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| Image by Patrick McDonald |
Creator's hands in the world:
the work of N'we Jinan
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A Greeting
"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;
do not hold your peace at my tears.
(Psalm 39:12)
A Reading
Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
there is hope for your future, says the Lord:
your children shall come back to their own country.
(Jeremiah 31:15;17)
Meditation Soundscape: Snow and Wind
Meditative Verse
This is my comfort in my distress,
that your promise gives me life.
(Psalm 119:50)
A Song
Life is hard, didn’t choose this way,
Had no strength, didn’t lose my faith,
My heart is torn, couldn’t find my place,
Found my escape every time I prayed.
Sometimes cried, I wish I had died,
And prayed to the Creator for a different life
I was born here and want to live it right
The pain we have, need to give it light.
- from today's N'we Jinan video below, written by
the students of the Na Aksa Gyilak'yoo School in Kitsumkalum First Nation, British Columbia
Verse for the Day
Therefore walk in the way of the good,
and keep to the paths of the just.
For the upright will abide in the land,
and the innocent will remain in it.
(Proverbs 2:20-21)
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| Image by Aaron Hawkins |
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"This is my comfort in my distress," says the psalmist, "that your promise gives me life." N’we Jinan, a Montreal-based non-profit organization, works with Indigenous youth in their own settings to tell their stories in music video form. They also organize and provide workshops in the arts located at schools within First Nations communities. Since their conception, they have helped to create more than sixty original songs, each one written by the children and youth of the community visited and in each case, educating those youth in songwriting and music recording and producing. In turn, the children educate us with their songs. Today’s video story comes from the 'Na Aksa Gyilak'yoo School in Kitsumkalum First Nation, British Columbia. The nation is situated near the ‘Highway of Tears’, a stretch of the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway that runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert, BC and which has seen a high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In the video, the youth sing of their anxieties and fear, while encouraging each other not to be oppressed by it. “There’s drama in my heart and in honour of the missing, I will not be torn apart from the way that I’ve been thinking. I’ve found a little courage and made my decisions. Respect is what I’m learning and I’m trying to be the difference.” How do these words, and the lyrics above in the devotion, resonate with you? In the past few weeks we have witnessed the suffering of Indigenous communities mourning Coulten Boushie and Tina Fontaine and many others, as verdicts have been reached. How does hearing voices of hope amid such losses inspire us to 'be the difference' too? What can we do today? Right now?
LC† Being God's Hands is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto
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