Hillyard: The Next Chapter

     Two years since moving the Rez, I held onto this hope that I would be going back after my internship.  I helped out at my Spokane church, but if I was completely honest, I held my heart off, so that I wouldn’t become too attached.  I didn’t want to break any hearts if I was going to leave after the post-season closure.  After all, I was planning to go back to the Rez.  I didn’t know if that meant going back to the same reservation, but I at least wanted to go back to my Native people.     However, since my trip to Mexico in February, I have seen a shift in direction.  While in Mexico, I was reminded that there have been dreams from when I was a teenager that I have since laid dormant in the meantime.  I knew at that time; I would be traveling over the course of my life.  However, since living with my Blackfeet family, I wanted to stay there for the remainder of my life.  This internship was supposed to be just a season.  But it’s not looking like that.     Recently, the Regions Beyond church network had a conference.  I was planning on receiving a prophetic word to “thus saith the Lord'' what should be the next stage of my life.  Ironically, there weren’t many opportunities for me to receive prayer, and I received one word.  “I hear the word committed.  You will take a step and know which direction to go.”  Well, sheesh!  That wasn’t helpful at all!  Actually, it was.  Because the Sunday before the conference, during worship, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Stay in Hillyard.  Be prepared to be sent out.”  There was a lack of fight in me, when I received the word.  It was a sense of, “Okay.”     This means one major thing.  A letting go of a requirement to move back to the Rez.  It may mean years before I come back or visit, and there is a question of will I come back at all?  If I will be moving to different places, this could mean overseas.  It means not being able to see friends as often as I used to.  However, what this doesn’t mean is a forsaking of my Native family.  The years I spent with them has changed me forever.  And whenever I hear news of what’s happening, I know I will continue to have a passion for what Jesus wants to do in their lives.  I will cry when they are broken; I will cheer when they have praise reports.  Though I am moving onto a new thing, I am not forgetting them.     Since I have moved, I have also seen a miracle beginning to form with my Native family.  In the place of my departure, I have witnessed Natives stepping up and into positions of influence, changing the atmosphere.  There are things being accomplished, that while I was on the Rez, I was unable to do, because of the condition of my own broken heart.  I LOVE that God is healing my Native people…and this is only the beginning.  I can’t wait to see what is in store! (Even at this moment, one of my Blackfeet sisters is on a mission trip to another country. Natives are being sent out, when for decades, they were the mission field!)     Moreover, staying in Hillyard means that this neighborhood is now my neighborhood.  Hillyard has had a reputation of being one of the worst neighborhoods in Spokane, but when I look and walk around… I see a beauty.  This neighborhood isn’t a project.  This is now my community.  A present question: “Can anything good come out of Hillyard?”  The same question was asked about Nazareth when Jesus was becoming public.   My strut has changed when walking the various streets that make-up the neighborhood.     I know what people may think.  “Laura, you’re crazy.  Why would you stay there?”  And the honest answer is: because, there is a people in this district that Jesus loves and wants to reach.  There is a treasure worth chasing, and there is a Treasure inside of me worth sharing.  This sort of decision shouldn’t be so surprising.  Ever since I was in high school, I was kind of “ruined” to want to go to the forsaken places.      While I was a teen, many friends wanted to go to China and Africa (mind you, there are people who are INDEED called there, and should prepare to minister there), but I had compassion for a different group of people.  “God, give me the forgotten ones.  Give me the ones that nobody wants.”  While on mission trips, my youth pastor stretched us to see beyond the immediate feel-good sentiment that usually occurs.  While in New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina), we learned to work beside hurting people wherever needed.  We also learned to talk to strangers (uh oh - trouble already brewing…).  While in San Francisco, we did ministry down the Tenderloin (i.e. the Red Light district), giving blankets to the homeless and praying for the city.  While in Portland, we learned to see the face of a homeless individual before smelling their clothes.  We even had lunch with them!  My youth pastor taught us how to value every person that was in front of us, no matter the background, because Jesus loves them too.  Is it any wonder why I would intentionally want to be in Hillyard?  Looking at my history - both in high school and while living on the Rez, it shouldn’t be too hard to guess. 
My church is at the corner of Queens and Market.  Across the street is a new bar; next to us, attached to an apartment building is a tattoo parlor with sometimes a peculiar smell coming through the doors and interesting art designs on their windows.  Our neighbors are small business owners, as well as friends who camp in the alley way.  We have a Marshallese church and an Irish dance class meeting in our building.  Walking across the Hillyard neighborhood complex, there is a wide variety of homes and families.  There is a school and plenty of children.  The population is multi-ethnic, multicultural, and the backgrounds in families vary, as much as the eclectic demographic of our own church Family.     And I absolutely love it!     I know what people may say, and yet, on some level, I don’t care.  Because I see a people worth loving.  And when that is acknowledged, what else can be said?  I know it won’t always be easy.  In fact, on a most recent prayer walk, I heard three sirens in an hour.  A familiar pain.  It was a reminder, “Hey, heads up.  Know what you’re signing up for.”  And yet, when God tells us to plant somewhere, I think that we can trust Him to care for the needs while we make ourselves available.  My local pastor brought up this note: “We are inexhaustible until God tells us otherwise.”  He is in control and will have us work for how long He means for us to be active.  This isn’t a disregard of safety or pain.  But I am learning, in the duration of my internship, that while counting the cost, I can say that in spite of what may come, it is still ALL worth it.  These people are worth it.  (Jesus thought so.)     I don’t know how long I will be in Hillyard.  It could be a short stay, or longer.  But at this moment, this neighborhood is going to be my home.  As for the preparation, I don’t know what I will be getting prepared for.  It may be back to the Rez; and if so, it may be in Montana or Washington.  But it could be for something else.  It could be a different state, a different church plant, or even overseas.  At this moment, I’m not concerning myself with that.  What I am focusing on is learning how to love the ones in front of me, for this chapter of my life, instead of yearning for another group from or for another season. What I am learning is how to be enraptured by my Savior, develop a heart that imitates God’s passion, and stir up the gifts He has put inside me to benefit the people and Family I am with. God’s story continues to be written; and it’s time to read what He has planned.  Here’s to the next turn of the page.