Ministry group focuses on Native Americans

By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer

March 21, 2009 09:33 pm

— The interdenominational men’s group The Greatest Gift is seeking at least “500 Warriors” for a Native American men’s conference set for Saturday at the Muskogee Civic Center.
The conference will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a meal to be served.
The Greatest Gift committee is a Christian outreach that promotes a positive change for Native American men. Members have recognized what effects drugs and alcohol have had on Native Americans, according to group President Dale Carey.
Carey said the conference is free and open to men from “senior in high school to senior men.”
Speakers include pastors and leaders from at least five tribes.
“All the guys are from background of alcohol, but all have become ministers,” Carey said. “Monroe Tsatoke, a Kiowa, is a Methodist preacher, and he’s preached all over the United States.”
Carey, pastor of Vann Lake Baptist Church said the conference is a nondenominational effort.
“When they first told me they were going to have speakers about drug programs, I was glad,” said Fred Lowe, who is on the conference committee. “As we know, drugs and alcohol hits everybody.”
Carey said the group has been working on the conference since August.
“We received a lot of feedback and support from the Creek Nation, the Cherokee Nation and the Keetoowahs,” he said. “But people don’t have to be card-carrying Native Americans to come to the conference.”
Dixie Hooper, who heads a nondenominational women’s group, said the main emphasis of the conference “is to influence spiritual leadership and to address the destructiveness of alcohol and drugs in the Native American community.”
“It lets them know there is another way of life,” she said.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 683-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com