Thank you, Rincon Pres, for your faithful prayers and support! We have had an amazingly fun summer and fall season of ministry. Here’s a few highlights from the last several months.
June –
- DH and our national partners Ian and Brianna Harriman started a men’s basketball open gym outreach on Monday nights. They play a dozen or so pick-up games with one break in the middle when Ian or DH will share a devotional from Scripture.
- Emily participated in Native Mending the Soul facilitator training. She then joined a Mending the Soul small group to begin going through the material.
July –
- We attended the RUF training as guests to scope it out and see what we thought about it. We loved it, felt deeply encouraged, as well as equipped to know how to start up a campus ministry at NAU.
Aug –
- We started meeting NAU students, hanging out on campus, and trying out creative ways to build relationships. We made free piccadilly and blue corn cookies as a point of connection with Indigenous students. Then began following up with one-on-one meetings.
- We met our Indigenous Bible College (IBC) students who we would be doing life coaching with this school year and began meeting with them regularly.
- Three of the young men from IBC come with DH to NAU to do Bible studies and outreach.
Sept –
- Emily finished the Native Mending the Soul workbook and is now certified to lead groups.
- We set up an interactive art display at NAU on Orange Shirt Day – a holiday to remember and honor survivors of boarding schools in Canada and the US. Thirteen students signed up to meet one-on-one after that event.
Oct –
- Ian and Brianna put together a 3-on-3 Basketball tournament for the guys who have been playing at open gym. They had 12 teams sign up and had to turn teams away due to time constraints. Ian shared the Gospel between games, and close to 100 people were in attendance! It was an incredible blend of IBC, NAU and community connections coming together in one place.
- We were asked by a young Navajo Christian couple who attend IBC to be a “couple’s mentor” for them.
Life and ministry are VERY full, and we are having a BLAST!!
Prayer Requests:
- Two men tore their ACLs at an open gym two weeks ago (these are the first serious injuries in our 6 months of open gym), pray for their recovery as well as safety for the players each Monday night. Injuries are not only miserable for the sufferer, but steal them away from the community and the opportunities for Christian fellowship.
- We are hoping to do another 3-on-3 basketball tournament in early December; pray for more than just good competition but for Lord to change souls eternally.
- Year-end fundraising (more details forthcoming later this month) pray for the Lord to establish the work of our hands for us.
- Pray for the students we are meeting and building relationships with – some of them come from their tribe’s traditional (animistic) religions, and yet they are still cool with hanging out with us!
- Pray for next Wednesday, November 12 – we are hoping to invite all the students we have met over for a family dinner and hang out time. It will be the first time for all these one-on-one connections to turn into a potential small group of friends. Pray for delicious food, amazing conversations, laughter and depth through family worship. Pray for wisdom to know how to listen well and how and when to share the Good News of Jesus with them.
- Our oldest son, Phinehas, desires to compete in the AZ State Yo-Yo competition on Nov 16 in Mesa, which is a Sunday. Pray for wisdom in our parenting to discern how to set direction and align the family in submission to the Lord of the Sabbath on His day.
- We have been in Native ministry for 10 years now, which is three years over the typical timeline for a sabbatical. Since we transitioned from Across Nations to MTW at the 5-year mark, we missed that window. We are tired and in need of a sabbatical and the spiritual refreshment it provides. Please pray for direction and wisdom as we talk with MTW about what our options are.
Thanks again! We appreciate you guys so much.
DH and Emily Henry
Emily with one of our NAU friends, Deysi
Emily snaps a quick selfie with a few of our NAU friends that attended the 3-on-3 basketball tournament
DH and his IBC coach-ee, Carter Clawson, meet at NAU for Life Coaching and campus outreach
Our Indigenous ministry’s campus outreach flyer.
Our ministry’s Open Gym fall Flyer
Ian and his wife Brianna hosting our Open Gym community’s first 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament
DH and boarding school survivor Elmer Yazzie at our interactive Orange Shirt Day exhibit
