Update from Don and Mary DeHart

Mary and I remain grateful for the faithful cover Nags Head has held over our lives and this ever expanding vision as we mobilize Native Christians here in North America (our Samaria) and abroad...where our Native colleagues are received often more readily than non-Native white missionary types.

Returning from our recent support raising furlough finds us playing catch-up in almost every arena of our lives. The death of Mary's brother sent us back to Carolina the day after arriving here...adding to an already stacked schedule.

Since returning, we have written an initiative covering 1/3 support in launching a Native pastor into a 5 month interim with an emerging Native church between now and his final semester of formal training next year. This brother and his wife have made formal application with NAIM to become full time staff upon his graduation next year...another positive step in the vision NAIM has called us to pursue. Their desire is to return to that large Native population on Vancouver Island to take the lead in that growing Native church as indigenous NAIM staff.

As well, we have another application for summer internship with NAIM from one of the students at Trinity Western University we've been developing a relationship with.

Our God is on the move speaking His ways into Native people in N.America to be involved in Great Commission ministry. In May we will participate in a conference in the greater Chicago area bringing awareness to churches of the more than 40,000 Native Americans in the area ...and not one Native church. Please pray for this conference, for five national Native American leaders, and for me as I prepare to bring one of the messages on the topic of Servant Leadership.

We have, as well, received 7 requests from churches from Alberta to western British Columbia asking us to help them begin reaching into indigenous populations in their immediate vicinity.

As Mary and I begin to look toward at least a formal retirement(in the government's eyes) in the next three years, we are intentionally feeding leadership of First Nations Partnership into the hands of one of the Native leaders currently on our team working as a school teacher "tentmaker", and with us as a volunteer. We have no plans of literal retirement, but of moving over to create space for Native leadership, as we begin moving toward living on retirement resources at age 65.

Mary and I were blessed to be among y'all recently, so well loved by some of God's good followers.

Gratefully alongside,
don and mary