- " A network of prayer "
- By TOM GREENE
- October 3, 2001
- What started as a newsletter to help Native American Christian ministries and connect people through prayer has grown into a network that has expanded into the Internet.
- "It's way bigger than what I thought it would ever be," said Jeny Covill, founder and prayer coordinator for First Nations Monday. Covill and her husband, David, moved back to Columbia Falls - where David is from originally - last year. She founded the "First Nations Monday" as a guide for coordinating prayers across the country. A monthly letter is sent out to over 200 ministries combining the prayer requests from 60 different Native American ministries.
- "We contact (native) ministries with the idea of getting prayer requests and needs the ministry have and then submit them all over the nation," Covill said.
- Covill said Native American ministries usually have less financial support than ministries off reservations. First Nations Monday is designed to raise awareness of the problems faced by Native American ministries as well as garner financial and spiritual support.
- "There is lack of understanding by non-native churches as a whole and people in general," Covill said. "People are unaware that their conditions are Third World. We get this information into the hands of those people."
- Covill gave an example of one pastor who was struggling with his ministry on the Yakima Reservation in Washington.
- "He was at rock bottom. He was receiving death threats and was desperate," Covill said.
- Through prayers and contacts made from other communities learning of his ministry's plight, the pastor was able to turn his ministry around. She said now the pastor even has his own web site.
- First Nations Monday has also expanded into the Internet and sends out an e-mail prayer request once a month. And this week, Covill said, they began reading Public Service Announcements every Monday morning on the KALS radio station. Last week Covill attended a Native American prayer breakfast held in Helena. Gov. Judy Martz spoke at the breakfast, designed to promote cohesiveness of Native American ministries with non-natives.
- "Gov. Martz stated that those present need to focus on God and breaking down the walls between native and non-native people. She continued to say that 'native and non-native people have these things in common: wanting to be loved, wanting to talk to one another and wanting to be listened to,'" Covill said.
- Covill said the breakfast meeting "was a really good start, a good beginning to try and build bridges between the native and non-native people."
- Covill said she has received requests for First Nations Monday literature from as far away as Japan and Switzerland and as the word gets out "now they (people and ministries once unaware of Native American ministries) are starting to find me."
- To find out more information about First Nations Monday contact Jeny Covill at 406-885-3435 or go to http://www.firstnationsmonday.com
First Nations Monday is a ministry of
Running Brook Ministries International