Ministering to the Navajo – Lifeline Report March 2014

This new year of 2014 has been a great time for us in Arizona. We have really seen some answer to prayer and God continues to show us that He has big plans for us here. Many of you have been praying for the mission and ministries and we appreciate that. 

Project Update

The mission property at Red Sands is coming along nicely with meeting the county requirements. Many of you helped with a lot of the demo work last year and most of that is now complete. This year we are focusing on finishing the last little bit on the septic and bathrooms in the church.

The septic work begins on March 14 and should be completed by the time the kids return to school after spring break. The benefit of this septic is that it helps the school and the church. With the increase and completion of this septic it will allow us to have up to 50 children in the school. It will also allow for an increase in church attendance too!

Red Sands Christian Church had two exciting moments in January & February. In January, we took the entire youth group to a concert in Phoenix. It was the Roadshow 2014 and they were all excited to see Skillet. A friend of all of ours from the Midwest (Tony Wolf) was there and spoke during the concert. He came out to make an appearance after the concert and the whole evening was great!  Christ Church of the Valley in Peoria made us feel incredibly welcome as well as they really took care of all our needs. They even made all the youth (and adults) lanyards and gift bags for the concert. We all seemed to connect with “Big Al” at CCV. He is an amazing guy who loves Native American ministry. Al is Samoan and is married to a wonderful Navajo woman named Penny. 

In early February, Al came to us on Sunday morning and his whole family performed during the service. What a blessing to see the kids involved in telling the gospel message through song and dance. Most of the music and dance was unique to the Samoan culture. I believe it really made an impact on the youth and several adults as they blessed us that Sunday.

Red Sands Christian School

The school has made some big changes already in 2014 as many of the teachers have made changes and adapted some ideas to help educate the children even better. A great session at the beginning of the year has set the tone to strive for excellence in all we do here. It is difficult for the teachers because many of our students do not have parent involvement at home; it shows as the children are really struggling.  Despite that, the school has had a record year! This is the first time we have had all parents and guardians attend the parent/teacher conference. This shows that the school is making a difference in the children’s lives, because they, in turn, impact their parent’s lives!

Also, we now have a bus driver for the school again. It has relieved Brian of driving the bus every day and that is a real praise! Loretta Prine is our new person on staff helping us bring these precious kids to the school. I know many of you were praying with us on this and praise God for this new driver.

God has really opened some doors for the school. Please keep this in prayer as we hope it will truly benefit the entire mission through this. I will share more as we have details of how this may or may not impact the ministry, but for now we are very watchfully optimistic.

“Least of These” Street Ministry

Christ Church of Flagstaff brought a team in February to work with the people living on the streets in Winslow. The team has a great heart for serving and helping touch the lives that many cast away. This team brought some special people who reached out to help in different ways. Haircuts were offered and several of the men took advantage of this! It was a great way to begin a conversation and to love on them in a very practical way. One of the guys getting his hair cut had everyone laughing as he continued to tell jokes the entire time. They really opened up and enjoyed these services offered.

Another special moment occurred when we explained to them the story of Jesus washing His disciple’s feet. We had foot washing stations set up and clean white socks waiting for them after they were done. A few came over and it was not only a good way to show love to them, but it was also a great opportunity for the nurse on the team to look after any sores and injuries on their feet. These people truly left feeling loved, blessed and full! Thank you CCoF for your help in this ministry.

New Bible Studies Begin

The Dilkon church kicked off its Bible study on February 27. Only two people were in attendance, but it is a start. We will do more promoting and the study will be on the first and third Thursdays of every month until it starts to take off. Please pray that a Navajo rises up out of this group to lead. Even better, pray that we find a preacher to begin church services in this area. This is a great start to beginning the next chapter of ministry in Dilkon.

Men’s Bible study also started at Red Sands Christian Church with three of us kicking this off. The men will continue to meet each week on Friday mornings as they reach out to friends, relatives or even co-workers to join us in a time prayer, Bible study and fellowship. There are real hopes to turn this into an incredible “Band of Brothers” group that disciples some great men in the Lord!

Summer Work Teams

Work team season is getting closer and we are all blessed to have 10 teams joining us this summer. Looking forward to this brings hope for us and the community. Many are asking for help and know that we care about their family. This season we are hopeful that much more time will be spent on the reservation with families who need our help! In order to do this some preliminary work needs to be done; which is underway.

We really appreciate all you do in helping us keep this ministry alive here in the desert. The work can be hard, but we know it is rewarding; if not now…it will be. We remain patient as we seek God’s will and trust Him to continue growing our school, church and ministry.

Again, thank you all and may God continue to bless you all as you are a true blessing to us!