ministering to the Navajo

by Brian Snyder, Lifeline’s Administrator & Missionary to the Navajo

 
Some things you can’t wait for and other things, well, you just seem to put off because you are unsure of the outcome. That was March, and I have to tell you that it was an incredible month…

 
Road trip!

Crowder, Mercy Me, Jaime Grace, Matt Maher, Tadashi, pizza, and an evening with friends was certainly the highlight. This was one night we were all looking forward to! 27 of us from Red Sands Christian Church went to Roadshow 2015 in Phoenix and all of us enjoyed worshiping and jamming to good Christian music for hours on a Sunday evening. Even though this event happened in the middle of the month, I couldn’t wait to share this with you first. It really showed our young people that they can have fun and worship!

 

concert in Phoenix
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Science & Art Show brings awards to students

Red Sands Christian School held their science and art show the day before spring break. These kids get better and better each year! I was amazed at the science projects and the art was really impressive as well. Eldric and Seth, two seventh graders, took first place with their pressurized rocket project. Brinlee (fourth grade) took second place with the volcano demonstration and Anessa (third grade) took third place with a magnetic project. Bailey (8th) and Jessica (6th) took the top two places in the art show as well. Congratulations to all of them for their work and proudly presenting it to the judges and parents. A big thank you also goes out to Jenn Harris and Larry Dickey, our volunteer judges for the science and art projects. It is great having people from the community come out and support our kids!

 

During spring break, we gave the students the opportunity to serve and help with the “Least of These” ministry. It was such a blessing for several of the school families to jump in and volunteer. It brings tears to my eyes thinking of, not only the students, but also the parents coming out to serve alongside of us. We can’t express how thankful and excited we are to see such a strong group of Christian families coming together for an opportunity to show the love of Jesus in a very practical way.

 

Other news:

1) We were able to interview another candidate for Principal at Red Sands Christian School. We are praying that God makes it clear and that He helps increase enrollment at the school so we can afford this Principal. It would help us tremendously and we are simply trusting God on this. 

 

2) Another school in Arizona has helped make a new option for 8th grade (and maybe a future high school) a real possibility. It is using newer technology to allow the students to be plugged into a live Christian school online and attend classes with other students enrolled in Christian schools all over the country. There is still much to learn, but we are working on the details for a potential launch next school year (8th grade only at the moment).

 

students serving and learning
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A month of volunteers!

It was a flurry of activity over spring break with many stopping by and sharing their talents with us as they volunteered with projects, library organization, serving the “Least of These” street ministry, and by sharing teaching resources. It all started with a couple from Georgia (Ron and Margo) who came to teach our teachers. He spent a day and a half with our teachers going over teaching styles and classroom management. The information and resources he provided brought such renewal to our staff. We are so grateful for their visit! The next week brought a family from Colorado (Mark, Christy, Maggie, Julia and Ava). They stopped by to help with painting and fixing things at the school. They also volunteered to help with the street ministry.  This whole family was such a blessing and really poured into our Red Sands ministry. Last, but certainly not least, was our friends Ed and Joan from Indiana. They were heading home from their stay in Phoenix and stopped by to help in the library. We are finally getting somewhere with cataloging the books, putting bar codes on them, and scanning them into the system. Not only were they a huge help with the library, they blessed us with freshly picked oranges, grapefruit, tangelos and lemons from Phoenix. 

 

Thank you to all who were able to stop by over those two weeks and volunteer to help! We appreciate all of you and your service here always makes a huge impact. The encouragement it brings is also priceless!

 

our volunteers are the best!
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Good anxiety

March also brought some anxiety, but in a good way. In February, I attended a conference and had the opportunity to really share about the entire mission with some new friends. I shared about our desires for the church and the frustration that God has not led us to a Navajo minister for the church. I told one gentleman that I was frustrated that God has not answered my prayer in three and a half years. His response: “maybe you are praying the wrong prayer!” That hit me square in the head and so I began to pray differently: “What do YOU want with the church? Where do YOU want to take us?” I wish I would have prayed that prayer a long time ago. I will share what I was hesitant to share with the church and others, but God has shown that He is up to something good. I was hesitant because it was so different and I was beginning to imagine their response to this.

