Our vision at Indian Life ministries is to restore hope, healing and honor within indigenous communities through a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In addition to our newspaper, books, and exciting partnerships, we work towards achieving our vision through hosting conferences.
In 2021, we hosted Indian Life Ministries’ first conference. It was titled, “Let’s Talk About Reconcilation.” The next year our focus was “The Gift of Reconciliation.”
Both years, a number of Indigenous followers of Jesus were asked to share their own stories of hope. We heard powerful stories of how God made beauty from ashes, and turned tests into testimony. Mario Swampy was invited to be the keynote speaker. He taught us how reconciliation is between oneself and others, oneself and God, and within oneself. Our favorite time spent together was when Mario invited us into table discussions focused on how we define reconciliation, what our experiences have been, and how we see reconciliation progressing. We were deeply blessed by these discussions.
Recently we received an invitation to host a conference in Saskatchewan. This is new territory for us, as we have yet to host conferences outside of Alberta. But we believe this to be an invitation from the Father, and so we took a step of faith and accepted the invitation.
Almost immediately, we started to experience spiritual attack. Both of us on the director team got sick. I fell down the stairs and injured my knee. Then I coughed too hard and spasmed a rib muscle. Tensions arose in some relationships. Todd broke his baby toe and got an infection in his fingers.
It became almost comical. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. We sat back and prayed, “Seriously? This conference is happening. So back off Satan, in the name of Jesus!”
Lord willing, the conference will be September 15–17 and will be held in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. The Don Ross Centre has been secured for our venue, Kene and Milly Jackson will be our gospel musicians, Conrad Flett from Tribal Trails, along with other guests, will share their stories, and more. The conference theme is “Every Story Matters, including Yours.” Our hope and prayer is for mighty healing to take place over the weekend through the sharing of personal stories and the hearing of the greatest story ever known.
We invite you to pray for this event. Pray for the town of North Battleford. Pray for the powers and principalities of this dark world to be pushed back and for the light of Jesus Christ to break through. Pray that hearts will be healed by the blood of Jesus and the Word of their testimony. Pray for us, the director team, the speakers, and all the volunteer staff. Pray for unity, for health, and for financial provision (each conference costs an average of $5,000).
“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.” Psalm 107:2–3
