Last Saturday, the day before Resurrection Sunday, we had a visitor.
“Look! A hawk” I exclaimed, pointing to the large bird just outside our window.
“That’s not a hawk Papa!” said Ivan, our encyclopedia of animal and bird knowledge. “That’s a peregrine falcon!”
So I went to the fount of all knowledge……..google : – ) and discovered that to Native Americans this, the fastest bird alive, is highly esteemed as a heavenly messenger. I knew this visit was related to the impending death of a dear Ojibwe friend, Warren, whose spirit did return to God a few hours later…. at the beginning of “the third day”.
Later that evening Hilary showed me a letter she had just found while sorting papers in our room.
It was one of the old fashioned airmail letters. It had been written by my mother and father and sent to us on our honeymoon in America 42 years ago. Subsequently it must have returned with us to Ireland and hidden there for 20 years before sneaking a passage back to America when we moved to live here. It continued to lie unnoticed in our bedroom …..until last Saturday evening.
As I read it I realized it contained that message from heaven we had been promised……in fact it contained 2 messages. The first was a personal one. Earlier that evening I had done something I rarely do……….falling back into a bad American habit I reached for a big bowl of ice cream!
I chuckled as I read the last sentence written in my father’s artistic script
“Paul, go easy on the ice cream”
The second message I realized came earlier in the letter, for my father had informed me that the leading elder in the Irish church back then had just died in his early 60’s.
Like Abel in the grandstand of faith (Heb.11:4) my father, though dead, was still speaking, at the timing and direction of his, my and Warren’s heavenly Father.
I knew that Our Father was highlighting His view of brother Warren, and that A leading Jesus elder (among the Ojibwe people here) had just died.
Warren had been the fastest, strongest and meanest man on the Rez. Then near the end of his life he met Jesus and the new gentle giant would sit tenderly holding his wife Mary’s hand tears running down his face as he listened to others testify about how they too had been rescued out of dire straights.
I recalled St. Paul’s words at the end of his life now more full of meaning,
…….the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day – and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:6-8)
Again I googled to see “What age was St Paul at his death?” – 61 yrs.
“Mary” I said at the funeral. “What age was Warren?” – “61 yrs.” she answered.
Warren’s life was a testimony to God’s promise in Is. 61.1 for at the end of his life on earth he was a captive who had been released to fly free as the Baapaase – red headed woodpecker, for which he was named at his birth.
His Ojibwe name took on even more meaning for me when I recalled how that Saturday morning little Isla lying on the living room floor spontaneously began singing,
“Baa ba black sheep have you any wool.
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
One for my master and one for my dame
And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.”
Warren had indeed been a black sheep as we understand that term, but in the end he was able to give back the warm love offering of a bag of wool to his Master Shepherd Jesus, to his Dame, Mary, and to all of us ‘little boys’ who knew him.
Later someone told me that in the Middle East a black sheep actually represents wealth!
This is Warren’s testimony in his own words from just a few months ago,
“I met the Kyles, Hilary and Paul, through my friends Carol and Kevin about 4 years ago. I started participating in their retreats. My way of thinking started changing, slowly at first, after coming to the retreats. I couldn’t believe how happy these people were – hugging and laughing and dancing and not even drinking!!
I am a Native American and I grew up on the Fond Du Lac reservation. I drank, I beat people up, and I partied for 50 years. My body finally started getting sick from it. I had to be life flighted from northern Minnesota to Minneapolis, and I died when they were taking the fluid out of my body. There I met Jesus. He said “Warren, you need to go back and do what you have to do”. I spent a month in a hospital bed then and it took me a good 2 years to get back to be able to walk around. My whole body had been shutting down.
But I started drinking and partying again when I was able. Finally I had a large stomach bleed. I lost nearly 6 pints of blood. I thought I was gonna die. When I started to be put under for surgery for my liver, Jesus again said, “Warren go back and do what you have to do”.
A few months later my ammonia started getting very high and dialysis hurt very badly. I was ready to die. Father God came to me. I heard that me, Warren Barney was saved!! I am saved!!…. and I am healed just enough.
My friends had planned a get together for me because I was going to go on hospice. But when I was walking up the aisle after playing the big drum, whoosh like something just came into the room and came over me, my whole body, my whole being and it felt really good. I wanted to tell everybody right then!! It was a very spiritual moment for me. I was healed just enough.
This was when I really started praying and believing. I have finally been sober for 18 months thanks to the prayers and help from these people and retreats. The desire to drink and party is gone now. I still struggle with health issues but God is helping me work through them and I know God is a good God and a loving God.”
