heading to longlac!

praise God for opening the door--i'm going!

today i was officially granted three days off of work to go to longlac (a first nations reserve in northern ontario). as summer staff, i am not entitled to any vacation time whatsoever and since we were understaffed, my manager said no to the missions trip. but thankfully, a staff member came back from maternity leave last week and i was given two and now three days off! i'll still only be going for part of the trip, but considering i had zero days at the beginning, this is a huge blessing : P

i've had a special burden for first nations people this past year. it really started while i was in nashville exactly one year ago, where i had an interesting encounter with a native american woman at a greyhound bus station. she was carrying her daughter's ashes in a pouch around her neck and as we were talking, her anger and bitterness about the events surrounding her daughter's death left a deep impression on me. after the summer was over and i returned to school, i happened to take several courses in which i learned about various aspects of first nations languages and culture. shortly after i wrote a paper on the ojibwe language, dan told me about the ojibwe and cree in longlac and i've been geared to go ever since.

the team will be heading out to longlac on the 16th. we will be working primarily with the children, running a week-long vbs during which we will introduce Jesus and present the gospel. i'm particularly excited to work with some of the kids there who have special needs.

for a taste of the language, here is the Lord's prayer in the western dialect of ojibwe (and here's the website that it's taken from):

Nosinan ishpimi eaivn,
tvkkijiinenjigade iu kidishinikazouin.
Kitogimauiuin tvpitvguishinomvgvt.
Enendvmvn tvizhijigem oma aki,
tibishko iuidi ishpimi.
Mizhishinam sv nongum gizhigvk iu gemijiia.
Gaie uebinamauishinam iniu nimbataizhiuebiziuininanin,
ezhiuebinamauvidua igiu mejitotauividjig.
Kego gvguedibenimishikaen ninguji jishobiziia,
gaie mitaguenimauishinam mvjiaiiuishvn.
Kin sv kitibendam iu ogimauiuin, gaie iu gvshkieuiziuin,
gaie bishigendaguziuin, kakinik apine go kakinik.
Amen.