De Ford May/June 2022

May:June 2022 Update

Exodus 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother:
Dear Ministry Partners and Praying Friends, May/June 2022

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers the last couple of months. Much has happened since our last letter including some special recognitions. We honored mothers in May and saw one salvation decision that day as well. Then we celebrated fathers in June with Faith Baptist Church’s missions team that had come out to assist with Vacation Bible School. We were invited to honor our local police department, where Steve serves as Chaplain, during National Police Week. He gave the invocation at a special assembly and Sherry’s class led the Star Spangled Banner.

We also saw the completion of another year of our home school co-op. This year was Sherry’s last year teaching in a regular class setting. She will still be assisting the mothers in the co-op with whatever needs they may have teaching their own children. The academic year ended with a field trip to Bearizona, a wildlife park in Williams, AZ.

Camp season has now begun. The ladies of the church enjoyed their annual “Getaway” at the Bill Rice Ranch West Branch. Mom (Becky) De Ford was the guest speaker. Mom came back to the house with Sherry after the event to spend a few days, but our visit was cut short as Sherry tested positive for COVID. A couple days later Steve also tested positive. We had avoided the virus up to that point, but we have now been fully vaccinated, boosted, and infected! A couple weeks later, our juniors went to “West Branch.” Praise the Lord two of our unchurched campers received Christ as Saviour. Since then ten teen girls have gone to camp. They had great time, and decisions for Christ were made. None of the boys went due to scheduling conflicts, however, they are registered to go later this summer.

As I mentioned above, one of our supporting churches (Faith Baptist of Morristown, IN) came out to help us with Vacation Bible School. We had a Wordless Book Theme this year which was new to our people. We averaged 33 with a high attendance of 42 children. Several children were dealt with for salvation, and one boy was saved. While the missions team was here the men installed a new driveway for us. After 14 years we can now pull onto our property with a relatively smooth ride! Two culverts were installed to help during the monsoon season.

Thank you to all those who prayed for and contributed to our vehicle need. A generous $10,000 matching gift was offered that helped us raise enough money to purchase a 2005 motor home for our furlough this fall. We still hope to raise enough for a dependable vehicle to pull along, but we are grateful to have the essential part accomplished. Our goal was between $30,000 and $40,000 for both vehicles. Over $25,000 has come in so far. We are eager to see nearly all of our supporting churches east of the Mississippi River in the coming months. By the end of this trip we will have reported to all of our eastern supporters within the last two years. For those of you in the west, we hope to see you all soon as well.

For God’s Glory,
the Steve De Ford family