Our Pastor

Hello, my name is Mary Louise Frenchman. I am Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. You may know this group of people as the Sioux Indians. When I was asked if I had any interest in coming to Cherokee to pastor this church, I said No! But God had other plans for me and sent to me in several dreams, an elderly Cherokee woman who visited me bringing with her lots of other Cherokee people. They were beckoning me to come. They were smiling at me and there was such love surrounding them, I knew after three nights of dreaming of them, that I would come to be their Pastor.

I arrived at the parsonage in January of 2000. I did not know anyone in this community, the church had no church building in which to worship, there were no members, and there was very little money to start the ministry. We received $20,000 to began. A portion of that was used to renovate the basement into a beautiful worship center. The work was done by a local Cherokee contractor and several mission partners from Lutheran churches.

I knew I wanted this church to have its own identity and not worship in someone else's building. I spent six months in the community getting acquainted and learning about the Eastern Band of Cherokees. I volunteered at the Local Youth Center, the Women's Wellness Center with a cancer support group, and met as many people as possible. I was also looking for unmet needs in the community that our church might address. Many of these needs have developed into the ministries are doing today at Living Waters.

On June 17, 2000 Living Waters held its first worship since my arrival. Thirty seven people were in attendance. Some were visitors from other Lutheran churches but most were local people. By August, we had three Sunday School classes and a Wednesday night prayer circle.

In 2001 three people were baptized and are now members. In 2002 five more people joined Living Waters. There are other folks taking new member classes. The process of this church is slow, yet we are making great strides.

Mary Louise with Michelle Hicks, Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians