Post date: Apr 10, 2017 11:13:20 PM
4/11? LUNA mtg
15 ppl?
Amy (green hair)
Veracruz Mexico -- mom is from there.
Aztec = Mexicas
Currently from Madison. Went back to Mexico for 50th (wedding anniversary? of grandparents? of church?) and for (some relatives) 1st communion.
UW-Oshkosh. Brigetta knows advisor there, they grew up next to each other. Something there the 19th. 150 Native students at Oshkosh.
5th-6th week Sherman Alexie Sunday April 30th. KI Center (?) in GB.
4/17 Tricia
https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/institutional-effectiveness/departments/center-for-advancing-faculty-excellence/_documents/boarding-school-historical-trauma-among-alaska-s-native-people.pdf
met Trician at meeting. Get logo from her. see paper notes
4/10 for NM meeting tomorrow
1. What is their dream for Native ministries?
2. Top 3 priorities for Native ministries
3. What are the important parts of our DNA...what makes Native ministry unique?
I'm supposed to call Rashawn and Cortland
Rashawn Ramone
TW note: Rashawn and I had a great conversation, but it ranged around a bit, so the text below is sometimes his words, sometimes my understanding of what he meant.
1. What is their dream for Native ministries?
I want to use NM to help my people in my community.
Most of the rez finds it hard to be Native and follow Jesus. This is hard to understand. For many this is a fantasy, not true, won't happen, offensive, or they just don't want to think about it. We should help people understand what it means to be Native and follow Jesus
2. Top 3 priorities for Native ministries
(these responses are largely qualitative)
- Identity. We are able to restore native identity and our identity in Christ with Jesus helping us. Jesus is helping us all know we come from the Creator, and to not be ashamed of being Native.
- Belonging. Family is important, and people know they belong to their families. The Kingdom of God is about belonging to this family. Jesus introduces what family looks like through his eyes -- Native people can be part of this sacred family, to be cared for by Jesus. In tough times it is hard to connect to this teaching, for people who never saw themselves this way, but Jesus is always beside, around, near us -- Jesus is always with us.
- Self-understanding. Misunderstanding, not accepting or not valuing God's gifts is easy. But this is how we understand ourselves and God. Do you accept who you are? Do you accept this identity from God? This is important, because deep down we Natives think we aren't who we are supposed to be.
A note on the nature of "priorities": IV can be hard to be comfortable with in its orientation towards priorities as future-looking. They want to know from God "what's going to happen next?" But we will get there eventually. What we ask and pray is "what's going on now? What's going to happen now?" or "what happened as we look back?" This is what seems most important. Also, a telling a story is usually the best way to relate these things.
3. What are the important parts of our DNA...what makes Native ministry unique?
It is a great privilege to be with staff and students who are from different tribes, and to be with non-native staff who work with other tribes because we all have our own stories.
It is important to see this, and understand the role of protocol, because when we come together we honor each other by sharing ourselves and our culture. It is not a performance when we sing, for example. It is a way to honor by sharing ourselves, a way to give a gift. This is a unique trust we must honor. Protocol is a way to honor people, land, and God. [This perspective is a starting point for us in Native ministries that is a foundation for relating and ministering.]
Courtland Hopkins
1. What is your dream for Native ministries?
I want people to experience what I've experienced: this has had a huge influence on me. I want more people to come to Jesus, receive healing, and have a way forward. For so many Natives there is trauma behind and trauma ahead -- we need Jesus to have a way forward. I want to be part of something bigger than myself.
We can be everywhere, because there are native students everywhere.
2. Top 3 priorities for Native ministries
(1) not lose what we've gained, for example, Alaska. We need to be present where Natives are, in all three major areas: the lower 48, Alaska, and Hawaii.
(2) Resources for Native IV. We need to adapt and contextualize resources, especially for non-Natives working with Natives. The First Nations version of the Bible is a good example of this. Native style proxes, things that work with high identifying students and others.
(3) Making sure Native staff can come on and stay. Helping them succeed in developing fund-raising and staff skills, and overcoming barriers (like MPD).
3. What are the important parts of our DNA...what makes Native ministry unique?
There is a welcome - it is OK to be native. That's what we're about. Your experience (whether high identity or low, as different as it may be), your worldview is relevant. We have a wide appeal to Native people: working, healing, striving. In IV we have an openness to a wide variety of experience, some mystical, some activist -- IV is robust enough to have it all.
In Native InterVarsity, we're committed to the same vision as the rest of InterVarsity. But the native context requires some more finesse. We need to reach out to those who are ambivalent to Christianity and those who are hostile or traumatized by Christianity. We are triage IV.
Rashawn Ramone