Drug rehab center offers Native American women hope

BRIGHTON (FBC) Two years ago, Pathways Community Church pastor Bill Losasso from Largo felt compelled to action after hearing Native Americans, including Grammy winner Tom Bee of Red Sea Ministries, speak and sing about the need for more outreach to Native Americans during a Promise Keepers pastor's conference in Phoenix, Ariz.

This past Saturday, Bee sung and spoke again about Native American ministry—this time at a grand opening celebration for the Seminole Pathway to New Hope drug rehabilitation center for women constructed near the Seminole Indian Reservation in Brighton, through a partnership between the Pathways church and First Indian Baptist Church, Brighton.

On Feb. 25, members of the Seminole Indian Nation board attended the ribbon cutting and allowed use of the reservation’s rodeo grounds for a festival the following day, which featured a free barbeque, special music and testimonies, and a children’s game area. Two children received Christ during the festival, and a man made a profession of faith during a Sunday service at the arena.

During the celebration, Bee said, “We need to reach out to this segment of society on the reservations. There are no minorities to God. To Him, all people are considered to be in the majority.

“We seem to forget that it’s good what we’re doing around the world, but we need to add to that by going into our own back yard to do mission work,” Bee said.

To find out what the Pathways congregation could do to help with Native American ministry in the state, Losasso contacted the Florida Baptist Convention, which referred him to Wonder Johns, pastor of First Indian Baptist Church of Brighton. His congregation had started refurbishing a former Maple Grove Baptist Church facility to use as a drug rehabilitation center for women. But the work had been slow-going because of the extensive reconstruction that was needed, Johns said.

In 2003, Johns arrived early for the Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting in the Tampa Bay area near Largo to meet with Pathways members and discuss a joint effort. Then, Johns showed them the former church building when they came to visit the Indian congregation.

Envisioning how the facility could be transformed, dozens of Pathways volunteers began traveling three hours east during weekends for the next year to help the Indian church construct the center.

“They sure did some wonderful work,” pastor Johns said. “I’ve never seen such a group of dedicated people to serving the Lord.”

Festival coordinators Jim and Pat Topping were among the Pathways members who spent most weekends at the construction site.

“When we first started coming and getting to know each other, we were separate,” Jim Topping said. “As we kept coming back to work on the construction, the two churches joined together and developed a bond out of Christ’s love to see this mutual dream come to fruition. It became an effort of the heart, with church members working together and sharing recipes with each other.”

This ministry is special to Topping, a recovering addict who has experienced 10 years of freedom from addiction after accepting Christ at age 61.

The rehabilitation center will host Bible studies and worship times geared toward young women, as well as classes for substance abuse recovery and freedom from abusive codependency, said center coordinator Billie Tiger, a recovering addict who was born and raised on the reservation.

“I know the difficult way back from drug and alcohol abuse to freedom from it,” she shared during the festival. She hopes that the rehabilitation center will be able to help recovering addicts both inside the reservation and extending beyond it to outlying communities.

“People knowing that you came from their world and understand what they’re going through will hopefully help them open up and not fear being judged for their struggles,” Tiger said. “It’s an honor to give back to my community. I had people helping me, so I’m glad I’m now in the position to help others. It’s all about showing God’s love.”

In addition to building the rehabilitation center, Pathways donated a network of computers to the reservation’s school.