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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Getting Into The Spirit Tent Revival For Native Americans

A baker, a Southern preacher and a Native American minister have erected a giant tent in a wheat field north of Deer Park, hoping to attract the Holy Spirit.

The event was billed as an old-fashioned, Southern-style tent revival for Native Americans.

But this isn’t the South.

The tent, all 12,000 square feet, is up. The preachers have been howling from the pulpit all week long. So far, the multitudes have not flocked.

“At first we were really disappointed,” said the Rev. Jeff Doud, pastor at Spokane’s Victorious Warriors Native American Church, 828 W. Indiana. “But maybe it’s been a slow start by design. Personally, I’ve never felt so uplifted. Maybe this is supposed to be my own personal revival.”

About two dozen people have been attending the 10 a.m. services, as many as 50 come for the 7 p.m. show. The crowds fill a tiny portion of the 300 folding chairs.

Still, the preachers have worked the small crowds hard.

“If we believe it, if we preach that Jesus can heal the sick and give salvation to the sinner, then it will happen,” said the Rev. Don McKinney, a minister who recently moved to Spokane from Little Rock, Ark. “In the church today it’s time for something to happen.”

McKinney, well received by the small Wednesday morning crowd, agreed to come back and preach during the remaining morning services.

Dressed in a tie earlier this week despite the heat, McKinney carried a Bible reinforced with duct tape. In the chairs, people nodded their heads and shouted amen when he told them God has a plan for everyone.

“Where the Gospel is preached, there’s supposed to be a commotion,” he bellowed out Wednesday morning. “You’re all going white around the mouth like a wormy kitten. But I know what’s suppose to happen here. Cause if it’s in the Book, it ought to happen!”

A Pentecostal pastor, McKinney’s theatrical sermons are typical of the traveling evangelists scheduled for each service.

This old-fashioned crusade is the result of a vision of David Tavernier, a baker in Parrish, Fla. A born-again Christian, Tavernier said that during that vision, God told him to reach out to Native Americans because the “unrepented sins of our forefathers have created a spiritual blockade” in the United States.

Tavernier went to his minister, the Rev. Crawford Mizell at Lighthouse Full Gospel Mission in Parrish. Together they bought a big circus tent and started calling around to Native American churches in the Northwest.

When they found Doud in Spokane, he didn’t hesitate.

“This thing is bigger than all of us. I believe that we have just scratched the surface,” Doud said.

Organizers hope the revival will serve as a reconciliation between Native Americans and the descendants of white settlers.

“It was never the purpose of our Creator Father to crush the original inhabitants of this land,” Tavernier said. “This was done by sinful, arrogant men who acted apart from God.”

Doud still hopes for big crowds. So far, a lot of forces have worked against him. Temperatures have soared into the 90s all week. The air inside the tent has been stuffy in the mornings, suffocating by evening.

Health and fire inspectors shut food vendors down because of improper permits.

“They tried to light the tent on fire,” Doud said of the inspectors. “They said if it would burn we couldn’t meet here. It wouldn’t burn.”

Despite all that, the organizers have not lost faith. Native American evangelists Ross Maracle, Art Begay and Richard Twisp are scheduled to speak at the services, which will run through Tuesday, but may go longer if the crowds show up.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Color Photos