Serving Indigenous Communities
Justin and Cindy Butow have been married for 33 years, and have four children, Deverie Ellen (who went home to be with Jesus at 11 days old, and would be 31 this year), their daughter Rachelle, her husband Ezekiel, and their son Mal’aki.
The Butow Family has been ministering to Indigenous communities since August of 2008.
Co-Founder
Justin is an ordained minister and Co-Founder of Singing Feather Ministries. He carries the Father’s heart specifically for young adults and those without an earthly father. He is gifted in mentoring and discipleship as well as leading worship and teaching. One of his greatest passions is to see the church functioning in a true community in a way that is safe and welcoming for all, regardless of their struggles or background. He enjoys applying his 25+ years of experience in the trades to building, maintenance, and improvement projects within a ministry context, especially when meeting the needs of native elders. Volunteering and offering these skills is very fulfilling to him and he loves teaching others these skills even more. Justin is a certified Life Coach with the California Coaching Collaborative and currently studying Clinical Pastoral Education to be certified as a Community Care Chaplain.
You can email Justin at jbutow@singingfeather.org
Founder
Cindy is an ordained minister and Founder of Singing Feather Ministries. Her heart is to serve God and His “beautiful people”, through acts of mercy and justice. One of her greatest joys is experiencing miraculous interactions with those who do not yet know Jesus, as she herself gave her life to Jesus at 14 years old, as a suicidal teen, after having a profound encounter with His love. Cindy feels a strong conviction to educate the body of Christ regarding the true history of our nation and Native Americans, and to stir hearts to partner with God in making the crooked things straight again through prayer, worship, relationships and service. She deeply desires to inspire the body of Christ to pursue a personal relationship with God, full of encounter, conviction, and revelatory insight into His heart, will, and purposes. Cindy is a certified Life Coach with the California Coaching Collaborative and a mentor to many. She and her husband were invited to Oklahoma to be presented with the 2025 Cynthia Ann Parker Award for excellence in serving Native Americans as a non native. This award was given by She Leads Native America, an Indigenous women lead organization recognizing native women in ministry.
You can email Cindy at cbutow@singingfeather.org
Together, Justin and Cindy graduated from their Discipleship Training School at the University of the Nations, in Kona, Hawaii in 2016. They were on staff at YWAM Mendocino for 6 years and Base Directors at YWAM Tribal Winds for 2.5 years where they built strong bonds within the Hopi and Dine’ people.
They are also alumni of Genesis Discipleship Training Center, which they attended in 1993/94.
They were both an integral part of establishing and maintaining East Bay Prayer Furnace in Dublin, California from 2000-2015. Singing Feather Ministries was birthed out of this prayer room after Cindy experienced a series of powerful encounters with God specific to Native Americans in 2008.
Justin and Cindy have also been involved in local church leadership in various ways over the past 36+ years, including as youth pastors, home group pastors, worship leaders, as well as holding an eldership position in a small church. They love and honor the local church expressions of ministry, as well as the various denominations represented in western church culture.
As a collaborative ministry serving Indigenous communities in America, the Middle East, and the South Pacific, they feel deeply that one of the greatest gifts they can give back to Jesus is to champion unity within’ the body of Christ just as Jesus desired and prayed for in John 17.
Justin and Cindy currently reside in Redding, California.
“I carry a unique thread of history in my life, although I did not find this out until we had already been doing native ministry for over 10 years. I am a documented and registered direct descendant of at least seven Mayflower passengers and signers of the Mayflower Compact: John Tilley, Francis Cooke, James Chilton, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, William Brewster, and Richard Warren.
These men (my grandfathers 14 generations ago) and their families stepped onto the shores of Plymouth in 1620, and each, in their own way, helped lay the foundations of what became the earliest colonies in America. William Brewster served as a spiritual leader for the Pilgrims, guiding them in faith and community life. Stephen Hopkins, who had already crossed the Atlantic before, brought both practical knowledge and a strong voice in shaping early governance. John Howland, who famously survived being swept overboard during the voyage, became a prominent figure in the colony. John Tilley, Francis Cooke, James Chilton, and Richard Warren worked, sacrificed, and endured the harsh realities of establishing life in a new and unfamiliar land. Their names are woven into the story of America’s beginnings. And their blood runs through my veins.
