Nemeth Notes

When you buy a pop-up camper for $75, you know it might just be a duct-tape special. This year we were able to get a new canvas, and so we’re not quite the eye-sore as we have set up in the midst of the busy August activity at Gladstone.

Our NAIM staff conference was non-stop, with Jeff not finishing up often until 11pm or later, so camping there made sense. Then the First Nations Alliance conference was last weekend, with Ron Hutchcraft and his “On Eagle’s Wings” team, and again Jeff was working until 12-1am. This weekend is our Native Family Camp, with 2 city and 3 reserve churches coming. It is a wonderful feeling to have all this ministry happening. It is especially wonderful to see Gladstone overrun with Native families from all over Canada (Manitoba to British Columbia), including some old friends we hadn’t seen in awhile. Folks, this is an answer to prayer, that the Lord would bring in Native folks. Of course the calendar still has many open spots, and so we covet your prayers. Also, as Gladstone reaches more people, the enemy starts attacking more. Please pray for us, all the Gladstone staff, and the folks coming in to do ministries, that the Lord would protect each one and help them do what He wants us to do. Please keep praying for a First Nations director for Gladstone; I believe the Lord has that person/couple and is waiting for the right time to bring them here…but it’s so hard to wait!

I think of Jeff’s truck. We waited a year for it, and sometimes thought it would never happen. But it did. God provided, in His time.

By the way, as I think of Ron Hutchcraft being here, I have to say what a strange feeling it was to hear his voice at Gladstone. See, I was once one of thousands of teens who listened to a radio show called “Saturday Night Alive”. Ron Hutchcraft’s voice would come to my home every weekend, challenging me to live for the Lord and to “Go MAD!” (Go Make A Difference). And since I’d heard his voice on “A Word With You”, a short 5-minute radio talk. Yet this time I was hearing him pray with a group of Native teens from across North America, praying–on the Gladstone lodge porch– as they prepared to go to a community close to my heart (Piikani Nation), for an evangelistic outreach. I overhead a little of how the Lord had opened the door for this outreach, and all I could do was wonder. And pray. With thanksgiving.

Summer camp time!
Gladstone is full-speed ahead, in our first week of camp season. Last week, another work team helped with so much, especially making bunk beds for the new cabins.

These cabins are soooo beautiful compared to the old (probably 100 years old) ones they had before. They are in a cozy, peaceful section of the woods, yet close to the circle center, outdoor kitchen, and (most importantly) the new washhouse. The previous workteam put up cedar paneling for the interior, which is not only cozy and pretty, it’s also very graffiti-proof—whatever goes on, just gets sanded off!

Jeff is even more excited than the camp kids (if that’s possible) over his new waterslide at the lakefront. He made it out of an old conveyor belt, and it is 70 feet of downhill, slip-slidin’ fun!

We are excited; yet it is also the time to PRAY. The Lord really uses these camps to bring these kids off the reserves or away from the cities, and tell them of His love and His ways. We need your prayer that He will work once again. We have all been discouraged by some of our own Piikani youth straying from the Lord. Yet we know that the war is not over. It still rages on. If Jesus said that our faith could cause a fig tree to dry up or a mountain to be thrown into the sea, how much more will He hear our prayers to touch the lives of the precious souls He created?

Filed under: Prayers, Ministry — May 23, 2006 @ 1:54 am Edit This
My friend “B” is younger than me, but has much more experience parenting. She has 4 of her own, and 4 foster kids (neices and nephews). She has been raising them alone for over a year, now.

So when she received news that she had Stage 3 cancer a few months ago, all of us who love her were devastated. Not her, Lord; too many kids need her! When she found out that she only had 6-10 years to live, she was heartbroken. People told her to get rid of her foster kids, but we all could see plainly how happy they are with her, and she with them. She was exploring all the alternative cancer remedies, though it was often overwhelming.

But one thing she knew to do: pray.

And that’s what we did, too. We prayed as a church: “Lord, we know full well that you can heal her! Lord, we really, really want to see her healed. Lord, if you don’t, we know you know best, but please heal her, to show Your power.”

About 3 weeks ago, we met for a ladies’ Bible study, and B told us of a dream she had had. There was a Presence in her room, and He touched her ankle and pulled all of the sickness out of her body. She woke from that dream wondering, and after a few days when her cancer symptoms started to subside, she spoke with her doctor. She had new tests taken.

And last Wednesday on my answering machine, B’s voice was so excited, so awed. “I just got the test results back; there is NO cancer WHATSOEVER in my body. It is completely GONE. It is a miracle.” This was just 2 days before she was to have undergone major surgery.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. You are awesome.

My friend “B” is younger than me, but has much more experience parenting. She has 4 of her own, and 4 foster kids (neices and nephews). She has been raising them alone for over a year, now.

So when she received news that she had Stage 3 cancer a few months ago, all of us who love her were devastated. Not her, Lord; too many kids need her! When she found out that she only had 6-10 years to live, she was heartbroken. People told her to get rid of her foster kids, but we all could see plainly how happy they are with her, and she with them. She was exploring all the alternative cancer remedies, though it was often overwhelming.

But one thing she knew to do: pray.

And that’s what we did. We prayed as a church: “Lord, we know full well that you can heal her! Lord, we really, really want to see her healed. Lord, if you don’t, we know you know best, but please heal her, to show Your power.”

About 3 weeks ago, we met for a ladies’ Bible study, and B told us of a dream she had had. There was a Presence in her room, and He touched her ankle and pulled all of the sickness out of her body. She woke from that dream wondering, and after a few days when her cancer symptoms started to subside, she spoke with her doctor. She had new tests taken.

And last Wednesday on my answering machine, B’s voice was so excited, so awed. “I just got the test results back; there is NO cancer WHATSOEVER in my body. It is completely GONE. It is a miracle.” This was just 2 days before she was to have undergone major surgery.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. You are awesome.

Finally, we are online again.

We had more problems with our host and regrettably had to make a change.