PRAYER JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA
9/13/2013
Day 5
Crow Agency, Montana
Greetings to all my readers from one of my favorite places, Crow Agency, home to the famed Crow Natives. My special friends DUANE AND ANITA BULLCHIEF pastor their church, MY FATHER'S HOUSE, here. You can actually see their little white church from Interstate 90 as one travels across America.
MY FATHER'S HOUSE at Crow Agency, Montana
I stopped here today to speak with a relative of theirs who runs a delightful gift shop here. She is a dedicated Christian who prays continually for her people. She shared with me her concern for the tragic problems of drugs and alcohol plaguing this reservation. Spousal and child abuse and suicide also are heavily present of this reservation. Many reservations in fact suffer from all these identical problems.
However, many Native people find relief and deliverance through turning to Jesus Christ for salvation and true freedom at last from such problems.
I have often had conversations with my native American friends across America. We have discussed deeper aspects of the historical Jesus Christ. We agreed that He had much in common with the customs of native peoples, in fact.
Jesus' people were TRIBAL. They often lived in TENTS on the plains, similar to the Native peoples living in tipis. Native peoples often wore their hair in pony tails, even as Jesus did (His hair, while not as long as women's, was longer than modern men's today, and was worn in a short pony tail, according to culture of that day.)
The historical Jesus had darker skin, and not "white man" bleached skin coloring, due to where He lived in the Middle East, where darker skin coloring is the norm.
Every culture likes to make Jesus more relevant to their understanding and customs. And so European Americans love pictures that often depict Jesus as European in background, pale in complexion with European features. But the historical Jesus was not European nor a "pale face"!
Please pray with me for these precious Crow Native people. Pastor Duane's wife Anita once shared with me how her people were committing suicide, Crow-style, here. I asked her how that happened. She replied, "See those railroad tracks over there?" I nodded. They run along Interstate 90 by Crow Agency.
Railroad tracks in front of Crow Agency along I-90
Pray against all suicide here.
"About once a year, people commit suicide Crow style. They wait for the train to come, and then throw themselves in front of the train..." I cringed when I heard those terrifying words.
But this is indicative of how deep depression can be on any reservation across America. And what hope do people have, apart from Jesus Christ? WE must tell the world that THERE IS HOPE! And JESUS IS THE ANSWER! And then prove it with our love and our actions helping to bring them hope through Him.
Thank you for your prayers for REVIVAL and for God to touch the hearts and lives of these plains dwellers,
the CROW PEOPLE of Montana.
-Pamela Rae Schuffert reporting from ACROSS THE USA-
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