The vision of Burning Stone Ministries (BSM) is to partner with Canadian Indigenous communities in order to connect with young people – not only to provide love and support, but to also seek out opportunities to come alongside and walk with them through their pain and struggles, and to offer resources for them to find new ways of making decisions to commence living from a safe place. A major goal of the BSM vision is to see the youth using their learned skills and exercising their voices as their God-given identity becomes evident and their confidence grows.
It was over a decade ago, when a 3-week day camp program for children was established in the community of Mishkeegogamang Ojibway First Nation, Ontario. This established a relationship between the community and Karen Ward, who organized and directed the camp for several years. As the children became older, they began to show a desire to take on leadership roles and ultimately began assisting in the camp program.
Burning Stone Ministries (BSM) evolved out of a desire on the part of the day camp founders to continue a relationship with the youth from the community, especially those who had shown an interest in further developing their leadership skills. Recognizing the insufficiency of educational opportunities allowing the youth to complete their education, and the absence of available resources necessary to meet the needs of Indigenous youth that will develop them as future leaders of their Indigenous communities, goals were developed which would offer the youth a) assistance in achieving educational goals, b) opportunities for youth to recognize their struggles and find healing, and c) provide deeper leadership-building opportunities.