God’s work, our hands. This is a familiar refrain among Lutherans. How do we answer this call? At Faith Lutheran Church members live out their faith in a variety of ministries. In this blog, we will tell stories about these ministries.
We start with the ministry that I know best, a ministry to the Navajo who live on the Navajo Nation that was started by my parents in the 1970s, and has been continued by the next generation—Messick Ministries. Given the injustices and neglect of native people in the U.S., it is not hard to imagine the needs that exist on the Navajo Nation that would constitute God’s Work. These needs stem from the trauma from their historic past, and include high rates of poverty, substance abuse and suicide.
But these issues are not the topic of this current blog. Rather, we would like to introduce the Navajo in the way that they introduce themselves, using their clans. Many of us are familiar with the term clan but not aware of its implications. Clans provide social connections and a sense of community that many of us in mainstream American society strive for. It is one of many things that we could learn from Navajo people and culture.
The Clan system is incredibly complicated. There is a joke that you need to be born into the clan system to understand it! But, maybe we non-Navajo can get a taste of why it is so valuable.
Each Navajo individual belongs to four clans. Clans are organized systematically starting with mother’s clan (1), father’s clan (2), maternal mother’s clan (3) and then paternal father’s clan (4). Clans include many more people than nuclear families. For example, a cousin who shares the same 1st clan as one’s mother is also a brother. This has many implications for who is considered family.
A few years ago, I talked with a group of Navajo teens about the issues that affected them most. Substance abuse, family issues, and suicide were all discussed. All of these teens had personally considered suicide. Central to what sustained them were their clans. They told me that clans provide an instant connection and trust. Clan members—even clan members that you just met—are family and bring a sense of belonging and security.
In future blogs, we will talk about issues and needs on the Navajo Nation and ways that Messick Ministries encourages pastors and community leaders in their work. Depending on the need, Messick Ministries has supplied study Bibles, warm jackets and support for housing repair. But the clan system reminds us that doing God’s work is a partnership of working together for mutual understanding and learning.