Lessons from the Pow Wow
by Debbie Law Schwartz
Every summer, there is something new to learn primarily because the Living Waters gathering draws Native Leaders from around the country who are passionate about contextualizing the gospel to the heart language of their people.
This summer was no exception to the learning opportunities. The very first evening Richard Twiss, co-founder of Wiconi, announced to the 300 adults, youth and children in attendance plus our Asian American team that they decided that this summer we would have our usual schedule but we would not have a set “Program”. In other words they chose not to bring in big speakers and worship leaders instead they would let the Spirit lead in determining the program for the day.
I could immediately sense the anxiety among our team and needed to assure them that it would be just fine. In my heart I was absolutely thrilled and again amazed at the incredible courage and faith of our Native friends to trust in Him completely.
Rob and I were invited to join the Wiconi staff and leaders prayer meeting each morning. We prayed, offered a bowl of tobacco as our prayers of incense to the Lord, and shared from His word. At the end of the time and moved by the Spirit, Richard asked Bill Goey from the Hopi Nation to share a word that morning. Bill affirmed the request and felt the Lord gave him a word to share
We witnessed this rhythm of seeking Him in prayer, asking Him to speak and listening to His voice each day. It was a wonderful Spirit filled time together.
Every summer Wiconi formally recognizes our team for our services, but this time they decided to do this in a contextual way by inviting our team into the PowWow circle to dance the Honor Dance. We lined up in tight rows and danced around the circle. While dancing, people were invited to enter the circle to thank us, shake our hands and create a train of dancers behind us.
There was a moment when I was able to take a quick glance behind me to see what was happening and gazed upon a train half the length the circle following us. It was incredibly moving to be physically surrounded and embraced in such a physical way through the entire protocol of the Native Honor Dance. The beauty of celebrating one another in such a context was priceless. It has brought new meaning to community and family.
It was also very obvious that the Lord used this contextual way of saying these Asian Americans from Seattle are okay to build greater bridges to the Native peoples. We all felt that afterwards the opportunity to engage with our Native friends went to a much deeper level of trust.
The greatest lesson learned is that it takes time to build relationship and trust. It’s been 4 years of going to learn and serve and I sense more years are necessary to continue to build the trust relationship. We are getting ready to assemble next summer’s team, we look forward to what He will teach us and again the main focus will be to “Learn and Serve."
