Well...as most of you know I am leaving in just a few days to partner with Our Father on an incredible journey for the summer! Our Father is sending me to the middle of nowhere land of South Dakota. He is sending me there to a people...the Lakota Sioux people. I will be spending the next 2 1/2 months with these people on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, SD. My prayer for this summer is that I would listen to these people, learn from these people, cry with these people, embrace these people, laugh with these people and most of all...begin to DREAM with these people.
In every attempt to not speak from a place of ignorance I believe the Native American people of today have lost most of their identity and almost every ounce of hope. Anyone can look at the social injustices and travesties that have plagued the Native American people of the last 100 years or so but I believe at the core of all the despair and depravity is a nation of people who are unsure of their identity and are finding it hard embrace the spirit of hope in a rather hopeless condition. I think they have forgotten how to dream.
I have been dreaming a lot myself these days. Me and the Father have been dreaming a lot about what it means to be part of the new creation, what it means to be covered in the blood of the Lamb and the peace of His resurrection. And in these moments I can't help but find a tremendous amount of hope, peace and love. Our Father has wonderful plans for us all.
So for me...this summer, He has called me to a place that needs to begin to dream again. And I'm not exactly sure how He will have me play a part in all of that but I long to be present with the Lakota Sioux people this summer in the simple hope that a few of His creation may start to really dream again what it means to be His people. Ignorantly, I think it would be easy for the "white" man to go to these people in order to bring them what we have or even try to help them find their identity as a Lakota Sioux people when truthfully all of us are called to be a people of Our Creator. One King. One nation. One people.
Truthfully...I am very unsure what I will experience this summer and what He may call me to do but I am certain that He has called me to this place this summer. And that is the only beautiful place any of us should ever be...the place where He has called us. For some of us this summer it will be to far off lands, or others it might be to our homes and neighbors, but for me it is to the middle of nowhere lands of south-central South Dakota. My prayer for all of you is that we are a people that are in places where we are called. If you're not sure...I would probably say that means His providence has allowed you to exist in whatever place you are currently in. So in a way...you've been called already my friend. Just Be. I also hope that in these places in which we are called that we begin to Dream with Our Father what it means to be His sons and daughters in the new creation. And as these dreams become the things we begin to long for that we begin to respond to the ways in which Our Father is calling us to be.
Frankly...there is so much to say. so much to consider. so much to ponder. But I think all of this is good for now. I hope all of you who read this check back every now and then. My hope for this blog is to really dialogue with you and myself about all the crazy experiences God has in store for me this summer. So stay tuned. And don't stop dreaming with Him.