Yet alongside this legacy lies another truth: The arrival of the Mayflower marked a devastating turning point for the Native peoples of this land. Where my ancestors sought freedom and a new start, Native communities experienced loss, displacement, and wounds that echo across generations. And, in later years, much of this pain was compounded by well-meaning but misguided mission work, where the name of Christ was used to strip away culture, identity, and dignity. The story of Jesus was often presented not as good news, but as a tool of control. His name was carried into Native lands, but His true heart was too often hidden behind man’s desire for conquest and progress.
I cannot look at this history without grief. As a follower of Christ, I lament the ways His story was misrepresented, and the harm done in His name. But I also believe in His power to redeem what has been broken. The Jesus I know is not one who brings pain or destruction, but one who brings healing, restoration, and hope. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, a strong, tribal man who came to show us the love of the Father, our Creator. He did not come to erase people or cultures, but to reveal their dignity as beloved sons and daughters of God.
It is this tension between heritage and history that shapes my calling today. I do not view my ancestry as a badge of pride, but as a weight of responsibility. If my ancestors’ presence contributed to brokenness, then my heart is to walk in the opposite spirit: to bring healing where there was harm, to build relationships where there was division, and to restore honor where dignity was stripped away. This is repentance.
Through Singing Feather Ministries, this heritage has become more than history; it has become a catalyst. I feel called to live a story of reconciliation, to honor the Native communities we serve not as an outsider, but as a friend, who listens, learns, and walks humbly. My Mayflower roots remind me that healing is possible, that hope can take root even in places marked by pain, and that love is stronger than the wounds of the past. And most of all, I want my life and this ministry to reflect the true story of Jesus, the One who still heals, restores, and brings beauty from ashes.” ~Cindy Butow
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Ministry to indigenous cultures can be overwhelming, especially on Native American reservations. Too many have given up this specific call to ministry when they have come face to face with the brokenness of hurting people. The suicide rates are astronomical, drug and alcoholism an epidemic, and every kind of abuse far too common. Many Native Americans are suffering from PTSD that is generational, spinning on a broken wheel of poverty and trauma that was created by the genocidal policies of our government and religious institutions during the foundational moments of America.
The only remedy is Jehovah-Rapha, the God Who Heals. Our mentality and motivation isn’t to “fix” them, but to love them. And love and friendship are all that any of us really need, and no one is better at that than Yeshua, Son of Creator. “Love covers a multitude of sins”, done to us and by us. 1 Peter 4:8
Singing Feather Ministries is honored to partner with God, the local body of Christ, and Native brothers and sisters in bringing hope and healing to the First Nations of Turtle Island (North America). Over the years we have seen God move in powerful ways, demonstrating His compassion and commitment to “His Beautiful People.” We have seen Jesus bind up the brokenhearted, deliver the bound from demonic oppression, heal broken bones and souls, and minister TRUTH that sets people free. We are blessed to continue to serve our Native brothers and sisters as they follow the call of God on their lives, and minister to their people. There is healing in the land!
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary, and his understanding no one can fathom…”
I grew up in Ukiah, California, the county seat and largest city in Mendocino County. Ukiah is surrounded by Indian Reservations, North, South, East, and West. I was raised around the Pomo people, and I knew a few, but not well. My family on my father’s side settled in Mendocino, Butte, and Shasta Counties in the mid-1850s. They were loggers, ranchers, and miners. I have always loved California and have appreciated my roots here.
