A fresh loaf of bread in Missouri gave rise to a relief program in northeastern Arizona, serving people pummeled by COVID-19.

CBF West has launched a ministry on the Navajo Nation, guided by Pastor Greg Long of Flagstaff and CBF West Coordinator Glen Foster of Tucson. But the idea began with that bread back in Missouri.

“The Navajo Nation continues to be a hotspot for COVID-19,” Foster reported. Indeed, the Navajo Times reported almost 9,000 coronavirus cases among Navajos across the high-desert region as of Wednesday. Given the area’s sparse population, those infections have propelled the Navajo Nation to be one of the most acutely affected groups in the United States.

That news alarmed Mark Buhlig, executive director of Points on the Wheel, a nonprofit that works closely with CBF’s Together for Hope rural poverty collaborative, which encompasses U.S. tribal lands. Shortly after the pandemic shut down travel and most gatherings, Buhlig started baking bread and offering it to the Kansas City community around Englewood Baptist Church, where he is associate pastor.

Recipients of Buhlig’s bread began making contributions to Englewood Church’s missions program. Then the church set a goal to raise $2,000 to provide COVID-19 relief to members of the Navajo Nation.

Other congregations and individuals—from New Mexico and across CBF West, to the Carolinas and Massachusetts—joined the cause, Foster reported. CBF West also committed $2,000 to the cause. 

Then Long and his spouse, Sheila—longtime leaders in CBF West—shaped a plan to provide supplies to keep Navajo Nation families healthy and safe, Foster said. “Having grown up on the reservation, Greg and Sheila share tremendous compassion for persons living on the native land,” he explained.

The care boxes included water, sanitary disinfectants, personal hygiene products, food, batteries and other supplies. Recipients ranged in age from seven weeks to almost 100 years old. 

The Longs, Foster and his spouse, Debbie, put the boxes together. Then Glen Foster and Greg Long delivered them door-to-far-flung-door across a swath of the region in mid-July.

Foster and Long visited and prayed with each family who received a box. They grieved with and consoled a mother whose son had been missing two months.

That first delivery weekend “was only the beginning,” Foster said. “Many more boxes will be delivered in future weeks.  

“What began with a loaf of bread in Missouri gave rise to a mission endeavor that quickly expanded. CBF truly is a family that cares and meets needs, wherever those needs arise.” 

If you would like to contribute to this ongoing ministry to people deeply impacted by the pandemic, send a check to CBF West, designated for “Selah Ministries Care Packages”; address: CBF West, c/o Glen Foster, 60474 E. Eagle Ridge Dr., Tucson AZ 85739.