Sunday, April 24, 2016

Your Giving Makes a Difference

There are numerous examples of the impact that today’s special offering makes to recipients. Here is but one example. For more, please visit www.umcgiving.org.

A century ago, many Native American children were removed from their reservations to be educated at government and church-run boarding schools. Often, they were punished for speaking their indigenous languages. By the time they returned home, many had forgotten their Native languages.

“The core of our culture, who we are, is centered around our languages. If we lose the language we lose who we are,” says Native American elder to Kae Wilbert, chair, Upper New York Committee on Native American Ministries. “As a result, the language skipped one or two generations,” said Kae Wilbert. “Now there is a desperate awareness that something must be done or the spoken languages will die out.”

In response to that concern, the Committee on Native American Ministries recently awarded a grant to the Seneca Hymn Singers CD Project. The grant supports the learning, rehearsing and recording of selections from the “Hymns in Seneca” songbook. Part of the Iroquoian language family, Seneca is a seriously endangered language spoken in upper New York state and southern Ontario.

The hymn book contains 150 hymns, songs and prayers in the Seneca language. The project will help preserve the Seneca language and enable people to worship in their native language.

The CD project isn’t the only such effort, Wilbert said. Along with classes on reservation schools, “there are preschools where elders regularly visit and teach Seneca.”

One of six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings of The United Methodist Church, Native American Ministries Sunday serves to remind United Methodists of the gifts and contributions made by Native Americans to our society. The special offering supports Native American outreach within annual conferences and across the United States and provides seminary scholarships for Native Americans.

When you give generously on Native American Ministries Sunday, you equip seminary students who will honor and celebrate Native American culture in their ministries. You empower congregations to find fresh, new ways to minister to their communities with Christ’s love. Give now.