If you are interested in creating a team…

First, you'll need to set a date and recruit team members.
Second, you’ll need to raise money for the materials and team member expenses.
Third, typical costs per person for an eight day trip are a plane ticket (unless you are driving the 1500 miles to Window Rock) to Albuquerque or Phoenix, approximately $200.00 for the van/gas (and who knows how much gas will cost by then?), $420.00 for the motel rooms, double occupancy, for seven nights (unless we sleep at the church), $130.00 for food (depending on how much you eat?), $250.00 for the mission fee to help with materials (which the church should raise for and with the team), and some souvenir money. Actually, we'll have to raise more money for these trips to pay for the renovation materials...

Mary Ella and I (Buddy Whatley) represented Native American Ministries at the recent Global Impact Celebration at Pierce Chapel in Midland, GA. This is a great church pastored by an outstanding couple; Howard White is the pastor and his wife Lynn Meadows-White is the minister of discipleship. Donnie Mason and Alison McKinney were co-coordinators for the events at this first GIC and it was a flawless week of mission sharing and commitment!

We stayed with, toured the infantry museum at Fort Benning, and fell in love with Bill and Judy Mullins! From Wednesday until Sunday we shared our mission to the Navajo people with the church staff and leadership team, small groups (senior adult luncheon, men s breakfast, women s luncheon, and a small home fellowship) and large gatherings (orientation dinner and international banquet) in the church.

Along the way, we also ate lunch with Captain Phil Mix, who took us on a tour of Fort Benning, ate supper with John & Judy Duckworth, spoke to a small fellowship group at Windle & Elaine McKenzie s home (where we picked up a great recipe), ate Sunday lunch with Del & Karen Hicks and Windle & Elaine McKenzie at Callaway Garden s Country Store. I suppose we were supposed to be working, but we had a great time!

Then on Sunday, we spoke to a combined Sunday School class and we are hoping they come to the reservation this spring to help us work on Roger Tsosie s house! And on Sunday night we were thrilled to see the fruit of our efforts as a large group of folks came forward to commit themselves to missionary service and the congregation made a faith promise of over $130,000 for missions!!!

Mary Ella and I started the year at Pierce Chapel UMC in Midland, GA (co-pastored by Howard & Lynn Meadows-White) attending a Global Impact Celebration. Alison McKinney was the perfect coordinator and we stayed with Bill and J'udy Mullins who might just be the perfect hosts.

For five days, we shared the mission of Native American Ministries with their staff, leadership team, older adults, men, women, youth, children, and small groups. The message of a GIC is that you (anyone) can be involved in missions... praying, going, working, sending, supporting, and giving. "Can you pour drinks for lunch? Or make sandwiches? You can be a missionary!"

During our free time on Saturday, Captain Philip Mix took us to Olive Garden and later on a tour of Fort Benning. We ve driven past the Fort a hundred+ times, but we ve never seen it from the inside. It was an incredible afternoon... thank you Captain Mix!

Philip is a tank commander and we were spellbound by his tour and his tanks! We ate supper with John & Judy Duckworth, where we picked up a great recipe. We met with a small group at Windle & Elaine McKenzie's house.

Along the way we met Susan Fudge who is the daughter of a friend in Thomasville, Carol who is Becky Davis sister, Mira Barrett s sister Susan who is the church secretary... and we spent the week with a great group of missionaries sharing our common call to serve people in Jesus name!

Then on Sunday, Del & Karen Hicks took us to lunch at the Callaway Gardens Country Store, where we ran into Ronnie J'ones who was our son Al s football coach in high school! I know we were supposed to be "working," but we had a great time!

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Our next trip will be February 26-28, to the Concord (Tuesday pm) I Plains-Preston (Monday pm) I Unadilla- Pinehurst (Sunday pm) I Corinth-Ellaville (Sunday am) Missions Conference. We ll be preaching I sharing our mission with those seven churches and we ll be staying with our good friend Pastor Gary Page at Concord UMC!

If you happen to be in the area, come join us!

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And our next mission trip will be the third week of April (16-23), Charles Dennis will lead a preaching mission to the reservation as he does every year. If you are interested, call him for an experience that will change your life!

In May-J'une, we'll be taking our VBS I work teams to Tsalani and continue our renovation of Roger & Grace Tsosie's house. He ll retire in June and we re trying to get it ready for them. A small team went out last October to replace the roof and two outside doors, getting it ready for winter.

Now we re ready to work on the interior; a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchenIdining area. The Navajo men and women will help... will you?

My wife wonders why I spend time on Facebook and now I have an answer; I discovered my best friend from high school there. He lives in Winder, Georgia and he and his new bride spent a week at our lake house last summer. We told them about Native American Ministries and they re planning to go with us. He s retired from flying helicopters to the oil rigs off the coast of Africa and in his free time delivering Bibles to the surrounding villages. The customs people going in and out of Africa called him the "Bible man!"

We re planning to take his motor home to the reservation for several weeks to receive teams and work on the house... the teams will fly into Albuquerque and stay in Chinle, Arizona, about 37 miles from Tsalani.

Pray for the teams... willing to go, raising expenses, planning travel, safety on the way and at the site, fruitfulness of both the preaching and work projects, and getting the work completed, etc.

Plan to go with a team... create one from your church or join another team already going... send us a date and we ll start walking you through the planning process!

Help a team raise money... although it varies with airfare, our basic budget per team member is $500 for vans, motels, food (including breakfast at the motel and lunch at the worksite); $250 mission fee for building materials, etc.; and your plane ticket (or gas if you choose to drive; it s 1772 miles from Ochlocknee, Georgia to Chinle, Arizona).

Sponsor a team member... approximately $1000.00 depending on the flight costs.

Help us buy the building materials... electrical, plumbing, kitchen appliances, wood stove, ceiling tile, paint, and flooring (carpet in the bedroom, tile in the rest of the house). Due to the cost of appliances, plumbing, and electrical, etc., the mission fee will not cover all the materials and we don t want to burden our team members, so we ll have to raise the extra money for those materials.

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For those of you who like to look ahead, we ll be taking a small group of pastors to the reservation in September to lead a pastor's school. And we ll go back in early December to take the Children's Christmas... shoeboxes of toys and toiletries, warm coats, blankets, and kitchen tables. (Sadie J'ohn tells us that many of her neighbors use an upside down bucket and a board.)

April 24-May 28

How will you help?

Progress is being made on Roger and Grace’s home.

Needs:

1. Prayers
2. People with skills
3. People for support (can you hold a ladder?)
4. Materials or money for materials

Please contact Charles or ‘Buddy’

to volunteer.

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