Other Blog:

If you were following this blog for missions updates, please go to Nickles in Bit'laah' Bito for more updates!

Also check out our fundraiser at GoFund Me!

~ The Nickles

NEW BLOG!

For continued updates on the Nickles Res Ramblings and ministry work on the reservation, please go to http://desertrefugeministry.blogspot.com/  Thank you all for you support and God Bless!

Storage Unit is no more!

After 1 1/2 years living back east away from the reservation, with our stuff stored, the storage unit is no more!  That "monster" has been slayed, and now we can finish with last minuet packing and be ready to leave KY to live in Dine Bikeyah on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  So excited!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

8 days till departure...

Busy, busy, busy! Sorting, packing, donating, and praying.  In just 8 days we will be on the road returning to Dine Bikeyah.  After a year and a half on furlough, it is time to return to our beloved Navajo!  It is sad to say good-bye to friends and family here in Kentucky, but there is much work waiting for us among the Navajo.   We have a 2 bedroom duplex waiting for us, and only a bookshelf and dishes to furnish it with thus far.  But as always, where God guides, He provides...

We have a two day journey starting out on the 28th, when we will be spending the night in Oklahoma, then we shall push on to Farmington, NM on the 29th.    We sign on the duplex the 30th and spend our first night in it that day!  We officially move in on February 2nd.


God is so good, and He is the Lamp unto our feet and the Light to our path... no matter how little beyond the next step we see He always goes there ahead of us.

Ahe'hee'! (Thanks!): to all who have helped and are continuing to make our work among the Navajo happen!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Set Up at Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin

Yesterday, we were blessed to be able to set up and share at our missions table about our mission among the Navajo.  Our home church Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin, KY has been such a blessing in this journey back to the Navajo. We are honored to have them as our sending church!  We were blessed with two support pledges, and many more interested and 10 signed up to recessive the paper version of our newsletter!

21 days, that is what (housing approval pending) we may have left till we leave for Dine Bikeyah!  We are busy packing, sorting, and deciding what gets taken, what gets stored, and what is gone forever...  'Tis not an easy time but so worth the challenge.   As it is often said, "Where God guides, He provides.  Where He leads, He feeds."  That is sure being proven true, over and over for us!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Happy New Years!

Dear Friends and Family:

We, Rob and Michelle Nickles, missionaries currently attending Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin, KY,will be returning as Youth/Student worker at churches on the rez in the Farmington, NM, area January 30th, 2014. Our vision is to see strong, Native Believers reaching their own people for Jesus Christ.

Our Purpose is Four Fold:

• Reaching Lost Native Youth
• Discipling and Mentoring New Believers
• Training Mature Believers in Ministry
• Sending Trained Believers out to Reach their own People.

North American Mission Board states that out of nearly 300,000 Navajo only 1-2% are Evangelical Christians.  We have made a long term commitments toward reaching the Navajo. One time gifts of any amount are always a blessing.  Most of all we are in need of your prayers.  Prayer is the fuel that will enable lost Native youth to open up their hearts to the Gospel of Jesus.  We are grateful for you partnering with us!

Because they haven’t heard,

Rob and Michelle Nickles

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.  Go your way, behold, I am sending you forth as lambs among wolves.” Luke 10:2-3 (ESV)

New Year's Coming and Start-Up Funds Raised!

Ahe'hee'! As of today we have raised 100% of our start-up funds!  Any donations to start up fund beyond this is a blessing.  We are also still in need of 24 monthly supporters at 20 dollars a month!  Thanks everyone for getting us to this point!  Ahe'hee'!



~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

96% of Start-up Fund Raised!

 After just a month and half, we can say we are just 4% ($66) away  from being ready to leave for the Navajo Reservation and our work near Farmington, NM.  Keep us in prayer in the next few weeks as we contact possible duplex and apartments for housing.  We will be also packing our 2002 Dodge Neon, "Stormy", and seeing if Rob's bike, "Monsoon", fits on the roof rack we're buying.  It will be a busy month or so, as we prepare to move!

What a Christmas gift this as been and totally unexpected!  Literally, we went from 12% funded to 96% in a single Sunday.  It was December 15th, which is also our anniversary!  An anniversary/Christmas gift all in one!   Thank you to everyone who has given thus far!  We will still be need monthly supporters... but our start up fund is nearly full!  Ahe'hee'!  Thank you!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Christmas Update 2013

What a year on furlough it has been! It was hard for us to leave the Navajo the first place, but God knew that Rob's mom would have back and neck surgery, and that we would start out 2013 in Kansas helping the Houser's due to my adopted mom, Linda's cancer treatments.  Rob even worked as a cart pusher at Walmart. April saw us returning to Kentucky, due to lack of jobs for both of us nor acquitted housing. It was a joy to return to our church home at Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin and all our dear friend and family in Kentucky. We began making calls seeking what path God was going to have us take the next and quickly an answer came.

May 6th was a big day for us, because we became missionaries partnered with San Juan Baptist Association, at the advice of friends and NAMB.  Summer 2013 saw us on a whirlwind tour of churches from Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  In August we traveled back to the Navajo Reservation for a young friends passing.


September and October saw me employed for the first time as a temp worker at a local factory.  That fizzled on me.  Just as it did, we received a call asking us to be full time Youth and Student Ministry worker.  We will work bi-vocationally until the church can fully support us.  December sees us with 12% of our start-up support raised with a planed leave date at about February 1st!  Pray for God's will in our leaving...

As we leave this year of 2013 behind and prepare to enter into 2014, let us not forget Jesus, our Emmanuel, God with us, who came here over 2000 years ago as the greatest missionary and only Savior the world has ever known.  We pray that He will be the song in your hearts this Christmas, and the hope that dwells richly in your hearts throughout the New Years.


