We are ambassadors

I recently attended the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Conference on the Tulalip Reservation in Everett, Washington. This conference was a wake-up call! Never have I been in a room filled with so much pain, sorrow, and unresolved anger. The plague of intergenerational pain and suffering, whose genesis was the Indian boarding school experience, is real. Its effects have caused low self-esteem, alcoholism, drug use, homelessness, and suicide at levels so alarming they significantly eclipse national averages.

At one point, we split into small groups in order to share our personal experiences at boarding schools. One man glared at me as he spoke. His words, loud enough for our small group to hear, were clearly directed at me. We weren’t far into the conference when I realized that, to the people sitting around me, anything involving or remotely related to the church was the enemy. So, as the head of a Christian organization, I represented everything evil that has happened to our Native ancestors since white men first appeared on our shores carrying the Bible.

I listened to the man with compassion and empathy. His voice was low and expressed a depth of suffering I could not comprehend. I was reminded of Jeremiah 8:18, “My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!” Yet despite his pain, his words were slow, thoughtful, and filled with wisdom.

His suffering is what LIM and its missionaries work to eliminate. Your gifts go to Native people, like this man, in the form of programs and tools which help them face the darkness of their past and see the light of Jesus. It’s a big job!

Outreach to Native peoples is hard work. Undoing more than 500 years of poorly executed evangelism by various church bodies, and individuals, who used God’s Word to inflict pain and suffering is an enormous challenge. But this is the work God has called Lutheran Indian Ministries to do. And we know, because of your faithful support, he has placed this call on your heart, as well.

 Through you, God is making an impact on the lives of Native American and Alaska Native people like never before! His Word is on the move, and He is using you and the staff of LIM in large cities and in remote places.

 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us…” 2 Cor. 5:20

 The pain was so real and tangible at the conference. As the man directed his anger toward me and the church, I silently prayed, “Lord, please use me to help this man see the real you. Use me as your ambassador to put him on the road to his healing journey. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, use me to strengthen his heart through faith in you.”

 I will likely never know if my words of encouragement will impact our Native friend, but I do know God’s Word does not return to Him empty.

 Likewise, we are promised that our gifts toward God’s work will be blessed. Because of you, we have accomplished so much throughout the years, particularly this past year, but it is clear there is much more that needs to be done. Never was this clearer than while hearing story after story of boarding school survivors, all of them yearning for the healing and hope only found in Jesus Christ.

 So, I need your help now, more than ever, to walk beside Lutheran Indian Ministries and support the Native ministry being done through our missionaries.

 In this New Year, I am asking you to consider increasing your commitment and financial support to make 2020 your most generous giving year ever.

 I promise your gift will be wisely used to bless others and bring the life-changing Gospel into families and communities. Native people deserve to know the true Jesus, the real Jesus. Together, we will make that happen.

 I give thanks for your passion and support of LIM, and I look forward to sharing more about how God is using us in the Native mission fields across the United States.

 Blessings to you, in Him.

Tim Young Eagle (Pawnee)
Executive Director

P.S. Please use the enclosed cross as a reminder to pray for all Native people. May they discover hope and healing through the truth of the Gospel message – that Jesus was born, suffered, died, and was raised for all people, red, yellow, black, and white. 

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