Pala Indian Mission Work

EVANGELISTIC AND MISSION OUTREACH

PALA INDIAN RESERVATION

SAN DIEGO

A SHORT NOTE FROM STEVE NIINO, MISSIONARY TO PALA

Greetings to you all from the Pala Indian Reservation,

I hope this letter finds you all doing well. I'll bet that not many of you noticed, but I did not issue a Prayer Letter last week as I was on vacation with my wife
and mother-in-law in San Diego, but I forgot to mention that in my last prayer letter. Anyway, I'm back and there are a few significant things to report so I am
going to issue this week's Prayer Letter early.

First, Roxanne's sister, Sandra (28), did have her twins (boy and girl) this past Friday. They were 7 months along. The twins and mother are all doing fine,
with the babies in the neonatal ICU for about a month just as a normal precaution. Roxanne is grateful for your prayers as Sandra was able to "hold" the
babies in for an extra month which, of course, was a lot better for them. Please also pray for Rox's mom, Cynthia, as she put her back out severely lifting
Sandra's son while Sandra was laid up. Please also pray that Cynthia's nerves will be calmer after seeing her daughter go through so much.

Our Pala Hispanic Children's Gift Project is in full swing. Yesterday, Eliazar and I visited 27 familes and now have 99 names on our gift wish list. I will try
and distribute to each of our six partner churches pictures of each family and their wish lists by this Friday so they can be used in any promotion at each
church by this Sunday. It was a very exciting day yesterday as the Pala children knew what we were asking for and there were many smiles. Many thanks
to our partner churches who are helping out on this Christmas gift project. And many thanks to all of you who pray for our ministry. Your prayers are
powerful and the light of Jesus Christ is starting to shine a little brighter in Pala with each passing day.

Finally, please pray for our Horseback riding outing to the Christian-run Mustard Seed Ranch this Saturday. Pray for safety for the children in our journey
as well as while they are on or around the horses and that they will be drawn closer to Jesus as a result of sharing God's love with them. The children are
Daniel (13), Christopher (13), Eliazar (12), Juan (16), Alma (9), and Ana Rosa (12). Incidentally, the Mustard Seed Ranch is right adjacent to one of the
largest fires in San Diego County (the La Jolla Rez fire wher 50 homes were destroyed), but the Ranch suffered absolutely no fire damage whatsoever.
Praise the Lord...!!!

In Christ's love, Steve      (The RezRev and El Chino)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THIS MISSION WORK

Many years back, a man named Albert Shade began missionary work on the Pala Indian Reservation in northern San Diego county. He is of native American background, originally from Oklahoma. He was also instrumental in starting a native American congregation in Riverside called All Nations Fellowship.

In recent years, a man named Steve Niino has continued the Bible studies and evangelistic outreach ministries. Steve is of Japanese descent and is married
to a lady of Chinese lineage. They are members of a Chinese Baptist church in Orange County. Steve is not an ordained pastor, but he has dedicated his
life to serve God in any capacity to reach others for Christ in his retirement years. He travels twice a week to Pala to leaad home Bible studies and give
tennis lessons to any youth who show interest. For a long time, Steve partnered with volunteers from the All Nations Fellowship for much of this ministry work.
In addition, he has now coordinated many youth activity days with volunteers from other Chinese Baptist churches in Orange County and Los Angeles, as well
as involving a Korean church.

That is what is so fascinating about this wonderful ministry that we (as The Vision Plus Church) became involved in several years ago. God has brought
together Japanese Christians, Chinese Christians, Korean Christians and Anglo Christians to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to a native American reservation!
And even now, God has begun a new work to draw the Hispanic population to participate in ministry outreach events in these past months. You will read
about that below.

As the ministry work has grown, Steve has become a fixture on the reservation with his presence. Because of that, we affectionately call him the "RezRev"
now. The Lord has used him to teach, counsel, share, pray and love those in Pala. He truly has served in the role of a pastor. A few years ago, I was
introduced to Steve and we began to pray and plan for worship services, by first inviting those who were meeting with Steve at the various home Bible
studies. Getting tribal approval and meeting at the Old Tribal Hall, the worship services were begun and usually were planned for one Sunday evening
each month. I preached and Pastor Mike led the praise and worship time, and our friendship and fellowship with Steve and the Pala group has grown
from that day until now.

We are excited about what the future holds!

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