A Word From Pastor John J. Franklin

Bridge of Healing Report
Dec.11, 2006

His Voice is Healing Ministries would like to thank all of the people that helped bring Jonathon Maracle and his band 'Broken Walls' to the Prairie Knights Pavilion for the youth seminar and concert. We would also like to thank all of the local dancers and teachers and parents that helped us in this effort. You know who you are and your reward is in heaven, and no one can steal it from you there.

We would like to remind the Lakota people that God has not forgotten about us. He has an awesome plan for our people still, and do not let anyone tell you different. Our creative dance and regalia, and our drums and even our traditional songs can be used to worship the One true God.

It is true that we have been hurt and lied to by the church and it's misguided ministers for far too long. We do not have the luxury or the time to argue or defend ourselves. It is our nature, it is our culture to forgive and help those in need who are lost themselves. We must not respond in anger or do anything to bring reproach on our God or our Nation. We are a sovereign Nation because a sovereign God spoke us into existence. His written Word (the Bible), and our treaties with the US Government are there to confirm that.

Let us reach into our past and remember who we are in God, and also remember that our voices were the first voices praising God with our song and our dance on this continent. No one can take that from us unless we let them. Our ancestors had a grasp of all of this, and worshipped God as He revealed Himself to them. Just as God told Cain, the blood of your brother cries up from the ground. Remember my Lakota brothers and sisters, the blood of our ancestors and prophets cries up from the ground, "Remember your God'.

From My Heart
November 2006

I would like to share a few things that God has laid on my heart. I believe that God's heart is that we all should come to the saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ. Now I know that too often God has been misrepresented, and a lot of people are turned off by the church. The church has too often become a place of judgment and isolation and it is not functioning as the body of Christ. I believe that we are in the last days, and probably the worst sign of the end times is apostasy ( falling away from the faith), in the church.
It is in that context, that I believe we must be busy telling others about Jesus. We need to get out of our pews and comfort zones, and reach out to a hurt and dying world.

Here on the Standing Rock Indian Nation in South Dakota, most Native people don't want to hear about Jesus. You have probably heard it called, at some point in time, the 'white man's religion'.  We have been charged with telling the people that Jesus was not a white man. We also have got to tell these people that God still loves you and cares about you and He has a plan for your life. No matter where you have been, no matter what you did, or who you did it with, God's love and grace is greater that all our sin.

Now I could go over all of the facts and the figures about how the enemy is trying to destroy our youth, but I won't. I won't because my God is greater, and He is raising up Native men and women to fight the good fight of faith and take back our children. I believe that just like the 1st century church and apostles, we need to raise up Native leaders that live here in the community, because I believe that if you raise up Natives in leadership, the natives will come out.  Secondly, our Native youth need to see native people operating in their gifts and their callings. There are many Native people here on the rez' that have gifts and talents and callings that have never even begun to be tapped into and realize their potential through Jesus Christ.

We need, as believers, to pray and break that strangle-hold that the enemy has over our people. The biggest problem I see is the father has been lost, stolen or removed from the home, and that needs to be restored. I believe a father is like a rudder, and he steers the children to the path they should take in their life, with a father's protection and blessing.  A lot of children, because of the lack of the father, wander aimlessly through this life. The reservation has enough pain to go around when it comes to broken homes and relationships.

God bless,  Rev. John J. Franklin
His Voice is Healing Ministries

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