My Dear Teammates,                                                                            July 10, 2007

My heart is filled with praises to the Lord and I say with the Psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!"

I would like to express my love and appreciation, Teammate, for all that you do, and have done, for Frontier Missions.  You are responding so well to my last appeal letter, regarding our summer outreaches.  Many of you wrote notes and assured us of your prayers and love, and some of you just noted, on the memo, that your check was for diesel fuel or that it was for the outreaches.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

I would like to tell you a little about our recent trip to the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho.  This was the seventh year in a row that we were invited back and what a time we had!  Our team was headed up by Rick McPherson, our V.P. of Operations, Marv Boettcher, our Field Director, Greg Kennedy, our Marketing Manager, and Jan Cousins, our Thrift Store Manager. Sandy and Dave Webb brought over 30 kids from a local church to hold VBS in the city park each day, and they had the largest bunch of kids than ever before.

I wish you could have been there, Teammate, to see the excitement on the kids faces as the big rig pulled up and began to unload box after box of groceries.  The food pantry was bare, except for a few cans of beans.  In 95 degree heat, the kids pitched in and soon had an assembly line going.  When the truck was unloaded and the food was displayed  on the shelves, there were a lot of happy Native American people.  Thank you, Teammate, for making this possible.

Pastor Antonio Smith and his wife Vestal are the pastors of our host church, the N.A.M.E. Church.  They are delightful Native people and they gave us a very warm welcome.  Pastor Tony told our team that the food was very important to them.  He also said it was very important in the Indian culture that we be invited to the reservation.  He told us that basically, Native Americans still do not like non-natives.  He mentioned that we had been there for seven years in a row and had never asked them for anything.  He also told us that he had used Frontier Missions, many times, as an example of real Christian love.

On our last day there, we had a big barbeque in the city park and what a crowd we had.  One of the crowning moments of the week was at the end.  One of our team members saw a young Indian boy walking down the street with his plate piled high with food.  When he was asked why he was leaving the park, he replied that he was taking the plate of food to his mother.  Then he told us that she had not eaten for two days.  We took him home and when we were invited in, his mother showed us that there was no food in the cupboards.  Thank you again, Teammate, for helping us make a difference.  God bless!

Darrell Kennedy, President