICLE
(from Issue #501)
Where have we been?
Where are we headed?
200 years
of Native ministry ... in 25-year snapshots
by Dan Woodard
For all of us (and you)
busy with our day-to-day work and service for the Lord, it's important
to stand back and take a look at the "big picture."
When we in NCEM do that, we're
reminded again that we're but one of several ministries God has raised
up within the past 60-or-so years to reach Canada's First Peoples with
the Gospel. We're really part of something that began much earlier ...
and something that is building for the future.
In August our workers met
for four days of teaching and fellowship with nine other *IMCO missions,
and other evangelicals involved in Native ministry. The following is
adapted from an article presented by IMCO Administrator, Dan Woodard. It's
a concise and very intriguing account of God's sovereignty, and our
responsibility. -- ed.
1807
 David
Thompson was putting what is now western Canada on the map -- literally.
His love for the outdoors and his surveying skills combined in a calling
to explore the mountain ranges of the northwest, drawing maps as he went.
He took his Indian wife and 13 children everywhere he went.
The greatest love of David
Thompson's life was Jesus Christ. Everywhere he and his family walked
and canoed, he would tell the story of Jesus' love, planting seeds in
the hearts and minds of many Indian people, that their Creator sent His
Son to be their sacrifice for sin.
This year, 1807, he surveyed
the homelands of the Flathead Indians of what is now southern Alberta and
northern Montana. David noted in his memoirs that his stories of Jesus
excited the entire tribe. These people were on a search for truth, a
search that would culminate 25 years later in one of the most riveting
speeches a Native Indian man has ever made!
1832
 Flathead
Indian Rabbit Skin Leggings and three other men decided to make the
treacherous trip from their homeland to Saint Louis Post (now St. Louis,
Missouri) to find what David Thompson had referred to as the Book of
Heaven. After walking 1600 miles they were greeted by General William
Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition), then ushered to the priest with
their request. They were received with the greatest hospitality and shown
pictures of the Virgin Mary and of the saints, but they were steadily
denied their oft-repeated request for the Bible.
Their journey had been so
exhausting that two of these Native men died from their hardships. The
other two after a time became discouraged and prepared to return to their
far-off home. Just before leaving the city a feast was prepared, speeches
were made, and the general and others bid them God-speed on their journey.
During the addresses at the close of the feast Rabbit Skin Leggings was
asked to respond. He spoke with conviction and grave disappointment:
"We came to you over the
trail of many moons from the land of the setting sun beyond the great
mountains ... we came with an eye partly open for our people who sit in
darkness; we go back with our eyes closed.
"We made our way to you
with strong arms through many enemies and strange lands, that we might
carry back much to them. We go back with our arms empty ... Our people
sent us to get the white man's Book of Heaven ... You took us where they
worship the Great Spirit with candles, but the Book was not there. You
showed us images of the good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond,
but the Book was not among them to tell us the way.
"We are going back the
long, sad trail to our people of the dark land. You make our feet heavy
with gifts, and our moccasins will grow old and our arms tire in carrying
them, yet the Book is not among them. When we tell our people after one
more snow in the big council that we did not bring the Book, no word will
be spoken by our elders or our young men. One by one they will go out in
silence. Our people will die in darkness ... they will have no white man's
Book to make the way plain. I have no more words."
1857
 Word
of this speech spread quickly. In a few years numerous missionaries from
northeastern US and England began coming west to tell the story of Jesus
and the life He offers. One of them, James Evans, invented the Cree
syllabics and began translating white man's Book of Heaven into Cree. By
1857 the Cree Bible translation was completed! A missions movement was
well underway among Native people from lands that are now Quebec to
Alberta. Family devotions became a widespread tradition. Literally
thousands of Indian families burned the fetishes of their traditional
spiritism and embraced the Gospel of God's grace. New believers were
discipled. Churches were established.
1882
Sadly, the memories of the
life that Jesus gave their parents and grandparents began to fade. Gaps in
missions strategy resulted in fewer and fewer Native men becoming equipped
to pastor their churches. The baton of Native Christian leadership was not
being passed from second generation to the third.
With the founding of the
Dominion of Canada (1867) and the Indian Act of Canada (1876) came a major
blow to Native dignity. According to the Indian Act, the definition of
personhood was the absence of Native heritage!
1907
 Darwinism
and liberal theology were infiltrating colleges and seminaries that had
been producing evangelical missionaries committed to the inspiration of
Scripture, evangelism, discipleship and church planting.
This downward spiral of Native
missions and church life became even more dismal when the Canadian
government began requiring (by law) Native children to leave their parents
and attend residential schools. Mainstream mission policy reinforced this
by providing staff for the schools. Many of these schools became known for
their stories of abuse.
1932
Christianity among Aboriginal
people across Canada reached the lowest point yet. This year you could
count on the fingers of one hand the number of missionaries telling the
love of Jesus and teaching the Bible among Native peoples. You could
possibly count on the fingers of your other hand the number of Native
people in Canada who were known born again Christians.
Spiritual darkness ruled the
North once again. The revival stories of the latter 1800s were only a
memory of the grandparents.
1957
 By
now the light of God's grace was once again shining beams in a few
communities across central Canada. A couple of missions were started. The
remote community of Weagamow Lake (ON) had recently experienced a major
spiritual awakening with the majority of the community accepting the life
that Jesus offers. "Has Jesus given you life yet?" was the
question they asked one another as they visited in their homes.
The Good News spread. Native
men emerged as leaders of their fellowships. Eventually a group of Native
pastors birthed a larger fellowship of Native churches that were springing
up across Canada -- the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (NEFC).
1982
Along with the efforts of a
few denominations, by now there were 10 interdenominational evangelical
missions across Canada that had covenanted to partner together to reach
Native peoples in North America with the Gospel, toward the establishment
of a strong and reproductive Native church.
The partnership was known as *IMCO
-- Inter-Mission Cooperative Outreach. These mission agencies had about
700 missionaries committed to evangelism, discipleship, and leadership
development for the churches being established in Native communities and
urban centers across Canada, Alaska, and parts of the US and Mexico.
The NEFC was in the process of
passing the baton from its first generation to its second. Every year
hundreds of Native people were accepting the life that Jesus offers.
2007
Today, a full 200 years after
explorer David Thompson first shared the story of Jesus' love with the
Flatheads, there are probably some 100,000 Native people across North
America who've accepted the life that Jesus offers.
This is the 21st century. We're
living in post-colonial times! Colonized people around the world are
assuming their Indigenous people's identity, independence, and
self-governance. This is of God.
Native Christian leadership
increasingly recognize their God-given responsibility to initiate
ministry, partner strategically and "go for it!" First Nations
leadership is pioneering new structures to equip leaders to more
effectively reach the exploding First Nations population.
IMCO leadership is
transitioning to at least 50% Indigenous leadership representation around
the IMCO table. Together IMCO is committed to adjusting our methodology
while remaining firm in our passion for the spread of the life Jesus
Christ offers.
And this time, by God's
grace, we are partnering together to prevent the baton being dropped again
between the second and third generations. Amen.
*To read Dan Woodard's
article in its entirety, and for a list of sources, visit www.imcomissions.net
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