Christmas on the Fort Belknap Reservation

One of the last things Jesus said before He was take-up into heaven was “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” – Mark 16:15

The only purpose of the Christmas Outreach to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is to share the love of Christ with the people. For the past six years, the Bigfork Chapel has been involved with the outreach. It started in a small Assembly of God church in Hays. Pastor Amy Fulton started the outreach many years ago. Her church could hold about 30 people but on the night of the outreach, they would pack a 100+ people in the same space. Five years ago, the outreach moved to a bigger building, and since that time, it has moved twice in to bigger building. Last year there were 250+ people at the Christmas Gathering (outreach). Three years ago, we started taking the puppet team and the people loved them.

For the past three years, the outreach has grown to two services. One service at the Lodgepole Assembly of God church for their morning service and then the community service in Hays that night, the two towns are only 10 miles apart.

For the past six years the people of the Bigfork Chapel has supported this outreach with their prayers and resources buying gifts for the children of the reservation. When we first started there were just a few gifts, now we fill a trailer. Every child gets a gift, for many of these children this will be the only gift they get for Christmas.
This year the Christmas gathering (outreach) will be Sunday the 20th of December, at 11:00AM in Lodgepole and 7:00PM in Hays. If you would like to get involved in this outreach and buy a gift for the children, wrap the gift and mark on it if it is for a girl or boy and the age group of the gift. All gifts must be at the Bigfork Chapel by December 16th so they can be packed and ready to leave on the 18th.

Please include this outreach in your daily prayers, pray for the people on the Reservation that their hearts and minds would be open and willing to receive the word of God. Until you have been on the reservations and talked with the people do, you start to understand the reasons they are so hard to reach. All we can do is pray for them and ask the Holy Spirit to bring alive the words of God in their lives. Our responsibly is to take the word of God to them, the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

Thank you for your faithfulness,

Gordon & Penny

First Assembly of God Church, from Loris South Carolina

For the second year in a row the mission team from First Assembly of God Church, from Loris South Carolina came to Montana to help with Native Ministries. Ten men came with Pastor Steven Shinn to help with the building project. All of the men had skills that made the work easy and fun.

The project this year was replacing the roof on the parsonage and on a section of the church, metal roofing put-on in place of the asphalt shingles. A team from Baltimore, Maryland replaced the roof on the main part of the church with metal four years ago.

The team flew into Kalispell on three different flits. They said the worst leg of the flit was from Seattle to Kalispell. The plane was small and bounced around a lot coming over the mountains. Then it was off to eat at Famous Dave’s to eat ribs, and we ate a lot of them. The next leg of the trip was to travel half way across Montana to Lodgepole on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The trip takes about 7 hours in good condition and that wasn’t the case that night. The wind was blowing hard and the van and trailer was moving around a lot. One of the team members was praying, the tumbleweeds were not tumbling they were flying. It was an interesting night.

The next day the wind was still blowing which made it interesting working on the roof. All of the asphalt shingles had to come off make some repairs to the sheeting, put on ice &water shield, felt, and then the metal. Sounds easy but with the wind it made it dangerous. With God’s help, the metal was put-on without anyone getting hurt. There were repairs made to the floor in the church, and a new outside door added and a handicap ramp built.

A lot of work was done in four days, some of the reason was the skill of the team. However, the biggest reason was the time spent each morning in devotions and prayer. God honors that dedication to him and to his service.

After the work was finished, we had a free day as it’s called to explore and see the sites. We went into Glacier Park, had a snowball fight, seen some goats and sheep, eat buffalo burgers, and just had a great time.

I so enjoy working with this team, I hope they can come back again. Thank you guys.

Mission Outreach to Ronan Assembly of God

I cannot believe I am doing this painting and enjoying it. Painting is the one thing that I will do for God that I would not do for pay.

The Ronan Assembly of God church was in need of paint. A lot of the siding was just primed and needed painted. A lot of the paint was peeling off and when we washed the church with a power washer, the paint came off.

A small team from the Bigfork Chapel Assembly of God Church went to Ronan to paint and do whatever they could to help. The team members were Pastor Richard Stewart, Donnie Russell, Penny Durham, and Gordon Durham.

