Sowing seeds in the hearts of Native Americans By Jami Becher The Native American tribes of Kansas have a rich culture of celebrating a creator. They’re Plains Indians who once roamed the northern plains of the United States hunting buffalo and living off the land. They honor this heritage through powwows, gathering around the drum, and singing traditional songs. Despite their deep connection with the earth’s creator they have an equally deep distrust of a god they associate with Christian settlers who took their land and forced them into lives of isolation on the reservation. Even today, life on the reservation can be bleak—alcoholism, suicide and broken families are common. North American missionary Daniel Goombi, a full-blooded Native American, and his wife, Kimberly, have been called to help Native Americans in Kansas understand that the creator they celebrate is the God who loves them and wants to give them a hope and a future.
"I have a heart for reservation ministries because this is who I am," says Daniel, a member of the Kiowa-Apache Indian tribe. "I look at these people and I see my family. A lot of the issues found on these reservations, sad to say, are issues in my family. The kids remind me of my daughters, and if I was unable to share the gospel with them, I would hope somebody would take the time to come and lead them to the Lord." As directors of Kansas Reservation Ministries, Daniel, 24, and wife Kimberly, 23, share the gospel on four Native American reservations—among the Kickapoo, the Sac and Fox, the Iowa and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribes—throughout Kansas. Ministering on Native American reservations is both heartbreaking and difficult, according to Goombi. Every tribe in Kansas is different—each has its own language, heritage, culture and beliefs. "The spiritual climate on the reservations is difficult," Daniel says, "because Native Americans have a misconception of who we believers are. They think they have to give up who they are to follow God, and they believe God is still a white man’s God because of the history Native Americans experienced with organized religion." Daniel reassures his peers that "God has blessed us Native Americans with who we are, with our heritage, and would never take that away from us." Daniel and Kimberly began turning the hearts of Native Americans to the Savior by reaching out to their children. "The first summer of Vacation Bible School in 2005 we spoke with an elder of the tribe who told us it had been 50 years since a church had come on the reservation and had VBS," Daniel says. "That’s 50 years of children growing and living their lives and dying without a chance to hear about God. As normal churchgoers a lot of people take VBS for granted but here on the reservation it literally means life or death."
For the last four years Daniel and Kimberly have dedicated themselves to sharing Christ with Native American children through Vacation Bible School, Backyard Bible Clubs, and after school programs. "The kids on the reservation are really receptive," Daniel says. "It’s amazing to see them grow and mature in Christ. The parents see the change and begin asking questions and start coming to our events. We’re able to share the gospel with the parents with the help of their kids. "So many tribes are going unreached," says Daniel. "We need to live with urgency and together sow seeds on these reservations to further God’s Kingdom." Says Kimberly: "We just want to get the word out to Southern Baptists that you don’t have to spend money to travel overseas, when we have a mission field 20 minutes north of Topeka, Kansas." OMJami Becher is editorial assistant of On Mission.
Daniel Goombi– North American Missions Emphasis Worship segment Download