Mission trip to five Cities
Sounds like a movie doesn’t it, but it was a ministry trip. What a blessing it is to see the many years of prayer being answered by God. For a long time Howard and I have been praying that God would use us as part of a Native American Mission Team. Rather than Native Americans viewing themselves as the mission project, they would view themselves as the missionaries. We are seeing the fruit of those prayers now, as Howard works with Pastor Kyle and White Eagle Ministry taking the gospel to other Native American and non-native communities across the United States.
Albuquerque New Mexico was the first stop; here they had a
low key meeting with Rev. Casey Church and John Lansa of The Navigators
Ministry. The church and ministry blessed them and laid hands on them and sent
them off on their mission trip.
The next stop was Flagstaff AZ. where they ministered in two different churches. The first of which was a mix of Hopi, Navajo and non-Indian people, Pastored by a Native American Pastor. In this church there was a Hopi man who was the lead drummer of a non-Christian Hopi drum group that they had invited to participate in the outreach they did last year at the Flagstaff City Park. Since that time he has become a Christian and joined that church along with his family. Praise God!
The second church was a predominantly Hispanic church with a
Hispanic pastor, there was also a mix of African Americans and First Nations
people. In both churches Pastor Kyle spoke about ‘redemptive analogies"
(stories
or things in culture that can be used to tell the gospel story). Afterwards
Pastor Kyle and Pastor Marcia (Kyle’s wife) who both operate in the gift of
healing, had an alter call and laid hands on people to receive spiritual,
physical, and financial healing. They also were led to release their healing
anointing to the Pastor and other leadership in the church.
Next they moved to Phoenix AZ. Where they participated for three days as teachers in the work shops for Pastor Tommy Barnett’s School of Ministry. Howard and Pastor Kyle teamed up on several of the classes, discussing Reaching Native American People with the love of Christ. Also the team participated in several demonstrations of Native American style worship each day of the school. On the final night they had a Christian Pow-Wow outside in the court in front of Tommy Barnett’s Church. Howard’s favorite part of the Ph. stop was that he had the privilege of staying with old friends Randy and Diane Shreckengast!
Then they moved on to Banning, CA. where they met up with
Linda Prince and the One Hundred and Twenty Drums Ministry. They joined in on
the opening ceremonies for the "Waves of Worship". Waves of Worship are a coming
together of multiple churches, cultures, and peoples to worship the Lord in
culturally diverse ways. The opening ceremony was hosted on the Morongo Indian
Reservation, by the Morongo Indian Tribe. One of the unique things about this
opening night was they had a praise and worship band made up of people from
every church and people group that were a part of the celebration. Their worship
to God was awesome and Howard could not help but think that it was a little hint
of Revelations 7:9.
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The last city on the mission trip was Hesperia CA. There they ministered in a predominately Native American Church. During the time in Hesperia Howard had the opportunity to speak to Native American ministry leaders where he shared the importance of being who God created each of us to be rather than trying to be someone else. It is important for Native American people to know that God created them Native American but it is just as important for non-natives who are in native ministry to know that God created them who he wanted them to be, that they don’t need to pretend to be Native Americans in order to minister with Native Americans. Actually it is more of a hindrance than a help.
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands, and they cry out with a loud voice saying, "salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the lamb."
Rev. 7:9-10
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