This past weekend we were at a Missions Conference in Bend Oregon at New Hope Evangelical Church.
We shared the weekend with two other couples. Brad and Kristy Weinert, ( Argentina ) also from WGM and Brad and Trish Ward ( Honduras ) with Latin American Missions. New Hope is The Wards home church.
The weekend opened up with a wonderful spaghetti dinner and auction on Friday night. The auction raised over $ 6,000. It was done professionally, with an female auctioneer running the show.
Saturday involved us with a Mens Prayer Breakfast and a Womens Dessert. Later that evening, was the first of three services, with the latter two being on Sunday morning. Between the three services, there were at least 500 people in attendance.
Sunday evening rounded out the weekends events. We had what they called, " Around The World" a time with the missionaries. We each had a room in the church and the attendees were split into three groups and rotated to each missionary. Each missionary fixed a food that was part of the culture they were called to. We fixed a blend of the old and new Indian foods. The old being frybread and the new being pizza. So we made small frybread pizzas. We also shared our dvd on the American Indian Field.
Our time there at New Hope was very productive. We thank the Lord for all the blessings and good times we had. Everyone was so nice, and we wish we had more time to get to know people. We made some good contacts, gained some monthly support and came away with a generous offering.
We want to thank Pastor Randy for inviting us, as well as Jackie for heading up the whole thing and The Blikstads for housing us. The Blikstads are longtime friends and supporters originally from Eugene. Also it was a huge success because of the Body of Christ at New Hope. But most of all we want to thank the Lord for His Blessings.
This weekend did give us new hope, and a refreshing that we needed.
There are so many stories to tell from the weekend, but I would like to share just one. When we spoke during the first service on Sunday morning, they had a translator for the Hispanic speaking people of the congregation. As I was telling a certain story about one of my former students at Southwest Indian School, it touched her to the point of tears, and she was not able to finish her translating.
We know our time at New Hope touched many people. We just hope this will also translate into the touching of many Native American lives in the southwest.
Pictured top center: The Blikstads, left below: The Weinerts, & right below: The Wards.
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