By Dale Lawrence (Executive Director, Arizona Reservation Ministries)
Greetings from Arizona Reservation Ministries!
We have had a great year so far! Over 950 backpacks were distributed before the beginning of the new school year! Last February, a group of ladies again went to a Women’s Conference in the valley where one gave her life to Jesus Christ. In September, twenty-one children and teens obeyed Christ in Christian baptism! We had been blessed by the addition at the very end of 2013 of an Apache couple on our children’s/youth ministries, and in the spring, a wonderful cook from San Carlos to prepare meals for our visiting work teams. God has truly blessed us in incredible ways! Your partnership through prayer and provision has made an eternal impact!
We’ve completed construction of the Church of Calvary’s new sanctuary and a home for the Kindelay family. Homes for the Belvado and Norman families, Lord willing, will be completed soon. We have begun construction on two more homes! In order to accomplish all of this, we have hosted groups of volunteers from all over the country. Each group brings their own unique abilities and skills in construction to make these projects a reality, meeting critical needs as only God could do.
This summer was one of the most humid we have seen in years. Although it was not the hottest we have had, the humidity made it feel much more uncomfortable than usual. The high humidity also made the evaporative coolers we have on the church building ineffective. We had installed several window air conditioners in the church/work group dorm and kitchen (all under one roof). This resulted in the highest electric bills we have ever seen; over $1,200.00 in July and over $1,000.00 in August. The church building has no attic insulation and needs a central cooling/heating system. Although our office has an efficient cooling system, it has no insulation in the attic.
In order to control the cooling costs in these buildings, we need to install insulation in the attics of both buildings and an efficient central air-conditioning system for the Church/work group dorm building. We hope to do this soon, but we need your help. We also want to look at installing solar options on both buildings to further reduce our electric bills. We will be comparing the different choices for solar to see which will best suit our needs. We need to raise funds for this project as well. We hope that you will consider a special year-end tax deductible gift toward these projects. We can better use the funds spent on high utility bills for ministry with your help. Please consider a special gift for these projects. And, please continue to keep the ministries of Arizona Reservation Ministries in your prayers.
To donate to the Arizona Reservations ministries, please visit azrez.org/ways-to-give.