Dear Pastor/Friends,

We thank the Lord for His blessings related to our recent district assembly. We are grateful to Generations Church of the Nazarene and the wonderful job they did of hosting us. Special congratulations are in order for our ordinands, seen here with Dr. Crocker and District Secretary Premal Awarsamal. Pictured from left to right are: José and Vicky Palacios, Ashley and David Loftis, Charles and Rebecca Aleman, Michael and Lindsey Burton, Stephanie Ruiz, Monica and Fred Rodriguez.

I want to thank our Hispanic ministry coordinator, Pastor Jose Palacios, for his leadership at last weekend’s Spanish Language Retreat at Arrowhead Camp and Retreat Center. Over 140 of our people attended and had an enjoyable and inspiring time. Our speaker was Dr. Rogelio Lopez. We were blessed by the music of Mitch and Gina Fernandez from our Hereford Church. 

We are anticipating another great summer at Camp Arrowhead. Please check below for info about the camping ministry. Up next is the Young Adult Retreat on May 31-June 2, followed by Family Camp on June 9th, CRAVE Teen Camp on June 17th, and ACTIVATE Kid’s Camp on July 15th. I’m very pleased with our camping program. I strongly encourage our congregations to take advantage of each opportunity.

It was a great honor to install Pastor Keith Norton as the official pastor of our Graham congregation on April 14th. Keith and Jenifer have served there in an interim role for over two years as he was preparing for his district minister’s license, which was granted at the district assembly. The congregation loves the Nortons and the church is beginning to see healthy growth under their leadership

I am also very pleased to announce that our Plainview Church has selected Pastor Kristi O’Riley as their new Pastor! Kristi comes to West Texas from her most recent pastorate in Sun Valley, Arizona, where she served for seven years. She has already been serving as Plainview’s interim pastor, and they love her very much. I will be in Plainview for her installation on July 14th. 

We are excited for Pastor Jeremy, Lynnette, and Luke Page as they are returning to the Asia-Pacific Region as Nazarene missionaries in the Philippines. Of course, we will miss them very much as they are deeply loved by our FW Westridge congregation, where they are currently serving. We will certainly keep them in our prayers as they prepare for their move to the Philippines as Mission Team Coordinators. Lynette will also work in regional finance.

We look forward to seeing everyone at Family Camp!

For you and with you,

Pastor David Downs

P.S. I'm very pleased to report that Pastor John Lewis, who suffered a stroke two months ago has now come home from the rehab facility and is well on his way to recovery. There will be several more months of therapy, but he and Peggy are very encouraged!

Our district treasurer, Connie Lincecum, has prepared the West Texas District 2024-2025 "Funding The Mission" report as of May 6, 2024. Pastors, please pay close attention to your church's contributions so far this year. Please make every effort to encourage your people to faithfully maintain their giving for others. 

Click here to download the report.

Family Camp - June 9-14 at Arrowhead. If you have any older high school students or young adults that you would recommend to serve in our nurseries or worship services, please reach out to our Family Camp team for 2024.

· Mary Brewer - nursery team leader - mzolabird@gmail.com

· Renae Fowler - prek worship team leader - rfowler@trainingdepot.org

· Tracy Ricenbaw - kids church team leader - ricenbaw@hotmail.com

ACTIVATE-kids camp - July 15-19 at Arrowhead. The district website has the Early Bird registration link up and ready. You can also find the Church Leaders Packet and several separate documents to download and view at www.westexnaz.org/childrensministrie

MinistrySafe Update - We need to work toward ALL of our WTX District Churches renewing their MinSafe training for anyone who serves in youth or children ministries. If you serve with kids 18 years old or younger your MinSafe training must be updated every two years. We had a district wide push for this in 2022 so it's that time again to get this all taken care of. CLICK HERE for an updated MinistrySafe explanation letter for you to review.

· MinSafe team update - Jen Sommers is now serving the following zones: Abilene, Amarillo, Arrowhead, Denton, High Plains and Lubbock. Mary Brewer is continuing to serve the Fort Worth, Lamesa, Metro Mid-Cities and Wichita Falls zones.

