Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 320
When I was growing up, I used to see my siblings doing chores, such as mowing the lawn in the summer or shovelling the sidewalks in winter. Like most small children, my turn came when I I matured and was able to physically do those chores. Then as a teenager, two of my chores were to wash the supper dishes Monday to Friday, vacuum the rugs at least once a week and mow the lawn once a week in the summer. When I was in this teenage phase, I usually dragged my heels when it came...
I am an extremely young grandpa. I'm still able to outrun and outjump the grandkids. It helps that they are five and under. When they're worn out from trying to catch me, they say, "Read to me." Sweeter words were seldom spoken. My second grandchild, Eowyn, snuggles up on my lap and listens, wide-eyed as three little oinkers set out to seek their fortune. She loves pigs. Loves it when the first little porker buys a load of straw. Loves it when the sweet little swine builds a...
I felt a little weary and discouraged this morning. We just returned from a road trip where I discovered that travelling is harder on my joints than it used to be. We visited my brother who is now in hospice at home. We had a treasured visit for a few days, and I am grateful for that. We had not been to the United States for a couple of years, and people in malls and restaurants seemed wary and stressed. It is not surprising with the gun violence, the southern border crisis,...
This has been a difficult article to write, not because of my personal circumstances, but because I have a hard time writing a joyful article when the residential school story is stirring the heartache of so many again. My mom's cousin, Wilma, who was like my aunt, had been sent from Nebraska to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, but she never talked about it around me. It may have even been a good experience for her; I don't know. She was a bright light in my life....
I'm the type of person who really must concentrate when it comes to listening to others. Even though I do the work of a pastor, it's still a challenge to me. Even when I'm sitting in church listening to another pastor preach or when I'm at a special function, like a graduation ceremony, or wedding, it's hard for me to sit and just listen. As I'm completing my doctoral studies, part of my research is to interview 30 Cree Christians. This too is a challenge for me-to stop...
During these COVID-19 times, I have greatly enjoyed walking in the country. My dog, Blessing, and I find old fields that are acres wide to walk through. He loves sniffing and chasing the deer, and I enjoy quiet time with the Lord. This past week, I looked up from my deep thoughts and realized I didn't recognize my position that I found myself in, nor did I realize how much time had passed and how much walking we had done! I didn't know where I was as I looked at the winding bu...
A kid of nine or ten came up to me and told me a joke: "I went to buy some camouflage clothing. But I couldn't find any." It took me a second or two, but finally I laughed. Here's another joke you may want to tell to absolutely no one: "Last week I bought some camouflage clothing, but nobody seemed to notice." All right, let's move on. Here are five of the most expensive clothes ever sold at auction. • In 2008, Queen Victoria's Bloomers sold for $9,000. According to the LA T...
One of the things we have accepted today in our world is that we live in a pluralistic society. This is more noticeable in the larger cities where you see a multiple of people everywhere with different cultural backgrounds, different religious beliefs and who keep their own traditions. In a pluralistic society there is racism by the mainstream society towards a minority or marginalized people. Native people in the past, and even today, have been marginalized along with immigra...
I've always been in love with the moon. I couldn't count the hours I've spent looking at the moon, it could be tens of thousands. I've watched the moon all my life. When I was a young girl and saw the New Moon, I would say, "New Moon, New Moon, pray tell me, who my own true love will be. The color of his hair, the clothes he will wear and the happy day he'll wed me." Before going to bed, I'd "dip" my pillow in the moonlight shining through the window so I would have sweet...
I once heard a man wiser than me say that looking at someone's worldview is like looking at an iceberg. There is what you initially see on the surface of the water and then most of the iceberg is under water. The same is true with an Indigenous person's worldview. You see the behaviors on the surface of someone's life, but there are the reasons for these behaviors that the average person does not know about unless they understand that person's worldview, such as the unseen...
I'm saying good-bye to a Gospel Musician friend of mine today. We're singing a few songs at his wake and then the funeral is tomorrow. I'm really going to miss the guy! I'll remember him as one who lived his life victoriously! Attending a funeral brings to mind our own mortality-something that most of us try to avoid thinking about till the harsh reality of it slaps us in the face! Like the milk carton in your fridge, you and I have an expiry date. The biggest difference is...
I love life. Allow me to be more specific. I love to look around me and see the lush trees, bushes, leaves and plants, teeming with life. It amazes me to see the variety of places the 'life' grows from. Sometimes it is planted in rich dirt, and sometimes the roots are forced to push through rocky soil. Often times, when I see something growing where I can't imagine how it does, I need to stop and ponder. Lately, I have been reminded of a passage in Deuteronomy that says:...
