MITTENS

Hey Friends: We're wondering if you have any WOOL sweaters that you're not wearing anymore? A local crafter turns them into mittens raising money for missions and donating mittens to the kids at the Flandreau Indian School. Consider doing a WOOL sweater drive at your church or in your Youth Group. We are collecting unwanted sweaters (or scarves) with ANY AMOUNT of wool in them. Buttons are okay-they can be reused as well. Anything you can send our way would be appreciated. Contact me if you have any questions about any of this. SEND TO: Brittons, 802 W. Pipestone Avenue, Flandreau, SD 57028

ENCOURAGED

Yesterday was a day I was so excited to be where I am doing what I’m doing. A student had gotten sent home for a personal reason, having some coping and medical issues that could have potentially threatened her health. There was a meeting with her counselors, the administration and her grandparents. At the last minute, the student asked me if I’d sit in as well in support of her. She has been getting more involved with me by going to church on the weekends and becoming more involved with my family.

This group met for several hours going over her history and really trying to assess her ability to function from day to day if she was allowed to return. At one point her grandmother said she really has seen a difference for the better in her granddaughter this fall, and she would probably attribute it to her involvement with me, her reaching out for God and in her seeking to reclaim her spirituality. Ultimately, it was decided that she could return as long as she could continue to maintain her health and move forward in her healing along with the support of others.

I am so honored to be able to play this role in the lives of students and give God all the glory for bringing us here to help make a difference in the lives of Indian students.

IMPRESSIONS

I don’t claim to be the greatest communicator or even teacher in the world but it warms my heart when kids latch on and get what it is I’m trying to get across.

I logged onto Facebook last night and one of the students who attended chapel yesterday afternoon had put all of the main points of my talk as her status for the day. Sometimes I have to wonder if I’m getting through at all or if I’m being heard in my attempts to speak and bring about life change. God uses these moments to encourage me when I begin to wonder if I’m making any impact at all.

It also happened a couple of weeks ago.  I have been able to check students out to attend church with me locally and one of the young men I have taken with me has really enjoyed being able to go. A week or two ago I asked him if he’d like to go with me again. He started telling me all of the main points word for word of a lesson on forgiveness that he had learned when he went several weeks before. He had literally taken the teaching to heart and memorized it, hopefully being able to apply it as the needed as well.

Lord, remind me daily of my responsibility to speak truth and never take my role lightly in teaching impressionable minds. 

WHAT?!? South Dakota?!?

Many don’t know exactly what I’m doing here in South Dakota.

About a year ago I was called to Flandreau to serve as the Chaplain at the Flandreau Indian School. FIS is the oldest continuously operating federally run American Indian Boarding School in the United States. We have nearly 300 high school students on campus from 35 tribes and 25 states. Students come to us for a variety of reasons: some are here for better educational opportunities, some because family members attended, some prefer to be with other Indians and some are here by court order—either they attend our school or they go to jail or JDC.

The goal of the Chaplaincy program is to:

• serve the students and staff of Flandreau Indian School, providing spiritual guidance for those who seek it;
• relate as a Christian friend to students and staff;
• share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with students who, in turn, take their faith back to families and tribes;
• counsel and help students in dealing with critical needs on and off campus;
• be a liaison between the school and local community.

The Chaplaincy is financially independent from the school operation and is fully funded through donations from churches and individuals. Thanks to that support, the Chaplaincy has continued an ongoing partnership with the Flandreau Indian School for almost a century offering weekly, large group activities, hosting special events for students and staff, and providing ecumenical worship services each Sunday.

Consider making a financial gift so that we can continue to reach Native American teenagers with the love of Christ.

FAITHFUL TO COMPLETE IT

“I'm convinced that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.”

-Philippians 1:6

Talking about this subject in Chapel this week with the students: how God uses all of our experiences, even when we can’t see or understand, to accomplish His will and to bring meaning to all of our gifts.

