Report by Keith Russell

Just a brief summary of what has been happening in my life and ministry. First, I have begun my second year in the Community of Christ Seminary program. It’s a lot of work, but I am learning a lot and enjoying the experience. I have also been serving on several church committees: the Diversity Committee, Tangible Love Fund Committee, Ministerial Education Committee, and the Ethnic Ministers retreat planning committee.

The Diversity Committee discusses issues that affect people in a wide variety of situations, from ethnic and cultural diversities to issues of disability, etc.

Some of you may be already aware of the Tangible Love Fund, but for those of you who are not, it is set up through oblation offerings and designed to help start projects that help people in varied ways. The details are available on the Community of Christ Web site: www.CofChrist.org. There are a number of specifics as to who, what, when, where, and how, but basically it’s a three-year grant program. You must apply through a formal grant-writing process, but there may be money available if your project meets the guidelines. If you are interested, check it out.

The Ministerial Education Committee discusses and plans for professional ministers’ education and training, and professional development, including CPI.

A lot of my ministry has been focused on trying to help some of our members on the Omaha Reservation establish a church home. We have been working on that for about a year now. The people there are happy to have the opportunity to meet together and share their prayers and thoughts and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Communion).

Attendance varies with the weather and what else may be happening in the area, but it is going well in general. I have also done baby blessings, weddings, funerals, administrations for the sick, and confirmations (for baptisms done in the past). There have been no new baptisms or ordinations yet, but I’m ready when God and the people are.

I am continuing to provide ministerial support for Native American folks in the Kansas City area, primarily through volunteerism and keeping connected through the Internet, phone calls, and visits.

As many of you know, because you were there, we had a NAM retreat in Independence, Missouri, this last spring. It went well and was attended by about thirty people. Dee White Eye and Pat Fowler were the main presenters on Saturday. We also enjoyed a good worship and sharing gathering at Bannister Ridge Community of Christ congregation on the Friday evening of the retreat.

I have provided guest ministry in a number of congregational settings as well as at a young adult retreat and at Reunion # 1 in southern Missouri. I visited and provided support ministry on the Navajo reservation the end of July and the first of August. We continue to share in fellowship, together with Community of Christ members and friends, in the Piñon, Many Farms, Chinle, Rough Rock, and Great Falls areas. We were blessed to have the opportunity to visit as a whole family this past summer, because we were helping my son move to Phoenix to go to school. We also visited with church members in the Phoenix area.

Two Navajo girls received scholarships to SPEC this year. Unfortunately one of them had to withdraw at the last minute due to personal issues, but the young lady who was able to go had a wonderful experience. Thanks to those who contribute to the Native American Peoples Fund, which makes opportunities such as this possible.

I attended and provided ministry for the Sault Saint Marie congregation’s NAM retreat in Michigan. It was held this year at The Woodlands Community of Christ campground. It was a good gathering, but with gas at three dollars per gallon and a new location, the numbers were down from previous years. Still, twenty-seven people attended, and it was a good, fun, and spiritual experience.

Those are the highlights. I may have forgotten a thing or two, but this gives you an idea of what I have been up to and what has been happening in NAM. There are a number of folks all across the United States and Canada involved in Native American Ministries to one degree or another. Many of them have stories of their own to share.

With the help, support, and guidance of several NAM folks, we have accomplished some important things. NAM is involved in a variety of events throughout

the church. The voice of the Native American Ministries community within the Community of Christ is being heard in many important venues throughout the church, such as at World Conferences, The Call to the Nations (Native American Ministries conference), Peace Colloquies, Diversity Summit, Diversity Committee, Congregational Leaders Workshop, Winter Field School, Temple School, Ethnic Ministers Retreat, other retreats and reunions, youth camps (for Community of Christ as well as the Heart of America Indian Center), and the list goes on. The awareness of Native American Ministries as an active and viable ministry within the Community of Christ may be higher now than at any other time, especially since last year’s inclusion of the Native American flag (Eagle Feather Staff) in the Special World Conference’s flag ceremony, where the NAM flag was center stage behind the First Presidency and able to be seen on the World Wide Web and as a NAM web page on the CofChrist.org Web site.

Report by Dee “Singing Bird” White Eye

I am now in my second year in the Hiawatha area of Kansas. I am blessed with a job that I consider my ministry. I continue to work as the Native American school counselor for two school districts: Horton and Hiawatha. I work with all grades. Many of my high school students struggle to stay in school and graduate. I work with Sac and Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Iowa tribal students. I attend as many local Native events as possible to make connections with the families of my students. I no longer work two days a week with the local mental health agency since I work full-time in the schools.

I feel a calling to also teach the non-Natives of northeast Kansas about the Native Americans in this area. Often I find there are misunderstandings that need healing on both sides. My students help me at school with putting on a Native Heritage Month. We do traditional dancing, sell fry bread, and do presentations to help other students and school staff better understand who we are and what we represent. The theme last year was on Native American inventions. Many students also learned about new things our people invented or discovered that they never knew before. I sponsor a club at Horton High School called the Native American Student Awareness Club. We participate in local community events on the reservations also, to show their community how we all can work together. One student stated, “I want them to see the efforts we are making to unite the whites and Natives at our school.” We want them to see we can do it. The club is made up of Native and non-Native students.

Besides my employment and tons of events related to school involvement, I do my side business as a Native consultant. I am involved in some of the Lewis and Clark events going on all over Kansas, making educational presentations, storytelling, and singing. I have a first-person play that I perform about my grandmother and her life story as a Native child going to boarding school, etc. I also present at several teacher’s workshops. One I did this summer was in Independence, Missouri, at the National Frontier Trails Museum. It was on how to teach American history in a Native friendly way.

