One of our Missionaries, Carol Loney, reports on a recent FN event in British Columbia:

March 2009: The Rising Above conference was an amazing event.  I was thrilled to find out that it had been the vision of the Blueberry, Doig and Halfway First Nations peoples, who are the Peoples of our local area (Fort St. John, B.C. and environs).  They felt it was time for some healing and encouragement for their people.  One interesting fact I found out was that about a week before the event there were very few registrations.  Some thought since they were bringing the speakers in from Ontario, maybe they would have to cancel the conference.  One of the committee members from the Halfway said, “No, we prayed about this and felt the Lord was leading us to have a conference, so I don’t think we should cancel.  God gave us this vision.”  In the end there were more than three hundred conference attendees. PTL

The sessions were geared to healing and therefore addressed the issues of abuse, alcoholism, and many other responses to the hurts in peoples’ lives.  Each session addressed a specific issue and ended in personal prayer for anyone who wished to address the pain opened up by the session.  The main presenters were native and had been involved in many of the issues of abandonment, residential schools and so on.  I spoke to Howard Jolly, one of the presenters, and said that all that he had said about pain in our lives as well as issues of poor self-esteem, apply to all mankind, not only the First Peoples.  I was made aware and challenged by the sessions personally too.  For me one of the most heart wrenching and victorious sessions I was involved in was the Sharing Circle.  I saw women addressing the pain in their lives with honesty.  Some made apologies to people in the group that they knew they had hurt.  I saw the beginning of healing and restoration taking place.  I can’t really give you a specific story, but one of the other things that I was very happy with was the organized plan for follow-up of all the Nations represented.  I am going to be involved in that.  I am looking forward to that opportunity.  I hope you get the picture that this was a great, practical conference!

– Carol Loney, SCA Blueberry Ministry Centre in FSJ