Humble Native American Christians Leave Small Miracles in Their Wake

Teresa Neumann : Jan 12, 2009
Dolores E. Topliff?Minnesota Christian Chronicle

"We may not have the sizzle and exposure of larger ministries, but each changed life has sizzle. We envision American Indian communities characterized by sobriety, economic stability and strong families."

(Minneapolis, MN)—The Minnesota Christian Chronicle reports that the life lived by Native American Gordon Thayer has equipped him for ministry. He was raised in the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe near Hayward, Wisc. After eight years in the U.S. Air Force elite Para Rescue unit, including two tours in Vietnam, he served his Tribal Governing Board for 15 years, four of them as Chairman or Chief. But the report adds it wasn't until 1982, when Thayer became a Christian, that he found relief from alcohol addiction and shamanic spiritual torment.

In 1985, after earning a Master's degree in Education Administration and taking on a job with the homeless task force with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the pastor leading an Overcomers of Alcohol program at an Assembly of God Church asked Thayer for his help. Subsequently in 1988, when that church closed and the pastor left, Thayer began conducting para-church meetings and officially founded Overcomers Ministry with his wife, Sheila. Together, as directors of Overcomers Ministry First Nations Recovery Center, they organize support groups for addicts, find housing for the homeless, conduct hospital and jail visitations, and provide crisis counseling. (Photo: Gordon and Sheila Thayer, Overcomer's Ministries, Inc.)

Says Rev. Jan DeLeo, founder of Witnesses for Christ Church, "Gordon [Thayer] was the first local leader to welcome us. He had a burden regarding alcoholism because he had been on the streets himself. He worked hard to provide an unconditional home for alcoholics. I've seen him grow in spiritual and governmental authority. The world needs more people like Gordon and Sheila."

Indeed, an August 26, 2000, Star Tribune report by Doug Grow states, "Gordon Thayer once was lost but now is found, doing small miracles in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. [He] is too humble to accept credit for the changes he's brought to an area of Phillips that once was filled with rundown bars...for a decade he's been a steady, quiet presence on the streets."

On June 7, 2007, FBI Director Robert Mueller III awarded the 2006 FBI Director's Community Leadership Award to Thayer "for his strong participatory involvement and dedication to addressing issues of homelessness that result from chronic alcoholism and for his compassionate assistance to those living with chronic alcoholism in the American Indian community in the Twin Cities metropolitan area." (From FBI News Release, Minneapolis Field Office).

Thayer sums up his vision thus: "We envision American Indian communities characterized by sobriety, economic stability and strong families. You cannot rebuild a community until you rebuild the lives of people in the community. Native people seldom flourish in traditional church settings. If you take a map and place a pin in the Twin Cities and make a 700-mile radius circle covering the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Manitoba and Ontario, you include 500,000 Native people with less than 1 percent in church. I believe Overcomers Ministry is the only non-denominational Native-led ministry in the region."

As is the case with other ministries, the economic downturn has affected Overcomers, and the Thayer's are struggling to keep their ministry alive in the face of it. "We may not have the sizzle and exposure of larger ministries," said Mr. Thayer, "but each changed life has sizzle. The need is great since alcohol and drugs are the greatest killers of Native peoples today."

You can find out more about the Thayers ministry by logging on to: www.overcomersministry.org