Because of the size of the building, we brought two sprayer, we also needed a lift to get to the high places, and many ladders. The building was not easy to paint but the Lord helped us all the way making the project fun and a joy to do. Everybody worked hard and we were able to finish in two days.

The church parsonage is on the same property and is in need of paint. We are planning to do that the first week in September. God has blessed our mission program giving us the ability to bless others, Praise the Lord.

Harlem Assembly of God Roof Project

The church parsonage in Harlem, Montana is an ongoing project. Our second trip to Harlem was to work on the roof. The roof was in bad shape and has been leaking for a while. There were four layers of shingles on the roof. The weight of the shingles was terminus thank God the house was well built. The plan was to remove the layers of shingles and replace with metal roofing.


Pastor James and some people from his church removed all the old shingles before we got there. Surprisingly the sheeting (1x12 boards) was in good shape only a few holes had to be repaired. We spent most of the first day removing nails and covering the roof with felt paper and ice and water shield.

The next day we started installing metal. The metal goes on fast except when you are working on a steep roof 10/12 pitch. Working with ropes slows down the work, and the day was very hot, but by 10:00 that night the roof was gone. The Lord was good and kept up our strength until the roof was completed.

Pastor James and his family are getting excited about moving in to their home, the next phase of the project is to finish the inside of the house. The team has plans to come back in about three weeks.

Mission Trip to Harlem Assembly of God

Harlem Montana


What joy it is to serve the Lord. He makes the workload seem light, and gives us the energy to do the task set before us. He provides the resources needed for the project and blesses the hands that go.

This past weekend a team of four went to Harlem, Montana to work on the parsonage for the Harlem Assembly of God church. Pastor James and his family have been house setting for a friend but they will be back July 1st. The church parsonage has been setting empty for quite some time, which has taken its toll, but with some TLC it will make a nice house for them. Their family is growing so there is a need for more bedrooms. They are remodeling bathroom to accommodate the growing family.


Pastor James has been working on the house in his spare time, which made it possible for the team to get a lot done on the three days we were there. We are going back on June 25th to finish the inside of the house so they can move in. The roof needs new shingle, which will be done later this summer.


The people of the church treated us so nice. They brought us food, and open their house so we could clean up after work. They treated us like family.





Team members were Raul Rodriguez, Donnie Russell, and Penny & Gordon Durham. We always

Mission Banquet

What a good time we had at the Bigfork Chapel Mission Banquet. It is always good to see Gods people come together in one accord, to reach everyone with God’s word.

The banquet was potluck style, and as usual, we had a lot of good food, the church has many good cooks.

The theme for this year is Everyone, reaching everyone with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That Everyone whether corporate executive or a people group that hasn’t been found yet, must be given a chance to hear the story of Jesus in a way he or she can understand. The time of just saying, we believe without putting action to it is over.

The guest speaker was Scott & Anna Barnett. They are missionaries with CHI AlPHA Campus Ministries. Their ministry is at The University of Montana in Missoula.

The evening started with Pastor Richard welcoming everyone and opening with a prayer. Gordon read an article about how times have changed in just one year and what the church and each christian response should be to these changing times.

Everyone could smell all the good food in the next room, and were chomping at the bit to get after it. During the meal, each table was asked to open two quizzes that were placed on the tables. One quiz was about children of the bible and the other was to name animals that are native to Montana using each letter in the alphabet. Everyone had a good time doing that. They got all of the children question right. Some of the answers for the animals were a little questionable.

The Royal Rangers did a skit for us showing three boys around a campfire with two of them leading one boy to Christ. They did an excellent job, everybody there followed along with the sinners prayer, when God is in the house everyone is affected.

Next Scott spoke about the importance of missions and that missions is more than just something we talk about but the life of the church and the people involved. That the only way we are going to be effective is to have the Holy Spirit flowing through us giving us the tools needed to break down stronghold and the wisdom and courage to reach the people in all walks of life. He talked about his ministry on the campus and the importance of reaching the students before they are the movers and shakers of this country and the world. Everybody went away with a new attitude and perspective of missions.

