American Indian finds religion after meeting
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, May 22, 2007
TULALIP – A gospel revival meeting changed Merle Williams’ life.
If there’s one thing the 72-year-old American Indian preacher is sure of, it’s that.
The Upper Skagit tribal member had fallen prey to alcohol – a poison that leeched into the Indian community and took hold with a grip so tight it seemed nothing could loose its victims.
“I drank so much, my heart stopped,” he said. “It was a Sunday, and I was in Concrete. The doctors’ office was closed. The hospital was 24 miles away.”
Still, drink was no match for old-time religion.
Merle Williams’ mother was a preacher who led churches from the Lummi Reservation to Tulalip. She leaned over her son and prayed and prayed. Two hours passed, then the alcoholic opened his eyes.
But even that wasn’t the real miracle.
A year later, Merle Williams went to a seven-week revival meeting at the Swinomish Reservation in La Conner. There, he became a Christian and swore off alcohol. He also met his wife, Rose.
The pair got married and almost immediately set out to preach.
From reservation to reservation, they hopped around the U.S. and Canada, preaching to rural Indians and in city churches along the way. There were signs and wonders and conversions, and their car never once broke down on the road, Rose Williams said.
From California’s Mojave Desert to Denver’s icy winter streets; from First Nations reservations in Canada to Navajo villages in Arizona, the Williamses preached and prayed over some of the continent’s most destitute people.
Revival meetings lasted a week, a month, even up to four months, as tribal members ran toward the pulpit to swear off drugs and alcohol.
But nothing prepared the couple for what they encountered on a visit home in 1981.
Churches on the Tulalip and Lummi reservations that once were filled throughout the week stood empty. Pastors who’d given their lives to serve American Indians had passed on, with no one to succeed them in the pulpits.
“We saw alcohol more than ever,” Rose Williams said. “We felt a burden for our people, so we just stayed home.”
They hold weekly meetings at the Lutheran Brethren Church in Marysville. The summers bring outdoor revivals.
Williams believes the old-fashioned revival meeting that changed his life so many years ago still has the power to reach a reservation’s toughest addict.
“There will be a revival in this Northwest area,” she said. “That’s what we’re expecting. That’s been our prayer all along.”
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
Gospel revival meetings
The Eagle Warrior’s Conference, an old-fashioned gospel revival meeting, will be held under a tent on the Tulalip Reservation, on the Boom City grounds on 27th Avenue NE behind the Tulalip Casino.
Meetings will begin at 7 each night beginning tonight through Saturday.
American Indian evangelists and musicians, including Apache tribal member Johnny Curtis of Arizona and Cheyenne tribal member Jay Swallow from Oklahoma, will preach and sing. Meeting organizers expect that more than 1,000 people will attend each night.
For more information, call Merle Williams at 425-870-2443.
