The Sons Of Thunder Signal Corps Ministry Mission is to guide and inspire people in Native and rural communities to train and equip themselves as traditional and pastoral first responders. These critical roles are a hallmark of a thriving community and culture.
Emergency preparedness, broad and multi-scenario aid response and pastoral care in support of the community and church is part of the calling I have for the Signal Corps Ministry. Adding pastoral care along with the skill sets of many types of first responders, supported with wide ranging types of radio communications use can build up our communities with the traditional interdependence that is part of our heritage. Having a community-based aid/emergency response corps that is competently trained and qualified, volunteer, and faith-based I think could give a really important sense of cultural self-determination, self-reliance, self-responsibility, accountability, and functional mutual aid that almost every outside bureaucracy, government program and policy has stripped from native peoples’ cultures.
In some ways the Signal Crops draws on the tradition of native secret societies and warrior societies. There is a strong and sacred instinct in our people, held in the highest regard, that certain members of a band/tribe/moiety/nation underwent initiation and trials to develop their spiritual calling to serve the people. This was bound and kept by tradition, the continuity of leadership, and the spiritual life in the culture. These selected members were counted on to protect and preserve the people through life, to the death. I think the components of Christian morals, faith, service, and love, are in these traditions. If anyone who is called can help others discover Christ in their own life, that He knew us before the beginning of the world and that He is at work by any means He chooses among all nations of the earth, then accepting Christ among the Native Nations is not a adoption of something foreign but a revival of our cultural inheritance.
These are some basic skill sets and mission essential tasks to acquire them. Becoming a radio operator, a volunteer emergency responder, and a minister/chaplain, can put your local church into the heart of the People, and put you in the heart of the body of Christ, Becoming a servant of God means acquiring skills to serve in your community and local church, as well as training and building up others unifying the Body of Christ.
This is not definitive nor authoritative, but my best understanding how to get qualified and get active. If you can improve on these guideline then please step up and contribute.
The Minister/Chaplain is the sacred profession of Christian service, and is not for everyone. You are to be the presence of Him, His grace, His peace, His healing, to the body of Christ, the People, in times of tragedy and times of joy. You are a warrior, a physician, a counselor, a servant. You are HIS minister and serve Him. You simply must have a calling to this vocation, in sober and enthusiastic clarity that endures beyond infatuation. Given this, a minister/chaplain cannot function in a vacuum as the church, the Body of Christ who are the people he serves and who serve him, as we all serve Him, is the basis for his commissioning, his accountability, and mutual aid. Dr. Whit Woodard in his book “Ministry of Presence: Biblical Insight on Christian Chaplaincy” outlines 3 requisites to a true Divine calling to Ministry:
- An awareness of the Glory of God and the conviction of our own sin; a Divine calling to become a minister or chaplain (the leading of the Holy Spirit)
- Acknowledgement by the one called; acknowledgment of the testimony and gifts of the candidate by the church (submission to the call)
- Ordination by the Church; Acts 6:3-4 “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven good men of good repute, full of the Spirit, and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty” (commissioning)
Whether or not you are called to minister, or be a chaplain, being a servant of the Lord and a precious member of your local church and Body of Christ is something everyone can step up and do, as indeed many many do. Far be it from me to prescribe what is God’s plan for you, but only to encourage you to seek His way, pray constantly, and read the Bible.
The Amateur Radio Operator is, until recently, seen as an anachronism and throw back to something your Grandpa did but you never really understood what it was. This is no longer the case. Many of the digital based technologies people use today have their origins in High Frequency radio communications modes, like radio-teletype (still very much in use today) morse code (known as C.W. or carrier wave signals), or packet radio with baud rates (probably the most likely precursor to email). Whether or not these modes and tech are familiar to you, they are gaining popularity and use, and becoming part of a necessary revival in their proficient employment by professionals as the cyber world continues to show its vulnerabilities and dark sides. From the successful large-area jamming of GPS signals only a few years ago, to the destruction of orbiting satellites by terrestrial-launched, aircraft launched, and likely space vehicle launched strike missiles, to political and governmental controls on information and access, to very bad day scenarios where our own sun could permanently damage our power and communications infrastructure. The technology that has the ability to win out every time in all these scenarios is radio, radio, radio. Heck, you just have to lose your internet for an hour or have an outage of service of power or cell phones to realize these systems are not infallible, but even vulnerable. Getting an education and qualification in the use of amateur radio technology can be a way to augment any mission on any day. Getting a community to integrate radio operators into its common functioning infrastructure is quite simply taking back the power that people have too long expected, and permitted, others to do for us. It is a vehicle for self-determination against corporatization, of local inter-dependence against state-dependence, and ultimately of freedom and righteousness against dark principalities and powers.
- Take an amateur radio licensing exam, and prepare for it by using any number of online or local exam classes. [In the links on this site are the two sources I used to get my Amateur Extra license. I highly recommend them] It’s not as hard as you think and it’s the beginning of a whole new world of freedom. Just get your Technician License for now; you’ll find there is so much you can do with it and the other licenses can be easily attained later once you’ve got a taste of the possibilities.
- Don’t let people tell you this: “I’ll just learn to operate a radio when the SHTF . . . why get a license now?” That’s tantamount to saying “I don’t need to learn to use a gun now, I’ll just pick one up when the time comes.” Yeah, right. Good luck with that. Oh, and FYI: the s*** is hitting the fan now so move with a purpose or get out of the way.
Emergency Responder Volunteers have always been the backbone of any rural and Native community. If you’ve grown up on the rez or live in a remote area, you likely know this. There are so many roles possible to pursue, it really comes down to your calling and interest. Pick one, make a commitment, get trained, and show up. You don’t need a degree, you don’t need permission from the state. If you’ve got the heart, God has a plan, and you are needed. Contact your community leaders, look up your local government and first responder websites and look for volunteering links. Search and Rescue, Fire and Rescue, Sheriff’s Auxiliary, CERT, ARES, MARS, SHARES, Church based services. I could link some of this organizations, but where would be the fun and self-initiative if I did that? If you are called, seek and you will find!
“This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (Jas 1:19-27 NASB)
Sons Of Thunder Signal Corps Ministry 