BiHOGG - Ministry to Lakota Pastors
I would like to introduce you to a new ministry: Wo’iyopastake [pronounced as WO-ee-yo-pash-ta-ke]. This is the Lakota Sioux word meaning “encouragement”. We are a ministry to encourage the Lakota pastors and the people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. If you are not familiar with the conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation I will list a few links for you at the end of this article. But I will tell you that this is the poorest, neediest place in the entire United States. It is a third world country on U.S. soil. And… it is also a GREAT mission field! (It is my BiHOGG!)
Our three goals are:
- To encourage, strengthen and build up the Lakota pastors and Christian believers who are there.
- To win others to Christ by serving them.
- To materially help all the Lakota people in whatever ways we can.
We do not want to be one more wasicu (non-Indian) ministry coming in from the outside pretending to be “experts” on what the Lakota people need. They have seen too much of that, and they do not respond well to it most of the time. Our calling is to support, encourage, strengthen and help the local, indigenous Christian ministries on the reservation in the good work they are already doing there.
While the pastors there are committed, bold and faithful, there is much opposition to Christianity, due in large part to some dark periods of history where the Church hurt more than helped. Many people there, in an effort to recapture the thin vestiges of their culture that remain, also cling to the sun dance & peace pipe religion. Most of the churches there are very small and ill-equipped. They are especially trying to reach the children and youth, who are committing suicide at a rate 150% higher than the national average…12 year olds, hanging themselves in hopelessness.
We - Dan & Bonnie Licata, Wallingford, CT; Kelly Pascoe, Mehoopany, PA; and Mary Young Bear, Porcupine, SD - the leaders and founding members of this ministry have made some good connections there over the past eleven months. Dan, Kelly and I will be going there August 5-11 of this year to partner with Mary for ministry. Our first trip will be to meet with the pastors there (Mary will arrange this for us) to build relationships of trust and to determine how we can best help them.
Our present ministry project, even before we go there, is to send Bibles & teaching materials (especially for children and youth) to Mary Young Bear. We are most grateful to Wellspring Church for their donation of 4 boxes of teaching materials! They are being shipped out to the reservation this week, and we will distribute them to the pastors there when we arrive there in August.
After our first exploratory trip I will be able to let you know of ways that you can help in this ministry of encouragement, if your heart leans in that direction.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page: Wo’iyopastake
Final note: When Pastor Rick preached on having a BiHOGG (Big Hairy Outrageous God-sized Goal) back on January 16, we were all given a random calendar page on which to write out our personal BiHOGG. The page I received was Wednesday, July 6. Guess what? The first shipment of Bibles and teaching materials is going out on…Wednesday, July 6. The BiHOGG is happening!
God bless,
Bonnie Licata
illuminations7@yahoo.com
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Links to info on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, and the Lakota people:
An article with a lot of statistics, written in 2006…but things are the same now, or worse. http://www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/the%20arrogance%20of%20ignorance.htm
Two short videos...3-4 min. each…made by two other ministries doing a good work there.
http://vimeo.com/14773952
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_vTVpE8vik
One longer video by someone I do not know (16 min.). A lot of history, true statistics and amazing photos.
http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey.html
Two short videos...3-4 min. each…made by two other ministries doing a good work there.
http://vimeo.com/14773952
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_vTVpE8vik
One longer video by someone I do not know (16 min.). A lot of history, true statistics and amazing photos.
http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey.html
The hidden poverty on U.S. soil
There are many videos, web sites and articles out there, but these are good ones to start with.
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