As always, I so appreciate you holding out for our posts and updates. We've been home about a month now and we are adjusting to everything well.  Who would have thought it would be an adjustment to being home, coming back to where you are so comfortable, but it has. We have missed our family and friends in South Dakota and the urgency of being back has only grown stronger. Some of you are asking what we are up to while we are home.  Our schedule is only getting more busy, thankfully. While we are home, we have events and churches scheduled for us to come and share about our ministry in Pine Ridge.  Our main job has been to share our hearts and trust the Lord for our financial needs.

This is a very uncomfortable place for us to be, to be honest.  It's hard raising funds in this economy but we have a God that has far more than we could ever need. We do have a goal that we are trying to reach.  It's a goal that is above what we require monthly, and the reason for that is one month someone may not be able to meet their commitment.  We raise a certain percentage expecting to get 60% of it. While also being completely dependent on the Lord. Being a full time missionary is like being a full time Pastor. We dont have a 9-5 job, we are on the clock, creating ministry opportunities, partnering with the schools and education departments, community service, Co Pastoring, and Co Directing the Chanku Waste Youth Ranch during the summer. As our full time job we are ministering to the Native Americans and showing the gospel through our lives.  This takes money to allow us the task of ministering and reaching the Natives full time. It's definatly a strange place to be, and it's such a testiment to Gods provision. Regardless if we have what we need, we are heading back early March to set out to do what God has called us to do.  If we need to get jobs we will do what it takes to complete the task set before us.  Please be in prayer for us.  We will be traveling the weeks after thanksgiving and Christmas and we will be gone all of Jan and Feb.

We will do our best to keep you informed of what we are doing, and how things are going.  Thank you so much for your thoughts and Prayers!

God is Good and ALL things are possible!

Newsletter Update

God is good!

Hello Friend.

I wanted to update you all on how the Lord has blessed us this past month and also make you aware of some needs that are in front of us.
I was able to drive back to our home in SD and take a trailer load with me full of coats, blankets and the rest of our furniture. The house is set up and ready for us to be there living in it. I am so grateful to many of our friends who have been gracious in giving us their time and other resources for us to be able to have the house ready for us.
We were able to bring together several coats and blankets that have been given out in the last week or so and the timing is great considering they already are starting to have snow on the ground.
The gas for the trip up there was a large exspense and I am grateful to report that half of it has been taken care of but there is still a chunk that is needed to cover the rest. It was around $1600 total to get moved in up there.- I guess that is not bad for a move of 1500 miles.
We were able to get all of the siding on the building that we have been working on for the kids camp as well as all of the rough hvac in. We are almost ready to insulate and Sheetrock. I am excited to see the end result and how it will be used for the glory of God and a testament to His love.
One of the goals we have for the spring is to be able to teach some music lessons after school in the church and with that, one of our needs is instruments that we could use. Such as guitars and recorders, hand drums, whatever we have we will use. If you have any instruments lying around and would like to donate them to this need please feel free to let me know.
We are looking forward to the months ahead of us in seeing some of you in person and being able to fellowship with you all. We are still in need if monthly support whether that be through a commitment from some of you or a job for me there on the reservation. Please pray with us that our faith would not grow weary. God is faithful.
I am also looking for work to do through the next few months as this will help us while we are continuing raising support for next year while we are home.
We will be in Columbus OH in Nov and in Chicago in Dec still with the plan to be in MS and along the gulf in Jan. And then on to Nashville.
I am taking a trip with a good friend of mine to help do some work among the Dene people in the Northwest Territory in February to encourage the people there and offer supplies. After that we will make our way back to SD stopping in a few cities along the way.

I have decided that it is not easy fully trusting the Lord, it is easy to say I trust the Lord, but my life does not show it. It seemed that Paul stresses in his letters to the church that he did not want to be a burden to them, I hope you know that my heart is the same and I don't ever want to be burden on any of you but rather want to keep you informed of our journey and the needs that are in front of us and to give opportunity for you to have a part in what God is doing in Pine Ridge. We are so richly blessed and honored to be a part of something so much bigger than we can see.
Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions or would like to just catch up.

 

We love you all.

Learning to serve the Lord in all we do,
Matt, Amanda, Jacob and Leah