We finished the night with an overview of world missions and the exciting thing that are happening, and of our own mission program. Our mission program is gaining momentum each year. Our church is very mission mined and they show it by their giving of time and their resources.

I believe we have only scratched the surface as how the lord is going to use the people of Bigfork Chapel.

Bigfork Chapel Mission Banquet

The 2009 Mission Banquet will be on Saturday, April 4th. The theme this year is Reaching the Youth. The speakers will be Scott & Anna Barnett, Chi Alpha Missionaries to The University of Montana.

This years banquet will be pot-luck style. with a starting time of 6:30 PM in the fellowship room. A signup sheet will be posted in the foyer to give us an idea how to prepare for the evening.

We invite you to come and find out what has been happening in missions and what planned in the upcoming months.

Thank so much for supporting missions.

Reaching for the Gospel of Christ

Experiencing the love of God, not just thinking about it, is something we should desire with all our hearts. This is an experience of great joy because in it we taste the very reality of God and his love.

God's Plan

God has a plan for each of our lives. Two great moments in our lives are when we are born and when we discover why we were born.

Our lives did not happen by chance. Psalm 139:13 says that God was working in our lives even before we were born. God loves us. We are special to Him, and He has a special purpose for our lives in this world and for our everlasting life in heaven!

God's plan for us cannot happen because of our sin. The Bible says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin is disobeying God's laws and not doing what He wants us to do.

Everyone knows there is a difference between right and wrong, even people who have never heard of God's law or read the Bible. Jesus taught that God's two most important laws are to love God and to love our neighbor the way we love ourselves (Mark 12:28-31). The second of these two laws means that we must act toward others as we want them to act toward us. This law has become known as "The Golden Rule." We know what we do not want other people to do to us. So when we do those things to others, we know we have sinned. That is why anyone can understand that they have sinned.

We must be forgiven to have God's plan for our lives. When we sin, we must be punished. The Bible says the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). The death the Bible is talking about is not just our body dying. It means our spirit, which lives forever, will be in everlasting punishment in hell. Jesus explained that hell is like a "lake of fire," and that everyone who goes there is separated from God forever and burns in fire that never ends (Mark 9:47,48). Our sin separates us from God both in this life and also after this life.

We can't have God's plan happen in our lives when we are separated from Him. Our sin comes between us and God. It separates us from His plan for us.

You know that many things in our lives have gone wrong because of our sin. God still has a plan for us even though we have sinned, but our sin must be forgiven to allow His plan to happen.

God made a way for us to be forgiven. God made a way to forgive us, save us from everlasting punishment and receive His plan for our lives. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be punished for our sins. God loves us so much that He gave His Son to die for us as payment for our sins.
John 3:16-18 says,

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Three times in the book of Mark, Jesus told His followers that He had to suffer and be killed. He also said that He would come back to life after three days (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 14:27-28). He said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45).

Jesus gave His life to be punished for our sins and pay for our forgiveness! We do not have to be condemned for our sins anymore. He will forgive us and save us from everlasting punishment in hell. He will give us a new life! All we must do to receive this gift is ask Him to forgive our sins and come into our hearts. Jesus said, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:16, NIV). Romans 10:9,10 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

God's plan to save man from death was to give His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. His Son Jesus was born as a man, but He lived His life without sinning. Men lied about Him and judged Him guilty of things He had never done. Then they hung Him on a cross to die. The very large curtain in the temple was torn into two pieces when Jesus died. It was torn from top to bottom to show it was not done by men. God did this to show that His Son?s death had made a new way for man to come back to God.

Jesus never sinned, but He was punished for sin. So death had no power over Him, and He came back to life after three days. Now Jesus gives everlasting life to anyone who receives Him.

If you haven't received Him as your Savior, you can receive Him right now, this moment! Pray now, wherever you are. He is listening. Tell God in your own words that you are sorry for your sins and that you want to receive Him as your Savior and Lord. Ask Him to change your heart and life. If it will help you, pray this prayer:

"God, I believe you have a purpose and plan for my life. But, I know I have sinned. I believe Your Son, Jesus Christ, died to take the punishment for my sin. I believe Jesus came back to life from death and has the power to forgive my sin and change my life. Forgive me. Come into my life and change me. I want to live for You and follow Your plan for my life, in Jesus' name."

