Blackfeet Reservation Trip: Dr. Josiah Potter
It's not the cold that hits you the hardest when you finally complete the trip to the reservation, in the foothills of Glacier National Park. It's the wind.
The wind is the thing that surprises and hurts the most when you step out of the car, or the school, or the restaurant. The wind has a cutting to it. It's sharp. Direct. Much like the spiritual resistance and attack we receive prior to and during our trips to places like these.
We expect the poverty. We expect the depression. We expect the darkness that's visible and predicable, much like we can expect the cold. We see on our weather app everyday what awaits us the entire week. But the only thing the app can tell us about is that there will be wind. It can't tell us when or where. Just that it's there.
In the same way we know as we go from homes to the school to the community, there will be darkness. But it's spiritual block and attack that is unpredictable. We never know how or when it's going to come. Just that it will.
I told the guys in the car that Montana might be one of the toughest and darkest places we go to carry the Good News of Jesus. It's like the reservation is cloaked in a wall of darkness and every day the only way we can slip through the wall is when Jesus opens up a sliver for us to slip through and it's different every day.
One day it looked like repairing windows for a family so they don't suffer the sub zero temps in the coming months. Another day it looked like teaching classes at the school on faith, life, business, entrepreneurship and Jesus. Another day it looked like sharing time or meals with new and old friends.
We met significant opposition and attack while on the res. A deranged man running around the properties of the people we serve, breaking into houses and setting fields on fire using a Bible as his kindling. A lady confronting us on the road about who we were and what we were doing there. And then more subtle opposition where the darkness would take hold of students in the classroom while we taught and shared. And finally the discovery of kids who are in need of rescuing from being trafficked but the people are too afraid to tell anyone anything about it for fear of retaliation on them and their family.
At the end of the trip, we reflected and couldn't believe the inroads the Lord provided for us to serve the Blackfeet People. To sit and eat with them. Hear of their heritage. Hear their pain and struggle. Connections were made that will be bridges for us to be able to go back and rescue kids in need.
Our next step in Montana is to provide Christmas for kids and families who won't get anything this year. Just like last year and the year before. If you'd like to help make Christmas happen for these kids and families, just go to our site and the "Donate" button will take you to our fundiful and there's a place there for the Blackfeet Mission. There you can give and make Christmas happen for them.
They also have other specific needs. Clothes, shoes, bedding etc. If you'd like to help with that, just reach out to Joey and he'll be able to help.
Thank you to all the JPM donors and partners for your generosity. It's because of you we got to deliver clothes, bedding, and provide food and the Gospel to the Blackfeet people in Montana.
