The WJEF conference is a collaboration between Cru’s Native Cru Movement and Native InterVarsity and Covenant Youth of Alaska. In 2012, Mark Charles (Navajo) united these campus efforts recognizing that they were emerging movements with shared values and goals. Separately they were engaging in conversations about faith, life and culture, desiring to live out in a good way what it means to follow Jesus in a culturally authentic way. Now through WJEF Native students from many Nations have come together to worship Jesus the way Creator made them.
The first “Would Jesus Eat Frybread?” conference was in Window Rock, AZ, on the Navajo Nation. Stories were heard from local elders who had found ways to honor Jesus through their traditional customs, sheep were butchered for a traditional feast, and students shared songs and dances from their own cultures. The collaboration was such a joyful one that it was decided to continue the partnership with successive conferences on the Yakama Nation (2013), the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (2014), Haskell Indian Nations University (2016), Anchorage, Alaska partnering with Covenant Youth of Alaska (2017), Salt River, AZ (2019), a virtual WJEF in 2020, El Reno, OK (2022), and Albuquerque, NM (2014). For each visit an invitation has been extended by local Native hosts who express appreciation for being mutually blessed by the sharing of these other cultures and for being part of an “extended family reunion” with them.
The first “Would Jesus Eat Frybread?” conference was in Window Rock, AZ, on the Navajo Nation. Stories were heard from local elders who had found ways to honor Jesus through their traditional customs, sheep were butchered for a traditional feast, and students shared songs and dances from their own cultures. The collaboration was such a joyful one that it was decided to continue the partnership with successive conferences on the Yakama Nation (2013), the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (2014), Haskell Indian Nations University (2016), Anchorage, Alaska partnering with Covenant Youth of Alaska (2017), Salt River, AZ (2019), a virtual WJEF in 2020, El Reno, OK (2022), and Albuquerque, NM (2014). For each visit an invitation has been extended by local Native hosts who express appreciation for being mutually blessed by the sharing of these other cultures and for being part of an “extended family reunion” with them.