God has forgiven you if you prayed this prayer and meant it from your heart. God knew before you were born that you would receive His Son as your Savior. Now you can begin the life He has planned for you! Step by step God will lead you to what He has chosen for you. He will show you the way to live and will teach you each day as you grow spiritually and become the person He planned for you to be.

Your commitment to Christ is not just religion, it is a relationship. There are four basic things that will greatly help you in your relationship with Jesus and to grow spiritually.

You need spiritual food. You know that if you don't eat for a few days your body gets weak. You are not just a body. Your spirit needs food like your body does or you will become spiritually weak. The Bible is God's Word. It is like spiritual food. I suggest you start by spending just five or ten minutes each day reading the Bible. You can start with the Gospel of Mark, which is the earliest and shortest record of the life of Jesus.

You need to pray each day. In any personal relationship, we need to talk to each other. When you read your Bible each day, spend time talking to God. Just speak to Him in your own words from your heart. Also spend a few moments just quietly thinking about what you?ve read in the Bible. God will communicate to your heart and guide you.

You need a spiritual family. That's what a church is. We can't make it in life alone. Your church family will help you grow stronger in Christ. They will be there to encourage you, be your friends, and pray with you. So, find a church home and be there every Sunday. Attend a church where Christ is honored, the Bible is taught, and everyone is welcome.

You need to tell others. When something wonderful happens, you want to tell other people about it! You will continue to find that the new life Jesus Christ has given you is the greatest thing that has ever happened to you. You know already that God has a plan for your life. A great part of that plan is that God will use you to tell others about the new life they can have in Christ. There are people only you can reach with the Good News about Jesus!

Jesus commanded us to tell others what He has done for us and what He will do for them. Some will receive that message and others will not. But we must obey Jesus and tell the good news so everyone has the opportunity to receive forgiveness of sin and the gift of everlasting life.

Before you were born, God had a plan and purpose for your life. Receiving Christ has opened the way for that plan for you

Reaching.ag.org Assembly of God Commision on Evangelism

New Church Being Built In Japan

Ron & Debbie Galbreath missionaries to Japan are in a building phase with a new church.

The first hurdle they had to overcome was finding land to buy and then raise the finances to buy it. Land in Japan is hard to find and is very expensive. They said the past several months have been crazy as they work with the city, architects, and civil engineer on the church plans. They hoped to have started construction already but they are still not ready. They said the church plans are almost done, all they need now is to finish the electrical and heating systems plans. They said the site plans are complete. They are now waiting on budgeting. They said they have to have all the costs together before submitting the plans to the city. They said the city would not allow amendments. Once submitted, it will take 3 to 4 months before they get approval to start construction. They are hoping for April or May to get things started. They have been working on the land removing trees and the stumps. So they can start in the spring when the snow melts.

They said that doing anything in Japan is a lot different from the States, lot more paper work and the cost is a lot more. They said once they get approval to start they will need construction team to help. Ron & Debbie Galbreath missionaries to Japan are in a building phase with a new church.

The first hurdle they had to overcome was finding land to buy and then raise the finances to buy it. Land in Japan is hard to find and is very expensive. They said the past several months have been crazy as they work with the city, architects, and civil engineer on the church plans. They hoped to have started construction already but they are still not ready. They said the church plans are almost done, all they need now is to finish the electrical and heating systems plans. They said the site plans are complete. They are now waiting on budgeting. They said they have to have all the costs together before submitting the plans to the city. They said the city would not allow amendments. Once submitted, it will take 3 to 4 months before they get approval to start construction. They are hoping for April or May to get things started. They have been working on the land removing trees and the stumps. So they can start in the spring when the snow melts.

They said that doing anything in Japan is a lot different from the States, lot more paper work and the cost is a lot more. They said once they get approval to start they will need construction team to help.