Serving in new mexico

Family Christian Ministries

The Land of Enchantment

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Family Christian’s Ministry Partner

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 Family Christian’s ministry partner in New Mexico is the New Life Christian Assembly church in Pine Dale  Surrounded by a Navajo Reservation, New Life’s outreach is mainly to Navajo Indians  Pine Dale has about 43 widows in their community  Family Christian has sent 10 mission teams to help serve these widows, teams made up of employees, their friends and family members and customers  FCM funded the build of a Bunk House at the church to house mission teams  FCM purchased a 15-passenger van to transport mission teams  FCM purchased a large trailer to transport supplies to mission work sites

New Life Christian Assembly Church Pine Dale, New Mexico

Demographics

  The majority of the population is under 24 years old  High incidence of diabetes  High rate of alcohol consumption and drug use among teens  Very high suicide rate in the Navajo Nation  High drop-out rate among high school students  Very high unemployment and inferior educational systems create a permanent underclass  Area lacks basic services like electricity and water

Firewood

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• 77% of the families in Pine Dale use firewood to heat their homes. NLCA’s firewood ministry is a real blessing to the elderly, widows and disabled in that community.

• The Church uses the trailer FCM purchased to help distribute firewood.

Wood-burning Stoves   Rose John showing off her new wood stove.  The Church went to her house to deliver firewood only to find out that she didn’t have a stove.  They purchased her a new stove with funds provided by FCM and gave her a load of firewood.

Arriving in Albuquerque was like arriving in any other airport in the southwest: colorful and loaded with local flavor. Once outside, the sky was big and blue, and there was a whole new color palette of browns to appreciate in the high desert. It seemed peaceful, beautiful and even majestic in all its layers.

But within those layers are cracks, cracks the people of the Navajo Reservation have fallen through: unemployment levels hard to fathom; poverty you’d expect in a Third World country; houses without electricity and running water better described as sheds; innocent and sweet young children threatened to be trapped by this kind of poverty. Looking into the eyes of the parents, one sees a deadness devoid of hope – no energy to live life. One sees the tears of the elders due to sad knowledge that their children and grandchildren have a very high chance of not achieving a better life.

The Pastor shared stories from the community – stories of culture, statistics, sadness, pain, and danger. One’s heart grows heavy knowing such a rich and vibrant culture is in so much pain. During the mid-week Bible study with all ages present, we meet widows whose Bibles looked like well worn road maps. They are the new warriors of their tribe – Prayer Warriors. We saw young families interested in the Bible, and interested in getting to know our group of outsiders who came to repair a leaky roof.

One then realizes the Church represents hope and change for this Navajo community. One’s eyes are open to how Christ-followers are a lifeline to the entire community. The Church, the Pastor and his community, really are Fishers of Men - Fishers of Souls - one soul at a time, one life at a time.

The definition of persistence is here, the definition of the hands and feet of Christ are here, the definition of putting on the Armor of God and battling evil is here. One walks away with God showing him that, yes, the new roof was needed and important, but it was the team’s showing up, it was the love, it was the joy and laughter on every missionary’s face that the trip was truly about. It was living and showing the Peace God brings to one’s heart – that was the important thing we did.

Mission Trip Remembrances The importance of our work

There’s Light in the Windows

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The team was helping a family of five orphans whose mother froze to death while walking home from town. Jeffrey, Jeff , Ernestine, Davis, and Dave were surviving in a single-wide trailer heated by two pot bellied stoves. They had neither running water nor electricity, and the home was infested with roaches, bed bugs and rats. They had no beds so they slept on the wood subfloors which were caked with dirt. Their only source of light was a double mantle lantern without working mantles and they had no gas. The three older boys all worked at a car detailing shop for minimum wage. They cooked their meals on the wood stove in the middle of the living room, which was furnished with a moldy chair and a love seat.

The team scrapped layers of dirt from the floors and then gave them all a fresh coat of paint; painted all of the ceilings; scrubbed every wall and the kitchen cupboards; re-assembled the back steps; purchased three lanterns along with extra mantles and gas; purchased and installed a cook stove and provided food storage bins to keep bugs out of the food; and sprayed for insects. To finish off Ernestine’s room, the team installed a bed complete with linens and pillows! The boys were curious as to why she got a bed and they didn’t but, for the time being, the team kept the reason a secret.

They tested the cook stove for the first time and Ernestine’s smile couldn’t have been brighter! She had been cooking the family meals on a pot bellied stove in the middle of the living room, even when the heat outside was over 100 degrees! While the logistics due to lack of running water required some effort on the team’s part to clean, they couldn’t comprehend what the siblings went through every day just to have water.

After dinner, the team loaded up four more beds for the boys, along with a new Futon and drove back up to the house. In the barren countryside, folks see cars two miles away coming up the road. So by the time the caravan of vehicles crawled through the washed out roads and up to their home, all family members were curiously outside to greet them.

After assembling the beds everyone gathered in the living room and the team explained that everything they had done was to demonstrate Christ’s love. They prayed over the family and said their goodbyes. As they crossed the arroyo for the last time, they saw the light of the lanterns in the windows where there had been none two days earlier. In three days the team transitioned this young, hard working, intelligent family from sleeping in the dark on dirt floors with the bugs all around to having their own beds for the first time in their lives , along with lights and a cooking stove. The family still didn't have running water nor electricity, but they definitely felt God’s blessings in what they had received.

Things seemed familiar From the time I met Pastor Nathan and especially his wife Marietta, there was a sense of something familiar. I was really comfortable talking to them and Marietta's quick wit was the same as my mom's. On Wednesday during Bible study, the Holy Spirit finally revealed the sense I was having. The Lord told me I was with family. I assumed He was referring to family in Christ. That was not it.

I was reminded of a conversation I had had with my mom over 30 years ago. Her mom had passed away when she was just a little girl. She told me her mom was fair skinned with long black hair and that she was of Indian descent. During the study I was told I was with my mom's people. I think I went into shock for a few minutes. To confirm what I had been told, in walks a man dressed in a cowboy hat and boots who could have been my brother's twin. I was astounded at the resemblance. I took pictures on my phone and sent them to my brother in Florida. His response was "Who are all these people who look like our mother?" I had never met my Grandmother. I always wondered what she was like. God gave me the final link to my missing ancestry.

Building Bridges of Friendship

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Bertha Lewis was an 83-year-old Navajo widow. By the second day of working at her home, her family seemed much more open and friendly. Bertha’s daughters invited me into their homes to help make the fried bread for lunch. They laughed and taught me the secret to kneading and stretching the bread to get the right consistency. Then they taught me how to weave the beautiful Navajo rugs on the loom. It was an amazing experience. They also showed me samples of the beautiful pottery and jewelry they had made. The walls of their homes were filled with family photos just like any other home in America.

Through God’s love and grace, I could feel the barriers coming down. We all enjoyed a really great lunch together and I felt almost like one of the family.

Family Christian Ministries is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Family Christian to meet the needs of orphans and widows in the communities it serves and around the world. Family Christian partners with their customers in a shared mission; reaching out to orphans and widows, showing them the love of our Heavenly Father. Through the Foundation, Family Christian customers participate in various in-store promotions.

Family Christian Ministries serves orphans and widows in four primary ways: • adoption assistance programs • hands-on orphan and widow care work • quality of life improvements for orphans and widows • encourage the Church to fulfill God’s commitments to orphans and widows