Dear Supporting Church Families & Friends,
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth” Luke 15:7. Greetings from the Tohono O’Odham Nation. We certainly have much to rejoice about in this letter (and every day of our lives), most importantly in this letter because of one sinner coming to repentance!
We have always been told that on the reservation we are not allowed to go “door-to-door” with a “visitation style” program. Recently, the Lord allowed the district representative in the district Ak-Chin is in to inform us that it would be OK to pass out information on the church occasionally. What an exciting time!
We printed up “church brochures” that more resembled gospel tracts with church times on them, made up bags of candy, and went to pass them out to every house in the village of Ak-Chin. What a blessing to have some from the village go with us and knock on every door, with an excitement to see their own people saved and in church! We praise the Lord for this opportunity. Before we left, we discussed the verses in Psalms that tell us that if we’ll go, bearing precious seed, we’ll doubtless come again with rejoicing. This harvest didn’t take too long! The very next service, we had a visitor come to the church, and one service later, this same lady returned. This time, after church, she said she wanted to know more about getting saved! What a precious time as my wife and I showed her simply from the Bible (not from our opinion, or the church’s opinion, but from God’s Word) His simple plan of salvation, and then to see her bow her head and ask God to save her! “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” Pray for Marcella! She will no doubt be tempted by the devil, but we are so thankful that she now belongs to the Lord! What a privilege to serve Him, and point others to Him!
During these two months we also had opportunity to get away for a few days to our annual IBIMI mission board retreat in the mountains of northern Arizona. What a cool reprieve from the hot weather here, and what great preaching we heard. We thank God for the encouragement He blessed us with at this meeting! Please remember all those who work with Native Americans around the continent – this is such a needy field so close to home!
As only the Lord can do, He blessed me with an opportunity of a lifetime recently and allowed me, along with my dad and a couple of supporting church families and pastors, to travel to the country of Israel and tour the Holy Land! What an exciting time to see so much of the Bible lands. I must say that I am so thankful for the chance to see all the places where Jesus did so many wonderful things, but am also so thankful that He’s not dead, nor is He finished working here on Earth. I’m so thankful that He’s alive, and still works in my life daily! He also wants to do many more mighty works here now, so let’s all be faithful to Him and His cause!
Please continue praying for the dear people here, they so need Christ. Only He can heal their land! Pray also for our family. Everyone is doing fine (We even survived a broken leg by Brandon! We thank God for His protection and healing!) Pray for the girls (and mom) in home-school! We long to serve Him, be more like Him and please Him in all we do!
Working together with you for HIM,
Brian & Louann, Latanya, Lilly, Rebecca & Brandon Shannon
