July 29, 2022
Dear Pastor/Friends,
I trust you are having a blessed summer. So many wonderful things are happening in our churches during this season of VBS, district camps, and back to school ministries. As Susan and I spent around $150 on school supplies for Kai last week I was particularly proud of our many congregations who help needy families with this responsibility.
Now that our district camps have all been completed I want to say again how much I appreciate our leaders and workers, especially in CRAVE (teen camp) and ACTIVATE (kids camp). These volunteers spent precious vacation time (and in some cases personal funds) to be sponsors, security guards, teachers and musicians at our camps. Due to their sacrifice and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, many teens and children made decisions for Christ at our camps this year. Especially, I want to commend Terry and Sandra Porter, our camp managers, for the excellent job they have done preparing the campgrounds and hosting us!
I’ve participated in the installation of three pastoral couples this past month. Congratulations to Pastor David and Robin Hollon in Cisco, Pastor Michael James in Stinnett, and Pastor David and Davina House in Pampa. We are so pleased with these new pastoral arrangements.
We also welcome Pastor KwanHun (KJ) Choi, his wife EunYoung and his wonderful family to our Antioch congregation in Arlington. They come to us from the Antioch congregation in Kansas City.
Thursday evening the Korean Pastors and their families gathered at our home to welcome the Chois. We are so pleased to have them on our district.
I want to congratulate Abilene First Church and Pastor Harlan Humiston on the completion of a very successful pastoral review this past Wednesday evening. Harlan and his wife, Linda, are very much loved and appreciated. 
Board Chair, Pastor Rick Calvert, and Clinic Director, Debi Schmidt, are very pleased to announce that, after many months of searching and fervent prayer, the Lord has given us a new medical provider at the Well Health Center, our clinic in Cactus. We welcome Family Nurse Practitioner Aubrey Williamson to the WHS staff. Aubrey, pictured here with her husband, Ross, and their two precious children, has been volunteering frequently in Cactus for several years and is already much loved and appreciated by the staff and by the community. Her addition to our professional staff is a tremendous, lifesaving, answer to prayer. She will take up her new role on November first.
In preparation for visiting Activate Kids Camp last week, Susan and I both retook the Ministry Safe training video course. I believe this was my third time to take the training…and each time I’ve learned more about how to best serve our churches. Pastors, please remember that we are respectfully asking each of our pastors…AND ALL CHILDREN'S WORKERS in our congregations to be certified, or decertified, in this training. Also, pastors and department heads in the churches should take the Skillful Screening video training. You will not regret the hour or two you and your people devote to this training. Each congregation’s and pastor’s participation will be highlighted and celebrated at the next district assembly.
Pastors, I am putting together my fall and winter church visit/preaching schedule. If I have not visited your church on a Sunday in the past two years, and you would like to invite me to do so, I will be honored to come. Please reach out to our office manager, Vania, at vania@westexnaz.org to make arrangements.
Finally, through the gracious action of our District Advisory Board I will be taking a sabbatical (my first ever) during August and September. I have many exciting activities planned, along with some serious downtime. Our assistant superintendent and Hispanic ministry coordinator, Pastor Jose Palacios, will be in charge during my absence. You can reach him at jipalacios7@sbcglobal.net. Also, Dan Davisson will be able to assist you, as will our office manager, Vania.
Pastors, because I love you and truly care about you and your church, I will be available to you, when necessary. Having said that…I have the highest degree of confidence in our wonderful district staff and our district leaders. Thank you very much for this awesome opportunity.
For you and with you,


Pastor David Downs
In order to accommodate next year's General Assembly dates, there will be some date changes for Family Camp and CRAVE next year.

