The People of Papua New Guinea in Deland

Dear Friends of DelandNaz

Greetings in the strong name of Jesus! The past two weeks seem like a giant blur as time has just flown by with so many activities. On June 21^st we ended a week of special revival services with Evangelist Elaine Pettit. What a great revival we had with the altars filled each service with folks seeking the Lord and holiness of heart. We had amazing attendance for revival in spite of it being summer. If you have a testimony of what the Lord has done for you please write it up and send it in or stand up sometime soon in one of our services and give God the glory for the great things He has done.

After revival we went right to Orlando to start the General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene. The services officially started on the 23^rd and conclude on July 3^rd. I want to congratulate two young people representing the Deland Church for their participation and achievements at Assembly. Chelsea Migner was a teen bible quizzer who 4 days in a row with her team won 2^nd place in the world as the 2^nd best team in the world. We proud of her for her accomplishments in her work throughout the year in studying the book of Luke.

Congratulation also goes out to Newman Migner for being 1 of only 6 children from the North Florida District and the only child quizzer from Deland who won a gold placement in bible quizzing> Newman missing only 1 question out of 40. Way to go Newman!!~

In the midst of Bible quizzing, NMI, NYI and Sunday School conventions we have continued to prepare and assist 29 of 54 Delegates from Papua New Guinea. As pastor I have begun to get acquainted with the wonderful people of PNG. Soon many will head back to PNG, but 29 will stay among us for another 7 days and your prayers and help is needed and encouraged.

The people of PNG sacrifice greatly in order to be able to attend the General Assembly. Each foreign delegation looks for a host in the United States to help them once they arrive. It just so happened that most of the closest Nazarene churches in Orlando were already filled up and the PNG people found us and asked if we could help them in anyway.

The original plan was for the PNG people to leave the hotel on July 3^rd and stay on the Nazarene camp grounds on the south FL district for 2 days for free. Just this morning due to cost and the lack of transportation they will not be going south for two days, but instead staying among the Deland facilities from the 3^rd-10^th . The Lodging has been worked out and today I find out more info on a possible van our church can borrow from another ministry to help transport these folks around locally.

The opportunity of assisting them and blessing them is truly an honor. I would like you to listen to this interview I had yesterday at the General Assembly regarding what it took these folks to come to the USA to represent Jesus and the GA. After you review this video please let me know what you could do to help them have a more pleasant and enjoyable stay among us. There are some hopes I have in hosting these people that maybe the Lord will lay on someone’s heart to help out as He leads. Because they will now be among us on the 4^th of July I am now wondering what can we do or where can we take them to experience American on the 4^th of July? Since our family has not been in the area before during American’s birthday I am not familiar with what options of things there are to do here. So your ideas, input and involvement are welcomes. I have had a work in progress for hosting these people and below is that schedule, but the needs are not meet to fulfill.

July 3^rd – Arrive in Deland sometime after 12 noon

July 4^th- Open nothing planned with them as a group as of yet.

July 5^th- A special Carry in lunch after the AM worship and then more worship specials in the evening service.

July 6^th Take group to HOLYLAND in Orlando. We have a group rate of 25 per adult and 20 for those 55 and older. This is a lot of money for these people, but of all the parks and places to go throughout the Greater Orlando area this park excites them because it is all about their Lord and Savior. If you would like to go with them and maybe helps sponsor 1 guest that could be a large blessing.

July 7^th A day of rest and as well as walking around the local area and downtown shops. The Lord has blessed us with unlimited tickets the evening of the 7^th for an American baseball game with the Deland Suns. These tickets include a free BBQ after the 5^th inning as well. If you would like to go and take a few PNG people in your own car to the game that evening then please register online for your free tickets asap and how many PNG people you can pick up at the church to take downtown to the game. It should be a very fun and exciting evening.

July 8^th. Take PNG people to local farmers market or other fun things that are no cost and would be enjoyable before the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. Several that nights will also go over to the New Smyrna Nazarene church as well for fellowship.

July 9^th. International interaction Day! This day is for you to adopt a few PNG people and take them around the area in your own way and either take a few out to dinner or cook them a home cooked meal and invite them into your home for fellowship for a couple hours. At the General Assembly they had a sign up sheet where Americans could take an International guest to dinner and many did so and had great experiences. So in Deland we want you to have this same opportunity if you are so inclined. I hope you might sign up and invite a few into an American home so they might experience what our culture is like from the inside.

July10th. Our Delegates will be packing up and headed home this day. If you would like to help take a van load of people we could use the extra cars to help us get them to the airport as well.

These are some of God’s very special people and as well a wonderful opportunity to bless some people that have never been out of their own country before. I hope you will take the time to pray and consider how the Lord would have you get involved in world Missions that has come home to Deland.

The above schedule is all tentative. The HOLYLAND group ticket money has not been entirely secured and the rest of the schedule above can be changed or adjusted as the Lord leads. After a very full week in helping host these PNG Delegates in Orlando I have learned that the key word of the week is FLEXIBLE.

Signup sheets here!

In His Service

Pastor Peter Migner

Why I like Tea Parties

This past week we found out about the T.E.A. parties happening all over the USA.
We ended up as a family and friends going to downtown Deland, FL to join the protest. WHY? Because I am not in favor of the way our President and congress are handling the financial situation in America. One of the speakers today said in America we as Americans are concerned about this taxation overload becuase of the money, whereas she coming from Cuba being an immigrant are concerned about where this will lead as regards to Freedom. I am not sure of the solutions for our country, but sitting around and complaining is not the answer and wrting and calling leaders is one of many and I believe just getting out among other people who believe the same way is powerful and confirming as well. God help America to stay free as there is no other place left to go after America.

