Lord God, our prayer during this season of Advent, is that our native brothers and sisters, who are bound by the pain of addiction and abuse, would receive their “year of Jubilee” by your grace and mercy and through Your Son, Jesus, Amen.

 Holy Father, by Your Spirit, open my eyes to someone today that is hurting and simply needs to know that Your love sent Your Son, Jesus, into our world for them and so many others just like them, Amen.

These women have God.

A few were raised in Christian homes, but most are new to their faith. However, even those few who were raised in Christ struggle to understand and accept the magnitude of God’s love for us and how deeply He wants to protect and help us.

This isn’t just a Makah problem or a Native problem, it’s a human problem.

In an effort to reanalyze and refocus my year and our ministry in Neah Bay, I recently reread Nehemiah and was struck, once again, by his heart.

Nehemiah lived a luxurious life. As the cup-bearer to Artaxerxes, the King of Persia, he was in a position of power in the royal court and lacked for nothing. He had never seen Jerusalem, as he was generations removed from the Babylonian Exile, but still felt a strong connection to his heritage and his ancestors. When he found out that the rebuilding of Jerusalem was going very poorly, Nehemiah says:

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 1:4)