Believers celebrate 40 Days of Praise
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News from Life for the Nations, Ronan
PABLO — To celebrate the accomplishment of 40 days of Praise and Thanksgiving, more than 200 happy and hungry worshipers met in the Two Eagle River School Gymnasium for a sumptuous turkey dinner on Sunday, Nov. 23.
The evening began with native Christians from various local churches leading a Grand Entry into and around the gym while native drummers called the people together to joyful celebration. Charlie Watts led the Grand Entry carrying the Tribal Flag, followed by the Christian and American flags. Young grass dancer Dakota Gunhammer astonished everyone with his skillful and artistic dancing. The pastors of the participating churches followed in. Francis Stanger, tribal elder and war dance chief, led in the opening prayer and blessing of the meal in both Salish and English. And then friends and members of at least nine different congregations began to line up for the mouth-watering meal spread before them.
Why were these 200-plus people at the gym? Pastor Frank Cummings explained that the event was a celebration of the things they had seen God do in response to 40 days of putting aside complaining, shaming, blaming and maiming in exchange for 40 days of praising God for His promises and for His goodness. There were many stories told that evening, and throughout the 40 days, God was doing surprising things for people by making God bigger and the problems smaller in our thinking. For instance, there was a report of a suicide averted; a job provided in the midst of a time of praise; a woman who was discouraged having her life turned around; a crippled hand healed; a frustrated mom who exchanged yelling at the kids for praising God; and many other changes in attitude toward life and toward God by simply purposing to focus on praise of God and giving Him thanks, even for the problems.
Another benefit of the 40 days of Praise and Thanksgiving was the way it brought together people from different churches, different tribes, and different families over the course of the 40 days. There were Salish believers, Kootenai believers, Crow and Blackfeet, and other native American tribes along with Samoan believers, African believers, and white believers from many churches. There was even a believer there from Mongolia.
The evening included some great worship songs led by the Lighthouse Worship team; and a highlight of the evening was a clip from a worship video by Louie Giglio called “Stars and Whales Singing Praise to God” which everyone should watch on You Tube. Pastor Dean Buffalo closed the meeting with prayer.
Pastors from a number of local churches worked hard to provide the venues for the praise meetings, as well as to put the dinner together and get the word out to their people. The “praise warriors” from all these churches brought together an abundantly supplied potluck of turkey, dressing, potatoes and all the trimmings and desserts.
Thanks goes out to these pastors and their churches who agreed to join the effort: Pastor Gregg Perkins, Pastor Kevin Rettig, Pastor Kelly Mitchell, Pastor Dean Buffalo, Pastor Chris McKinster, Pastor Sika Ulutoa, Pastor Lynn Lapka and Pastor A.J. Matt.
Special thanks to the Tribal Waves YWAM team and the Missions 21 Africa YWAM team for the Herculean effort in setting up and cleaning up the very large dinner.
