“ I just thought I’d let you know, my wife talked me into coming to hear you. I don’t know that I believe any of this Christian stuff,” the Native man said to me. I shook his hand and said, “ I’m glad you’re here.”
I had been invited to speak at a church that has a heart and desire to reach out to the First Nations in their community. So my sixteen year-old son and I packed our bags and took a road trip, to do this churches three Sunday services.
I like to take my son with me as often as I can. Allen is sixteen years old, he drums and sings native worship songs with me. At this gathering he was asked to come back and speak to the youth group about mission outreach to the First Nations people from the area. It made my heart leap as he said he would like to do that.
I shared with the group John 10:1-5 I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all of them out, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him, because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. I told them that Acts 17:26 tells us that God made from one man every nation of men, that He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. He did this so that men would seek him, reach out to him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us. I told them of the need to do ministry in a good way, that it may disarm the principalities and powers, the accuser. That God himself desires righteousness. I asked if anyone had ever thought of asking the host people of the land for permission to do missions in the very land that God had given them to be gatekeepers of, a land where if things are handled appropriately, missions could be something that God himself would bless.
At this point I paused, and said I would like to take a minute to do some protocol, a time of honoring and gifting. I asked first of all that the Native man I had talked to in the beginning, to come forward. He was surprised, and somewhat hesitant, but he came forward. I told him that God had placed his people here, in this exact place, that they were the gatekeepers of this area. I asked him if I could have permission to do ministry here in this place that God had given him and his people. He said yes, and I gifted him my silver bracelet, and thanked him for giving me permission to speak in his land. My son and I gifted the pastor and a woman who helped put this event together and we gifted a First Nations woman, a member of the church who through her jail ministry has been used of God to minister to First Nations women, one of whom had brought this Native man to church this Sunday.
I shared a brief history of our people and the effects that contact with the dominant society had on our people. The loss of land and our ability to manage our own resources and how this affected our men position within the culture. I shared the effects that the residential school system had in breaking the family units, how our people through this system had forgotten how to be parents. I talked of the loss of language, ceremony, and culture, and the impact that this had toward our ability to hear the Gospel.
I shared with them Acts 17: 24-31, “ God who made the world and everything in it is the lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, “ We are his offspring.” Therefore, since we are God’s offspring we should not think that the divine being is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image made by mans design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.
I then shared a document that was given to me by our tribe. A document named Ehattesaht Title and Ehattesaht Rights. On page 27 of this document is a Chronology report dated 1788. A report found in the Smithsonian Institute written by John Meares. He was told a story, a very concise history of the religion of our people, told by a young man named Hanapa. The story arose out of the question, how our people became acquainted with copper, and why it was such a peculiar object of their admiration.
Hanapa placed a certain number of sticks on the ground, at small distances from each other, to which he gave separate names. Thus he called the first his father and the next his grandfather; he then took what remained, and threw them all into confusion together; as much to say that they were the heap of his ancestors, who he could not individually reckon. He then, pointing to this bundle, said that when they lived, an old man entered the sound in a copper canoe, with copper paddles, and everything else in his possession of the same metal. He paddled along the shore and everyone gathered to contemplate so strange a sight.
The old man told us that he came from the sky, he said that one day our country would be destroyed and that we would all be killed but that we would rise again to live in the place from where we came. Hanapa lied down as if he were dead and then rising up suddenly, he imitated the action of soaring through the air. He went on to tell that our people killed the messenger and took his canoe; and from this event we have derived our fondness for copper. Hanapa also gave us to understand that the images in their houses were intended to represent the form, and perpetuate the mission of the old man who came from the sky.
How do we know who to believe? Do we believe Buddha, or the Bag wan, or Jesus? I tell you, this man Jesus is the Way, the truth, and the life. He is the one we believe, and we know this because his truth is so powerful he has overcome death. He lived and he died and he was the first to be resurrected, he obtained what we could not of ourselves, the forgiveness of sins, abundant, eternal life is found in no one but our Lord Jesus Christ.
This story of the copper canoe was embedded in our culture, given to us by the power of God’s Spirit in preparation for the fullness of time when God would send his son to our people. Had this story remained intact we would have recognized that Christ is the fulfillment of the old man who came from the sky telling us to look for the power of the resurrection.
The First Nations man came forward, he wrapped his arms around me, with tears in his eyes, he told me, “ Thank you for showing me and my people honor, thank you for giving us back this story of the old man in the canoe.” He turned and took of the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was poured out for him for the forgiveness of his sins. And I wept with tears of joy.