Our Story, Our Journey (Working on a different title)

Our Journey began November 1992, Part One December 10-14

I'll come up with a title to this at some point, right now, there just isn't anything that fits! So, I'll just begin!
Over the course of the last 15 years people have said, "You should write a book". Well, that's a whole lot easier said than done! Those who write books know this from experience. I'm not one of those people. SO! I decided I would just start now and begin to journal it through this blog! Let's just see where it goes from here.

Part One:

The journey of being pastors of a wonderful congregation of people in Cocoa, Florida to starting a whole new ministry among the Native Americans in South Dakota actually during a missions trip Tim took in May of 1992. You would have to know Tim ''intimately'' to know he keeps most of what he is thinking and feeling to himself! So when he returned from the missions trip I had NO idea God had begun to speak to his heart about missions. We had just completed building a beautiful new facility and had a congregation who loved us very much! I, for one, was extremely happy and content where we were and doing what we were doing. After all, our son, daughter & grand daughter were there close to us and all was going and growing very well.

During a Sunday night service, actually, the Sunday night following Thanksgiving 1992, we had a missionary friend Dennis Preston scheduled to share his missions story. But before Dennis began sharing about his and Martha's new ministry as Assembly of God Home Missionaries to the Native Americans, he got side tracked telling us of a place called "Pine Ridge Reservation" in South Dakota. It was a tale of poverty, depression, murder, suicide, desperate for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be shared and on and on and on. The fact that the Assemblies of God had tried to get a missionary on Pine Ridge for over forty years. A sad situation to be sure; but there are many of those stories told by many and most all Missionaries when they share in your services. The service was a good service. I enjoyed it as I did ''most'' all our services. We cried with through the stories and laughed at Dennis humor and had a good night blessing him and ready to send him on his journey. As we usually did following a service with visiting ministers, we took Dennis to eat following the service. I could actually take you to the exact spot at the Village Inn in Titusville, Florida where we were sitting enjoying a nice meal, Tim, myself and Dennis. During the conversation between Dennis and Tim, as I sat eating minding my own business and letting them talk, Dennis stopped, looked at Tim and said, "Pastor, you sound like you might be interested in Pine Ridge". And to my shear SHOCK I heard Tim reply "I think I am". To this I stopped, looked at him and asked, "You think you am WHAT"? He looked at me and said we would talk about it later!
To be continued.....

Another day the Lord has made!

Last day of July, 2009 and what wonderful weather we have had for the month of July.
On July 18th we had our annual DAY IN THE PARK and it was an absolutely wonderful day in every aspect. The weather so cooperated & people fully enjoyed themselves! If you saw the photo/newsletter pages on the last post, then you know how great the day went. Wednesday & Thursday we were a part of the annual ''DAVID GARCIA DAY". Snow Cones to so many youth in the Lake Andes area.
Now, we are getting things ready for Heather Vinson from Chamois, MO and Holly Fox from Ellendale, ND. They will be moving here to help with our children/youth ministries. Once school is back in session, we will be once again over run with little tykes! Dan and Karen have moved to Sprinfield, SD and are busy with work and all so we don't have their help as much as before. We are glad Daniel got on at the prison there; but it sure has taken Karen out of being here as much.
We are also preparing for the first annual NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTH RETREAT in October. Karen and I will be cooking for 4 meals. Grady Brown and Lynnette Istre birthed this outreach and are going forward with zeal. Then comes Thanksgiving and then CHRISTMAS! Christmas! Always a great time to minister. This year we are focusing on those associated through All Tribes Fellowship, which will probably total some 100+. This will be on December 20th. We have some ladies from York, NE coming to help with this outreach. We will celebrate with a Christmas Service and then Christmas Dinner THEN Gift Boxes for the children/youth. So this is just a brief outlook for what will be happening in the next months. SOMEWHERE in there, we MUST find some time to go visit our new GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER ROZLYN! She will soon be 3 months old.
I'm thinking of starting a daily post of HOW we came to Native America as well as putting Little Man's life into words! Both are very intersting and time consuming. So, we'll see what happens.
God has been so good to us. We have endured many heartaches! God has brought us through those hard times and given us many good times. So, I will close this post and go on to something else. Have a most wonderfully blessed day!

OK here are pages 2, 3 & 4 of our current newsletter. Hope it works ok.

Well, I don't know for sure if this is going to work; but I'm giving it a shot. Not sure though, but I think it only saved the first page as a jpeg??? Anyway, visit www.prministries.net click on Newsletters and see what God has been doing around these parts.
Thanks and Blessings, Tim and Elaine

Time for time off!

Well, The Day In The Park was truly a great success. Thanks KC Kopaska & Kent Anderson with Rural Compassion. You guys & the teams you put together to come as well as those who came on their own, you guys made the week and D.I.T.P. a great success. We thank Jeff LeFavre for putting together such an awesome group of 10! Much work was done, many lives blessed & Jesus was lifted HIGH!
We, Tim and I are hoping to get a few much needed days away to visit with our Grand Daughter, Alexis and our newest Great Grand Daughter Rozlyn.
We are grateful to all who have blessed the ministry here in Wagner on the Yankton Sioux Rez! Thanks so much for all the personal encouragement!
Hoping in a week or so (after getting a newsletter put together and on line) to start writing "Little Man's Great Adventures".
Time is flying. Now we start preparing for the first "Fire On The Mountain" @ Kamp Kinship. Karen Schwartz and I will be cooking for the 3 day event!
I've been asked to serve our South East Section Women's Ministry (hopefully with the help of Gloria Kashner).
Time never slows down!

Video 26

Our little Rozy! She's growing so fast.
Video 26

Today is Saturday July 11, 2009. It's been a very difficult & heartbreaking week for Tim & me. On Monday, July 6th someone shot @ our two little dogs 10 year old 4# poodle Little Man & 6 year old 8# Sugar Baby. One pellet fired at them grazed Sugar Baby, another struck Little Man in his side. We didn't realize this until too late for a vet to come into town to see him. At 4:30a.m. he began to seep blood from his wound, at 6:30a.m. Little Man died in our arms. We adored this little guy. He became a wonderful part of our family from the day he came into our lives. We are thankful Sugar Baby wasn't seriously injured. The pellet that hit Little Man pierced his left lung, his liver & his spleen. You can imagine what a difficult time the little guy endured. We've cried so many tears & there are still many more. Seems when we think we may be getting a little better, we pick up one of his toys, or think of him laying in our lap. We are so very thankful for our years with him. His little life was senselessly cut short. Some may think we are ridiculous for our feelings; but until you've had a pet that trust you, loves you unconditionally, is faithful, brought so many smiles to your heart & gives you as much joy as Little Man did for us, then those couldn't understand our hearts. MANY do understand how we feel, and we thank them for their thoughts. We are thankful for Little Man's life, for all he brought into our lives. We pray for whomever shot at them. We HOPE to find out WHY; but that may never be. Life will go on, days will pass; but our thoughts & love for this precious part of our life will live with us forever. May his little soul be back in the kingdom. God didn't make animals such as Little Man with a body & soul to just allow them to never be again. If Heaven has "Lions & Lambs" I know it has our Little Man now!