This is our first newsletter and we'll just try here to bring you up to date with what we are doing, our recent trips, and our short term plans. 

First off, many of you may know our founder, Don Cline, was the founder of Frontier Missions, also here in the Portland area. At a youthful eighty four years of age, Don feels led of the Lord to begin a new ministry which parallels his past efforts. His goal is the same, to help in any way he can to lead Indian souls to the Lord. This has been his endeavor for the last thirty five years. This new ministry is an arduous undertaking and not one he would enter into without God's confirmation in his heart.

It is a beautiful thing to watch a ministry grow. But, even with the Lord alongside, it is not accomplished  without much labor, frustration, disappointment and even some level of anxiety. Of course the joy of seeing God at work is what keeps a disciple going. We have already seen the Lords hand at work in the few short months we've been going. He provided free lodging to the team on our January trip to the Warm Springs reservation. As we pondered whether or not we could really afford the cost of a room at the Kah-nee-tah resort ,(It is the only lodging within about forty miles of the reservation) the manager, a young Indian fellow, stepped out of his office and asked the clerk what rate he was giving us. Then he turned to Don and said, "I know you. I've listened to you for years. This room will be on us."  It may not seem like a 'burning bush' to most people, but it was to us. We knew the Lord had his hands in this. Later on that evening he provided for a meal in their dining room. They were great ten dollar hamburgers. Not a few 'loves and fishes', but every bit as real. On our February trip to the Celilo Indian village He made his presence known once again. We went there primarily to see what needs we might be able to help with. We brought eighteen boxes of groceries along. The very first residents we met told us how the night before that three households had been forced to combine resources just to make dinner. How appreciative they were for those simple boxes of food. It might as well been manna from heaven to those folks. It would be difficult to believe that we weren't guided there. 

But those are the best times, not the norm. Most of the time has been spent doing more mundane things like the paperwork to establish us as a non-profit agency, setting up the office and computers, searching for sources of food and clothing and the like. Still, those little miracles are what encourage us and prompt us to continue on. 

Don and Bob King are making a trip to the Northwest Indian Bible School in Alberton Montana on the morrow. They are taking a load of groceries there as well. They will be taking Don's old pickup as the new one was involved in a minor fender bender last week. They will return on Saturday or Sunday. As with all the initial trips they will be examining the situation to see how we might be of help. The following week, there will be another trip, this time to the Blackfoot Reservation in Browning Montana; leaving Friday and returning the following Tuesday. How wonderful it will be to visit and renew old acquaintances. 

That's about all for now. Please keep First Nation Ministries in your prayers; that we would be in the center of God's will in all that we do.

God Bless;

The team