Part 3: Becoming a wounded healer
SUSIE SILVERSMITH'S STORY
This film documents the experience of Susie Silversmith, a Navajo and boarding school survivor. The film is approximately 17min long. We have divided Susie's story into six parts so you can find different sections of her story more easily in the film:
(password: VillageWell)
Chapter Guide to Susie's film
Use the guide below to more easily navigate to different parts of Susie's film using the time markers.
Part 1 - Being sent to the boarding school & the cutting of the Tsiiyéél (0:00 to 6:20)
Part 2 - Trying to run away (6:21 to 7:44)
Part 3 - Going home after 9 years at the boarding school (7:45 to 9:16)
Part 4 - Telling the Gospel in a Good Way by the Navajo science teacher (9:17 to 11:55)
Part 5 - Dream with Jesus as Medicine Man, speaking Navajo (11:56 to 14:42)
Part 6 - Epilogue: "I have come to give the good life, a life that overflows with beauty and harmony" John 10:10 FNV (14:43 to end)
VIDEO
(password: VillageWell)
REFLECTION QUESTIONS (FROM VIDEO)
- What do you think it took for Susie to trust Creator Sets Free, coming to her as a medicine man in her dreams, given the abuse and injustice she experienced through bad shepherds at the boarding school?
- What effect did listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd have on Susie's life?
- How do you see Creator-Sets-Free working through Susie's scars to help others and helping her not be defined by her past and what was done to her?
A READING FROM THE FIRST NATIONS VERSION OF JOHN 10:14-18
14-15."I am the Good Shepherd, the one who lays down his life for the sheep. The Father knows me and I know him. In the same way, I also know each other of my sheep and they know me. 16. I have other sheep who are not from this flock. I will go and find them, and they will *also* hear my voice. Then there will be only one flock, with one Shepherd.
17. "My Father has a great love for me, for I lay my life down to take it back again. 18. No one takes my life from me, for I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay my life down and the right to take it back. It is my Father who gives me this right."
LOOKING AT THE TEXT
- What does the Good Shepherd do for his sheep?
- How do you see Creator Sets Free going to his death and overcoming it?
APPLYING THE TEXT
- Sometimes we can feel defined and disqualified by our scars. What makes it hard to believe that Creator Sets Free has overcome the power of our scars?
- There are thieves who try to sneak in, not through the gate, to steal and kill. Jesus sees this in what the Pharisees are doing to people like the blind man. How is going through Jesus as the gate an honorable way to talk to Natives, just like protocol in order to be invited and welcomed?
- Read the quote below from Native elder Terry Wildman. Jesus lays down his life for his sheep that they would have life. How can we begin to trust him and know our scars don’t define us and what is possible?
