Dear NEO Nazarene family,

The District training day last Saturday was a HUGE success!!! Our thanks to Tim Odom, SS/Discipleship Chairman, Rodney Durr, Adult Ministries Director, Jonathan Odom, NYI President and Ken Wheeler, Children’s Ministries Leader and their gifted teams for an outstanding day. I have heard positive comment after positive comment from the children, youth and adult workers who attended. It is wonderful to exceed expectations!

Next year’s training event is scheduled for Saturday, April 24. Give us your suggestions for how we can make it beneficial for you and your church.

Gloria and I took some pictures at the Training Event and at recent church visits. I hope you enjoy them:

Family Church, April 19, 2009
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Abt2TZizYsWTI0A&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar

Pryor Church, April 26, 2009
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Abt2TZizYsWTJDA&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar

District Training Day, Broken Arrow, April 25, 2009
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Abt2TZizYsWTI8g

Pastor Jake Reese has resigned from the Pryor Church and will be moving to Kansas City in June. Pray for Jake, Christy and their beautiful girls as they move and for the Pryor Church as they search for a new lead pastor.

Report of Jerry Wilburg, District Work and Witness Coordinator, regarding recent trip to Ukraine:
During our work and witness trip we were pleased to be working at the Church of Vinnitsa, Ukraine. We worked hard, slept little, and ate great Ukrainian food. Each day we would start out with a sharing time, our team along with the guys from the Nikiforovski rehab center working with us and the girls from the Cellishe Rehab center who were there helping with meal preparations. We would share a testimony and then they would share one of theirs.

What we heard and saw was an amazing outpouring of God's grace and power to redeem us from Habits of Chemical dependency and the crimes it brings. Time and time again, we were just blown away by the work that God is doing in a group of people who we might consider to be "new" Christians. They have been empowered by the Missions team on location (Cliff Wright and Bob Skinner) and turned loose to do a mighty work. They are going back to the prisons, by-ways, slums, sewers, and whereever to find those victims of this ugly problem. And God is showing them His awesome power to set these people who are desperately searching for a God shaped hole to be filled in their lives but looking in the wrong places. Everyone was deeply touched by the experience

Pastor Roma wanted to send a note of thanks to all the churches of our district, since all have contributed to sending this District led team out to their location. This is the letter:

Dear Jerry and brothers and sisters in Christ!
Vinnitsa Church of the Nazarene greets you with love in Christ.We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you. This April we were honored to host a Work and Witness Team from Oklahoma state. It was a big blessing to us. These people have shown us a genuine example of Christian life in their love, gentleness, devotion and labor.We thank our Lord Jesus Christ that we can be part of such a wonderful big family, as Church of the Nazarene is. We are grateful to you that you keep us in your prayers and support us financially.We believe that our fruitful fellowship will continue. We love you and pray for you all.May God bless you.
Sincerely yours,
Pastor R.Lebedev and Vinnitsa Church of the Nazarene, Ukraine.

Pastor Don Nichols reports on the recent Native American Camp Meeting in Tahlequah:
What a Great Camp Meeting we have been enjoying. We have partnered with four churches in our community to Host Native American Camp Meeting. I have experienced what the early pioneers of our church must have experienced in Camp Meeting. God Is Real!!!

Southern Nazarene University's Extravaganza for students is fast approaching (May 22-25). Early ONLINE registrations are due May 1st. After May 1st there are late fees. All information can be accessed at extravaganzamerge.com. There are some changes to Extravaganza, so you should go there and check it out. For example, this year’s Extravaganza is offering housing in the SNU dorms (first come, first served). Also, there are lots of other new things to make it a really fun weekend. We plan to compete as Northeast Oklahoma NYI in as many sports as students are interested in. So far, we have students committing to Senior High Girls Basketball, Senior High Boy’s Basketball and Senior High Girl’s Volleyball. If pastors or youthworkers know of any other students who will be attending Extravaganza and who are planning to play a sport, please let me, or District NYI President, Jonathan Odom, know as soon as possible. This will help us to secure coaches and prepare for a great time!

Thanks very much,
Kay Vernier
Extravaganza Puttin’-It-Together-Person
Sapulpa Church
224-0300
Email – kvernier@sbcglobal.net

Or Jonathan Odom
District NYI President
Broken Arrow First
455-3550
Email – JonathanO@banazarene.org

God's best to each of you!
Dave McKellips