The following is a preview of the conversation Wayne Stapleton, VP of Cross-Cultural Engagement, and Parry Stelter will be having on November 9: Riding the Waves of Grief. Parry is a Cree and Métis member of Alexander First Nation. A resident of Edmonton, Alberta, he is a preacher of the Gospel and a writer and author.
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How do you perceive the grief you are speaking of?
My parents, uncles, and aunts went to Residential School. The grief they experienced in their lives as a result of being separated from their parents, and their parents, who are my grandparents, also went to those schools. They also experienced abuse, which led to addictions running rampant in their lives. This is called intergenerational trauma.
How do you perceive this grief in Indigenous, Métis, or First Nations people?
The grief that took place in my life and in my family’s life, which also includes my siblings and cousins, comes from persecution and marginalization as Indigenous, Métis, or First Nations people. This grief has been experienced by Indigenous people as a whole. The term Indigenous is an umbrella term that includes First Nations, Métis, and the people of the north commonly referred to as Inuit, Yup’ik, Unangan (Aleut), Alaska Natives, and Dene.
How do you perceive this grief in White people?
Since I grew up with White people and have had relationships with White people my whole life, I am familiar with the kind of grief they as a whole have experienced, no matter their ethnic background – whether they are German, Portuguese, Ukrainian, British, French, Russian. . . .
more about their upcoming conversation
For a number of years now, the NAB has been guided by Four Ends, directives we believe God has called us to as a conference. These state that NAB churches will:
- be trained for missional ministries
- seek opportunities to engage cross-culturally
- develop spiritual leaders
- send and support international missionaries.
Looking at all God is up to in the NAB – a new church planter network in Brazil, Year of Equipping and Blue Ocean cohorts, training for cross-cultural conversations, upcoming FUSE trips with Gateway, and much more – we see the hallmarks of each of these. When you give to the NAB’s Ministry Resource Fund, you are, in part, helping us to resource missionaries, local churches, and leaders so we can seek these Ends together as a conference of churches.
Your ongoing donation of $5, $100, or any other amount will help expand the impact of these efforts by equipping more NAB churches for missional ministry, fostering cross-cultural engagement, developing spiritual leaders, and sending and supporting international missionaries.
give to the fall offering (canada)
give to the fall offering (us)
What does it mean – and why is it essential – for us to move away from efficient, results-driven church models toward slower, relational, Spirit-led ways of being? Join Deb Judas and Luke Miller from the Missional Initiatives Team on November 19 as they walk through what it looks like to reorient our focus to being formed into the likeness of Christ.
Together, we will think through ideas such as:
- Moving from performance to formation.
- Moving from activity to apprenticeship.
- Movement from believing to being sent out.
- Reflection on who and what is forming your people and who do you want them to become.
- How spiritual practices that shape us over time and help us discern where God is already at work and how we might join him there.
- How we do this as the people of God together.
For more information or to sign up for this webinar, contact Deb Judas.
The next NAB Gateway FUSE trip is happening next summer, July 27–August 10 in the Philippines.
For decades, Gateway has led short-term mission teams that consisted of people from multiple churches brought together on a single team, which is why we call them FUSE Teams. These teams typically have have members from across North America and beyond (we’ve had FUSE Team members come from as far and wide as South Korea and Singapore).
This FUSE trip will be partnering with the Bicol Center for Christian leadership, led by NAB missionaries Claire and Tim Marker. Find out more about the various ministries they lead at BCCL.
If you will be age 17 to mid-20s by July 2027 and interested in learning firsthand what international mission work is all about, we invite you to apply for this FUSE trip. Applications are due November 30.