Next week, WNAM’s director, Rich Avery, will be in South Dakota to meet with the Dakota District’s Native Ministry Team. They’ll be discussing work team projects for the summer, the launch of the Lakota Theological Education by Extension Program, potential economic development projects that will improve the livelihood of low-income Native peoples, and other programs.

Last summer, we announced that WNAM’s office would be relocating. For over 60 years, our office has been in South Dakota, because our schools and most of our churches and programs were located there.

Today, it doesn’t really matter where WNAM’s office is located, as we are changing and expanding our reach in order to impact Native peoples all across the United States and Canada.

WNAM’s office is now located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our new address is:

Wesleyan Native American Ministries
1345 Monroe Avenue NW, Suite 234
Grand Rapids, MI 49505

Our new phone number is: (616) 456-0097.

Our mail and phones are still being forwarded from Rapid City to Grand Rapids. You may continue to use donation envelopes with our Rapid City address. Later this spring, our letterhead and donation envelopes will reflect our new address.

February is the month of “love”. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve been thinking about love and two key components that go along with it: forgiveness and reconciliation.

I think we all acknowledge that, throughout America’s history, many wrongs have been done against Native peoples. Sometimes, these were done on purpose by those who intended to do evil. Other times, they were well-meaning efforts by good-hearted people that ended with unintended consequences.

If we’re ever going to see a great revival among Native peoples, I believe we’ll need to see a great revival of forgiveness for the wrongs of the past and true reconciliation to move us forward in the future.

Dr. JoAnne Lyon, a General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church, reminded me recently that true reconciliation is continual reconciliation. It is not a one-time event or special ceremony. Our reconciliation needs to keep going to new levels. It needs to be “worked out” daily. And with true reconciliation comes real redemptive relationships.

Please pray that God will use WNAM as a catalyst in The Wesleyan Church and beyond, to help foster true reconciliation and redemptive relationships between Native and non-Native peoples across North America. And pray for God to show you what you and your church can do to help foster true reconciliation and redemptive relationships with Natives in your community.