In September of 2006, God called me to be a part of the establishment of East Bay Prayer Furnace in Dublin, California. He asked me to trust Him as He weaned me off of my full-time occupation and into my new role as a full-time Intercessory Missionary. From time to time, over the previous 3 years, before the beginning of East Bay Prayer Furnace, I would hear God pose a question to me, “Do you love California? Will you pray for California?” “Yes, Lord,” would be my reply, but I was not sure where to begin.
When the Prayer Room opened, that question became louder and more frequent, “Do you love California? Will you pray for California from a place of knowledge and understanding?” I felt the Lord give revelation to my heart that, as a descendent of some of the first settlers here, He was giving me authority in the place of prayer to pull down certain strongholds, to break ungodly agreements that were made in the past, and to stand in the gap between what was and what is to come. It became my prayer weekly in the prayer room for God to bring revival, a spiritual awakening, to California.
We began doing our “Justice for California” intercession sets in February of 2008. In these two-hour sets, we would pray for God to bring His justice to California.
Deuteronomy 32:4
“He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.”
Isaiah 30:18
“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!”
We knew that if we would “humble ourselves and pray, He would hear our cry in heaven and He would come and heal our land” 2 Chronicles 7:14. Even after several months of praying for California I could still hear Jesus asking me, “Do you love California? Will you pray for her from a place of knowledge and understanding?”
My answer continued to be, “Yes, Lord!”
There were several times before that I would hear Him ask this of me, and I would jump in and start researching California. It wouldn’t take long until I would get overwhelmed with the information. I knew this wasn’t quite what He was asking for, but I wasn’t sure where He was leading me.
In August of 2008, my husband Justin’s grandmother passed away. After her memorial service, we were sitting together in her old ranch house in Redwood Valley, California. I was in her living room, slowly looking through the books on her old bookshelf. She had shelves filled with treasures, books on history, faith, and family life collected over the years. As I took them down one by one, reading the titles, I suddenly picked up one book, and in that moment, I entered into a life changing encounter with God.
The instant my hands touched the book, they felt like they were on fire. I could feel wind whipping through my hair, swirling around me. The presence of God was so overwhelming that I sat there stunned, trying my best not to look weird in front of Justin’s non-Christian family members. It was as if the Father pulled me right into His presence and looked me straight in the eyes. I could feel His intense gaze, and then I heard His voice so clearly: “Cindy, do you love California? Will you pray from a place of knowledge and understanding?”
Without hesitation I answered, “Yes, Lord, yes.” But then for the first time, I asked Him back, “What does that mean?”He didn’t delay. He answered me: “Then it all starts with Native Americans.”
I knew He used that phrase because it was the only language I understood at the time. I didn’t know the names of the tribes. I didn’t know the different words people used — Indian, American Indian, Indigenous. All I knew was “Native Americans,” and so that was the language He used to reach me.
When I finally looked down at the book I was holding, I saw the title: The Singing Feather: Tribal Remembrances of Round Valley. It was a collection of oral histories recorded from Round Valley elders back in 1990. Page after page, I found myself immersed in their stories — stories passed down from grandparents and great-grandparents. Stories of the Nome Cult Walk, the forced march from Chico into Round Valley. Stories of the reservation school, the Indian Wars, the tragedy and the heartbreak. But also stories of beauty — the grass games, the roundhouses, the trading with coastal tribes who brought seashells to exchange for deer bones used in jewelry and tools.
I realized I was being invited into a journey, one that would forever change the way I understood the land I lived in and the people who were here long before California ever became a state. God was telling me that if I truly loved California, if I truly wanted to pray for it with knowledge and understanding, then I needed to begin where it all began — with Native Americans.
That was the day everything shifted for me and my family.
Isaiah 11:2 “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him-the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord…”
A few weeks into it, my day of reckoning came. I was about to come have my eyes opened to my own prejudices. Once again, I was in the prayer room and God gave me a vision of when I was a little girl between 7 and 9 years old. I was in a grocery store with my mom when I came face to face with a Pomo woman. At that moment I decided in my heart, “I don’t like her.” I didn’t remember that experience until God revealed it to me, and then it all came back to my memory. I crumbled under the weight of conviction. God’s Spirit was crushing as He allowed me to feel His displeasure in that moment. I repented of every thought I ever had towards Native Americans that was contrary to His affections towards them, and I asked Him again to fill me with His heart, to give me heaven’s perspective, and to release spiritual understanding. “God, show me the truth! Fill me with Your love for Native people.”