 

I began talking with trusted individuals to share what God had shared with me. They are all excited to hear how it turns out, and have strongly encouraged me to move forward with it. I was about to share it with the church, but my wife (Barb) stopped me until we thought through it more. I was encouraged, though, by an elderly woman in the church who sat down next to me and told me that she knew God had a plan and she couldn’t wait to hear what it was! That really shocked me, but also confirmed that God was going ahead of me. Therefore, I shared it with the congregation the next week and they 100% supported the decision and are excited to get started with it. I was so relieved, but now doubly excited to see how God uses this.

 

Want to know what God is leading us to? I’ll share it, but first I need to give you a background. Since my family arrived here, I have noticed how Christianity is perceived, accepted and sometimes distorted on the Navajo reservation. I noticed how many professed Christ, but weren’t seeing the genuine fruit of true followers. Some were on fire for the Lord, but mostly I found people that had a limited knowledge of who Jesus really was. I have always said that the Navajo Nation is not an unreached people group, but an ineffectively reached people group. Yes, the gospel was preached. Yes, people were accepting the Lord, but discipleship never happened.

 

Preachers on the Reservation have no support. Regardless if they are part of a denominational church, or not, there is simply no mentoring, support, or encouragement. If a teen suicide occurs the congregation looks to the pastor, but he has no one to help him through it. If a couple needs marriage counseling, if the church is out of spiritual control, or if people are seeking benevolence, it all falls on his shoulders. How is the pastor supposed to get training, mentoring, encouragement, or prayer? Many pastors are giving into alcohol, sexual immorality, gambling and many other vices that pull him away from ministry…and no one notices.

 

This is where we come in. We have noticed and realize these pastors, regardless of their denominational background or church name, need help. Most are bi-vocational and are only there on Sunday morning. Many have never had formal training, and almost all of them lack funds to obtain books, ministry tools and education. We also believe that if the pastor is trained, mentored, prayed for and all around “spiritually full”, then the church will begin to be fed in turn. 

 

Now for how God is using us to reach out to the churches and pastors on the reservation: We see this being the main ministry of Red Sands Christian Church. Not a ministry of the church, but the church is the ministry. As a church, we will come together on a Sunday morning to pray and have communion together. We will then load up the vans and drive to one of these churches on the Reservation. As a church, we will simply slip in and worship with them. After the service (not drawing attention to ourselves intentionally), we will then gather around the pastor and his wife (if married). We will also ask for any church leaders to join us. We will bless the pastor with books, tools, CD’s, etc. We will pray for the pastor, his family, his ministry and the church. This will be led by myself and the families in our church. We will then leave and discuss on the way back anything that was different, what was learned, how we can do it better, etc. If anything doctrinal comes up, we will address it the following Sunday during Sunday School or in Bible study during the week. We will begin in April and will start with only one Sunday to see how it goes. We do not know exactly how God will use this or how often it will happen down the road, but we do pray it will begin to build strong relationships with the other churches and especially the pastors. There are also kinks that we will need to work out along the way.

 

I realize this is different, but it begins to build relationships and unity among brothers and sisters on the Reservation. It shows God has heard their cries for help and we are stepping up to help through God’s calling of us to do so. We are all so excited and I can’t wait to share with you how it goes in April.  Please pray for us as we begin this new direction with Red Sands Christian Church and seek to be pastors for the pastors on the Reservation.

 

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Thank you!

Thank you for your prayers and support over all. We really appreciate your partnership with us in this ministry and hope God continues to lead us in exciting directions that in turn lead people to Jesus.

 

In Christ,

Brian Snyder

 

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Prayer Requests      

 

The Navajo people & community: our greatest passion is to lavish Jesus’ love on the Navajo. Pray for open doors and strengthening relationships.

 

Students & staff: a great school year filled with learning and excitement is winding down.  Pray for the energy to finish well! 

 

Church ministry: pray for the Red Sands church as they begin in a new direction and seek encourage and equip pastors on the Reservation.

 

Funding: keep the funding for the Navajo ministry in your prayers and the ongoing building issues. Please consider a gift, if God moves you in that way.

 

           

Lifeline Christian Mission - restoring hope among the nations