CRAVE: June 19-23, 2023
Family Camp: June 25-30, 2023
Dear Pastors and Children’s Ministry Leaders,

The Board of General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene has made a formal statement regarding our policy regarding sexual misconduct. “The Church of the Nazarene has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with minors. All workers, leaders, and pastoral staff are to be above reproach in their conduct and to act in the best interest of others. This requires not only that they themselves refrain from engaging in any abusive or suspicious behavior involving minors; they will also be required to report without delay to the proper authorities anyone seen engaging in such behavior.” The Board of General Superintendents (statement from M11 conference in Louisville)

The West Texas Children and Youth Ministries partner with MinistrySafe for our online sexual abuse training. MinistrySafe is a tool to help churches begin the process of protecting the children and youth in their ministries. The West Texas Ministry Safe Training Team (MST) will be working with each church on the district that ministers to children to begin (or update) this process at their local church.

We will be taking the following approach.
Step 1 – Every Senior/Lead Pastor communicates with the West Texas Ministry Safe Training Team (MST) a list of pastoral staff, leaders, or volunteers who minister with children or youth (18 years of age or younger). All Senior/Lead Pastors are required to complete the training regardless if they directly minister to children/youth or not.
  • Provide First/Last Name, working email, preferred language, and identify if Sexual Abuse Awareness Training (AWT) or Skillful Screening Training (SS) is required.
  • Please note, Skillful Screening is required for all senior/lead pastors and anyone who screens/hires/fires staff or volunteers who will be ministering to children/youth.

Step 2 – The MST will send a training email to each person’s email provided from Step 1. This email will include a link for each individual to complete the training. If there are individuals who do not have a working email, the senior pastor (or delegate) can contact the MST to discuss an alternative approach for training.

Step 3 – Each individual will open the link provided (open the link only once). They are to watch all seven videos and then complete the online quiz. This will take approximately one hour to complete the entire process for Sexual Abuse Awareness Training. (Senior Pastors are provided a separate link to complete the Skillful Screening Training).

Step 4 – The MinistrySafe system will notify the MST that the training is completed. The Team will update records and notify West Texas Kids Treasurer to initiate payment from local churches.

Step 5 – West Texas Kids Treasurer, Candace Clem (txclem1@gmail.com), will coordinate with each local church to pay for the training. (Training costs $5 per MinistrySafe Awareness Training; $50 for Skillful Screening Training).

The MST is prepared to work with you as you conduct this process on the local level. See team contact information:

Mary Brewer - 817-915-5034 mzolabird@gmail.com Zones: Fort Worth, Lamesa, Metro Mid-Cities, Wichita Falls

Connie Lincecum - 817-240-4474 clincecum@fwfnca.org Zones: Abilene, Amarillo, Arrowhead, Denton, High Plains, Lubbock

Jennifer Sommers – 817-919-8078 jsommers@fwf.org
 
Regards,
Jennifer Sommers
West Texas District Children’s Director
Our district bookkeeper, Griselda Sierra, has prepared the West Texas District 2022-2023 "Funding The Mission" report as of July 26, 2022. Pastors, please pay close attention to your church's contributions so far this year. Please make every effort to encourage your people to faithfully maintain their giving for others. 

Click here to download the report.
Amarillo North Beacon COTN will be hosting the Bible League for ESL training

Friday, August 19, 2022 at 7:00 pm through Saturday, August 20, 2022.

1601 N Nelson
Amarillo, TX

If you are interested or have any questions please contact
Pastor Steve Kochersperger at 812-774-3686
KIDS MINISTRY
WTX Summer Mission Offering - Arrowhead Camp & Retreat Center
Join the WTX KidMin Leaders on a 40-day Prayer Journey beginning August 1st. 

We will be working through the Josh Denhart book, “Prayer Journal” as a group. 

If you are interested in joining us, please contact Jennifer Sommers. Books will be passed out at camp, while supplies last, but you are welcome to purchase your own. A Kindle version is also available.
NYI
We’d love for any of the DFW metro churches to join us for a Back to School Night of Worship event Friday, August 12th. We will begin at 5 PM and end by 9 PM. The evening will include a game, pizza, and a worship service (including a prayer walk and worship in the round). The cost will be $5 per participant to cover the cost of dinner.