From T.E.A. Party

Strange Things in DeLand FL.

I moved to DeLand, FL in January. I was excited to serve God in my new assignment. We have a nice home, nice church and nice community among nice neighbors. My first day in the home before my family arrived I noticed two people cutting through my yard. Jerry and Bob are there names. They came right up to my back door and said are you new to the neighborhood? I told them I was and Jerry ( who I decided was a women and not a man after a few minutes) said, you have a nice dog. I said thanks. I noticed they were carrying a heavy bag of beer.Within the next few days Jerry made a habit of cutting right through my back yard and coming back about 30 minutes later with a bag of beer. Well, within a few short days I realized Jerry and Bob had a addition and my yard helped them get to the source faster than the road. When my wife and kids got to Deland I wondered how this was going to work and had decided that Bob, Jerry and I needed to talk soon about my yard as a short cut. One morning my oldest daughter Chelsea said, “Dad who is THAT PERSON WALKING THROUGH OUR YARD? ” I said, oh that’s just Jerry, she going to the store. Well, I knew I had to get this short cut deal nipped and especially so now with a 6 and 10 year old that like to play outside in the backyard. When I confronted Jerry about finding another way to the store besides ‘MY Back Yard’ she seemed a little put out and told me all her reasons why she needed the shortcut. Well, being the man of compassion I am, I told her, Sorry, but that’s your problem and this is my yard. Jerry was kind enough to comply and probably now gets a little more exercise as I see her walking the streets now often. So now my problems are over until about 3 weeks later when….Three weeks later about 9:30 p.m. on a weeknight I decided I was going to bed early one night. When all of a sudden I hear the front door bell ring! Thinking it is someone I know I head to the door and open it to find a woman between age of 26-30 acting scared and asking me for money for gas. She said she needed it for her car that ran out in front of my house on her way to Denny’s to work. She also told me she was a single mom with two kids and needed gas to get to work. I thought as fast as I could on my feet. My first thought was ‘no money’ and my second thought was ‘is this real or scam?’ Then when she asked for $10.00 I thought, let me just pump her gas for you down the street. So I said, “miss go to the gas station around the corner and I will meet you there in a couple minutes”. She said, I think I got enough gas to get there”. Out of gas and enough gas to get there! I thought this should be interesting. After going to 3 gas stations and looking for this frantic mom I decided she was scamming people who just wanted her off their doorstep and $10.00 was an easy solution to getting someone late off the porch, well at least for some, but not me.I told Becky about who was at the door and she thought people must know this is a pastor’s home or something, but I think there are just strange things happening in this great town of normal people. So now we are here over two months when we have my oldest daughter’s boyfriend from out of state come visit for a weekend and friends from our old home visiting the same weekend. After our Sunday evening service about 9:30 p.m. the 5 teenagers decide to go for a walk. I told them to go just a few blocks down and you should be fine. I told the young man with the 4 girls to take the family dog for a walk with them as well. I figured all is well and harmless, especially with a dog. Harmless until I get a frantic call from my 14 year old telling me that are being beat up and chased just down the street. My first reaction was “are you kidding” and then I knew it was serious. I jumped in my car only to leave the other mom’s wondering if they were dead or something as I did not stop long enough to tell them anything my daughter was telling me.The short version of this story is that two older teen girls and two men in a black car pulled up and taunted them to fight them while walking the dog. They resisted and ran and two of them got attacked and my poor dog even got kicked over. They did get away and no blood was shed, but it was a strange thing. We filled a report with the police and the officer assured me it was one of the safest neighborhoods in DeLand. We laughed as we retold and reheard the details and all ended up ok.A few days later I told this story to some pastors at a local clergy meeting, only to be re assured that DeLand is a great city and that the event the teens experienced was highly unusual. They said the same thing the police said. So I spent several days telling my girls it was ok to walk the streets and it was just a weird thing. I even told a two hour walk with my dog all over the streets and neighborhoods last night to have a fully enjoyable walk and decided this great town. Until…..That’s right, until yet another strange thing happened tonight. I was sitting in the living room on my pc when I heard the doorbell ring at 11:15 PM. My first thought was, I wonder who this could be this late at night. Then my next thought was I am not just opening the door this time. So I turned on the porch light and this young black woman about 22 dressed nice who did not seem drugged or desperate stands there looking at me through the glass hole in my door. I said through the door, “what do you want”? She said, do you have a wife? Well, I wonder what she has in mind if I answer yes or no. I decide to go for the, ‘what do you want question again’ and stay in the drivers seat on this deal. Eventually she said I need to talk to women as it is a women problem I have. In notice she is dressed nice with either a cell phone or walkman in her hand and still wanting to talk to a woman. I finally said, why did you come HERE? Basically why me, why this house? I finally told her to go to the police department, only to have her say she did not know where it was. I said I don’t know either and go away please. So she turns away and heads down the street.My girls come up and say, “dad who was that?” and of course I told them the details and one of my girls said we never had people even come to the door where we use to live on Halloween and here people are just strange apparently all year. Or at least we have gotten our share in two months.I like DeLand and I do think it is a nice safe area, but on my street there seems to be some strange happenings and I wish I could figure out if I have just been sheltered for far two long a time or if what I am calling Strange Things in DeLand are just normal to most people in most small towns and I am a getting to play catch up in my first few months in town.