Three years ago, when the director team of Todd and Krystal Wawrzyniak came on board Indian Life Ministries, they approached their mentors and friends, Kene and Milly Jackson, asking if the couple ever read any Indigenous devotionals.
The Jacksons replied that they didn't know of the existence of any Indigenous devotionals. After Todd and Krystal grew in their ILM leadership positions, Kene and Milly approached them with the idea of Indian Life Ministries publishing a 365-day devotional, written exclusively by Indigenous and Native American followers of Jesus.
The idea resonated with the Wawrzyniaks' hearts! For the last year, Indian Life and the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada have been collaborating on publishing such a devotional. It's 366 days though (we remembered the leap year)! And Council Fire was born!
The Council Fire publishing team decided to create the devotional in three volumes to make the book easier to carry around and give. With contributions from over 50 contributors who are from 30 communities, 10 provinces and 3 states, Indian Life Ministries is excited to announce that all three volumes of Council Fire are published! Volume three will be available August 11.
"It turns out it's a lot of work to publish a book," shares Todd Wawrzyniak, the Director of Indian Life Ministries. "Before joining Indian Life, Krystal and I knew very little about publishing. And now we know just a little more. It's an honor and privilege to be involved in such an important and timely project. It is our prayer that Council Fire is an encouragement for people, that they are encouraged to read their Bibles and that the stories shared within the pages resonate with people."
What we've heard from some of our readers:
• "These stories sound like they're from my people!"
• "When is volume two coming out? I've already read volume one three times, and it's only February!"
• "I really needed this today."
We recognize that some people are more auditory and would value hearing the devotionals, over reading them. With Council Fire Volume 3 wrapped up, we are now looking at an exciting addition to the Council Fire collection-a podcast.
Stay tuned for details and pray with us, as we hope and pray that we can launch the podcast January 1, 2025.
