People gathering together to grow in our faith in Jesus

The Gathering exists for the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe community. Lac du Flambeau has a beautiful blend of Native people representing a number of tribes and cultural ‘blends’. Many grew up in ‘the church’ whether going to Sunday school, VBS or both. Some attended a Presbyterian church, some attended the “little white church” or the local Catholic church. My 91 year old mother recalled recently, “When I was little a bus picked us kids up and when I got to the church I remember a nice lady saying, “Hi Betty, how are you doing today? I remember thinking how odd that was because no one had ever talked to me like that before; asking me… how I was doing”.  Another friend shared her memory who is currently around a decade younger than my mom recalling at the little Baptist church when there would be church picnics with many families with kids of all ages “playing games and the parents hanging out together. Those kids are all parents now and many even grandparents”.

These local churches are no longer filled with Native families gathering for picnics, Sunday school and VBS at least not from my viewpoint. A few brave Natives drive into the neighboring town and attend mostly non-Native churches.  Thankfully there is the Foundation church that brings their bus into LdF picking up 5-10 year olds Wednesdays for an hour of Bible teaching, food and fun hoping seeds of God’s love and truth are being planted into their hearts.

I believe God has a plan for something new.  

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

I believe Jesus has opened the way for The Gathering in LdF; a place within the Lac du Flambeau reservation for Native men and women to gather and learn of our Savior and Creator, Jesus Christ. A place to ask any question and discover God’s answer. A safe place to gather to be nourished with food for the body and to find nourishment for the soul. A place to learn of God’s amazing story. A place to have your burdens shared and prayed for believing God hears and answers. God is raising up Native believers in Jesus who will lead the way for Natives to hear the truth from ‘one of their own’.

I am an Ojibwe who was adopted and raised by Stockbridge Mohican WWII veterans who followed the Creator and Savior, Jesus. I attended a church on the edge of the reservation. Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and VBS. My Native father was a church elder who sometimes preached and the visiting pastors seemed to always eat at our house after church. I would hear my mom singing hymns all day as she worked around the house and garden and I played piano from a young age when the pastor could only choose the hymns I had already learned to play whether or not they went with his message. I sang in the church choir before I could read well. I recall our kids and youth group visited the local mental health facility singing to many, whose families stopped visiting, though now I do recall as a little girl I was a bit afraid of the ‘different’ people and how they loved to embrace and touch me now knowing the innocent love they shared with me.

 My identity is as a Christ-following Native American who has never doubted I was created in the image of God. I have no memory of not knowing Jesus. I have always believed He created me eventually learning exactly how when I read David’s words,

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” Psalm 139: 13. 

I was so grateful to write these words in the first card I gave for Mother’s day after meeting the mom who carried me within her- the mom who chose to give me life.  

I have known great loss and great love. I have made large mistakes and battled guilt and regret always knowing of God’s great love and forgiveness because of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross for my sins that were many. I am still so imperfect and still so amazed that God only sees me through the lens of Jesus though my sins were as scarlet Jesus death and resurrection has made them white as snow.

The Gathering at LdF exists for others like me who seemed to never fit easily into one culture group; too Native for one or too white for another. Being half Native was fun when as a kid I thought I could identify with Cher when she sang, “half-breed” still to this day I don’t know if that was just a song on the Sonny and Cher show or if that had any measure of truth. I once wanted to travel to New York area with a group that was visiting the Stockbridge-Mohican homeland. A friend jokingly said I wasn’t allowed to go because it wasn’t MY homeland and I should visit my own. I laughed but inside I really did wonder, ‘where is my homeland’? My roots. Chicago where I was born or Lac du Flambeau where my tribal ID is from? England, Ireland or Denmark where my non-Native roots began from my father’s side? I just recently heard from my mom and confirmed from my aunt that I also have roots in France from my great great (one more great?) grampa who came from France into Canada who met a beautiful Native Ojibwe daughter of a tribal chief … or so the story goes.

 Talk about identity issues! Should I say, “Bon jour” as the French or “Boozhoo” as the Ojibwe though actually my favorite is, “Bon Jou” in Creole to great my Haitian friends. Do my clothes and jewelry define me as Native? Does sterling silver with a touch of turquoise make me more Native or wearing beaded jewelry a better representative of my Ojibwe ‘half’?  I have beaded flag earrings which could make me more American and sterling silver cross earrings I bought at our local Bear River powwow which looks Native and Christian, right?  Just a few days ago I was choosing which earrings to wear to The Gathering Sunday evening which would also be there for when I attended the non-Native church I attend on Sunday mornings when Jesus -through His Holy Spirit- made it clear to my heart that He does not look at the outside to define my identity but rather is looking at my heart. My identity is within me, not on my earrings or my clothes or which near-French or Ojibwe greeting I choose to say. My heart… I am a child of God. My homeland is heaven, and I will travel there one day!

The Gathering at Lac du Flambeau is for the Ojibwe Native for full-bloods and half-bloods, card carrying tribal members or those who are a mix of many tribes and nations with or without a ‘card’ to prove it.  The doors are open to all. We will love you and accept you. Do you need see a pathway through your wilderness? Do you need to see rivers in your dry wasteland? Join us.  We will hear your story, your heart and your questions. We will pray for you, sing with you and love you knowing you too were created in the image of God, woven together in your mother’s womb and hopefully believing God has a plan for you!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”.  Jeremiah 29:11