:: Saturday, December 10, 2005 ::

Come if you can!

:: Jesse 8:57 AM

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A form indicating registration, workshop information, and timetable.

:: Jesse 8:57 AM

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Awesome!

:: Jesse 8:56 AM

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A Call To The North

So many people have been asking me... how was your trip to Moose Factory? I have been typically responding with answers like: "Oh... it's soooo beautiful up there..." and "Wow... the people are so beautiful." However, the deepest reason for my venture up there in the first place was out of a deep wound that was scathed after a mission trip with another reservation called Longlac. I invite you to read about my testimony and recollection of that painful yet empowering experience. It's written as a story book. There's alot in there regarding the struggles and challenges that our Native brothers and sisters are facing on a daily ongoing basis. You can download the pdf here. http://dhsonline.org/jesse/longlac.pdf

Priscilla and I are planning to go whereever the Lord calls us to go. That may mean Moose Factory in the near future (as early as next year possibly) or perhaps a few more years down the road. Moose Factory is a wonderful place, it has a functioning society where alcohol does not rule the lives of the people, the school systems are functioning and there is a real presence of Jesus on the island. But... however... unfortunately there are so many problems that have escalated in the other reservations. Our hope is that we will learn the Native way of life and the church in Moose Factory for several years, and then move and work in reservations that are broken, empowering the local Native population to be filled with the Holy Spirit and lead their own people. There is much to be learnt regarding effective church planting and sensitivity towards a people whose history is tainted with Christian blood.

So yes... this is long term committment stuff.. and it involves the future. But also, it is a real step towards something that we think God can do in these people. So... I bring you to the next incredibly exciting thing that you can get involved with too! There is a conference held by Toronto Korean Presbetyrian Church, called ISHSKWADAY, meaning "Fire" in Ojibwe, on March 17-18, 2006. Now some of you may have already had experiences with Native ministries, or some of you may have no idea about some of the injustices facing Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

Here is a quote from one of the organizers, Silvia Seo:
Whatever your experiences, the reality of Canadian Aboriginals is that they are in the lowest ranks of every sociological factor: highest incarceration rates per capita, higher instances of mental health and suicide, higher rates of substance abuse, poverty, poor living conditions, etc. In fact, many of you may have read about the incident in Kashechewan (a reserve in Northern ontario) - where water contamination led to an outbreak of E.Coli and to an evacuation of the reserve (please refer to the following link for some more background to this scandal: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051027/aboriginal_water_feature_051027/20051027/ )

Many of you know that I am currently in law school, and through my studies, I was able to research some of these sociological factors and was devastated to find that one of the greatest injustices done to Aboriginals was through Christians and the Church. Not only were Aboriginals stripped of their lands, their property....they were also stripped of their children through a residential school system (where children were forced to go into religious schools and where many were abused - both physicall and sexually). Many of you may be shocked to learn that human rights organizations (such as Amnesty International) and scholars have called the residential school system in Canada the Canadian Genocide. I've actually written a research paper outlining the sociological effects of residential schools - so if any of you would actually like to read it just let me know=).

But outside of the academic context, I actually had the opportunity to see Aboriginal issues firsthand by traveling to 2 different reserves. The summer before law school, I was on a reserve in southern Saskatchewan ( Fishing Lake Reserve) where my team and I was able to do children and youth programs for about 6 weeks with North American Indian Ministries (a christian missions organization). And this past summer, I was able to spend 2 weeks on a reserve in Northern Ontario ( Longlake Reserve #58) where a team from our church held both children/youth programs and social programs (such as conflict resolution and anger management) for the adults.
Now it would take much too long to describe all that I realized and learned through these experiences - but I have compiled some pictures - if any of you would like to take a look at them: http://www.sendpix.com/albums/05112522/mrwzl8tp0q/ - and I would love to personally speak with any of you if you like to hear more about these experiences.

Well to make this as short and to the point as possible: After my experience at Fishing Lake, I wanted to see how I could translate the compassion I felt for the people on the reserve into some kind of concrete action. So in conjunction with a paper I was writing for my Indigenous Rights class, we at TKPC held a small forum in March 2005 to raise awareness on native issues - particularly the history of residential schools. From this forum, our vision to raise awareness on the injustices facing Aboriginal peoples expanded in scope and has now become a full-fledged conference: Ishskwaday 2006 (Ishskwaday means "fire" in Ojibwe).

Now just to be clear right off the bat - this conference is sponsored by my church, will be held at my church, and does have a Christian slant to our vision of empowerment. I know that statement alone may have pushed some of you towards the "not-going" spectrum of your decision-making. But please read on to understand why I am even inviting you guys in the first place.