I am consulting with the state on an archaeology project they are doing for middle school children, and they want it to include Native history accurately. I also serve on a couple of boards that examine school testing-and-teaching materials for racial bias. I serve on the board of the Native American Heritage Museum. This and all the other consulting jobs I do are ways I can advocate and make a difference for Native peoples. I want these communities to know more about the positives in our Native communities of the past and present.

We are lucky to have a small Community of Christ congregation here in Hiawatha where I can serve by telling my Native legends and stories for early worship. I sing my Native songs at the main worship services. I have been asked to present Native ceremonies at our reunion. I also help with hospice on the reservation. A nurse who is one of our members calls on me whenever they get a Native patient. There are many prayers needed for our families involved with alcohol and drugs and for the children they are raising.

I truly feel blessed that the Creator found a way to get me to come to this area of Kansas. I feel I am where God needs me to be. There is so much work to do here to help in the ministry of Jesus. I never leave him out of all I do. And I tell my students every day

something related to the Creator and how much they are loved. I tell them that the Creator has given them a gift to share with the world. I know I am sharing the gift he has given me. Life is always good. I am blessed to serve in this area.

—Dee “Singing Bird” White Eye

Report by Ralph Williston,

Nancy and I visited with the Mississippi Choctaw tribe this spring as we visited some of the churches in the hurricane-damaged area while teaching the Book of Mormon. One of our pastors gave us a contact in the tribe and it turned out to be one of the council members. The Mississippi Choctaw tribal headquarters are right in the middle of the still-active KKK of historical Philadelphia, Mississippi. They finally had a trial last summer to prosecute those who killed some blacks back in the 1960s. The tribe is now faced with handling gambling income and random murders of tribal members. We had the opportunity to share “Let the Elders Speak,” a comparison of Native teachings to the scriptures, with two tribal council members’ families and to share stories at their church.

This summer we made five presentations to the Missouri Eastern Cherokee tribal council in Seneca, Missouri. The chief and council are struggling to hold the council and membership together and asked us to share the “update to the Elders Speak with particular emphasis on Cherokee traditions and teachings.” The multimedia presentations were well received and included teachings from many tribes. That band is involved with a huge food assistance program (over 300 families) for its tribal membership.

The Lamar congregation just completed a three-Sunday “revival” titled “Comparing Native Teachings to the Scriptures.” We experienced public attendance to our services for the 90-minute worship/teaching series, which nearly doubled our regular attendance on those Sundays.

In October, I will be making Native American Culture presentations at seven elementary schools in the Lubbock, Texas, area as well as coming in as a visiting author of six Native American children’s books and teacher of writing workshops.

We are continuing to develop teaching/study materials on the Book of Mormon. Our congregation (Lamar) is working on a request by one of our apostles to “put the book of Mormon into common language for the youth.” At the same time we are developing a study guide for the Book of Mormon. We hope to have the rough draft completed by the end of this year and the final ready for printing sometime next year. It will be two books: The Reader’s Text of the Book of Mormon and Study Guide for the Book of Mormon, a side by side of the original and the reader’s text.

I am working on a sequel to The Elders Speak DVD called Elders Speak II that will contain an introduction to the “Peace Shield Teachings” and an update on Native teachings compared to the Bible and a video of one of my Great Spirit stories.

A letter from Stuart Fowler

Keith,
       Cindy and I went to Ludington, a congregation about three hours southwest, on Lake Michigan. Their normal attendance is about eight. With us coming to speak
about NAM and provide music, they drew in about twenty-two for the Sunday service. We concentrated on what NAM is—not so much on tradition or Native American teachings, as much as the commonality of Native spiritual beliefs and those of the Community of Christ. I read from Doctrine and Covenants Section 162, paragraphs one and two, about how this same revelation is being taught within the Native American community: that the time to act is now to reach out of our comfort zones and minister to each other with the gifts, prophecy, and revelation of each—that our common ground is greater than our differences—that we each hold keys to the puzzle of building the peaceable kingdom here on earth. Neither should try to dominate the conversation but listen diligently to the other, and grow and prosper together within that kingdom.
       We also visited with Jim and Louise Wakazzo and their son James. We stayed almost two hours and had some good dialogue, discussion, and prayer.
       We are keeping busy. I am going to the Sault this weekend, Friday through Sunday, and Cindy is doing a Native American demonstration with the Metis group in Grayling.
        God bless. Hope all is well.

Letter from Paul Lucero

Dear Keith and friends in NAM,

Some of us have also been going to Omaha and working on another side of the reservation—Walthill. I know that many others have gone before us, with good results. There is also a good group that is growing the ministry and need our support and prayers. Nola and Chuck Briggs, their sons and daughter and their spouses, have been making an impact there by having services and conducting a preschool five days a week at the church. Two weeks ago, Karen Bowman, Heather Atkinson, and I (we often have the company of Marilyn Bins, Mary Lou and Connie Eads, and sometimes Roger and Alana Lewis) went up to Walthill and ministered to about thirty people: three of the thirty were Hispanic, six Omaha, and two Sioux. The Holy Spirit was evident and there seemed to be an eagerness among the people to draw closer to the Lord. There were many requests for prayers and prayers of administration. Last year there were three baptisms. About seven of those attending this service were not members of the church. It seems that the members are reaching out. I am excited by Keith’s steady outreach within the Macy area.

It seems that the Lord has great plans for the Omaha people—bigger than what I could imagine. We try to go up as often as possible (every month or two) and have been doing so for over three years.

May you all be blessed in this great work.