The Gales Ministry Update

August 28, 2023

Dear Family and Friends,

So much has happened since our last newsletter.  Two of our grandsons got married.  Andy “Bug”  Galli (Mel and Annie’s youngest) who is in the US Army in Georgia was finally able to get married to his high school sweetheart in July.  If you remember, we flew back for his graduation from US Army Ranger school and for his wedding.  However, due to a misunderstanding of Army regulations, he was unable to get married at that time.

Asher (Jason and Shelli’s oldest) got married just last week in Knoxville, TN.  We flew back for the wedding, which I also officiated.  It was a quick trip but a wonderful time reuniting with family and friends.

One more piece of news is that our granddaughter, Autumn (Jason and Shelli’s middle child) is engaged and the wedding is scheduled for December 29 in Port Gamble, Washington.  Autumn and her fiancé are both students at Montana Bible College.  Aiden, her younger brother is also now attending MBC.  This leaves Jason and Shelli, who just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, and now “empty-nesters.”

Even though we have done quite a bit of traveling we have done much here at the church.  With help from some members, the parsonage is totally gutted.  Our project manager who is a retired contractor is taking care of pretty much everything.  I simply do as he tells me.  We also have a hired worker who is also directed by our project manager.  Materials have been ordered and in two weeks (approx) the entire exterior will be removed and replaced as well as all new windows.

We have asked for help from the Construction Workers Christian Fellowship (Hard Hats) and have been approved.  But we have yet to get any volunteers.  Please pray that we will get some Hard Hats volunteers.  

In our last letter, I mentioned that I was going to take the trailer to an RV repair shop in Reno, NV.  We dropped off the trailer on a Monday and they actually fixed it.  I picked it up on Friday.  The cost of the fix was minimal.  I expected a huge bill but I was very pleasantly surprised.  It wasn’t as broken as I thought it was.

Yesterday marked our one-year anniversary here at Orovada Community Church.    For the past nine months, I have been seeking a new full-time pastor but have not had any applicants.  We have been asking the Lord if we should accept the position.  When we were here in 2015-2016 we wanted to stay but there were other family matters that we had to fulfill.  Well, now that Jason and Shelli are empty-nesters they have decided to move to Knoxville, TN next year.  So since we live on their property that means that we would have to move elsewhere.  Since we love being here in Orovada, we took that as a “sign” from the Lord that we should stay.  When I spoke with Dan (the elder) that we would like to stay permanently he was very happy.  We made the announcement to the church yesterday that we would like to be the permanent pastor and everyone started clapping and cheering.

So here we will stay.  We will still be with NICE as a missionary Pastor as OCC is not able to support a full-time pastor.  Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

It seems that all we do is physical labor.  Although we do much there is also much personal ministry going on.  Dayle is extremely involved with the women and the women’s mid-week bible study will resume in a couple of weeks.  I am hoping to start a men’s bible study after harvest season which has just begun.  I am currently preaching through Titus and in Sunday School I am continuing to teach Basic Systematic Theology.  

Praise and Prayer:

~ We praise the Lord that we are going to stay in Orovada as the permanent pastor.
~ Praise the Lord that Ryan Wetterlund of Port Angeles is in remission and has returned to work.
~ Please continue to pray for Pastor Dennis McBride, Lake Havasu City, AZ.  He has surgery coming up to hopefully remove the tumor on his pancreas.
~ Pray for our dear friend, Ed Ortiz of Sequim, WA.  He is also undergoing cancer treatment and has much back pain.
~ Pray for the men of OCC as I continue to try to befriend them and minister to them.


One of the hard things to get used to is not being able to see all of our friends and we do miss you all very much.  Please send us an email, a text, or a phone call to let us know how you are doing.  Or better yet, come for a visit.  

Serving our great God and Savior,

Shelley and Dayle

The Gale's Tales Ministry Update - May 12, 2023

The Gale’s Tales
May 12, 2023
Ministry Update


Dear Family and Friends,

We continue to thank the Lord for your constant outpouring of love and prayer support.  Our great God continues to meet all of our needs.  He is faithful!

We continue to perform much physical work on the building and property and now some of the members are pitching in.  Three of the ladies painted the foyer and hallway to a beautiful white(ish) color which replaced a bright yellow.

Nothing yet has been done to the parsonage basically because we didn’t know where to start.  But we had the husband of one of our ladies, who is a retired contractor, come in and give us a plan and cost estimates.  So, now that it looks like winter has finally departed, even though it snowed last week, we can get started.  The first thing we need to do is to remove the rooftop swamp cooler and replace the section of the roof that has been damaged by water.  Then we plan to replace the siding of the entire exterior.  I still don’t know where all the money (approximately $50K) is going to come from, but the Lord will provide. I will be doing most of the work and I will be recruiting some other volunteers.

