Intertribal Life Newspaper -

On the peninsula jutting out into Lake Winnipeg, near the end of Manitoba Highway 59, is where I call home. I was born in Victoria Beach, and called Traverse Bay, Manitoba my childhood home. My mom was treaty but my dad wasn’t so we couldn’t live on the reserve. All through grade school up to high school, that’s where I was.

I’m Ojibwe and there were ten of us in my family. In fact, there were twelve but two of my siblings died when they were little. My dad finally got his treaty rights about ten years before he died.

When I think back to my childhood, I have pleasant thoughts of running around the community with my brothers and friends and going swimming in Lake Winnipeg. My dad was a fisherman and he looked after us the best he could.

A significant time in my life was when I was just a young boy, I met a Roman Catholic priest. It’s important because that was the first time I was introduced to God. This man made an impression on me. It’s been many years since that day and I’ve often wondered what happened to that old priest.

My father used to take me to church. In those days all the masses were said in Latin. We didn’t know what they were saying. I couldn’t understand what was going on in the church and I didn’t understand about Jesus because the priests didn’t explain that.

When I was 19 years old, I moved from Traverse Bay to Selkirk. My dad helped me move there and found a place for me to board. I found a job and worked there for a few years.

In 1973, I moved to Winnipeg and got a job working with large machinery. It was a good job.

Even though I had attended church as a child, I wasn’t interested in religion. I had a life that wasn’t very different from that of many young fellows my age. I began drinking and, of course, I smoked from the time I was a teen.

When I was 23, I met the woman who would become my wife. I didn’t really socialize much with women before this. When I met Edna, she was a single mom with six kids of her own from a previous relationship.

In 1985, I moved to Calgary where I lived for five years and worked in construction. I came back to Winnipeg in 1990.

Around 1991 I began to get sick when I drank and I’d be sick for two or three days straight. I knew something was wrong. When you’re addicted like that, it’s hard to see your condition.

My wife and I started going to Pritchard House, a Native addictions center, to get help for our drinking. It was there that I learned that there is a higher being who could help us with our drinking. After drinking for most of my adult life, I knew that this was not something I could stop on my own.

After getting treatment there, it changed the way my mind thought about drinking. I quit drinking and between 1991 and 1995 I prayed that God would send someone to help these drinkers and sniffers on the streets of downtown Winnipeg and the North End. At that time I knew I couldn’t help them—not by myself.

While I was at Pritchard House, I learned another important fact about the history of my people. I discovered for the first time that prior to Europeans coming to North America, Aboriginal people did not drink alcohol and have the problems we do today with alcoholism.

So, not only did I hear that there was Someone who could deliver me from my drinking but also I began to think that if we didn’t used to drink, we didn’t have to drink now. I began praying that God would bring someone to the North End who would help us find freedom. You know what, not only did God deliver me from my drinking, he also brought a pastor to the North End who started a church among my people.

One day in late 1995, I went by what used to be an old bank building on the corner of Selkirk and Main and discovered a group of people singing and praising God. I thought to myself, “who are these crazy people?”

Well-known worship leader David Ruis and a group from British Columbia and elsewhere came to start a church in the North End. God had answered my prayers.

Jan Uttley/Indian Life

Not only did I hear that there was Someone who could deliver me from my drinking but also I began to think that if we didn’t used to drink, we didn’t have to drink now. I began praying that God would bring someone who would help us find freedom. You know what, not only did God deliver my wife and me from our drinking, he also brought a pastor to the North End who started a church among my people.

From my background and traditional way of thinking, I thought that the only way to worship God was sitting in a pew, singing hymns, praying and meditating. So I thought people couldn’t worship God praising and dancing. You don’t jump around, sing and dance when you’re in church. Before this, I would attend different churches but I really wasn’t getting anything out of it. It was kind of dry. For me it wasn’t life-giving and life-changing. For me it was just doing religion and nothing else.

Later on I read in the Bible that King David danced before the Lord and God really liked that (2 Samuel 6:13-19; Psalm 149).

After that I started attending and found that my family and I were welcomed. It changed the way I thought about worshiping God.

It was at this church, the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard, that I came to know Jesus as my Savior.

I smoked all my life from the time I was 19, but it’s been 13 years since I quit smoking. My lungs are cleared out.

The doctor gave me a complete checkup and said there’s nothing wrong except that my kidneys aren’t functioning well. So I’m on dialysis three times a week.

I believe Jesus will heal me. He is the great healer. I spend time in His Word and prayer. I knew that Jesus healed some people but I didn’t know that He is healing people all the time.

God has been good to me and my family. My prayer is that more of my Native brothers and sisters will come to find true healing and freedom through Jesus Christ.