A NEW DAY -- ANOTHER SUMMER

Where to begin? With Alan almost completely recovered from his surgery and Alisha well on the mend from her emergency surgery, we marched right into summer! On June 6th both girls flew to their respective places: Alana to Kentucky and alisha to North Carolina for now. The very next Friday night our mission team arrived from Springdale, Arkansas... and our lives will never be the same (hopefully theirs won't either!) Although it was late, they were all exhausted, but in good spirits and everyone pitched in to unload supplies for the week. It was an awesome sight! Saturday they hit the ground running, passing out 100+ invitations door-to-door from Saltese to DeBorgia. Sunday morning they led the worship time in services and then did a concert for us that night.

Loggin' in Haugan--These phenomenal teens were hard workers and seemed happy to do it! It was truly a wonderful experience and a great encouragement to us and to our small band of believers. Yet, God spoke volumes to the people in this community, especially several business men as they observed the work going on. Monday and Tuesday, these young people worked hard labor to clean and clear up the church grounds. They were divided into work teams for clearing trees, clearing slash, burning and spreading clay on the parking lot. Monday evening we passed out of more invitations for a Free Concert and Ice Cream Social for Tuesday night.

One of the amazing things was the response and cooperation of several men in our community. Vern and Chris were the only church members who worked with the youth, but John, Pat, Ozzie, Mike, and Bill also came to assist in different tasks. Three of the men, non-members, and two others who had come to special events assisted. And for one of the men this was the very first time he has stepped onto the property! The kids forged a bridge for us to build relationship with him--his wife already comes to services when they are here for weekends--but he never has. The other gentleman, a hard core businessman in the area, from which we purchased 4 loads of dirt for the parking lot, returned after lunch with his dozer to spread the remaining dirt and saved the kids hours of work they had been doing by hand. He did not charge for this labor, he could have and normally would have! This was certainly a blessing from God. Then this same businessman brought his wife to the Tuesday night concert! God was at work. The shadow of the enemy's darkness was turned just a bit more this week and we are greatly rejoicing!

From St Regis to Haugan - By Tuesday the group had met and made contact with several teenagers in Haugan and finally caught up with two of our own youth from St Regis! This was a HUGE blessing. Two local teens also showed up at the concert along with 26 other folks from the community. This was a good turn out for a "church event" in this valley! (28 from community + 18 from New Hope = 46) Oh, yes, and one family who came did not get out of their car except to get their child some ice cream. One of our church members went over and visited with them for several minutes. They were shy but excited that the father had a new job and was doing well. This was our third time to have a "touch" with this family: first on Easter Sunday morning, then through the Food Pantry a few weeks later, and this concert/ice cream social. God is at work. Please pray for this young family.

Showers of Blessing - Wednesday it rained and poured! But the young people kept working: one team "harvested" rock, loaded it from 5 miles up the mountain and unloaded it into the soon-to-be prayer garden! this was hard work and not for the faint of heart. It would have taken our small band of believers months to get this done, if at all because most of us are not able to life heavy objects. To say these kids were a gift from God is a gross understatement. And some of the girls helped go through donated clothes to check their condition, size them, and prepare them for display in our new Resource Center in the Fall. This was a tremendous help.

Parting is such sweet sorrow - Shakespeare was pretty much right on! Wednesday night we reluctantly bid farewell to this special group with a cook out and games at Vern Herman's fire pit! Everyone ate burgers, hot dogs, venison, and smores to their heart's content. But, it was really hard to say goodbye. Two young men from Haugan even showed up for the cook out and games. Please pray with us for the teens this group befriended: Ty, Chance, Tyson, Juliana, & David.

A New Day & An Amazing May!

May was an amazingly challenging month for the Damrons! Yet GOD remains faithful and has brought us every step of the way... although we are only in the very beginning stages of our Food Pantry, we were able to help our first family from the New Day Resource Center with Vern Herman's help. This family had first visited on Easter Sunday!

The beginning of May found us still recovering from Alan's surgery and taking advantage of basement living! That next week we greeted some new friends from Springdale, AR: Fred Hash and his sister, Geneva Worley. They were such a genuine blessing to our lives! Fred & Geneva stayed about 3 weeks and worked very hard on anything we needed--and there were several projects we had not been able to get done. Other than several repair projects Fred completed, they also cleaned out one of the closets for our Food Pantry, and built racks for our future Clothes Closet, installed two coat racks downstairs, and much more. They are now part of our family and we hope to see them back next summer!

As the month progressed Alan was up enough to sit on a tall stool to preach a brief Mother's Day message. On May 16th we drove to Seattle to pick up Alisha for a two month visit in the US from Uganda. It was so wonderful to have her here, face to face, give her hugs, and walk around the beautiful city together. Tuesday Alana rested in the hotel room while "the girls" went to the downtown market, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, and enjoyed a great day. But, that night Alisha had excruciating stomach pains which did not ease. We drove back to Haugan on Wednesday and by Thursday morning we drove her to the ER in Missoula. She was admitted into the hospital with pancreatitis and gall stones. She was seriously ill. Fred and Geneva were kind enough to drive to Missoula and pick Alan up to go back to Haugan while I stayed at the hospital with Alisha. It ended up being a 5 day stay! She was released after most of the inflammation and fluid subsided, but they scheduled her for outpatient surgery to have the gall bladder removed the following Thursday--the same day Fred and Geneva had to leave to return to Springdale. This was quite a challenge, although Alan is much more independent--it still left one very inadequate nurse with two patients! It was quite a ride... Alisha had to extend her stay with us for one week and had a follow up doctor visit the next Friday. She then flew to Durham to travel from North Carolina to Texas meeting with her supporters and seeing friends and family. Since the doctor would not release her to fly to Louisville on schedule, the Lord provided a way for us to bring Alana to Montana.

On May 23rd we were honored to have our home pastor, Dr. Cliff Jenkins, visit and preach for the Haugan services. He and Harlan Earp came to visit over the weekend and see the area and potential of the work here. They also drove Alan to the hospital in Missoula on Saturday to see Alisha and return home. Most amazing of all, on the last Sunday of May all four of the Damron family were in Haugan for services! We had not been together in one place for over a year--how thankful and blessed we were!

Some exhilarating "highs" and heartbreaking "lows": One of the girls in our core Youth group graduated this year and received some scholarships to attend nursing school in the fall in Missoula. We are so proud of her and this is a wonderful opportunity. Then, our senior high boy just won state at high jump recently! Way to go, T! Sadly we just found out that one of our favorite junior high girls has been removed from her home by Child Protective Services and sent to live with a family in another state along with one other sister. Our hearts are absolutely broken and will miss her dearly. We are praying the Lord will send new Christian friends into their lives.