A Note From Naphtali
Intro / On the Road
Leading DTS Students on the Pine Ridge Reservation
Hopi Man & Mary Poppins Journal Entry
Prayer Requests
(2) Picture Galleries
Hi Everyone,
God is moving. Though the journey has its regular bumps, puddles, and stuff to work through, we are learning to be quicker to appreciate and thank God for the rainbows, vehicles, and people along the way. We hope and pray you are each doing well.
THE LORD IS NEAR. MAY HE CONTINUE TO LEAD, BLESS, PROTECT, AND POUR OUT HIS SPIRIT, WISDOM, AND LOVE ON YOU. WE LOVE AND MISS YOU.
HELD IN HIS ARMS,
Naph & Tim
Intro / On the Road
Neither Tim nor I can remember having been on the road for so many weeks before. We were gone from Flagstaff for 6 & 1/2 weeks. We began with some long anticipated camping, after not being able to camp in Beijing for over 3 years, we had been aching to get out in creation and the fresh air more! We camped two nights in Durango, where we got to visit one of my closest friends and her family. They are in leadership at their church and always encourage us with their love and passion for Jesus!
After Durango we had two nights camping in Salida on our way to Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs we got to visit with my brother, Johnny, and his wife, Kayti, who are on staff at YWAM Colorado Springs serving with their Missionary Care division. We also got to spend time with my Uncle Oliver, which was a huge blessing, and also with another of my closest friends, Sierra, and to finally meet her husband who is Afghani. They had us over for a delicious Afghan meal at their home, then a few nights later they came over to my Uncle’s to share with us and the DTS students about reaching Muslims with the love of Jesus and Ali’s powerful testimony.
We then took the DTS students out to the Lakota Sioux reservation (from Colorado Springs) for their final week of outreach before their graduation.
Five days later, Tim and I headed up to Montana to represent the YWAM Tribal Winds base at the YWAM National Regional Gathering. We were so blessed to meet so many incredible and seasoned missionaries that week and to begin to build relationships with like-minded people and ministries.
Finally, we headed back to Colorado Springs for a week of personal debriefing with a couple trained through a program out of France called the Le Rucher Model, which was highly recommended to us by Johnny and Kayti. It was a very emotionally difficult, but rewarding week. We had a lot to process and work through, both from our time in China, as well as prior ministry experience and trauma. Praise God, we got a lot covered in a relatively short amount of time! We then stayed four extra days, totaling nine there, because we were recommended to get some inner-healing/intercessory prayer done while it was available to us at a larger base (than Tribal Winds). This also proved to be very helpful and healing for us, and we are so thankful to Bob, and to the Hibberds, who gave us so much of their time and experience!
Now….we finally got back to Flagstaff, and settling back into ministry with the Hopi and trying to raise a support team, when we had to go to Missouri ahead of plans. We are still in need of more partners who have a heart for Native America, and for raising up a strong, equipped Body of Believers who are ready to bring in the Harvest.
Leading DTS Students on the Pine Ridge Reservation
We left Colorado Springs with the DTS students to help for five days at a ministry called, ‘Hands of Faith’, which was just a few miles from the Pine Ridge community, and the Lakota-Sioux people. This was a really impacting and eye-opening time for all of us. Pine Ridge has the highest poverty and violence rates per capita in the nation. We were all alarmed to hear so many firsthand and recent accounts of violence and chaos from people we spoke with during our time there. One Lakota woman I sat with at a dinner during a Christian gathering, told me that her daughter, who had been baptized the night before along with several of her children, went home that night and was stabbed by a neighbor woman. After being flown to the hospital, she was told she was very lucky that no major organs had been hit by the blade. The woman pointed her daughter out to me, who was back for the service the night after she was stabbed. I couldn’t believe that not only did she not want to miss a fellowship time with other lovers of God, but she even had a wide smile of joy on her face! We have so much to learn still as Followers of The Way, don’t we? I was so humbled to meet this woman and her daughter.
We also met met a Lakota man in his early 30’s, who was interning at Hands of Faith. His name was Ben, and we witnessed that he possessed a gentle nature and a heart of service. He had served in the military, and his family as a whole, had a reputation for being the strongest Believers in Pine Ridge. A few nights into our week of outreach, I challenged the students to do a night of prayer after our ministry night. The 3 students excitedly took me up on my offer and we prayed and worshiped together through the night, from 10pm - 5am. During that time, Ben came in and shared with our student, Matthew, that he couldn’t read his bible, because whenever he tried or if worship or a sermon was playing he said his vision got blurred, and he heard voices which made it feel impossible to think or even see at times, and it made him leave the room to get away from it. He told Matthew that he also really struggled to show his emotions, then asked him to read to him from his bible, which he did. Later, Matthew shared with our team what Ben had told him. We discussed what was going on with Ben, and that it seemed very possible that he was having evil spirits torment him. We agreed that this was likely the kind Jesus spoke of when he said, “This kind will only come out through prayer and fasting.” The next day, Tim, Felicia, and I, along with the three students, all fasted and prayed for Ben during our day off, as we drove to visit Mt. Rushmore and go into town for some errands.