Since I began my professional life (since I’ve started working) I’ve worked as a cashier in a pharmacy, as a loading dock assistant at a feed store, I’ve gone door to door following up on people who didn’t renew their dog licenses, I’ve even had a paper route. I’ve done telephone sales, customer service, management and marketing. I’ve worked retail, worked in an office and I’ve worked in a church. I’ve even had a booth at a flea market. I’ve been full-time, part-time and volunteer.

None of these jobs would have been my first choice for how I would spend the rest of my life. At times, it was really difficult to see God in some of the day to day living.  Getting up every morning for a job that isn’t inspiring or a passion can be really difficult and downright depressing. God knew my heart and passions and yet it seemed at times that somewhere along the way I got off track, that God had forgotten.

In retrospect, I can see how God has been preparing me for years for the place I am today. I have learned perseverance and patience. I have definitely learned to market my program and myself which assists in promoting events on campus and fundraising. I have learned to listen to the customer and hear and respond to needs which translates well to ministry. It helps me appreciate all that I’ve gone through and that He has been gently preparing me for what’s to come.

Most of all, I’ve learned patience and that all things happen in God’s timing. And not a second sooner.

I AM DOING A GREAT WORK

A sermon I heard a long time ago from Andy Stanley continues to impact and influence me today.

In the sermon, Stanley was looking at the life of Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer who was called by God to help restore the wall around Jerusalem after the Jewish people were exiled from that area. The king that Nehemiah was serving under allowed  him to go and do this work but he was met by all kinds of opposition; many distractions threatened to keep him from his God-appointed work of restoring the city. As people or things or situations attempted to distract him and call him away, Nehemiah’s response was “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” (Nehemiah 6:3) The thing God had called him to do was his life’s work and he wouldn’t be distracted by other things that would lessen that focus no matter how worthy or important it seemed to be. He wanted to remain true to the calling that God had placed on his life.

This has been a huge influence in my life. I have been called to serve youth, Native American Youth at Flandreau Indian School specifically. There may be other things fighting for my attention, good things—worthy things for sure. It may be serving on a committee in town or becoming involved with a sports team or even becoming heavily involved in a local church. None of these things are bad things but as those things fight for my attention, I must remind myself often that God has called me to a specific task. I must say to myself “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

If you ask me to do something and I decline, don’t be disappointed, don’t take it personally. Just know “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

BE A MAN

“Boys play house. Men build homes! Boys shack up. Men get married! Boys make babies. Men raise children! Boys invent excuses for failure. Men produce strategies for success! Boys look for somebody to take care of them. Men look for someone to take care of!!! Boys seek popularity. Men demand respect and know how to give it!!! Repost in HONOR of all the men who DO the right thing.”

This FaceBook status got me going this morning.  We are suffering for male role models in our society generally but certainly within the Indian community.  One of my greatest privileges is to represent a man of God who is committed to his wife and family. The greatest challenge is to get across to the boys on campus that being a man does not mean who can score with the most women or father the most children on the reservation.

Within the Native American Community a father, especially one who is in a married relationship with a child’s mother, is a rarity so for some of them this idea of fidelity is new information. They see adults hooking up without any sort of expectation of responsibility for what (or who) may result from their relationship.

It can take me a great deal of time to figure who is related to who on campus because often kids from the same family have different last names, different dads, live in different homes even. It’s not unusual for there to be six or eight or ten kids in the family and there to be four or five dads among them.

While exaggerated in Native American culture, I don’t think this is unique to the Indian population by the way. The sexual revolution has brought this about in many areas of our society.  Divorce rates and lowering of moral standards society wide have led to this lack of father figures and stable male influence in the lives of children.  Women have this longing to be loved by a man, any man, having lacked this component in childhood and move from one sexual partner to another in order to satisfy that longing.

Pray for me as I represent a Christian dad and husband to the Native American teenage community represented on campus.