With my heart clean, it was time to dig deeper. It was time for a history lesson. If I ever wanted to have a vision for the future of California, I had to look into the past. “It all starts with the Native Americans…”
As I made my way through The Singing Feather, I realized just how much I didn’t know about Native American history. In my mind, I had reduced it to arrowheads, basket weaving, and old western movies. But God began to take me on a journey in my heart, back before California became a state, before the gold rush, before it was called Alta California, before Mexico’s ownership, and even before the Spanish missionaries.
One day, while I was in the prayer room, I had an open vision. I heard the voice of the Lord say to me, “Cindy, I want to give you vision. MY vision. I want to give you tunnel vision.” Suddenly I was swept up in what felt like a tunnel, very much like the one in the 1971 movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with images and videos flashing on the walls as I traveled through. The scenes were heartbreaking: symptoms of pain and suffering, drug addiction, alcoholism, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, violence… It was more than I could put into words, and I felt the emotions as deeply as I saw the images. In the midst of it, the Lord spoke again: “Cindy, I want to give you my vision. I don’t want you to minister to the images, to the sin, or to the symptoms of pain. I want you to minister to the heart.”
As soon as He said “heart”, I was suddenly shot out of the tunnel like an arrow and into the northeastern corner of Round Valley. I knew in my spirit that I was there during the same time Jesus was walking the earth in Israel. It was as if I was present among the people, though they could not see me.
In front of me, two Indigenous women were boiling acorns over a fire, smiling and talking. To the left, others were gathering acorns, wild strawberries, blackberries, and potatoes. To the right, in the Eel River, children played joyfully, splashing and laughing, throwing rocks into the water. Further down, a man stood with a spear, catching fish. As I looked forward into the Mendocino National Forest, I saw the trees almost translucent, and within them other men hunting with bows and arrows. They were elbowing one another, laughing, shushing each other as they hunted deer. Their joy and friendship were obvious.
I felt the emotions of God as I watched. His pleasure, His deep affection for them filled the air around me. And I heard Him say, “Cindy, these are my beautiful people. They worshipped me and thanked me for everything. They thanked me for the moon at night and the sun during the day. They thanked me for their children and for their elders. They thanked me for the berries, the deer, the elk, the bear, the steelhead and the salmon in the rivers, the trees, the flowers, the grass, and all the creatures within it. They knew me as their Creator, and had they known my Son, Yeshua from the tribe of Judah, they would have thanked Him and worshipped Him too.”
When I came out of the vision, I knew the Lord had just given me a glimpse of His affections for Native people, His “beautiful people”. Yet I wondered; “Why didn’t they know Jesus? What happened?” And I knew the instruction was clear. Do not minister to the symptoms of pain. Minister to the heart. As they experience the love of their Creator, and grow closer to Him and His Son Jesus, He will take care of their pain. He will heal their wounds. He will be the One who sets them free.
For days I read “The Singing Feather,” and during this time as I gained knowledge, I could feel the Holy Spirit giving me His understanding. My heart broke over and over again. Page after page, I learned about beauty and heartbreak, Round Houses, Grass Games, and Massacres, and Indian Boarding Schools. I was on a journey with God, and I would never be the same again.
“I invite you to please take a moment and ask God to reveal His heart to you.
Pray for Him to give you an eternal understanding of Indigenous communities. Confess and repent of any sin that you may have in your heart regarding the indigenous people around you and ask God to allow you to feel this journey, not just read about it. I invite you to not merely look through the window, but to come inside and take the journey with me. Take the journey with the Father, the Creator of all of the heavens and all of the earth.”
~ Cindy
