Never give up on God: Honoring Black HIStory '23

 It is little wonder, given the history of their mistreatment at the hands of whites, that many Native Americans were suspicious of missionaries preaching what seemed to be a white man's religion—even when a black man was the missionary. And yet because of the perseverance of this man, John Stewart, many eventually adopted his religion. But it wasn't always easy for him.

Then, Stewart said, he heard a voice telling him, "Thou shalt declare my counsel faithfully." Feeling impelled to preach to Indians, Stewart journeyed to northern Ohio to the Wyandots, a branch of the Hurons driven south by the Iroquois League. Once a thriving people, the Wyandots had been reduced to about 700 when Stewart arrived at their reservation on the Upper Sandusky River in 1816.

There he met another black, Jonathan Pointer, who knew the Wyandot language. He told Stewart it would be "folly" to preach to the Indians. Nonetheless, the indifferent Pointer agreed to interpret Stewart's sermons. Many, even the Native Americans, did not give him the respect due. Even many of the Native Americans did not see black people as equal, but evil. Still, he pressed on, and by degrees, Stewart won the trust of the Wyandots, and he saw conversions.

Stewart died, apparently from tuberculosis, in 1823. Twenty years later, the federal government moved the Wyandots to Kansas as part of its Indian relocation policies. But Stewart had made his mark—the first black missionary to Native Americans and the first Methodist home missionary in America.                (John Stewart, 1786-1823)

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)