Two days later it was so awesome to see what GOD did!! He set Ben free from some lies and spirits which had been bothering him for years! We all got to pray over Ben and the students got to share some things the Lord had told them, which Ben confirmed were accurate. Ben was even able to express his emotions and openly weep. One thing we heard over Ben which he said was true, was the phrase, “You have been living to die, but God is saying, live to LIVE.” We then broke shame and condemnation off of him and commanded any spirits which might be bothering him to leave and not come back and that only the Holy Spirit of God was allowed to remain. Ben said he said he felt very light after this and much more at peace.
Ben has a call on his life to be a bright light into one of the darkest communities in America. It was such a blessing and privilege to all of us to have been sent there for him and a few others. We got to witness their love, tenacity, endurance, and also to listen, fast, pray, serve, and support them for five days. GOD IS FAITHFUL. THANK YOU, LORD.
Our team also got to partner with another small visiting YWAM team, and Hands of Faith for two nights at the Pine Ridge jail. This was also a really impacting experience. The students got to each share a little of their testimony, one woman who is a talented artist showed the Passion story through a sand-art presentation, while me and another lady got to read some from a Native version of the gospels. Seeing the faces of the Lakota women, I felt such a deep love for them, and I felt like I was looking and speaking to the faces of the women I went to school with at Hopi High. I hope we can go back to visit them more in the future.
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Hopi Man & Mary Poppins Journal Entry 6-28-19
Something shifted in me tonight. Something I am aware of but can’t fully put into words. God showed up. I have seen Him many times, but tonight it was to a different degree, and I finally understand a lot of things He has been trying to say to me over the past decade.
It began about a week ago when I sensed a really strong need to fast. Five days later (tonight) I went to the YWAM conference center in the evening and began to have a conversation with a Hopi man while he and Felicia (YWAM staff) were watching Mary Poppins in the main room. He was staying an undetermined amount of nights at the base here in Flag where some of his relatives from Hopi who were in need of some temporary hospice have also been staying for several months. After hearing how he had just gotten out of jail and had a lot of other crazy stuff going on in his life, we spent some time talking about God’s plan of salvation, and His gift of healing to us for our body, soul, and spirit. This led to prayer time for the three of us.
Vincent said he had never seen or experienced anything tangible from God. He wanted God to show him that He as really real. Thankfully, he said he had at some point accepted Jesus into his heart. With his permission, Felicia and I began to pray and ask God to show up and make Himself tangible to His son. I kept seeing and feeling in the spirit that something was blocking him from receiving. About 30 minutes into our prayer time over him I began to ask him questions about his family line and any covenants he may have made with other spirits, since we were hitting such an obvious wall, and since I felt a strong and thick darkness over him. It was at this time that he shared he had gone to jail for 10 years for what he said was an ‘accidental homicide’. He also told us that he feels drawn to go do things he knows are wrong but which are very difficult to say no to. He wouldn’t go into details about what those things were, though we had our suspicions from some other things he mentioned. We then got him to start speaking to God out loud to help Holy Spirit have more room to move, since he had only spoken to us up until this point. His vocalized praise and requests to God also helped give Holy Spirit more room to move.
It was once the Lord led us to pray some prayers over his family line and repent for habitual sins of iniquity and also, that both Felicia and I prayed out loud that we wanted the fasting we had done that week to be applied to breakthrough for his life, that the three of us noticed a visible shift happen! I immediately felt a ‘lightness’ in the Spirit and Vincent said, “Thank you, God!” He then explained that what felt like a very thick, heavy blanket of darkness lifted off of him at that very moment, the same dark, thickness I had been sensing. We continued to pray over him for another 30 minutes during which time he was laughing, then crying gently as he voiced that he was experiencing something he had never experienced before - the tangible love and presence of God. He said He felt so much peace and joy and said he knew he would never be the same again.
When we were first praying for Vincent, I sensed a real danger. I have sensed angels, and also evil spirits many, many times, but never have felt amidst such a real and present danger for my own safety and for the safety of Felicia. I knew in the midst of that the reason why I had that impression I needed to fast this week. I greatly regret now that I only ended up doing 48 hours before ending it, because of stress and distractions at the time. I could have helped a Hopi brother get more freedom. “Lord, please help me to be faithful with everything you entrust to me, or ask me to do.”
PLEASE PRAY WITH US FOR NATIVE AMERICA. GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH THEM YET. THE HARVEST IS READY BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW, PRAY TO THE LORD OF THE HARVEST AND ASK THAT MORE WORKERS BE SENT (& for the workers’ strengthening, provision, and endurance)
Prayer Requests:
That we would love God with all of hearts, minds, soul, and strength
To love, see, and communicate with all those around us as Jesus & FATHER God would
Greater love, understanding, and clear communication within our marriage
For children in God’s timing
For our own home, with enough room to show hospitality and be able to have an investment for our future
God’s strategy and timing for the Training School He has told us to start
A grace to fast, pray, love, and obey
God’s heart for Native America. A grace to quickly forgive, repent, show mercy, have compassion, offer help
A continued growth in both financial and intercessory partners
A growth in people willing to come physically serve and help in the work of full-time or part-time ministry
Our trip to visit Tim’s family in Missouri and his Dad who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer
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