Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

It is an honor for you take time from your busy schedule in order to allow me to bring you up to date with what has been happening in the work in Mexico. I know that our lives are all busy, and it is easy to get caught up in the demands of daily living. This is certainly true at this time of the year as we begin gearing up for Christmas and with the New Year fast approaching. But having said this, personally I always find it refreshing and invigorating to take time to reflect on an expanded panorama of what God is doing in His Kingdom around the world. Getting a broader outlook always motivates me to praise!

With this purpose in mind I will take a very broad paintbrush and try to represent almost six months of ministry on the canvas of today’s blog. I trust that it will be a blessing to you, and a reminder to keep our brothers and sisters in Mexico in your prayers.

Summer months are always especially busy in Mexico because besides the regular ongoing ministry that takes place, Vacation Bible School programs begin as well. This is always a huge endeavor every summer and demands much manpower and commitment as these week-long Vacation Bible Schools are taken into many villages in the Cd. Valles region, and now in more recent years, also throughout the Pame communities in the mountains to the west where new church plants have begun.

This year’s theme was “An Adventure through Mexico”. Although presenting these Summer Bible School programs in the various communities makes for an extremely heavy work load as well as placing a hefty financial demand onto the local church, both Javier and Cristina feel that they are more than worth the effort because they are always a wonderful time and many people, both children and adults attend them, and in this way are exposed to the gospel message. In fact, in many of the more rural villages the adults are not literate, and the more simplified and visual format in which the gospel is presented for the children is actually beneficial to the adults as well.

This summer however, besides the Vacation Bible School programs and the myriad of other things that she is daily responsible for, Cristina also decided to open a sewing program for several of the young teenage girls in order to enable them to learn how to sew, and to provide then with a safe place to be over the summer months until school commenced again at the end of August. Six girls attended the classes. Cristina commented to me that the girls were very motivated and excited to be able to be a part of the sewing school and that they were all having a lot of fun. Notwithstanding the fun, Cristina also required that they take the classes very seriously and graded their work every Friday.

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With schools starting again in the fall the sewing classes were ended for the time being. However, Cristina felt that the summer classes with the girls were a wonderful success. When they started, most of the girls knew nothing at all about sewing and began by learning the very basics of running a sewing machine – how to thread them, and how to sew simple straight lines on paper. From there they advanced to more difficult tasks making bags, pillowcases, cushions, and other simple projects. By the time that the summer ended the girls were already able to take their measurements and create their own simple patterns and sew shorts, blouses, and pajamas.

Cristina would now like to continue the program with the girls into a second, more advanced level. She writes that “the course was a lot of fun for the girls, and it was a blessing to see a whole new generation of girls beginning to express their creativity by learning to sew”. Most important for her however, is what she can build into the lives of these girls spiritually.

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Cristina also made a special point of mentioning to me how thankful she is for the many mothers, grandmothers, and teens who assist her in the ongoing Children’s Programs in Buenos Aires as well as in teaching and assisting in the Summer Bible School programs.

Because Cristina was completely involved in ministry more locally around Solidaridad and Buenos Aires this summer most of the work of taking the Vacation Bible School programs throughout the scattered Pame villages in the mountains to the west of the city fell upon the shoulders of Pastor Javier and a number of young men who ministered with him. Over the years God has used these summer programs to open whole villages to the gospel, and because of them churches have been planted. This was again the case this summer, and Javier felt that despite the intensity of the extra load involved, much spiritual ground was won.

As the newly planted churches throughout the Pame region continue to grow and to become more fully established in their faith please continue to pray that faithful leaders will come to maturity. Please pray that God will make evident within each new group of believers someone who will be able to develop spiritual leadership within their local communities. As is true wherever the gospel is newly established out of a culture of rank paganism there is no Judeo-Christian value system to build upon and a biblical foundation must be built line upon line, precept upon precept as it were. This building process takes time and the investment of one’s life. Javier cannot do it alone. Please pray that God will quickly raise up fellow laborers who can come alongside him to help to carry the load, as well that God will make evident those whom He has gifted to be trainable, skillful leaders at the level of the local churches.

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In the upcoming year Javier feels that God is leading him to thrust even further west into the Pame region and to plant churches in two new towns, both very strategic in the region because they are the principal centers within their municipalities. Although both are fairly large towns, neither Lagunillas nor Arroyo Seco currently have any evangelical Christian churches or outreaches.

Of course this ministry all requires reliable vehicles. As we have discussed many times in past blogs, the roads through many areas of the mountains where these Pame villages are scattered are bad at best, and unthinkably horrible and impassible at their worst. It is these roads that Javier and his team traverse for four or five days every fourteen days in their ministry trips to plant and strengthen the new Pame churches.