Dayle continues to lead the women’s ministry.  Last month Dayle and a few of the ladies put on a Spring Tea.  We had a total of 30 ladies most of which were from outside of the church.  One of our missionary ladies, Janat Hetrick from Kazakhstan, came as our speaker.  She gave a powerful testimony that challenged all the ladies.  There is much excitement in the church right now, especially from the ladies of the church.  Many have taken “ownership” of things and are putting a lot of effort into the aesthetics and weekly upkeep.

I continue to preach through Second Peter and will be finishing it up in the next two weeks.  After that, I will do a few topical messages before starting a new book.  I also lead most of the Sunday service music on the guitar.  However, I now have two excellent pianists who can play anything.  They are not here every Sunday, but when they are here, I hope to use their talents.   I enjoy leading the music on Sunday, but I am glad that it doesn’t have to be the “Shelley show” all the time anymore.

We have been here nearly nine months now.  We have put the word out on several sites seeking a new pastor.  In the past five months, we have had only three inquiries.  Two of them sent in a  resume and we had to reject them immediately.  One man who runs a pastoral search website told me that he has hundreds of churches without pastors and there are very few applicants.   Even in our own mission (NICE), there are 17 churches looking for a pastor.  I originally estimated that we would be here for about a year.  Now I think that it may be longer.  We need a pastor and wife who are doctrinally fit, healthy, active, able to do physical labor on the property, and can accept what the church can pay.  Not a small order but our God can do it.

On April 18th our daughter, Annie, called and told us that her son, Andy, was graduating as U.S. Army Ranger on the 28th.  We weren’t going to go since it was in Georgia until she told us that he was going to get married to his high school sweetheart the following day. So we bought plane tickets and made the trip to the East.  We flew into Norfolk, Virginia where Mel and Annie picked us up.  Then the next day we all drove to Fort Benning, Georgia.  We all stayed in a large rented house that sleeps 21.  So the 14 of us had plenty of room.  We were all pretty excited about the graduation and the wedding until Andy discovered that he needed permission to get married during training.  Even though he graduated from Ranger training, he was to begin another course of Ranger schooling on Monday.  He then learned that this rule is clearly stated in the US Army Ranger handbook.  When he spoke to his commanding officer, he was told that if he gets married that he would be kicked out of the Ranger program.  He was also told that since he did not seek permission before planning the wedding he might not be allowed to graduate as a ranger because it appears that he was being deceptive.  However, the Army chaplain went to bat for him and he was allowed to graduate and become an Army Ranger.  However, there was no wedding.  They will get married in a small ceremony once he completes all of his training.  

Even though there was no wedding, we did get to meet and spend time with Andy’s fiancee and her family as we all stayed in that big house.  We also got to see Mel and Annie’s house in Hayes, VA which is a waterfront property on the York River.  They continue to work for the same company in Oregon, but just remotely.

On May 29th we will be returning to Port Angeles to complete our annual medical appointments.  Then on June 4th, we will be taking a little trip on a cruise ship to Alaska with some long-time friends whom we met in the ‘70s while we were stationed in Cape May, New Jersey.  They invited us to go along with them so, we are going.  After the cruise, we will return to Port Angels for a couple of days before returning to Orovada.

Our trailer has a problem that I have been trying to fix off and on since we got here.  The 14' wide kitchen slide-out has some mechanical issues.  I had tried many different suggestions to fix the problem all with no success.  The latest “fix” even made it worse.  So I finally decided to make an appointment for July 10th at an RV dealer in Reno, NV.  The service manager assured me that they will fix the problem.   Please pray that this will be done!

Prayer Requests:
~ Please continue to pray for this church and for the Lord to send us the right pastor and wife.
~ Please pray for our friend, Dennis McBride, pastor at Bethany Bible Church, Lake Havasu City, AZ.  He has a pancreatic tumor containing cancer cells and is still undergoing treatment.  He has had some complications.  Also pray for his wife, Lynda as this is extremely hard on her.  But they both at praising the Lord even through this difficult trial.
~ Please pray for our friend, Ryan Wetterlund of Port Angeles from Strait View Baptist Church, who is also fighting cancer.  He just completed his last chemo treatment.  Ryan is married to Joy and they have a young son.

We would love to hear from you from time to time so please don’t hesitate to call, text, or send us a note.  It can get quite lonely out here in the middle of nothing.

Serving our great God and Savior,

Shelley and Dayle

Our mailing address: Phones:  Shelley  (541) 218-9717 or (360) 207-1967
P.O. Box 116   Dayle    (541) 450-5576
Orovada, NV 89425


If you would like to financially support our ministry please send support to:
Northwest Independent Church Extension  PO Box 2225, Sumner, WA  98390, and put our name in the memo.

Or simply go to the NICE website at https://nicechurchplanters.org/donate/




 

 The Gale’s Tales
January 31, 2023
Ministry Update


Dear Family and Friends,

We thank the Lord for your constant outpouring of love and prayer support.  

