Dear Praying friends and family,
Thank you for your faithful support of the ministry among the Native American over the past two months. The Lord of the Harvest has mercifully allowed and graciously enabled us to plant, water, and harvest in His field this fall.
Back in October, we celebrated the graduation of two saints to Glory. And we received word this morning of the graduation of one more-the spouse of one of those who passed in October. Please, pray for family members that have gone through Thanksgiving with an empty chair at the table, and for those who will be grieving the separation from loved ones this Christmas and New Year season. Funeral services are a significant part of our ministry on the reservation. We need God’s Holy Spirit filling in order to be a blessing to family at these times!
Hualapai Baptist hosted its bi-annual missions conference in October with two of our missionaries who minister among other tribes here in the Southwest. We were blessed to have Pastor Kevin Barthel from the San Carlos Apache Reservation as our key note speaker. Brother Barthel is ministering in the church we were serving many years ago. He was sure a blessing to us all. The following week, we traveled to Florida to attend a missions conference in Pensacola. The Campus Church family and staff really spoiled us! We returned home encouraged and refreshed.
After arriving home, Steve had a moment of confusion and memory loss landing him in the hospital over night. We thank God all test came back negative for signs of brain damage. He had a similar incident about four years ago. We are still waiting for an appointment with a specialist to try and determine why these incidences of amnesia are occurring.
Many of you have been asking about Steve’s mom, Becky. She moved in with us in mid-November, and is settling into our home and church very well. We are planning some remodeling to our home to better accommodate her needs. Lord willing, she’ll have a new suite by the end of February thanks to some volunteer laborers coming to help with the remodeling project. Thank you for your prayers and concern for her!
We truly had great cause for Thanksgiving as just a few days prior the holiday, Steve led a young man to Christ who has been attending church for the last couple months. This young man had recently returned home from a Christian rehab center. While visiting in the home, it became apparent he had never received Christ as his personal Saviour. He eagerly listened and surrendered himself to Jesus! Praise God! Your support enables us to continue planting, watering, and harvesting-Thank you!
For God’s Glory,
The Steve DeFord family