Greetings once again from the deep south! Next month we will have been here in Philadelphia, MS for four years. Our Choctaw church, Pearl River Mennonite Church, continues to be a source of joy and challenges. Although our ministry update blogs may be lengthy, we trust that you will find them interesting.
On Sunday, Feb. 3, Duane hosted a Super Bowl Party at the local family fun center as an outreach to men. About fifteen men attended, some of whom were un-churched. During halftime, a Choctaw/Seminole man from our church named Dalmon King shared his testimony of how the Creator had delivered him from drugs and dealing drugs and blessed him with a wonderful family.
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| Kauai |
We were thrilled when, in mid-February, Matt, Brittany, and Matt's brother Michael (who works for United) made it possible for us to visit them and Maile on Kauai. It was the cooler rainy season at that time, but it was still beautiful and a delight to visit with them and Matt's family, including his maternal grandmother "Popo" Lai; she shared with Laurie one afternoon about having lived in Honolulu during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Maile has fallen in love with the Disney princesses and enjoys graceful dancing and singing at her miniature microphone stand.
It's always exciting and interesting to host our sister-in-law Delora Reinhardt and her deliverance ministry support team when they come to visit! This time they came down in early March to attend a Christian conference which was held at the Golden Moon Casino, of all places! This was the first Christian event ever held there! We met James Meredith, the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi, at the conference. We appreciate the fact that Delora and her two female support team members (Amy and Pat) were also willing to attend our Women's Ministry on Monday evening, where they taught about Soul Ties.
Since Duane leads our church youth ministry, in March he and sponsor Arlene took our youth group members to our Gulf States Mennonite Conference's (GSMC) Spring Youth Rally at Pine Lake Fellowship Camp (PLFC) near Meridian. They always have a great time there!
In April, Duane was asked to speak at the GSMC annual Father/Child Retreat weekend at camp, with "Lessons From the [Baseball] Diamond" as his theme.
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| Connie, Carole, Laurie, Norman Sam, Duane |
Laurie's mother Carole Fiske and her aunt Connie Van Housen flew down from PA for a long-anticipated visit with us! They were finally able to meet Heather's husband Dustin and little Emelyn (7 months at the time). They were also able to meet several of our Choctaw brothers and sisters in Christ, and hear Choctaw hymns sung, at our church that Sunday!
In May, a member of our church family, Saline Solomon, passed away. She'd had a very difficult life. I remember a conversation we had with her one Sunday morning before church regarding the fact that her sister had claimed to have seen a Bigfoot outside her house the night before, and of how terrifying the experience was.
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| Emelyn, Dustin, & Heather |
On Friday, May 10, Heather graduated from Mississippi State (Meridian campus) with her B.S. in Social Work! It was such a joy to celebrate this occasion with Dustin's parents Gary and Susan Glenn from MO and sister Anna Gonzales from PA. Less than a week later, Heather became employed by Choctaw Behavioral Health, the agency at which she had done her senior internship. Laurie had babysat for Emelyn while Heather completed her schooling.
What an absolute JOY and privilege that was!
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| Nic |
One of our biggest thrills each year is being able to attend the high school graduations of our church youth. This year, Nic graduated from the county school, and Bri and Alex graduated from Choctaw Central. The church presented each of them with beautiful Student Bibles.
We don't get visitors very often, but Clyde and Sharon Moore from Elkhart, IN stopped in and treated us to breakfast on Saturday, May 25, on their way to LA. It was sooo good to see folks from home, and from what we still consider our home church, Wakarusa Missionary.
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| Youth Car Wash |
In June, our church held a Yard Sale/Food Sale/Car Wash to raise funds for Native Mennonite Ministries (NMM), an organization which includes many native churches of several different tribes across America and Canada. The sale was very successful.
The next day was Father's Day. Duane and I were not able to extend our best wishes to our dads this year, for the first time, since each of them had passed away last year.
Duane was once again asked to minister as Camp Pastor at PLFC for a week. Two of our church girls attended that week, and a younger boy from church attended the previous week! Several children made commitments to Christ, but we pray that they get follow-up discipleship to help them mature in their new faith.
