From June 8th through July 1st, I will be prayer walking the “Trail of Death.” In 1838 from September 4 through November 4th, 859 members of the Potawatomi Nation were forcibly moved from northern Indiana to eastern Kansas. Over 40 died along the way, mostly children. This is a tragic part of our nation’s history. This trail has gripped my life and won’t let go. Here’s the story as it’s happened so far…
HOW DID I HEAR ABOUT IT?
About 10 years ago I became aware of the “Trail of Death” because one of my professors and mentors, Keith Drury, walked it in the summer of 2006. Several things connected right away…I knew Keith, I had Native American ancestors, and it started in Indiana, my home state. Little did I realize how connected I’d become a few years later. My great grandmother on my father’s side was full-blooded Native American from the Cherokee Nation. My father talked of this often, and he instilled within me a brokenness for the injustices of our past in America towards the First Nations people. I have a picture when I was 5 years old of me asleep on my dad’s lap with a bow and arrow in my hands. Growing up my neighborhood friends all played “Cowboys and Indians.” It wasn’t until recently I remembered that while all my friends wanted to be “cowboys” I was always an “Indian” because of how my dad raised me. They were the heroes, and I always chose their side when we played.
My dad is no longer alive, but my family all have vivid recollections of him breaking into tears when talking about Native Americans. One of my brothers recalls that the only time he ever saw dad weep from the pulpit (he was a pastor) was when he was talking about the Trail of Tears. So the TOD became a way of connecting with my father as well as I was very familiar with his affinity for the Native people.
Once I became aware of the Trail of Death it wouldn’t resurface much until 2017. That was the year our team began planning an event called “Claim Your Campus 2020.” In March 2017 I made my first visit to Kansas City area to see this field which soon after was to be chosen for the event. It’s a long story how we got there, but God clearly opened the door and made a connection with the great people at YouthFront. They are a youth ministry based in the KC area and they own a camp property in LaCygne, Kansas where we were going to have this event.
We set our sights on the year 2020 and began building and planning for “Claim Your Campus 2020.” This was to be a weekend festival type atmosphere, with the goal of equipping middle and high school students to start prayer groups and movements on their school campus. We had a goal of 100,000 students from 10,000 schools across the US. Miraculous amounts of funds were raised, and momentum began to build. All roads were leading to the rural field in Kansas where we would meet with God in a field. “Father, meet us in the field” was our rallying cry and prayer.
CONNECTIONS THAT I COULDN’T IGNORE
After we felt like this property and field in Kansas was the place we were going to hold this event, the Trail of Death came back around in my life. I don’t remember exactly how, but that year I thought of it again and noticed something strange. The TOD begins near Plymouth, IN and ends in Osawatomie, KS. My wife and I lived in Plymouth in the mid ‘90’s before moving to Grand Rapids, MI. Osawatomie is just outside of LaCygne. It seemed too coincidental. I learned much later that the Potawatomi Nation also had roots in Jackson County MI, where my wife was born and where we were married and lived for the first two years afterwards. The connections kept getting deeper.
It was in 2017 that I began feeling a pull towards walking the TOD. Initially, I didn’t know exactly why, but this wouldn’t go away. A great friend and mentor Wayne Schmidt gave me one of the best pieces of advice on discerning God’s direction. He said that over time, if a sense of urgency and passion about something comes and goes, it’s probably not God or something to pay much attention to. But if over time it GROWS in intensity, then it probably is God and something to pay attention to. I never forgot that.
In 3 years it didn’t’ go away. In fact, it grew. I spent time researching and planning. I tried figuring out a way to take the walk, but time and again it ended in frustration because the doors kept closing. I attempted for three years to go, even putting it in my calendar. But it was no use. Logistically with the rhythms of my life, it was pretty much impossible to make it happen. Even up to February of 2020 I kept trying to figure it out. But eventually I came to grips with the fact that it wasn’t meant to be…at least for now it wasn’t.
Then COVID happened.
SUDDENLY AND UNEXPECTEDLY TIME & TIMING ALIGNED
All of our original plans to host this large gathering of 100,000 students on July 4thweekend in LaCygne for Claim Your Campus 2020 began to fall apart. God began to show us that His plan was so much bigger. (We are hosting a historic simultaneous time of prayer at noon CT on July 4 at schools around the nation.) And all of our planning was shifted in a new direction. Claim Your Campus 2020 would still mobilize prayer at schools, and in a much bigger way than we ever dreamed. All of the sudden, my schedule changed and the complexities for hosting a physical gathering of this size quickly changed as well.
And the window of time and margin opened up for my walk. Miraculously, everything began to come together in ways that were very unexpected. All of the sudden, the time was there, and the timing was right. I had been training for a 25k run in May (it was cancelled) and so I’d gotten in to decent running shape.
