First Nations Apostle: Trail of Healing Meetings "Significant"

25 November 2010

BLESSING: The Rev. Dr. Jay Swallow, center, places his hand on the Rev. Tom Schlueter, facing left, and the Rev. Ken Bryan, right center, as he prays a blessing on the Trail of Healing meetings in Snyder, Okla. Nov. 13, 2010.  Choctaw, Apache , Caddo and Kiowa Nations members join Swallow in prayers for Bryan, who conceived the event, and Schlueter, director of the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network. Three days of meetings were held at the Holy Spirit Impact Center of Snyder, the Rev. David Rhodes, pastor

                                                                                                                                 Photo by Patrick Butler

     "The greatest moments of Native History lie ahead of us if a great spiritual renewal and wakening should take place. The Native American has been a sleeping giant. He is awakening. The original Americans could become the evangelists who will help win America for Christ! Remember these forgotten people!"  - Evangelist Billy Graham, attributed.

NOTE: This part two of a two-part series. Part one ran Nov. 21 at ResonateNews.com

By PATRICK S. BUTLER
ResonateNews.com

    Riding the happy wake of a Trail of Healing meeting on Nov. 13,  Jay Swallow of the Cheyenne Nation ticked off what seemed like a familiar list of sobering statistics. He had been asked what remained “to be done” in ministry to First Nation peoples in North America. 

   Swallow is part of author Dr. C. Peter Wagner’s International Coalition of Apostles, according to information at Swallow’s Web site, www.2-rivers.com and ministers to more than 250 Native American Nations.

   “It is generally accepted today that prior to Columbus there were about 18 million people here,” Swallow said. “When the first census that included Native Americans was made in the late 19th century, there were only about 400,000 that could be found or would identify themselves. We’re back up to about three and a half million, now.”
   Swallow was dining at what could be compared to a joyous Thanksgiving Dinner Norman Rockwell might have painted. Along with his co-worker Frank Noah of the Choctaw Nation, Swallow and about 70 people of several cultures were noisily crammed into the home of the Rev. David Rhodes. 
    The excited din in the-after meeting crowd at the Holy Spirit IMPACT Center in small-ish Snyder, Okla., was a welcome backdrop to the oft-repeated tale of misery befalling Native Americans. Swallow’s own ancestor, Chief Black Kettle of the Cheyenne, was killed in a surprise attack on Nov. 27, 1868.
   But now it was Nov. 13, 2010. Swallow and Noah were seated at the head of long table of about 12 people, some descended from former enemies.  As he looked towards the open rooms at the representatives of the Comanche, Kiowa, Caddo, Apache, Lakota, Choctaw, Arapaho nations - among others - feasting with European descendents, Swallow summed up.

SIGNIFICANT

    “What makes the Trail of Healing meetings significant is that they (ministry leaders) are speaking properly and in order into the issues of the land and what happened on the Trail of Tears so long ago,” Swallow said, “making real revival and healing possible. “The meetings are also significant because only about three percent of Native Americans call themselves ‘born again’ and are operating in their testimony.  The Trail of Healing is being done in the right way."

  What was being “done right” from his perspective,appeared to include the effective attitude of flexibility and service that leaders from Kenshire Ministries and the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network, were taking.  Rolling into town on Nov. 12, ministry team members were met with a collapsed tent, blown down by heavy winds, where the Trail meetings were to have taken place.
  Not to worry , said Rhodes. About 100 people, event organizers estimated, moved inside his tiny church building and got comfortable with each other for three days of animated music, praise and prayer.
  “I think it was the Lord, really, that the tent blew down,” said Rhodes with a wide grin after the third and final meeting on Sunday morning. “God wanted us to tabernacle with him, together. We really got close to each other.”

VICTIMS NO MORE

   After Friday’s meeting where keynote speaker Merrie Cardin spoke on avoiding the “victim spirit,” of the past, Noah and Swallow showed up Saturday on their way to a Midland, Texas meeting. The two men put their hands on the Revs. Tom Schlueter and Ken Bryan “releasing” the Texas-based team to help “equip” and “empower” the peoples and First Nations represented by those attending Trail of Healing meetings.
   Bryan and Schlueter then turned around and prayed for Swallow’s ministry to Native Americans.
  The prayers triggered a “change of order,” in the meetings, laughed Schlueter.
   “Let Native Americans come and minister to us,” he said. “They are certainly ready to lead.”
     From that moment on, Native Americans led the way in responses to spiritual refreshments; from ministry in prayer for physical and emotional healing to dance. On Sunday, Kiowa Hobay Lucern – who had been playing the Big Drum throughout the meetings – abandoned his instrument and led the entire congregation outside the walls of the church in a joyful celebration to God, and then back in again. Laughter, smiles and optimism were everywhere, it seemed.
   The metaphor was not lost on Bryan.
  “This is what we came to Snyder for,” said Bryan, shaking his head with a smile after witnessing Lucern’s lead. “Native Americans were released into their calling and destiny, leading the revival outside the walls of the church. Hobay’s lead was a perfect picture of what God is doing, and has been doing here.”

  Bryan, who produced the First Nation musical and dance event "Drums of Thunder" a few years ago, concieved the event of the Trail of Healing a few months ago.

  "We had no idea what God was going to do," Bryan said. "We came because it's what we were supposed to do. It's been an amazing, unscripted, powerful time for three days from start to finish.

EMPOWERING

   Another indicator of the empowering character of the meetings was prayer time specifically set aside for Noah.
  “We haven’t forgotten you, Frank,” said Tom Schlueter, director the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network, after everyone had been personally ministered to on Saturday night.  In an extended time of prayer along with Bryan and Swallow, Schlueter prayed over Noah, “You are his servant. That is why when you walk the land you will release righteousness. You will walk their (tribal) land. You will give them rest.”
   Noah said afterward, “My name in our language, in the Choctaw language, means ‘walk.’”
   Spiritual direction for the meetings was looking forward, not back, Bryan said.
  “Reconciliation meetings will, and must, yet take place,” he said, “but there is a shift now from the past to the future.”

LONG MEMORIES

   Meanwhile, at the Thanksgiving-like feast at the Rhodes house, Swallow intimated that Ministers to Native Americans may have their work cut-out for them.
   “There is still a tremendous resistance to the gospel among (tribal) nations,” Swallow said. “Most of that is due to broken trust. There were times in the 19th century when missionaries and ministers knew of atrocities happening and they looked the other way.” He shook his head.  “The memories of the people are long, and they have retreated into traditionalism, native religions, or disbelief. That’s what we are facing today.”

   Bryan said on Sunday that the Trail of Healing is not over.
  “Anyone can still email requests for healing to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will pray for them,” said Bryan on Sunday, Nov. 21.   “Plans are also in place for a series of Trail of Healing meetings in the last weekend of Jan. 2011 in Natchitoches, La.,” he said. “Our team of ministers will travel all the way to the border of Texas and Mexico on the El Camino Real de los Tejas and release healing along this "trail".

 For more information on joining the Trail of Healing meetings, visit the Web at www.kenshire.org and www.txapan.org.