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| Jesse Ben and Duane |
On June 24th, Duane officiated at the funeral of our dear friend Jesse Ben (husband of JoAnne Ben), who had developed liver and kidney disease from past years of alcohol abuse. Jesse was one of the Tribe's most gifted teachers on the Choctaw culture, traditions, and language; he was very skillful in making
towa, Choctaw rawhide stickball game balls, and tried to teach Duane this skill one afternoon. Wakes, with a traditional cooking fire burning out back behind the house, are usually held in the home of the deceased for a few days and nights before the actual funeral.
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Daelin
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Daelin, a teenager from our church, ministered all summer at camp as a Leader in Training (LIT) for the first time. He learned a lot about children and youth ministry, and he was also greatly used by God to touch the lives of the kids. Duane has been discipling Daelin for years, so it was a thrill for Duane to receive an excellent report about Daelin's experience.
The first week of July, two women and two youth boys from our church attended the Mennonite Assembly in Phoenix.They had a great experience. The women were able to help make the conference attendees aware of the fact that there are several native Mennonite churches and were able to sell most of the beadwork our church women had been making for the past several months; the funds were donated to NMM.
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| Geri, Laurie, & Marilyn |
Laurie leads the Women's Ministry at church each Monday evening. We usually alternate between doing a study and doing beadwork. This year we studied
Lies Women Believe and
Boundaries. Our beadwork sessions were led by Marilyn Tubby. Since most of our church members are single women raising children or grandchildren, Laurie sees her friendships with them as a valuable part of ministry.
On July 4th, our church held a Food Sale for a few hours before the Tribe's annual fireworks display, which can be seen ideally from our church parking lot! It, too, was successful in raising money for NMM. The snow cones were a big hit.
Duane once again participated in the Tribe's "Unity Walk," about a week prior to the official start of the Choctaw Indian Fair. He also planned to play Choctaw stickball (an ancient form of lacrosse) with the Beaver Dam "over 30" team in their first game of the season, but their team was disqualified because of too few players showing up. He enjoyed being able to watch the other teams play each evening of the fair; he usually sat with Norman Sam, who had been his best man in our wedding back in 1982. We also enjoyed eating Indian tacos, looking at the beautiful beadwork at the sale pavilion, watching some of the Choctaw Princess pageant and shows, viewing the displays, and just walking around and talking to people. Duane ran the mile in the "Rez Run" on the final day of the fair.
We continue to see spiritual maturity and integrity developing in some of our church members, so that is a real praise. We would love to see the Lord raise up more committed men, children/youth/young adult ministry leaders, and contemporary worship leaders. We would love to see God's people in our church take personal Bible study and prayer more seriously, and to see the Holy Spirit be desired and allowed to move among and through us with power...to save, to deliver, and to heal.
Well, that's a summary of our lives and ministry during the first half of 2013. Thank you for your interest, your prayers, and Wakarusa Missionary Church's monthly financial gifts. We would love to have you visit sometime. Please keep in touch through facebook, emails, calls, or letters. They are such a blessing and source of encouragement.
In Christ,
Duane & Laurie Reinhardt
Duane Laurie Reinhardt (facebook)
reinos4@juno.com (email)
409 Indian Hospital St., Philadelphia, MS 39350 (snail mail)
www.mississippiministry.blogspot.com (blog)
Mahli Bell, the beautiful senior from our church youth group who died following a terrible car accident a few years ago, was memorialized with a granite memorial plaque which was dedicated on a September morning at our church. Her mother Crystal was in attendance.
On Nov. 29th, Matt, Brittany, Maile (3), and Kaira (2 months) came from Hawaii for a visit! It was also their 5th wedding anniversary that day! Our week's activities included Maile helping Grandma make peanut blossom cookies, Grampa and Matt taking Maile to a fun local park, us celebrating being a family with a late traditional Thanksgiving meal, Maile and Emelyn playing together, us getting family photos taken, and us spending a day in Jackson at the Mississippi Children's Museum (more like a discovery center) and doing some last-minute shopping before Matt and Brittany and the girls headed back to Hawaii.