Our vision for Ishskwaday 2006 came from a realization that Aboriginals need a venue and an opportunity to empower themselves. The more I researched on Native issues, the more I became convinced that no matter how many social programs and sentencing circles and unity declarations are made - external programs will never replace the lost identity of Aboriginals. After all, when Aboriginal lands were colonized and Aboriginal children were forced into the residential school system for several generations (where they were stripped of their language, their culture, and of their dignity - as many of them were physically and sexually abused), Native peoples became a broken people. So our vision for this conference is not to impose any kind of Western ideology, culture or belief system. Rather, our vision is to empower Natives by celebrating their culture, by exploring their spiritual wholeness and by giving Native youths the opportunity to be inspired by Native leaders. And more than anything, we believe that the source of empowerment and the source of wholeness can come only from the love and grace found in Christ Jesus.

However our vision for Ishskwaday 2006 is two-fold: to empower Natives AND to educate non-Natives ( i.e you and me).
No matter how stressed we may be with our studies/work, I know that hearing such stories of injustice may stir compassion in your hearts and may stir the need in upholding justice. This may sound way too idealistic to some of you - but for those of you who know me...you know how seriously I take this view. And for me, the problem with attempting to "uphold justice" has been that each time I felt a need to do justice in the face of injustice...there was always a lack of opportunity to take action. So many times my compassion stayed as compassion and fell short of some kind of action which actually did something about the injustice.
Because I know how frustrating this can be, today I am giving you an opportunity to relieve this frustration (especially for those of you who have felt compassion towards the injustices facing Aboriginals in Canada) by simply offering you an invitation to take action.

**Here's how**

a) By becoming more informed about aboriginal issues.
And this is not by non-native speakers and professors but by Native peoples themselves. In fact every single speaker at this conference is going to be Native: We have a Native music and dance group (called Broken Walls: www.brokenwalls.com) coming in to lead us into a time of worship celebration; We have Richard Twiss (http://richardtwiss.ambassadoragency.com/client_profile.cfm/cid/50 ) - a Native leader and writer coming in to speak to us as our keynote speaker; and from our own school: we have Jennifer Dalton (who is currently doing her PHD in Aboriginal Rights under the supervision of Kent McNeil: http://www.students.yorku.ca/~jedalton/) coming in to give a seminar on the legal context of Aboriginals.
(for a list of seminars please refer to the attached registration form)
--->No matter what your views are on Christianity - this does nothing to change the injustices facing Aboriginals in Canada.
--->And if you do accept that God can change the current situation of our Native sisters and brothers, then this is the time to learn exactly what kind of situation faces Aboriginals in Canada today.

b) By becoming more culturally sensitive
This is a skill that will be useful to all of us - whether or not we'll ever deal with aboriginal issues in our careers/ministries again. The worship celebration mentioned in the conference schedule (attached) is not what you think of when you think of a church service: there will be drumming, there will be chanting...and dancing...If you have ever been to a "pow-wow" this will be a very similar kind of experience.
--->So this is an awesome opportunity for us to step out of our comfort zones by celebrating another culture and of seeing what it's like to have Aboriginals celebrating their cultural identity in Christ.

c) And finally: by seizing an opportunity to take action
Because I feel so strongly about compassion becoming action, there will be a component during the conference where native missions agencies across the country and native social agencies from Toronto will have booths to set up with opportunities to: serve with them, volunteer with them, work them, or just to learn more about what they do for Native peoples.
Not all of the agencies will be christian (such as child welfare agencies, native legal aid, etc.) so even if you would not think of serving on a mission team, if you do feel in your heart the need to take some kind of action - the opportunity for you to do so will be there.
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This is an incredible oppourtunity to get involved and learn about our brothers and sisters up North and to hear from them first hand. There is a promotional video. Click here (2.3mb wmv) http://dhsonline.org/jesse/nativevideo.wmv.

Please leave a comment if interested!

:: Jesse 8:45 AM

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So one night, I was looking out the window and I noticed the most peculiar sight in the sky. It appeared to be an optical illusion of some sort... turns out after running out into the cold and seeing it with our own eyes, we were stunned to discover what the locals call "Moon Muffs". That bright white ring around the moon is apparently a reaction of light to the humidity and extreme cold (as Serena and Ray told me) ... they call it moon muffs because it means it's gonna get really cold really soon. Pretty cool huh?

:: Jesse 1:00 AM

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An incredible phenomenon! Note... these pictures are unaltered.

:: Jesse 12:58 AM

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Jesh with the moon muffs in his hand.

:: Jesse 12:58 AM

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I was walking near the river one day and I heard the most incredible sound ever... it was the river freezing over. There were planes of ice like this one, crashing into one another... smashing over and over again. It sounded like a thousand planes of glass shattering all over the place.

:: Jesse 12:56 AM

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It's been a while since I have updated... thought I would leave you off with some more pictures from Moose Factory... this is the helicopter that we took from Moosonee to Moose Factory. It is a beautiful thing to be one with nature and Moose River.

:: Jesse 12:55 AM

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