Native land claim dispute presents Scripture distribution opportunity by Bible Network News Staff
Photo: Canadian Bible Society
Dennis Greene show off his Azuza Streetriders jacket, a ministry that he runs with his wife, Lesley, on the Six Nations Reserve.
CALEDONIA, Ontario, May 1, 2006 — As Canadians became aware of the increasing tensions surrounding an on-going native land claim dispute in Southern Ontario recently, representatives of the Canadian Bible Society were looking for opportunities to get God's transforming Word into the hands of those involved.
Since February, Native protesters have occupied a 40-hectare piece of land in Caledonia; a community of about 10,000 located 80 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
The Six Nations protesters say they have ancestral rights to the tract of land-which was being developed into a 250-house subdivision-when they began their protest.
The conflict came to the attention of the national media in April, when the Ontario Provincial Police staged an early morning raid on the site in an attempt to remove the protesters.
But the police were unsuccessful. Blockades were set up, shutting down access to two major roads, and community tensions increased.
After visiting the blockade personally, Dennis Hillis, district director for the Canadian Bible Society's south central Ontario district began to pray for ways to get Scripture into the hands of the protesters. "The atmosphere was very tense," he recalls. "Our visit was just hours after the police had conducted their raid." But he believed that for Scripture to be delivered in a way that would be meaningful to the protesters, it would have to be delivered by members of their own community.
Photo: Canadian Bible Society
(Seen from left to right) Dennis Hillis, Lesley Greene and Dennis Green, holding the "Find Freedom" New Testament, produced by the Canadian Bible Society and the Halftime Report, and distributed by Greene during the crisis on the Six Nations Reserve.
Reading a local newspaper story about the dispute the next day, Hillis learned of a native couple, Dennis and Lesley Greene, who've launched a local chapter of the Azuza Streetriders Christian motorcycle ministry and who lead a small church plant on the Six Nations Reserve. Working his way down a list of "Greenes" in the local telephone directory, Hillis managed to track the couple down and arranged a meeting.
Dennis Greene says he was somewhat sceptical when he received Hillis' call, but he agreed to meet in a coffee shop located not far from the protest. During their April 24 meeting, Hillis gave the Greenes a supply of New Testaments and other resource materials for ministry behind the blockade lines.
Reached by telephone one week after receiving the Scriptures, Greene tells Bible Network News he's given out "about 20 Bibles" so far. "We've had three people come to church because of it," he says enthusiastically. "And we've had six or seven people become quite excited when we've read the Bible with them.
"I've shared some Scriptures with them about the love of God," Greene says.
The Canadian Bible Society's Dennis Hillis says he believes that, "Scripture released can impact culture in crisis points.
"This community is in a crisis," he adds. "God's Word can impact individual lives, and individual lives can bring peace to conflict situations like this."