· MinSafe new invoicing - church leaders requesting MinSafe training links will be invoiced when training links are sent. MinSafe now charges us when we send out links instead of when links are used. Please try to get these invoices paid as soon as you can. These payments come out of our WTX children's ministry budget that we use to run our events (BLAST, quizzing, Kids Camp, etc.) We want to respect our ministry budget and continue to use it in the manner it is intended for.

Jennifer Sommers

As newly arrived missionaries in the provincial city of Taejon, South Korea, we were still settling into our home, which had been built soon after the war in the mid-1950s. David was busy clearing out a detached structure, which had most recently been used for storage, so that we could transform it into our language-study classroom. While David hauled junk to the corner trash heap, a disheveled Korean man approached him, the smell of alcohol heavy on his breath and permeating his clothing.

Though our Korean language skills were minimal at that point, this man made it clear that he was asking for a cash hand-out. David shook his head in reply, but he managed to communicate that he would give him a meal instead. Over the course of the next few weeks—which stretched into years—this man, would come by our house often, almost always under the influence of alcohol. David would always find a variety of odd jobs for him to complete in exchange for a hot meal and conversation.

Soon after David’s initial encounter with the beggar, we attended an interdenominational worship service held for all the area missionaries, and David shared his experience with some of the others. One missionary who lived near us said, “Yes, that’s Mr. Gno. He makes the rounds to all of our homes.”

The missionary looked downcast. “I used to just send him on his way. But one day, after I’d shooed Mr. Gno out our gate, my little boy looked up at me and said, ‘I’m never going to help beggars!’ I saw contempt and derision in his eyes. And I realized my son was reflecting the attitude he’d seen in me. In that moment, I heard the words of the Jesus ringing in my ears—‘Whatever you’ve done for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”* 

The ensuing silence around the circle of missionaries spoke volumes.

Soon after we moved from Taejon to Seoul, we learned that Mr. Gno had passed away. We won’t know until we get to heaven if he accepted and believed in the Jesus the foreigners told him about…But we do know, in the days that followed that meeting, he was treated with a lot more respect and care by certain missionaries who crossed his path.

Susan Downs 

West Texas NMI Storyteller

*(Matthew 25:40)

From Rusty Cars to Bright Futures

If you were to walk the streets of our beautiful city, you would notice a few things: 1) The smell, especially if the wind is blowing just right from the local meatpacking plant. 2) The rich cultural diversity represented in the tiny, yet powerful community. And 3) that almost every other house in the town has a broken-down vehicle just collecting rust in the yards or in the fronts of the houses.

We have been praying and feel that the Lord is leading us to open an auto shop in town. Our Teen mentoring program coordinator and pastor of Cactus International Church of the Nazarene, Rev. Olbin Visagie, is a certified mechanic with many years of experience in repairing vehicles. We believe that opening an auto shop not only will be a great opportunity to continue to minister to our community, but it can be a great set up to mentor the teens and young adults of the community while teaching them a new skill.

Here at CNMC, we offer programs to teens that develop leadership skills. We have activities every other Friday for all the youth of Cactus where we talk about real life and relevant issues. Our programs vary from showing movies, game evenings, pizza parties, and hangout nights. Through this work, we have noticed that a big number of our community teens are dropping out of school. Seeing the growing need for it, we started partnering with the Moore County Juvenile Department and became a community service site, so we can offer some kind of mentorship and guidance to these kids, in an attempt to keep them from going down that dangerous path. Within one month we took in 5 new candidates that needed to do community hours. We are working hard to try to offer these kids an opportunity to turn away from a life of hopelessness and pain and find their identity and reach their full potential in Christ. 

In addition to offering GED so they can get a high school diploma equivalent, we want to equip them with skills that will create other pathways for career opportunities and become a possible source of income for the future. This Auto shop is one of the ways we believe God is calling us to do just that. Our biggest challenge? Finding the space and funds needed to make this dream come true. We have reached full capacity in our building with the many programs and services we offer, therefore we are praying for land. We serve a big God, so we are dreaming and praying big. Would you pray and dream with us? Would you pray for the Lord to give us favor and open the doors that only He can? We know that with God’s provision and your support, we will be able to accomplish this and more, allowing us to reach more in the kingdom work and possibly change many lives.​​​​​​​