Being thankful is a powerful emotion. It keeps our focus on that which is positive, and allows us to think about things that are lovely, admirable, pure and worthy of praise. But let's be honest, it seems to be a lot easier to focus on those things that are challenging and difficult. So, it takes intention, and a ton of practice. Someone once told me that faith is like a muscle. The more you work and train it, the easier it becomes to use. The same principle can be applied to...
Dear Friends, I have been writing for Indian Life for around 16 years, so I often feel like I am writing to friends, even though I have not met many of you. For the March/April issue, as I could not pull enough creative thoughts together to write anything. My father died of COVID-19 in January, my last living aunt died a week later, and that same week a friend here collapsed unexpectedly and died. She had recently been to my house sharing some Christmas baking. She had looked...
When you go to West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, there are many attractions. When I was a teenager, I went on the roller coaster that goes upside down and twists, while rushing forward at high speeds. When I reflect on this teenage experience, I remember it as fun but a little tense. Then about six years ago I went on the roller coaster again because my daughters, who were teenagers at the time, went on some rides and somehow, I went on the roller coaster with my wife. When I...
Silver Horns was a strong and mighty Elk. There was not another Elk in the high mountains that was even half his size. His antlers were huge. They were four feet high and had twelve points and were as thick as a young sapling. He was proud of his antlers and polished them on the trunks of trees until they shined like silver in the sunlight. Silver Horns had over a hundred cows in his herd, and with luck, they would all have calves just before summer and his herd would double i...
Depression, anxiety and the Bible don't really seem to go together do they? I mean, the Bible is supposed to be a book of hope and depression/anxiety are very dark places, which we often don't like to admit we suffer. God's Word is full of stories of people who actually underwent much anxiety and depression. Since these struggles are part of the human experience, shouldn't they be documented in God's Word, the ultimate history book of human experience? What makes the Bible so...
I asked my 4-year-old grandson for the highlight of his day. He said, "Growing tobacco." Where he heard this, I'll never know. Here are other unfiltered thoughts from children: Jeanie said, "People are composed of girls and boys, also men and women. Boys are an awful bother. They want everything they see except soap." Reminds me of the thief who stole 30 bars of soap. Forgive me, but he made a clean getaway. A five-year-old was peeking into a baby carriage and saw twins. He...
I don't like doing it, but I have to. In the end, the mess is more trouble than I like. But the fact remains that if I don't pretend to be a bird, I'll be way too stinky. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Ad Seg (the Hole) gives us the opportunity to shower. The high-pressure cold water really does help, along with the soap and shampoo that lather under the steady stream of H2O. But it's what we do the other four days that is more important. We call them "birdbaths." I...
My wife Sheila and I were a mismatched couple when we first started going out together. She was shy, quiet and hardly spoke, while I was just the opposite. She did not drink or smoke, and she didn't like anyone to get drunk. She didn't want to see me if I was drinking so I quit, which surprised my friends. Her lifestyle was opposite to the kind of life I lived. She was like a lamb in her sweet innocence-and I was the big bad wolf. She was brought up in the church and was...
Over the last few months, we have been working hard on creating apparel for ILM. Because we are coming into the summer months, where warm weather abounds, we're excited to announce that T-shirts sporting the Creator's Path logo will be available! The Creator's Path logo was designed by Don Monkman and tells the powerful story of the Creator-how He created the world, and everything in it. It tells of how the Creator sent His Son to the earth to take on the form of a baby. This...
One of the things that we work with here in NEFC (Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada) is Radio Broadcasting. We operate Native gospel radio stations across Canada. It's exciting to see God at work through our FM broadcast! The radio towers we use are an interesting concept. The freestanding (no wires) 96-foot tower stands tall and has no problem handling storms and gale-force winds! Sure, it's built pretty solid, but the key reason for its staying power is the tower...
Q: What does Creator God say about the way I should treat my spouse? A: The wording of the question could tell us a lot. If a person refers to God as Creator only, without realizing that it was the Son of God who was the Creator: "All things were made by him and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not" (v. 10). "Matthew 1:2 tells us, "You shall call his name Jesus [Savor]."...
It was kind of an awkward situation. Yeah, it was... Milly and I are gospel musicians who have been in slow motion since the start of the pandemic. I guess most musicians are in that mode-no dates, no gigs, no tours, no music sales-just slow! So we decided to do the online thing and put together a one-hour live Facebook® concert once a month, starting back in November 2020. The first two concerts went not too bad until the January event. That was sort of like a borderline...
When I'm having a bad day, I'm glad I'm not alone. At the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge England, a loose shoelace, a lack of handrails and a marble wall conspired to give one ill-fated patron an Inspector Clousseau moment while bringing a shattering conclusion to the earthly pilgrimage of three Qing dynasty vases. Mr. Flynn's misadventure began when he ascended the wrong staircase, pivoted, and tripped on an untied shoelace. "I couldn't stop myself," he said. Hurtling...