God bless and Merry Christmas to all!

~ Michelle and Rob Nickles

Central Baptist Church

Met today with Pastor Chad Fuggit at Central Baptist Church of Corbin, and shared with him about our missionary work.  It was an honor to sit down and talk with him about all we are doing.  For now CBC has pledged prayer support, and beyond that they are praying to see where God would lead.  ^_^

It was so good to be able to share, especially in this busy Christmas season.     In other news, we now have 12% of our Start-Up funds raised!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Thanksgiving

Ya'at'eeh Keshmish Yazhi (Happy Thanksgiving - Navajo)!   

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  Good Family on all three sides (Birth, Adopted, In-laws).  A delightful Church Family at Immanuel Baptist Church of Corbin.  Bed, Board, and Hearth with family until we move to the Navajo Reservation full time.  A wonderful church, First Indian Baptist Church, in Farmington, NM and jobs waiting for us there as Youth/Student Ministry Leaders.  A superb growing team of supporters and prayer warriors backing us.  And Most of ALL: Salvation through Jesus Christ!

 God bless and Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

A team gathering...

We have a few friends gathering with us around the Nation to help with raising support and returning to the Navajo...
And we are now up to 9% pushing 10% funded!

Our future church home  is on San Juan Baptist Association at http://www.sanjuanbaptistassociation.com/church.php?assoc_churchID=3630 

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

7 1/2 Weeks Till Tentative Move Date!

We are 3 & 1/2 weeks into our support raising for Start-Up Funds.  That said, we have just 8% raised at $149 of the needed $1,800.  Not bad with letters just being out a week, and many still being sent.   Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us thus far!  We truly can't do this without any of you!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles 

Back in Kentucky/Opening Doors

Been back in Kentucky for about 2 months busy working and saving, and God keeps surprising us with awesome doors to walk though.  Not that everything is easy.  Never is when preparing to serve the Lord in ministry.  But the door that is opening for us right now is big, and we are praying whole heartily for wisdom on timing to walk through it.  When we do, it would mean being back in Dine Bikeyah for good this time and would be a major step forward for us... timing is the issue/wisdom we need!

~ Rob and Michelle 

In Dine Bikeyah...

So we are back out on the rez for a week.  Wish it were for better reasons we came.  The lose of a17 year old is never easy. Nor should it be. Yet sure are we of where he is today, in heaven with Jesus.  It was good to see our many friends who were here for the memorial.  Many from BABR, college, and Thoreau.  Now we have a week here to perpare and refocus.

What do we mean by refocusing?  When one faces  great hardships, tis wise to look at where we are at, what path God has set before us, and steps are needed to get there.  This is such a time for us.  We know that we are home nowhere but Dine Bikeyah... so what more can we do to get home?  Soon time will make that clear too.

Rob and Michelle

Trouble on The Road...

Here we sit, at a car shop in Tennessee...
Waiting to see if Stormy is going to be fixed.
Waiting to see if we can make it to New Mexico by August 10th...
Waiting to see what is going on...
Transmission being replaced....
On the bright side we learned that some hotels still take cash.
Praying we can get back on the road... and make it to the memorial.

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

Server Heights Baptist Church and Stormy

We had a meeting Monday with David Harkins, Missions Pastor at Sevier Heights Baptist Church.  It was a wonderful meal at Cracker Barrel, where we shared about our heart and ministry with the Navajo.  David let us know he would be getting back up with us for other groups at Sevier Heights we will be able to share with!  What a blessing!

After visiting our old haunts in East Knoxville, where we lived when we were first married back in 2008 and picking up more Thank You Cards (always needed), we headed back up Jelico Mountain towards Keavy, KY.   This time all went well.  That teaches us not to go up big mountains with the air conditioner still on.  Blah!  Stormy, the car, is doing well.

~ Rob and Michelle

Knoxville and Car - Stormy

We went and shared for the first time with some staff at First Baptist of Concord, and will be returning August 14 for a more detailed presentation.  The trip was awesome.  It was fun to see and be places we had not seen in 5 years since we lived in Knoxville just after getting married.   The trip there was truely uneventful, but not so would be the trip back...

The trip back, well, we have to cross Jellico Mountain to get back to Keavy.  Well it was a nice hot day, and "Stormy", our car, did not like the height of the mountain combined with the heat.  Thusly, she kept slowly getting hot.  Finally, one exit from home we had to pull off and just let her cool down.  Took her into the shop Wednesday morning.  Thermostat is fine, hoses looking good...just keep an eye on her, at least she is ok.

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles

God's Timing!

God is so good, and He knows the perfect timing for everything.  After nearly a month of waiting, a Loving Offering came in, just in time to cover the cost for printer ink and gas for our upcoming trip to Knoxville to share with churches.  Just when we really needed!  Ahe'hee', Corinth Baptist Church!

Immanuel Baptist of Lexington

Went to Immanuel Baptist Church of Lexington, KY yesterday, a 175 mile round trip.  This is the largest church we have visited. It was good to speak with the Missions Pastor, Jeff Story, about our calling among the Navajo.  Whether we will be sponsored missionaries in their newly developed missions program remains to be seen, but it was both humbling and an honor to share with them.

God never stops amazing us as to when, where and how He will provide for us. After a dry spell of little new pledges, we just received a $250 lump pledge to be sent in very shortly.  This mean we now have pledged a little over 2%.  What does this mean?  We now have 1 Week of  support raised!  God is so good!  Thank you to everyone who has pledged, and we pray that God blesses you in these days and months to come!

~ Rob and Michelle Nickles