As you will also remember from past blogs Javier’s little Ford Ranger pickup truck, his faithful beast of burden since the beginning of his work within the Pame region, was no longer capable of shouldering a saddle. Indeed, the little burro simply could no longer even make it up the mountains anymore and required almost as much oil as gasoline to coax even a cough out of its extremely worn out engine – in short, it needed a complete engine overhaul.

But God is never surprised! He is rarely early, but He is never late…

In August Theresa and I presented a missions report at our little church in Pinawa where we mentioned the pressing need for a reliable vehicle for Javier and the decrepit condition of his current pickup truck. After the service Jay O’Connor, one of our friends in the church asked if we could use a new truck for the ministry for Javier. As it turned out, Jay’s parents had a 2011 Ford F150 pickup truck that they had offered to his family if they wanted it. He said that they didn’t need it as a family, but that he was sure that his parents would donate it to the ministry for Javier and Cristina if it was needed. What an offer, and what an amazing gift and answer to prayer. Yes indeed Javier needed it!

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The only little difficulty however, was that the truck was sitting at his parents place in Nova Scotia, on the very eastern coast of Canada. We live in Manitoba in the very center of Canada, and the truck needed to be delivered to Mexico! Hmmm… a bit of a large triangle on the map whichever way you looked at it!

But these minor issues are no great problem for God. Theresa and I were more than willing and able to deliver the vehicle to the Texas/Mexico border. However, there were several issues which needed to be resolved if we were to be able to do this. First of all, we calculated that it would take about $5,000 Canadian by the time that we got the truck imported into Mexico and delivered all the way to Javier in Cd. Valles. This was a minimal cost considering the value of the vehicle, but more money than Theresa and I had ourselves for this project. Secondly, we needed a trustworthy person to do the actual importation paperwork to legalize the vehicle into Mexico. And then last, but certainly not least, I was expecting a call from the hospital any day for a surgery date for a hip replacement. I needed an established surgery date before I could feel free to hit the road on a several week return trip out of country.

We emailed a letter to various friends of the ministry explaining the gift that God had provided for Javier’s work, and the need for the funds necessary to make it all come together. Within a very short period of time we were blessed to receive a little over the $5,000 that we had estimated the cost would be.

During my time in Mexico in April I had spoken to Oscar Salazar, a friend of ours in Monterrey. At that time I had found out that Oscar was very familiar with importing vehicles into Mexico, and that he would be willing to assist us in doing so if we were ever to find one for Javier. Knowing this, I now contacted Oscar and he began the importation process so that the paperwork would all be finished by the time that we arrived at the border with the truck.

During this whole process I received a call from the hospital giving me a surgery date for November 19^th.

Perfect!

This would allow us time to fly to Halifax, spend some time with Mike and Candy O’Connor to pick up the truck at their place in Nova Scotia, and then to drive to south Texas in order to drop it off with Oscar at Laredo. Javier would then take the bus up to Monterrey in order to pick up the truck there from Oscar.

On the way north again we could even spend a couple of weeks with a very close friend of ours, Jane Hardesty, whose husband was in very grave condition in the hospital in Sugar Land, Texas. We wanted to assist her in whatever way we could, and to love on both her and her husband Jay. We could still get back to Manitoba in plenty of time to prepare for my upcoming hip surgery.

We purchased bottom of the barrel, economy tickets from Winnipeg to Halifax and prayed that all would work out as planned. Then came a bit of a nail-biter when I found out that there was no way that I could register and insure the truck from Canada for the one-way trip from Nova Scotia to Mexico. It couldn’t be done from here. What were we to do?

Quickly, plan “B”…

Could we possibly get the Mexican plates and complete Mexican paperwork sent up to Manitoba before we needed to leave for Nova Scotia? Could we purchase Mexican insurance that would cover our travel through both Canada and the U.S.? And equally critical, would Canada and the U.S. permit us to drive a vehicle licensed and insured with Mexican paperwork while we, as Canadians living in Manitoba, were driving with a Manitoba driver’s license? Or very practically, what would happen when we tried to cross from Canada into the U.S. with our song and dance and wonky paperwork at the border?

But we had no other choice, so we prayed and drove to the airport heading for the east coast with the Mexican license plate and paperwork in hand which Oscar had couriered to us with time to spare. Hurdle one crossed…

We spent several lovely days in Nova Scotia with Mike and Candy O’Connor before heading south through New Brunswick. We were able to visit with our children and grandchildren in Campobello Island, New Brunswick before facing the music at the Maine border.

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Things then got a bit dicey and complicated for several hours as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection guys tried to figure out what to do with us. It turned out that their primary concern was not really our Mexican paperwork since we had letters to prove who we were and why we were transporting the truck. Rather the snag was the fact that they wanted proof that the vehicle indeed was not going to remain in the United States, but was in fact going straight through to Mexico. Eventually all the ruffled feathers were settled and we drove off thankful to be on the road again and bound for Texas.

