Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 69
I was part of the Sixties Scoop generation and so although I am Indigenous, I grew up in a different world, compared to my relatives on the reserve. Growing up in the city, we used to have company over to our house on a regular basis-especially on Saturday night. My parents were also part of a church bowling league and so on Saturday night my brother and sister would babysit me and have authority over me for that night. As I got older, I would go to youth night, where we would...
In the holy and sacred book that was passed down from our spiritual ancestors, we read the story of a leader, Paul, who shared wisdom and advice about weaknesses. In 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 we read his story: "I was given a thorn in my flesh. . . . Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that C...
As Indigenous people across North America, we are known for being a people group that wait. Historically, Indigenous people have waited and relied on the different seasons. We have waited for berry picking seasons; we have waited for various hunting seasons; we have waited for seasons of the land freezing and thawing. Then through colonization we have waited on the government and churches to come through with their promises. We know what it is like to feel blessed because we...
I recently took on a paper route in my neighborhood because I noticed that I was behind in my bills more than I thought. Sometimes taking on an extra job or a part time job can really help us get through the rough financial times that we all go through periodically. If you live in a remote community or in an Indigenous community, it's harder to find a job like a paper route, but there are other opportunities that come and go. They might last a day or three days or sometimes a...
As I have experienced life for 50 years now, I have seen many forms of exercise. As I have struggled with my own weight and talked to people in the health field, I have come to these conclusions: 1) The environment we spend our time in will determine how we express our need for physical exercise. 2) When we exercise it brings health to our physical bodies and our physical hearts. 3) Movement is movement and all movements count as exercise. Even when I take a small look at the...
As I take a look at what our spiritual ancestor Paul said in his written letter to the local church community, I see some wisdom that can help us heal our broken hearts. So many things happen throughout our lives that cause us grief, loss and trauma, at so many various levels, that if we don't find ways to heal our broken hearts, we will find ourselves going down a path that we will regret. We can all tell stories of heartache in our own lives and the lives of our family...
In the Gospel of Luke there is a story of a woman who was looked down upon as a sinner, yet she gave all she had to Jesus, sobbing on His feet, wiping them with her hair and anointing Him with expensive perfume. She seemed to be hurting and broken and wanting more in life. She knew what it was like to give in to what was the easiest road for her at the time, which was a life of sin. She had heard through the grapevine that a special man named Jesus had come to the house of a...
Often, when we hear the word discipline, we don't associate it with healing in our hearts and our lives. We often look for words such as comfort and empathy and understanding. In the Indigenous historical events of our lives many atrocities and abuses took place, so when we hear the word "discipline" we don't necessarily think of the phrase "healing our hearts." Yet, when we look at the Bible, God's most precious holy Word, we do see the word "discipline," and we do see it...
The Gospel of John has a heart-warming story of a woman at a well in chapter four. This story takes place in an area where there were mixed race people called the Samaritans. The Jewish people looked down upon Samaritans because they were of mixed races. They worshipped God at a different temple, and they didn't believe in the entire Old Testament, like the Jewish people did. The Jewish people and the Samaritan people were very different and had a history of indifference and...
As I start this column I am on day number 12 of 16 of a mission trip to Fort Simpson and Hay River and Fort Resolution in the North West Territories. I came with a contact from Gideons International and my wife, Angeline. We didn't have enough resources to bring our kids, so we are missing them. Our children are dwelling at home with their big sister, and we are dwelling with the Indigenous people in what ever way we can. We have put on services with singing and teaching from...
Forgiveness is one of those experiences that you participate in as a receiver and as a giver. If you have one without the other than it just doesn't feel right. With all the talk in the circles of the truth and reconciliation meetings that have taken place, and all the recommendations that came forth, forgiveness must play a vital role in that process. Survivors told their stories, truth telling took place and talk of healing was central to those talks. Yet, if forgiveness...
Psalm 32:7 (NJKV) says, "You are my hiding place: You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance." When we are seeking the healing of our broken hearts one of the best approaches we can take is to hide. Hide from our troubles? Hide from our friends? Hide from our family? Hide from our community? No, we hide in God, our heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus, who wants us to hide in Him. Many of us are great at hiding and running from our...
