Native American Partnership

History of the Native American Partnership

2008 - Paul McGrady felt compelled to take students to the Navajo reservation and to work with Dr. John Nells of the Southwest Native American District.

2010 - Mike Brooks, BFC’s college pastor at the time, joined Paul in taking students on mission trips and leading sport camps. They served in Leupp, Cameron, Dilkon, and Round Cedar.    

2013 - Barbi Moore, Director of Global Outreach at BFC, was invited to join this leadership team as a part of the Native American Partnership. 

2014 - The leadership team went to the MidYear Conference in Phoenix and was joined with Rick Harvey, Senior Pastor of BFC, Ed and Lynda Krestel, Work and Witness Coordinators for the SW Native American District, Carter and Ellyn Marsh, Celebrate Recovery leaders, Dr. John and Juanita Nells, Paul McGrady, Mike Brooks, and Barbi Moore.  This is the core team that became the Native American Partnership.

The beginning of ministry in Gallup, NM

In 2014, Mike Brooks was in Gallup, NM, looking for Blue Bird Flour for an outreach ministry.  He had heard there was a Nazarene Church distributing this flour, so he came to Gallup First Nazarene Church and arrived just in time to see their church van, driven by Pastor Chris Davis, loaded with people coming for a lunch at the church. Mike promised to return in June with a team he was leading, which began the relationship serving alongside Pastor Chris in her ministry to men and women who are homeless.

Pastor Chris Davis

Pastor Chris is tough, witty, compassionate, and broken over the needs she sees in Gallup. Some call her the “Mother Teresa of Gallup”, as she knows the people living on the streets and they know her. Our teams have the privilege of going with her on the streets of Gallup to meet people, give them a free meal, and to invite them to church. In 2018, she was asked to pastor a second church in Milan, NM, called Mt. Taylor Church of the Nazarene.

Native American Pastoral Training Center

This training center exists to equip men and women for ministry on the SW Native American District in Arizona. With the closure of the Indian Bible College in Albuquerque several years ago, many on this district had lost a clear path to ordination. Barbara Jones, an ordained pastor and missionary, teaches classes for ordination on the Oklahoma district, and has served as our liaison to this training center since 2015. She locates qualified people to teach, and works on the curriculum for every class. Since October 2018, 11 classes have been provided, and four pastors have been ordained.