I began our December ministry update with: “Work, work, work!  The work continues with no end in sight.  Yes, there is much work that we have done and there is still very much work to do.” And I must begin this update in like manner.

I continue teaching basic systematic theology in Sunday School and in the morning service I have returned to Second Peter.  The attendance fluctuates between 10 and 27.  Ministering to a farm and ranching community is certainly different from what I am used to.  But we are learning.  Much of what the farmers and ranchers do is dependent upon the weather.  The weather here has been very cold with rain and snow.

Dayle was able to get together with the ladies to plan the calendar for the year. Many exciting events were planned as outreach to the community such as "Trunk or Treat", Movie Nights featuring good Christian based movies, Easter Resurrection Egg hunt, and many more. Dayle also started a weekly ladies prayer group (suggested by one of the moms),  as well as teaching the Tuesday evening Philippians bible study. She also started volunteering at the local school across the street.

We are continuing to work on the property and parsonage.  We just remodeled and painted the nursery.  As far as the parsonage goes, the probate court was just finished and we can now distribute everything and clear out all the stuff.  The person who inherited all the household items asked us to try to sell all the stuff that she doesn’t want.  Dayle has been doing this and has already sold a bunch of stuff.  

We also just had a retired building contractor look at the entire place and he is working up a cost estimate for materials knowing that we will be doing the work ourselves.  We are also looking into the possibility of purchasing the house next to the church if we can convince the owner to sell it and if we can afford it.  The house is currently not being used so we are hopeful.  

Living way out in the middle of nowhere, can be quite challenging.  We have to plan our weekly trips to Winnemucca as it is a 42-mile drive.  But this is perhaps the only drawback of living so far out is when I need something for a job that I am doing, I can’t just run to the local store, because there are no local stores.  But there are some advantages to living here.  The farmers and ranchers don’t throw away much stuff.  So if I need something, anything, I just go to the farm and scrounge around their “bone yard.”  The bone yard contains everything imaginable.  I have gone and found plumbing parts and electrical parts that I took from old mobile homes and used them in the church and parsonage for repairs.  Recently I made a covered porch for our trailer all from used pallets from the farm and other materials that were just laying around.  I did have to purchase two 2 x 6's and five 2 x 4's. (See Photo below) 

On the first of December, I listed the Pastoral position on the IFCA website but we have not yet had a single inquiry. We still continue to pray for the Lord to send us the right man and wife for this church.

As far as our children and grandchildren all are doing quite well.  Autumn is all healed up from donating her kidney to her brother, Asher.  And she just started as a student at Montana Bible College in Bozeman, Montana.  Asher is doing well with his new kidney.  Aiden is currently serving in Florida at a month-long Korean Awana Camp as the Bible teacher.  This gives their parents, Jason and Shelli, a taste of the empty nest which will be coming when Aiden also goes off to Bible college.

Stephen and Neeley and their two little ones, Jack 10, and Pearl 9 are doing well.  Mel and Annie just moved across the country into the house they just purchased in Hayes, Virginia, Their two boys AJ, is busy working in Grants Pass, Oregon, and is not moving to Virginia with his parents.  Andy is in the US Army and is currently in Ranger training. And Andy just got engaged to his high school girlfriend.

Personally, we are doing great no health problems at all.  Although I greatly miss my Hot Springs Spa.   Every day is an adventure for us and we love doing almost everything together.  We were able to go visit Stephen and Neeley and the kids in Sacramento arriving on Christmas day.  I stayed for 6 days and Dayle stayed another week and came home on the Amtrak train.

Financially, the Lord continues to meet all of our needs even though we are down to only two supporters.  We just had a significant expense for new injectors for the truck but this was not a surprise and we had planned for it.


Prayer Requests:
~ Please continue praying for all of our children as each one is contemplating major changes in their lives.
~ Please continue to pray for this church and it’s future pastor and wife.
~ Please pray for our friend, Dennis McBride, pastor at Bethany Bible Church, Lake Havasu City, AZ.  He has a pancreatic tumor containing cancer cells and is undergoing treatment.  He is scheduled for surgery to remove it on March 14th.  Also pray for his wife, Lynda as this is extremely hard on her.  But they both at praising the Lord even through this difficult trial.

We would love to hear from you from time to time so please don’t hesitate to call, text, or send us a note.

Serving our great God and Savior,

Shelley and Dayle

Our mailing address:            Phones:  Shelley  (541) 218-9717 or (360) 207-1967
    P.O. Box 116                     Dayle    (541) 450-5576
    Orovada, NV 89425


If you would like to financially support our ministry please send support to:
Northwest Independent Church Extension PO Box 2225, Sumner, WA 98390, and put our name in the memo. Or simply go to the NICE website at https://nicechurchplanters.org/donate/