Been awhile since you read the Bible?
Sensing a call to renew your spirit?
Not sure what to do different with fueling your faith?
You are invited to start reading a fresh and inspired translation of the New Testament in a way that will build up a healthy spirit and reinvigorate your faith, hope and love.
In the YMCA we call it The Morning Watch, a call to disciplined action for Christians to start their day early and in God’s Word.
The First Nations Version Translation (FNVT) Council has given the world a refreshing and illuminating experience with the New Testament, written in a culturally relevant way, in the traditional heart language of over 6 million English speaking First Nations people of North America.
Click here to learn more about FNVT!
Consider this invitation: to hear the call of the Great Spirit and pledge to keep The Morning Watch for at least one month – two if you’re open to it.
- Use the first 30 minutes of your day in the FNVT of the NT.
- Begin and end that time with silence, gratitude, confession and repentance, forgiveness and commitment.
- Have a plan for how much you will read each morning and what you will doing with it – journal your reflections or mark up the text or create artwork or memorize verses etc.
- Trust that the 30 minutes will fly by!
- Believe that these are the best 30 minutes of your day – and the most essential – for connecting with the Great Creator of the Heavens and the Earth – the Source of Courageous Faith amidst insurmountable challenges, of Enduring Hope amidst pervasive despair, and Reconciling Love amidst a broken-hearted world marred by evil but hand-crafted for Good.
Why is the FNVT compelling to me?
Though born in Indiana, and a resident now as an adult since 1992, I grew up as a child in Ontario, next to Lake Huron, and attended school with Chippewa Indian classmates. While both Canada and the USA have disgusting and inexcusable and wicked legacies for their treatment of First Nation communities, Canada is ahead of the USA regarding the core values of honesty and responsibility, respect and caring – and it’s noticeable – or lack of, here in Indiana.
The impulse and experience of the FNVT for me regrounds me, but also displaces me – upends my familiarity with the text, and opens me up to a world and culture of a people oppressed in the name of God – the same God who originally died for them. Oh the irony. Oh the complexity of the story. Oh the faithfulness of the Great Spirit and the reconciliation by the Chosen One.
It’s a simple invitation: buy a copy of the First Nations Version and pledge to keep The Morning Watch. Your YMCA, your church, your family, your community will be grateful.
Click here to learn more about FNVT and how to purchase your copy.
