Image Credit: Mitch Hayes

Athena Members Reach Out to Reservation

The Blue Mountain Valley Mission Church outreach team from Athena, Ore., believes God will do a mighty work on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and team members are excited to be a small part of it.

As members were visiting people door to door to pass out invitations to a health seminar, they met Kathleen. She was looking for a church to attend and was happy they stopped by. She was new to the area and had been looking for a place to attend church on Sabbath. She will be a new passenger on the church bus, making it a full bus going to church each Sabbath.

Not only are more coming to church each week, but more are taking Bible studies. “I met a young man named Shane last fall,” says Mitch Hayes, Mission Church outreach coordinator. “He was interested in studies, and when we dropped off studies to him, he would take them and go back inside very quickly. One day he came out and had a big smile on his face so I asked him how he was doing.”

Shane answered, “I’m doing a lot better.”

When Hayes asked him what he meant, Shane said, “First I quit smoking cigarettes, then I quit drinking alcohol, and then I quit smoking marijuana, and it's all thanks to God.” Shane praised God for sending the team out to his door to share the good news with him. Shane and his brother plan to visit the Mission Church soon and are continuing to study the Bible.

Hayes, along with Monte Church and Paul Vivier, held a Native New Day seminar in April. They have been praying for the people from Mission and the surrounding areas, that God will continue to do a mighty work in Mission.

Featured in: May 2014

Author

Kathy Marson

Upper Columbia Conference communication administrative assistant