From Ireland to Arizona

Everything old is new again


Just one month ago I was boarding a plane from Ireland back to Indiana. Laurie and I had gone for a week along with other WGM administrators to meet with our WGM UK Council. That is a wonderful group of people from England and Northern Ireland who have a passion for missions and who are involved in getting people from that region of our globe involved in mission efforts on WGM fields. They have taken teams to Ukraine and Uganda to build or teach or do whatever they can to help out our missionaries in those places.

We went to talk with them about how we might coordinate our efforts even better from the US and the UK. I fall in love with just about every country I visit in the world, and Northern Ireland, where we had our meetings, was no exception. That's one country where I could easily blend in, at least until I opened my mouth!

This past month included Thanksgiving, a time when I took some much needed down time to just vegetate. It included a wonderful time in Chicago with some old friends, Terry and Natalie, who share my passion for mission and who have partnered with us in ministry for many years. Chicago at the beginning of the Christmas season was fun!

I took this past month off from blogging. My schedule was so crazy this summer I just needed to let something go for a while to catch my breath. Now, at the end of a visit to our mission work in Arizona, I am picking it up again.

This weekend was incredible. I am on our American Indian Field for three days of lending the folks here a helping hand and helping them celebrate a milestone in their ministry.

For more than half a century, centered in the Phoenix area we have had a work among Native Americans. For many years in Peoria, Arizona, where I am now, we had a boarding school for native kids. Times change and the boarding school approach became outdated as families preferred to keep their kids at home as time went on. So a move was made to open schools on the reservation back in the first part of the 90's. The struggle was what to do with the large school facilities that we had. We tried different things, and after a lot of planning decided this past February to consolidate what we have here and use the money from the sale of property to update the facilities that we keep, making more effective use of the space we have. What was neat to me was that a number of alumni of the boarding school were here helping with this move and will be part of the force shaping the future of our new ministry outreach.

And what an exciting outreach that is! Phoenix has become the seventh largest city in America with huge ethnic populations living all around the school property. We'll continue to reach native children as well as other groups as these grounds are converted into a multi-purpose ministry center complete with recreational and instructional facilities. This place offers a great opportunity for people to get their feet wet in missions, and in fact, on this trip we brought 17 people from our staff, some of whom have never been to a mission field before!

Yesterday we split out into groups to attend church on the reservation. That was a new experience for many, let me tell you! I'd encourage you to plan a visit here just to check out what God is doing in this corner of the world. You'd be surprised, and blessed!