And yet even though I knew i was supposed to do this, I still wasn’t exactly sure why. But then God began to show me some of the reasons for this walk.
WHY WALK THE TRAIL OF DEATH?
1. It’s a prayer walk to honor those who experienced loss on the Trail of Death
Many lost their lives on this walk. Especially hit hard were the children and the older ones. The suffering the survivors experienced is beyond my comprehension. Chief Menominee, known as the “Potawatomi preacher” tried to peacefully resist and was captured and lost along the way early in the march. Benjamin Petit, a French born Catholic priest was also grief stricken and lost his life as well.
I am embarrassed to say that in the 3 years I lived in Plymouth, IN I knew nothing of the TOD. But I am sorrowful for their loss, and I want to pay tribute to these beautiful people.
2. It’s a prayer walk for personal repentance and humility.
I have lived a pretty easy life. I’ve taken risks, I’ve done some hard things, but I have been blessed with a lot of opportunity. I’ve reaped what I haven’t sown. I’ve had plenty when many others have had want. I’ve stood on platforms built by others.
My life today is a product of the good but also the sins of my past. I cannot overlook or discount the injustice that people from my past have committed. In my fast-paced world where the scenery whips past me as I fly through life enclosed in the bubbles of houses, cars and planes, I will shift down to first gear and slowly walk. I will set my feet where the Potawatomi people’s feet were forced to walk. And I will listen for the Voice of the Holy Spirit to teach and guide me in my own journey of walking away from my sin and towards His healing.
3. It’s a prayer walk for healing
God gave my wife a clear prayer direction for the new vision for Claim Your Campus 2020. We will be calling the nation to pray for healing…healing for our nation and this generation. We are calling students to pray for the healing of our nation. And we are calling adults to pray for the healing of this generation of students.
We have inherited a broken past…culturally and personally. The TOD speaks even clearly today to our cultural brokenness, and it’s still alive and well in the pain of racism, class warfare, identity politics, etc. Working with students for 30 years I’ve witnessed first-hand the personal brokenness of families who have experienced cycles of pain and wounds from the past.
A friend of mine, Negiel Bigpond, who I would consider an elder statesman from the First Nations people, has talked to me about these forced displacements of his people from our American past. He shared with me how the young warriors of the tribes would literally be the driving force to get them from one place to another. It was their energy and drive that helped propel everyone while the Elders were towards the back, giving their wisdom and guidance. Negiel said that had it not been for the young warriors, many tribes may not have survived.
I believe that it is our generation of young people that can be the unifying voice of healing through prayer. Politicians can’t unite or save us. And unfortunately, even now many of our pastors are divided. I believe our best hope for unity is through praying students. July 4th is a critical moment where I believe our young people will show up and show us what it looks like to pray with the innocence and faith of a child.
Too often as adults we have overlooked or underestimated the power of our students. And on the other end, students in their lack of life experience often underestimate the need for the wisdom of adult elders in our society. If one thing is true today, we as generations need one another.
**Since posting this the situation with George Floyd has surfaced. My heart aches for another reminder of systemic racism that exists within our nation and world. This has given me more resolve to pray and ask God for healing that only He can bring.
4. It’s a prayer walk for students
Students today are by and large as a people group filled with pain and brokenness. They are the most lonely, depressed, anxious and suicidal generation in American history. How could our children who have grown up in the most financially prosperous nation in the history of the world be so wounded and filled with death? In my experience of working alongside students for 30 years there are no simple answers. But if I had to boil it down to only one thing, it would be this overriding factor: the breakdown of the family unit. Students today do not have the foundation of family and faith that previous generations have had. More students today were born to unwed parents than those who were. As our families are falling apart, so are our children.
Students today need a supernatural touch from God. Pills, politicians or programs won’t save them or change their lives. I believe that Jesus is the only way to healing and restoration for our young people. I walk for them and I pray that they will be free of the sins of our past that we as adults have shackled them with.
5. It’s a prayer walk for future generations
“Past is prologue” is true, both fortunately and unfortunately. Where we’ve been is where we’re going unless something intervenes. I hope and pray that this walk will remind us all that while the future is what we make of it, we are products of our inheritance generationally. We must understand our past to avoid the mistakes from those that have gone before us. Regardless of our personal responsibility or involvement, we can and should take responsibility to be an instrument of prayer and humility for the sake of our future.
Along the way, I’ll be joined by friends and family for some conversations. These conversations will be about our past. In particular, generational cycles will be the focus of our interactions. These conversations will be starting points to consider where we have come from and where we are going. Hopefully it will spark what you are handing off to future generations. And hopefully it will help us understand in a greater context the brokenness of our past and how to acknowledge and repent for a better world that our kids and their kids will inherit from us.