John 10:18b
I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear Family, Friends, and Ministry Partners,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for your continued prayers for the ministry among Native Americans. The busy spring and summer schedule has begun! As the school year was winding down, \u201cend of the year\u201d activities were picking up. In the first week of April, Steve took eight of our young people and another adult from Hualapai Baptist, along with six teens and another sponsor from a youth group in Kingman, to a youth conference in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following week, Pastor and Mrs. Keith Smith of Georgia came for a week of revival meetings. Brother Keith is a good friend from college and a member of IBIMI\u2019s advisory board. Our attendance was not what we had hoped, but God moved in the hearts of those who came, and Sherry and I enjoyed the fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While overall attendance had been down for a few years now, we saw a very good crowd on Resurrection Sunday. And attendance has remained strong ever since! We are encouraged by the new people coming regularly, including ladies from the jail ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April ended with our annual men\u2019s retreat at Bill Rice Ranch West Branch, just down the road in Williams, AZ. One of the young men who attended the youth conference also attended the men\u2019s retreat for the first time. (T) has been growing spiritually and is a shining light in our work here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As May began, our longtime family friend and IBIMI advisory board member, Bud Wells, came for a visit. Brother Bud has helped with numerous projects on the reservations over the years, most recently heading up the renovations needed to help move mom into our home. Lord willing, he will assist us with another renovation early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good News Club ended with two children receiving Christ as Savior the week before our last meeting. We saw the number of children coming to club double this year! All our volunteers are eager for the next year to begin!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following Sunday, two young ladies were saved after the morning worship service. Your prayers are very much appreciated as we see the Lord working among the Hualapai! Other activities in May included the monthly Men\u2019s Fellowship and Ladies\u2019 Bible Study. We also participated locally in honoring our police department during Police Appreciation Day, May 15.
A young lady who came on a teen missions trip last summer has returned this summer for a two-week internship. Samantha has been busy painting (see picture above), teaching children\u2019s church, and preparing for VBS along with Lola, one of our young ladies who just graduated from Ambassador Baptist College. Please continue to pray for our family and Hualapai Baptist Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For God\u2019s Glory,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the Steve De Ford family<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John 10:18bI have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it again. Dear Family, Friends, and Ministry Partners, Thank you for your continued prayers for the ministry among Native Americans. The busy spring and summer schedule has begun! As the school year was winding down, \u201cend of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[72,7,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-72","category-missionary-letters","category-steve-sherry-deford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}