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Monday, 27 April 2009 |
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Driving the Moclips Highway from Lake Quinault to Taholah, WA is quite an experience. It’s twenty miles of black-top that is literally cut through the old growth timber of the Olympic Peninsula rain forest. If you have a mechanical problem, you really have a problem because there is nothing on the road but an occasional log truck. At the far end of the highway you break over the last hill and see the Pacific Ocean in all of its splendor. Just a few miles to the north on Hwy 109 sits the tiny fishing village of Taholah. Pastor Stan Lien of the Lighthouse Fellowship Church had asked if we could deliver a load of groceries and supplies to help them start their food pantry. The Quinault tribe had approved the use of the old medical clinic and it was being remodeled to house abused women, homeless people and provide hot meals every day and give food boxes from the pantry to the community and the reservation. We said, “Yes.”
After delivering the load I stayed overnight and preached the next morning to the church at Lake Quinault. I strummed the same string as before and spoke about keeping the main thing, the main thing! We are committed to telling the salvation story, helping hurting people and building marriages and families. That’s the main thing. But, it’s impossible to talk to anyone about the condition of their heart if their stomach is empty and their kids are sick. As I told the church, we use groceries as a means to an end. The food boxes open the door so that we can deliver the greatest and best news of God’s love acceptance and forgiveness. And, it’s working! Native Americans are being helped. Children are being fed. Lives are being changed.
Heading south after church, behind the wheel of the big red Western Star, I couldn’t help but think of the good people who are doing such a wonderful work at Lake Quinault and Taholah. Pastor Gary & Carmen West and Pastor Stan & Michelle Lien are faithful servants of God who are caring, loving and helping their communities in big ways. They both told me stories of Native Americans who are receiving food and ministry because of the help that’s coming from Frontier Missions. You’ve got to know that it’s humbling to receive those reports. But, Praise God for the results, right?
After parking the trailer and putting the big rig in the truck bay, I drove home in my old GMC 4x4, took a hot shower, ate a delicious meal and went to bed. As I drifted off to sleep I thought of the lady who stood on the ramp at the medical clinic in Taholah and cried as the food was being unloaded. “This is wonderful. This will really help my people,” she said. And, the man with one leg and the walker who talked to me after church about developing trust with Native Americans and the tremendous physical needs on the reservation. With those thoughts came my last prayer for the day, “Father, thank You for all You’ve enabled us to do…help us to do more, please! Amen.”
Sincerely,
Rick McPherson |
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Monday, 20 April 2009 |
Mayor Jim Kight of Troutdale recently connected with our very own Rick McPherson to enlighten readers of "The Northwest Connection" about Frontier Missions.
You can read the article by clicking here. Note: You will need a PDF reader installed: Get Adobe Reader
Special thanks to "The Northwest Connection" and Mayor Jim Kight of Troutdale for their efforts in creating, publishing, and allowing our use of the article. |
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Tuesday, 14 April 2009 |
It’s the largest gathering of Natives in the United States and we’re invited! Every year on the third week-end of August, the Crow Nation has a huge family reunion in Crow Agency, Montana. The conservative estimate is 25,000 members who come from all over the country. There are so many tee-pees they call it “The Tee-Pee Capital of the World.”With teen-age boys riding painted ponies bare-back and children and adults in full Native regalia, the colors are incredible and fabulous. It is truly a sensory spectacle that is unequalled by any other Native gathering. For us to be invited to attend and participate is an honor.
During my prayer time not long ago, I remembered the night that I spent at Ken & Hannah Pretty On Top’s home in Crow Agency. After a long and successful career as a miner, the Lord called Ken to be the pastor of the church. For the past twenty years he has faithfully served there and God has blessed the ministry. When I called Ken to ask about Crow Fair and that the Lord had impressed me about being involved, he said, “Please come, it would be a blessing to have you here.” Beautiful!
