Indigenous Pathways

This year's ministry continued the Inenimowin Circle Healing program from Canada in the Browning MT area. The program incorporated participants from the Browning reservation and other rural and reservation localities. There were 18 persons involved in each of the training portions of the program which operated twice per year with a further 33 involved in the small group programs offered throughout the year.

Kids Culture Camp, a joint venture with our Canadian partners, involved 63 kids from five reserves/reservations who came together with 43 staff and volunteers, for a week of residential camp in partnership with community members and leaders from each reservation. The traditional encampment continues as the best setting for kids to learn about Jesus as the way for their lives to be the best possible expression of Indigenous identity.

Workshops dealing with peer counseling skills, suicide prevention and intervention, Christian living, and community ministry skills continued to be offered on and off the reservations staff and volunteers worked on. Once again, there was a conscious decision to limit the work to the same communities as our other programs. A total attendance of about 67 people including adults and youth participated.

This year, our symposium on mission and theology was held on the campus of Portland Seminary with over 170 in attendance.