Father Pat

Have you ever been lead somewhere by God, far from home, and in the midst of your travels you meet someone who you just know you HAD TO MEET? God places people on our path, spiritual guides (beavers if you will) that teach, lead, encourage and guide to the next level.

This past summer I went with my group to Red Lake Indian Reservation in Nothern Minnesota on our annual summer mission trip. While there we did a lot of good work, helped many people, learned much about ourselves and our Savior, we raised our voices and our hearts in praise and worship... The Spirit moved and we were changed... but of everything I learned on this trip, the most vital for my own grouth as a Christ-follower was my time wtih Father Pat.

Father Pat is a tall, willowly man, with silver hair and a comforting smile. He would gather the little ones around and tell traditional Indian stories... but laced into stories of trees and eagles, bears and tree martins, was a shining light, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I learned patience and calm, to take time to smile, to lead your youth with a weedwacker like Moses through the Red Sea... but most of all I learned that the Gospel is universal. It translates to every culture and every generation. Jesus' love was just as real in Father Pat's stories, he merely used a different language, a language that made the children's dark eyes sparkle.

A few months before we went to Red Lake, Father Pat barried the students that were killed in the terrible shooting that took place at their high school. You could see his love for his flock. You could also see the pain in their faces. But Father Pat seemed to be like the medicine that God was pouring out to heal that broken part of the Red Lake Nation. Time, love and the Gospel can fix anything.

In the picture above, Father Pat and I share a fun moment with two of his kids. The Indian girl on the right named Megan told me that she loved three people: Father Pat, Jesus... and now me. I left at the end of the week and will never see her again. Father Pat is still there, ever pointing to the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Jesus, for Father Pat.