I just got back from a short trip to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It was the first time I had the opportunity to spend time with the Lakota in a different setting: where they live.

There are approximately 25,000 to 30,000 Lakota living on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. They suffer greatly in the areas of employment, health care, housing, alcoholism, broken families and resources. The current jobless rate on the reservation is nearly 84 percent, forcing approximately 69 percent of the residents to live under the poverty line. The reservation has a median income of $2,600 annually.

I grew up in Kansas City, Miss., having friends and knowing people of many racial backgrounds. My parents always invited people over to the house, especially when a missionary from another country would come. I grew up not having any known prejudices.

However, I quickly learned after moving to pasty-white-Warroad, Minn. that I was a “Nigger Lover” because of my friends I had in Kansas City. That was different for me. However, this is where, if I am honest with myself, new prejudices began.

The people of that town were very negative towards Native Americans, although proud of the traditions. Warroad, after all, is named after the path that warring Sioux and Chippewa tribes used in route to battle. When the casino “moved into town,” people started thinking the town was going down the hole. I started hearing racial slurs, generalizations and worst of all, people within the church saying it.

How can this be? How can one’s skin color determine better-ness? Or worth? Or status?

I didn’t think I had any prejudices. However, I have been keenly aware in the last few months just how few people I intentionally get to know who are African American or Native American. I feel comfortable with people like me. But who are people like me? We are in a place of power handed down through some of our government’s worst offenses. Power stripped from other people.

I tend to believe I am not responsible for the way people of different race have been and are treated because I didn’t think I was prejudice. But I do have to admit that I didn’t listen.

A few months ago I attended a conference with a key part dealing with racial reconciliation. We saw a video of some real life statistics that show just how skewed our society is and that we truly have a long way to go in reconciling between brothers and sisters of race. It really started to work on me. You can view it for yourself at http://ivcf.org/2100/video/justthefacts.ram.

Back to Pine Ridge. Talking with the three men I met, the realism of racism, homelessness, child abuse and neglect, alcoholism and hopelessness took hold of my heart. By no means have I been able to process everything, but I know it was good for me to be immersed into their culture, even if for a day. I have a better understanding of life on the reservation, and I have context and people to debrief what I learned. I am on the road to understanding my new brothers.

E-mail comments to Zach at zach.conrad@studentjourney.org.

Within the last few months, my wife and I have had five friends die. We have gone to one wedding. We have seen newborns grow. We have been through an emotional time of my mother-in-law’s brain surgery. I have been incredibly busy. So has my wife. It seems like life will never slow down. But funerals sure make one stop and look at what is really important in life.

My wife and I were in Florida over Christmas break for a conference. On checking in to the hotel, my supervisor was talking with me about life in general and then asked what I thought about the e-mail that was sent out before the conference. I had no idea what he was talking about. He informed me that one of the keynote speakers at the conference died of a heart attack a few days beforehand!

I doubt anyone reading this knows the individual, so I thought I would enlighten you about Alex Alexander. He was on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a campus based ministry and had a large influence in racial reconciliation within and outside of the organization. The night he was going to speak at this conference, people came up to tell of how Alex had influenced their life.

One by one, former students, fellow staff, and friends came up to share. Some told of how much Alex gave of himself for others. “He really cared for students, especially Black students,” was a common theme throughout the different stories. He had ministered to up to 15 campuses throughout the Georgia area, spending as much time as possible building or starting Black Student Fellowships.

He shared the message of Christ’s redemption and how the Gospel was meant to be liberating in nature, bringing all nations and genders together under the unity of Jesus Christ. This was no “white-man’s gospel” anymore.

There were others like Alex, but being an African-American male on staff with a very white organization had its challenges. He was up front with the staff and board discussing the need for racial reconciliation within the movement. However, Alex did this with much love. As a result, a few students impacted through Alex’s ministry came on board as InterVarsity staff. The face of staff started to be more realistic.

Alex was remembered as someone who made a difference.

Have you ever had the assignment of writing your obituary before? I walked out of that session at the conference looking at life in a whole new way. I started thinking about what I would want said at my time of death. What will I be known for?

The week before we went to Florida, we were at a funeral for one of Janna’s college friends. At her funeral, the theme was, “She was a really nice girl.” After witnessing Alex’s eulogy, I thought it was a total shame that was all she was known for.

Me? I want to be known as someone who helps others in their journey of finding reconciliation with God. I want people to know that God can do incredible things in their life if they only let Him. I want to die with the statement, “He loved God, his wife and family and truly wanted others to fully know God.”

I want God to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

E-mail comments to Zach at zach.conrad@studentjourney.org.

Editor’s Note: This is in response to Zach Conrad’s column on Nov. 6, 2001 titled, “Christianity and Islam: can both religions be right?”

“He is on the path of life who heeds instruction, But he who ignores reproof goes astray.”-Proverbs 10:17

After further research, I found I had misquoted Mohammed saying, “To make others believe in Allah and his Apostles and to participate in a jihad (holy war)” as a response to what would be the best deed of a Muslim, next to believing in Allah. In Al Bukhari vol 1:25, an ahadith of Islam, Mohammed stated only, “To participate in Jihad in Allah’s cause.” I have already written my source to inform them that I have been unable to find the same statement they wrote was not to be found. I do know what it feels like when others twist the Bible or misquote it. As a result, I agree that Mohammed did not share a missions approach to Islam in that text. However, there is a missions movement within Islam. A simple search on the Internet will yield such mission agencies.

Furthermore, I regret stating, “Another difference is that the God of Christian belief is loving and, at the same time, just, which does not fit the character of Allah.” I know that Arabic speaking Christians use the name of Allah as God. I was not building a point on the basis of semantics. I am not a scholar on Islam and did not spend the time to complete my thought on this nor give any basis for this claim. I was trying to point out that the God of Christianity is characterized by love.

“Yet Muslims are hungry to hear that God is more than just omniscient and omnipotent. They want to hear that He loves them personally.” I do know former Muslims who have given their life to Christ and they would say this. However, I did not give a basis for this statement. Therefore, I was wrong for giving a generalized statement without backing it up.

I should not have tackled an issue that by no means could be handled in 400 words. I regret the inaccuracies about Islam in the article. I should have sited my sources and backed up my statements.

However, all this said, I will not retract my main statement that there is a difference between Christianity, Islam and Judaism and they cannot all be true, unlike what pop media would have us believe. That was my main point.

I apologize to those who were offended by the article with its inaccuracies about Islam.

E-mail comments to Zach at zach.conrad@studentjourney.org.