Dear Friends, Family, and Ministry Partners,
Thank you all for your prayers and financial support. We have seen our Lord’s continued blessings these past two months. We are frequently reminded that your prayers are translating into victories among the Native American Indians.
We began the summer with a church work day. Our church members cleaned and scrubbed the facilities to prepare for a busy summer of ministry. Since then, we have seen several salvation decisions, including nine young people coming to Christ during our recent VBS. Trinity Baptist Church of Westfield, Indiana sent their youth group to host our Vacation Bible School this year. Pastor and Mrs. Ryan Bame led a motivated group of teens who were very well prepared for ministry on the reservation. Hualapai Baptist Church celebrated our mothers and fathers on their respective holidays with gifts brought back from our recent mission trip to Thailand. Both Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day were Super Sundays at HBC. Honoring parents is not only appropriate, its commanded in Scripture. And we are grateful for all parents teach, provide, and model Christ-likeness for us.
Another blessing of the past two months is the commencement ceremony for Gracie, another one of our homeschool students. Gracie follows her brother in completing all of her schooling through home education. Brian Shannon, Vice-president of IBIMI, was our commencement speaker. Brian and his wife LouAnn have home-educated their children, while ministering among the O’Odham people of southern Arizona. We are eager to see what the Lord has for Gracie going forward. Hualapai Baptist is heavily invested in our missions outreach locally and worldwide. One of our missionaries serving in Australia was back in the States to finalize his recent bride’s admission into their mission agency. The Zacharias family updated us on the ministry, and Mrs. Zacharias participated in our monthly Ladies’ Bible study, introducing herself and getting acquainted with our ladies.
June saw the start of our special Wednesday night summer fellowships. As it turned out, our “Watermelon Wednesday” also included a couple joining our church as new members. Nothing encourages us more than seeing souls come to Christ and believers
joining the fellowship of the church. Our juniors and our teens have already gone to camp for the summer, and both groups returned to us excited for the opportunity to have gone. We have seen God working in our young people. One of our teen girls was encouraged at camp to use her talents for God’s glory. After getting home, she asked if she might play her flute in church for a special. She learned a hymn and played for the first time this past Sunday.
Thank you for your part in supporting this ministry. The growth we are seeing is a direct result of your faithful prayers and financial contributions.
Philippians 4:17: Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
For God’s Glory,
The Steve De Ford family
Missionaries among the Hualapai Indians