We’ll load our new (used) 53’ Trailmobile trailer with family food boxes, bottled water, buck-skin Bibles, lots of love and goodwill and head for Montana in August. It will definitely be hot! It will definitely be dry! It will definitely be rugged! But, we can’t wait. It means camping out and cooking over an open fire but the ministry outreach will be over-the-top! Imagine…the largest gathering of Natives in the country and we’ll be “smack-dab in the middle!” Not only will the groceries and supplies that we’ll deliver be appreciated and meaningful, but most important, will be the message of God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness that we will bring. The Good News is that of abundant life, filled with hope and promise. Jesus put it this way, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 (TNIV)
To make it all worthwhile, we need a couple of things. The first is prayer. Without prayer nothing will ever happen that has spiritual consequences. Without prayer, we can not. Without prayer, God will not! So, we need your prayers and lots of them. The second is money. It takes dollars to buy diesel fuel and Bibles and supplies for a trip like this to happen. Your contributions enable us to do this ministry and we appreciate every financial gift that is given. God bless you for your help!
Sincerely,
Rick McPherson
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Wednesday, 11 March 2009 |
When you roll into town with the Western Star pulling a forty-eight foot trailer full of groceries, people get excited! They identify the truck and trailer and it means the Food Pantry will be filled from wall-to-wall and front-to-back. After all, when you load forty-eight pallets with twenty-four food boxes on each, it totals over a thousand boxes of food. 1152 to be exact.
Each box will feed two people for a week. And when you’re hungry and poor, a box of groceries is a big deal. It’s the kind of deal that makes sense of a few verses like these:
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:14-17 (TNIV)
It’s faith that becomes action that makes the difference in the lives of people who are hurting and hungry. Action means loading a truck in Troutdale, Oregon and driving to the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho and helping feed Native Americans. Action means taking a giant step (of faith) and doing something. Action means the love of God is active and alive and making a difference.
The trip to Lapwai in February is always a question mark because of the weather. You just never know in the Pacific Northwest what you’re going to get, even in late winter. This year we had it all! The overnight snowfall transformed the Columbia River Gorge on IH-84 into a winter wonderland equaling any picture postcard. When the sun rose, the skies cleared and the views were spectacular.
Miles later and deep into eastern Washington state the spectacular turned into heavy frozen fog, more snow, rain and sleet and then the same things all over again. The old adage, “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute, it will change,” was never more true. Even when arriving in Lapwai at the Food Pantry the blue skies turned dark, and great big quarter sized snowflakes drifted down as more than a dozen happy Native Americans off-loaded the big trailer. The remarkable thing about the work crew was that it included two members of the Nez Perce Tribe Executive Committee. These NPTEC members lifted, carried, laughed and smiles their way through the whole load. Later, I learned they went to a NPTEC council meeting with a glowing report of the quality and quantity of the load.
I couldn’t help but think of last summer when we sat together for the first time with the NPTEC in Orofino, Idaho and talked of the partnership with Frontier Missions and our desire to help the Native American people in greater numbers and ways than ever before. I couldn’t help but think that, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” I couldn’t help but think that the actions of faith were the means to an end. The goal, then, now and always is to bring as many people to faith in Christ as possible. The goal is to secure an eternity in Heaven for as many Native Americans as we can. Whatever we need to do to accomplish that goal, we will do! We will be people of action.
When you think of all of our donors, prayer partners, friends, volunteers , team members and helpers who make this ministry happen, you realize that lots of people are making a difference in the lives of Native Americans. Thank God the work continues and grows because of partnerships and friendships that help us accomplish the goals of ministry and vision.
I’m reminded of these things and humbled whenever I roll into the reservation with food and supplies. I’m really your representative and a missionary-evangelist for the Lord as I set the air brakes and climb down out of the cab. It is an honor to do this ministry and know that we’re not say, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed…”. Rather, you and I are, together, making a huge difference by expressing the love of God in action. Aren’t you thankful for that?
Sincerely,
Rick McPherson
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