Many of you received an email a while back about a Navajo friend of mine coming to know Jesus Christ in a personal way. This has truly been my favorite moment since moving to the Rez in 2017. God works through us and despite us all the time. I think that it is sometimes lost on us as believers and we tend to place our beliefs in a box and save it for our Christian friends or Sunday morning. Too many times we miss the opportunity to love people well and step out on faith to open our mouths when it seems the scariest.
When Ashli and I first moved to the Rez in 2017 we had this very strategic plan that we had developed and presented to the board of directors. It had a specific number of encounters and ministry events planned across the remaining 2017 and we repeated this same mistake in 2018. We tried to place ministry in a box. We quickly realized that ministry is every day. We found ourselves doing life, immersing in the culture and just being “switched on” all the time. Yes, this is emotionally exhausting. But we had to realize that if we will just be ourselves and let Jesus show through then He does the work. God was working on my friend in a way I was not aware of across the course of a year.
When he prayed to Jesus for the first time he did it by himself and never having heard a real prayer before. He called me after and described the experience. He told me that he had known Christ all along; he just did not have a name for him. The Holy Spirit had been with him and protected him through many dark times and he finally realized who He was.
The best day I have ever experienced was having the honor of baptizing my friend in the San Juan River on the northern border of the reservation on August 13th. I am confident that he will eventually lead his entire family to Christ. Please take time to watch the video attached to the email and recognize that our work on the Rez is just beginning and we will continue to serve with everything we have!
Beautiful Harvest Project 