Hey, Home Church!
It has been one full day at South Dakota. Barely. And my
mission and purpose as a Christian has been questioned in different ways,
multiple times. The first was actually on the drive here. As we were driving,
there was a car turned on its side, in a ditch with the lights on. At first I
couldn’t believe what I had seen and actually thought I had imagined it, but
passengers in other vans saw it too. We
didn’t stop. As we kept driving, I kept thinking things like, “We are people of
God. We help people of God. We are on our way to help people of God, but why
didn’t we stop for the people of God that might not have another opportunity to
be helped.” I was not able to keep my mind off of that. Later, I found out one
of our people called the ambulance for them, and that restored my faith in our
own purpose. Today, as we were driving to our work site, I found out that the
suicide rate was off the charts for the local teenagers, and the drop out rate
even worse. It wasn’t just my heart that
hurt by hearing that, but also my faith.
I felt pain and sorrow truly deep within my relationship with God. I think this
was God nudging me to spread his love.
On the work site, I got to meet a 10 year old native girl whose “normal”
name was Annie, but her tribe name meant “Girl who wears a star in her hair”,
to which I dully responded with “Oh…well, my name is Jessica.” I got great
insight about what it’s like growing up here. When I asked her about her
beliefs and her thoughts of God, it
truly had opened my mind, and has caused
great debate within myself as to the difference between persuading them and what
my ancestors (technically not mine since I wasn’t even born here, but now that
I am a resident of the US, I share the blame and guilt) did to them by forcing
them to assimilate. After hours of contemplation I have decided this: I am
God’s child, and even though some of them believe in something different, in
this religion I fell in love with, they are God’s children too. And these children, without money, land,
jobs, love and family, just like me, would only have their culture and
religion. My ancestors took everything from them, I refuse to let history
repeat itself. If they do not believe in
my God, and reject my idea of religion, I will not take their belief from them.
I will help, and love them whether they believe in my Father or not. I am Christian. I am the one who beliefs that my
mission is to spread the love that God has given me to the children of God.
Therefore, I am the one who is to follow his word, not force it onto someone
else.
-Jessica, UPC
