Loving Native America: October 2022 Update

Happy October! Here is the Loving Native America October update.

October Trip
The next Hard Rock trip will focus on bringing firewood for the winter months and items for the senior center. Based on our conversations with the leadership at Hard Rock, these are some of the requested items:

  • Firewood
  • Water (water bottles and gallons)
  • Canned fruit
  • Non-perishable food items
  • Compartment trays and 16 oz soup bowls (We are able to buy these in bulk, so a great way to help is to donate funds for this expense!)
  • Disposable plates, bowls, utensils, and cups
  • Sturdy wooden mops
  • Cleaning solutions and spray
  • Antibacterial hand soap

The trip is scheduled for Monday, October 24, so bring in all your donations by Sunday, October 23! As a reminder, you can drop off donated items in the Vineyard Gilbert lobby during our weekly office hours, as well as during Sunday morning services.
Donate funds: www.vineyardgilbert.com/give (Select the “Helping the Navajo Nation” fund from the dropdown.)

Cultural Fact
On September 30th, Canada recognizes the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day, also known as Orange Shirt Day, was started in 2013 and became a federal holiday in 2021 to honor and remember the indiginous children taken away to boarding or “residential” schools and the horrific experiences many of them endured. This day was started by Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, who attended a residential school herself. She remembers being taken from her family at the age of 6, and bringing with her a beautiful orange shirt her grandmother had bought her for school. When she got to the school, all her belongings were taken from her, including her new orange shirt, which she never saw again. Wearing an orange shirt on this day is an act of solidarity with other residential school survivors. While this is a day observed in Canada, it is a good reminder to us of the history of injustice towards the indiginous people in North America as a whole, and the ongoing intergenerational impact and violence that our first nations communities continue to face.
On one of these Days of Resting, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) returned to his boyhood home in Seed Planter Village (Nazareth). As was his tradition, he entered the gathering house and stood up to read from the ancient Sacred Teachings. The headman handed him the scroll with the words from the prophet Creator Will Help Us (Isaiah). He opened the scroll and began to read.
He spoke with deep respect in his voice as he held the scroll in a sacred manner. His words were strong and clear, and his eyes were bright and full of life as he read.
“The Spirit of Creator has come to rest on me. He has chosen me to tell the good story to the ones who are poor. He has sent me to mend broken hearts, to tell prisoners they have been set free, to make the blind see again, and to lift up the ones who have been pushed down - to make it known that Creator’s Year of Setting Free has come at last!”
Luke 4:16-19
First Nations Version