Whenever we experience some sort of grief, loss or trauma our body, soul and spirit want to run and hide and try to cover the pain-or try to numb or forget the pain. Yet, when we look at our holy book called the Scriptures, we see men and women expressing their pain and hurt. Throughout the Holy Scriptures, that God gave to our spiritual ancestors and told us to pass along to our children, we hear stories of people like Job who lost everything within a short period of time eve...
Second Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV) in God’s holy book tells us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Being challenged to change our behavior is difficult for all of us; especially for those of us who have a problem with any sort of authority. Whether it’s someone telling us how we can improve at work, or whether it is a f...
In God's love letter to us, in the ancient holy book called the Bible, we see our spiritual ancestor Paul talking about sufferings. We usually want to avoid sufferings and either pretend they don't exist, or try to act like everything is fine. Yet, when we acknowledge our sufferings for what they are, and what sufferings are intended to do for us, it changes our whole perspective on sufferings. One of our ancient spiritual advisors once said, in a letter he wrote to the...
One of our spiritual ancestors named Paul wrote in the holy book called the Bible some wisdom on how to approach the work that we do in this life. There are different categories of work that we all do as we journey in this life on this earth-that the Creator, Jesus, gave us to do. There are also different types of relationships that we have with each other as we journey through our lives. We have relationships with our spouses and children, and we have relationships with our a...
Over the past year I have been dealing with an unexpected problem in my life. As far as my role as husband, father, pastor, Bible teacher, and student is concerned I am very happy. There are so many people that I love and there are so many people that love me. Life is good! God is good! Family and friends are good! Church is good! Yet, there have been times when I have struggled with anxiety to the point of having short panic attacks. Now before I go any further let's read...
Over the past year I have been dealing with an unexpected problem in my life. As far as my role as husband, father, pastor, Bible teacher, and student is concerned, I am very happy. There are so many people that I love and there are so many people that love me. Life is good! God is good! Family and friends are good! Church is good! Yet, there have been times when I have struggled with anxiety to the point of having short panic attacks. Now before I go any further, let's read...
In the book of Jesus there is a book written by several of our spiritual ancestors from the time of King David. In this book called The Psalms there are people crying out to God to deliver them from depression, sadness, hurt, anger, physical threat, oppositions of all kinds, people mocking and making fun of them and the list goes on and on. As Aboriginal people, we too have endured many of these same feelings because of racism, oppression. Although we are in a society that...
I was reading a story in the book of our Creator Jesus, the other day, and I was forced to determine if I was going to have a positive outlook on life and find true meaning, or if I would become very negative and let my emotions get the best of me. There is a story in the book of Jesus that has the title Ecclesiastes. It is a long story of a king who once had everything but then became negative and overwhelmed as he saw his journey of life on earth coming to an end. This king...
When I read Psalms 124, it is all about the people of Israel being thankful that they were delivered from their enemies because God was on their side. If it had not been for the LORD they would have drowned and been swept away by the waters. If it had not been for the LORD, they would have been caught in a trap like a bird and they would not be set free. What I love about this special song is that it is all about the community as a whole celebrating what God had done for...
There are many things that happen to us in life that weigh us down and sometimes make us go down the wrong pathway that leads to sadness and sorrow. Residential school experiences, boarding school experiences, adoptions, child welfare involvement, addictions, divorce, death, disease, and betrayal. When I read Psalm 1 in verses one and two it says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the sco...
In Psalms 46:10-11 it says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” I would like to take some time to talk about these two verses and see what I can discover and then pass this onto you as you are on your life journey. Let’s learn together and see what will happen. To make a long story short, these verses are talking about the fact that when th...
At the end of March 2016 I attended a one-day conference in Winnipeg promoting First Nations Christian Writers. There were many Aboriginal people from all across Canada. It was an extreme encouragement to all in attendance. One of the guest speakers was Les Stobbe from North Carolina. He has many years’ experience in the world of editing and literature review as an editor and literary agent. His talk was encouraging to me because it focused on all the “God Moments” in his l...
Many of us Aboriginal people believe in healing. Even if you do not believe in Jesus you probably still believe in healing. That is why many Aboriginal people who are not followers of Jesus go through the way of their ancestors for different healings of some sort. The purpose of this column is not to discuss the different methods people use to obtain healing, but focus on pointing people to see Jesus Christ as their ultimate form of healing. In this life and the one to come....
