Friday, May 12, 2023

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/