The Cree People
In March, Elizabeth Sexton, RN and Karen McClure, a nurse practitioner with MTW, visited Hobbema, a cluster of four Cree Indian reservations where snow stays on the ground from October to March, where 80% of the people are unemployed and where Marcus Toole, the only MTW missionary in Canada, seeks to bring the hope of the gospel. Marcus invited us to Hobbema for a needs assessment where 60% of the adults have diabetes and they had the highest suicide rate in North America for 10 years. The assessment would enable us to follow up with health teaching teams.
In Hobbema we learned that “medicine” has more to do with witchcraft and curses than to do with modern medicine. There are about 300 medicine people and about 300 Christians in a population of 15,000. There are over one million Cree and Hobbema is a center of the traditional native spirituality. Marcus’ prayer and goal is that a church planting movement would begin in Hobbema and spread from there to other Cree reservations and native communities.
The Cree Christians love to pray and their prayers are filled with such honesty to God in a way I have rarely seen anywhere. At Jesus Church, where Marcus is the pastor, prayer time is sincere, honest, not rushed and with great faith in God. Tina asked for prayer for her nephew who was stabbed by a gang member. Eva asked for protection from the medicine people that are upset because she wrote her testimony in a book called Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light.
Pray for Marcus Toole as he disciples the new believers and for more people to join him in his work.
Peter and Trina: From Despair into Joy
One of the families we visited was Peter and Trina and their 3 young sons. They asked that we pray for them and their home that Jesus would fill them and their home instead of the conflicts, the demons, the addictions and the abuse. Sunday morning they walked into church hand in hand with their faces glowing as they rejoiced how God had changed their lives.
Pray for Trina and Peter for spiritual growth and strength against addictions and that Peter can use his musical abilities for God’s glory.
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2 comments:
In Hobbema we learned that “medicine” has more to do with witchcraft and curses than to do with modern medicine-I'm sure you have also scrutinized your own religion, I'm curious to know what you've learned? You would be surprised to know what the mind and body can do to heal itself, read the scientific literature, it has nothing to do with witchcraft in my humble opinion.
In Hobbema we learned that “medicine” has more to do with witchcraft and curses than to do with modern medicine-I'm sure you have also scrutinized your own religion, I'm curious to know what you've learned? You would be surprised to know what the mind and body can do to heal itself, read the scientific literature, it has nothing to do with witchcraft in my humble opinion.
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