Registration deadline is August 10th.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out to Curtis Hann at 918-521-3147.
West Texas we are going to Tampa Bay, Florida for Nazarene Youth Conference in July summer of 2023!!!

I’m your NYC Coordinator for West Texas and I wanted to try to get you all the details! 

TRAVELING TO NYC:
Believe it or not we will be flying to Florida for NYC! With the cost of travel right now it is actually cheaper for our group to fly rather than drive. With this I know you will have so many questions. Know that we are still in the planning phases and can not even purchase our flight tickets as we are too far out. Know that you can not use your own mileage / flight rewards for this trip. We work with someone who helps us find group rates as this is such a large trip and we will be keeping the planning all together. Please note that there is no requirement to be vaccinated to fly. Since we are flying if you have students who are going to be the younger age; they will need to start planning to get their student a Texas I.D. card as they will not have a drivers license to be used for flying. (A passport will work fine too). 

STUDENTS ATTENDING NYC:
Nazarene Youth Conference 2023 is for students who have completed 8th - 12th grade by time of event; July 2023. (So teens who are going into 8th grade fall of 2022 and Senior class of 2023 are eligible to attend as a student!)

SPONSORS ATTENDING NYC:
This is a big question. Please note that NYC Headquarters are very strict about our Student / Sponsor ratio. This is going to come down to each church’s number of students they have attending. Please be aware that it is recommended that the Youth Pastor / Spouse are the first two chosen to attend as sponsors for their group. Our ratio is 8-10 Students to every Sponsor. You must be at least 23 years old to attend as a sponsor. 

WHAT TO DO FIRST:
Right now the most important thing is to start TALKING about NYC ’23 to your students, parents and your church!! I suggest you plan a Parent / Student meeting to go over all the things and get them talking about NYC. Have former students come and share their experience. Some parents/teens are going to know exactly what this is. For some this is going to be the very first time they hear about this event! Please get posters / make postcards / flyers anything to spread the word to your church!

ALL REGISTRAION / PAYMENT / WEBSITE LINKS:

Register by October 15th 2022 to lock in the $450 registration price.
Registering October 16th 2022 - January 15th 2023 price is $550.

Must be registered by January 15th to attend NYC ’23.

Must have at least $650 paid towards trip by January 15th 2023. 

Trip must be paid in full by May 15th 2023. (Student + Sponsor prices are the same $1,550 total)

In this email you will notice there are a few documents:
- West Texas NYC ’23 Links (registration, payments and website)
- WT NYC ’23 Letter to Parents 
- Price of NYC Breakdown
- NYC Promo Video
- NYC23 Flyer
- QR codes for Registration, Payment + website
- A flyer with QR on them for your printing purposes
- NYC Payment Plan (EXAMPLE! Please note this is an example to try to help stay on top of payments for NYC. The only two dates that are non negotiable are: getting registered by January 15th, 2023 and having at least $650 paid towards trip by this date. May 15th 2023 trip must be paid in full.)



If you would like to get some of the design elements for your own designs purpose please let me know. This will be for your advertising / communicating materials. Know that as a whole district at the event we will have Gear / Shirts made to wear during the conference. 

I hope this gets you off on the right start and you are excited!! I encourage you to please spread the word to your church leaders! We want to make sure everyone is aware and ready for this once in a lifetime experience!

I ask that you ask your Youth Pastor / Leader questions first. And then if they are unsure you can always reach out to me.

Thank you kindly, 

Kelsea Gale Beville
Communication Director | Graphic Designer
Lubbock FCN
NDI
CNMC
ARROWHEAD CAMP
DISTRICT RESOURCES

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
[806 Airport Fwy., Suite 206, Hurst, TX 76054 ]  [817-479-8611]  [westexnaz.org]