Transitioning to a New Ministry

Aug 7, 2023 | News

It’s amazing how time flies! Our children have been growing, with our youngest already a year and a half old! God has been working over the last year, and several major things have been happening! We were able to open the back kitchen for Awake Café in the beginning of this year. We passed our first health inspection of the kitchen, which was a great relief to me (Tonweya)! Having the other side of the coffee shop open has been a huge boost, enabling people to work, do school, or just visit!

Now sit back, and we’ll take you along on the exciting new journey God is starting for us as a family!

In May of last year, while we were pushing to get the other side of the shop open and to finish some of the construction, my wife and I both felt a strong leading from the Lord to consider moving from Detroit. Because of the timing, I felt that it was just the Enemy trying to discourage us from the work we were doing. We prayed and asked several close people to pray for us! We prayed that if this was from the Lord, He would guide us clearly! As the months went on, we kept feeling a strong sense that our time in Detroit would be closing! This seemed a little hard, as we felt that after seven years we were beginning to see some spiritual progress with the church family and with others in the café. But we felt like He was asking us if we were willing to let that go and follow Him. The answer was yes—we were willing to stay or go!

Always before, when God had given us a vision for something, He helped bring it to pass. As we prayed through the fall of 2022, God began closing doors to future opportunities we had envisioned here. We began to pray, “Lord, if we are to stay, give a fresh vision!” In the past when we prayed this way, we’ve felt a new vision for what God wanted.

The months of January and February 2023 were times of deep soul-searching. In March, after completing the kitchen project, we took a couple days off and had a prayer retreat. We knew we needed to find the will of the Lord! We came out from that time with assurance that we would be leaving Detroit!

At that point, we had several opportunities open up—all of which were among the Native American people. After several months of visiting these places and praying, we felt a peace that God was asking us to minister in Winner, South Dakota, a work that is under Society of Indian Missions. SIM has ministered among Native American people for over 60 years.

I (Tonweya) grew up in Native American ministry and experienced firsthand the need for godly men in the Native American community. God has given me a vision for a Christ-centered scout program, through which we can teach young men and boys life skills and disciple them for Jesus. We will continue to serve as missionaries under Evangelistic Faith Missions while ministering in the community of Winner.

Many details are prayerfully being worked out as we give our current leadership responsibilities to others in Detroit. Awake Café will continue to develop and flourish under Jonny Sommers’ management, and we are praying about the need for more café employees. New Beginnings Fellowship will be pastored by leaders who are already part of the congregation.

We are excited to see how God will use us in this next chapter of our lives! You are an important part of what God is doing! Thank you for your prayers!