Theresa and I had an uneventful and beautiful trip south as we enjoyed the stunning fall foliage of the north east. Since the southeastern coastal states had just recently been devastated by hurricane Helene we decided to cut more diagonally westward in order to avoid any delays due to its damage. We experienced none, and had a good trip south as the truck purred like a kitten the whole way.

I dropped off Theresa in Sugar Land with Jane and I continued south to Laredo, Texas where I handed the truck over to Oscar. I then caught a “red-eye special” bus back to Sugar Land where I met up with Theresa again, and we were able to visit and assist our friends Jane and Jay for about ten days.

Shortly after I dropped it off, Javier arrived in Monterrey and received his new truck from Oscar. What a blessing, and what an answer to prayer! It is now serving the ministry well in the Huasteca of Mexico.

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Incidentally, as usual, God provided exactly the correct amount of funds for the job. After everything was delivered and all accounts settled we have $81.79 Canadian remaining in the “Truck Account”. It is always fun to watch as God works out details, and makes possible things that seem impossible to us.

Another huge matter of praise that I should mention is that at the end of June the devastating drought finally broke, and rain returned to Mexico at long last. Thankfully the rain continued for weeks, and even though there is still a need for further rainfall to fully replenish the groundwater, the drought conditions no longer persist. Our prayer is that the rain will continue into the upcoming year as well and that the drought does not return.

Also, on a personal note, I want to thank the Lord that the hip replacement surgery that I had on November 19^th went extremely well. Today, just two weeks from the surgery I am feeling surprisingly well, and stronger every day. In fact, I am now able to walk around the house without the aid of either a walker or a cane. Of course I am very careful and have yet to venture outside because of the snowy and icy conditions. But I couldn’t imagine a quicker or easier recovery than I have experienced so far. For this we are very thankful, and we thank you for your prayers.

Because of the speed of my recovery I feel more at liberty to mention the fact that I am still hoping and praying that Theresa and I can return to Mexico in January and February of this upcoming year. If things work out as planned we will be returning to Mexico in mid-January and meeting with Pastor Fred Erb from Listowel, Ontario. While there we will all then coordinate again with Pastor Marty Dyer from Grove, Oklahoma in order to be a part of the now, Fourth Annual Pame Leadership Conference which Pastor Javier is facilitating in the little village of Santa Catarina. You will remember that for the past several years we have been able to be a part of this celebration with the Pame believers.

There is also the need to restock some of the eyeglass clinics which we began earlier this year. Further, Theresa and I have quite a number of sewing machines to deliver to the sewing school that Cristina oversees in Cd. Valles. But most of all, we simply desire to be with our friends, and to be a part of the ministry in a hands-on way again if the Lord makes it possible for us to do so.

Again, Theresa and I thank you so much for being a part of our lives and of the ongoing ministry in Mexico. Thank you for your love and prayers for our friends and co-laborers as they faithfully and selflessly minister. Many times it is not easy for them, and your prayers are critical. Thank you for remembering to pray.

Your fellow laborers,

Steven and Theresa

Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in. So then, while we [as individual believers] have the opportunity, let us do good to all people [not only being helpful, but also doing that which promotes their spiritual well-being], and especially [be a blessing] to those of the household of faith (born-again believers).  Galatians 6: 9-10 (Amplified Bible)

We ended our last blog in the little village of La Parada spending the evening fellowshipping with José Santos and his family at their home. Javier was scheduled to preach the following day in the village of La Cuchilla in one of the churches in which José pastors.

The following day, as it turned out, La Cuchilla was a grueling drive from La Parada. However, since José does not have a vehicle, normally he must walk there, a hard three hour walk up the side of a mountain in order to preach to his congregation. After the service it is another three hour return walk home again. However, this is not the only church to which he ministers, and each of the three churches that he covers require hours of walking to reach. That is commitment! Again, as so often happens when faced by grassroots Christianity, my own lack of dedication makes me ashamed.

At La Cuchilla a wonderful thing happened. We had found out the evening before that we would be meeting a team of visiting pastors on Saturday. In the morning we made our rendezvous with them along the road with José and lead them to the village of La Cuchilla. Upon getting acquainted we found that they were pastors from the region south of Cd. Valles who also had a church planting outreach into the mountains somewhat south of where we were. Some weeks back they had met Pastor José and had promised to visit him, desiring to be able to serve among the Pame tribal people.

When one’s spirit recognizes true Christian fellowship with someone it doesn’t take long to become knit together in genuine love with them. That is what very quickly happened with this group of brothers, and a couple of things became apparent. First of all, I believe that they are the beginning of an answer to prayer for more laborers for the Pame harvest. As I have so often stated, Javier and his little team cannot do it unaided – the harvest is too huge and the job simply too immense for him alone. I believe that these brothers are the first of others who will come alongside Javier to help to shoulder the load.

Secondly, because of the absolute newness of the gospel into these isolated regions there is a tremendous need for mature local spiritual leaders to be able to shepherd those new in the faith within their community. However, some already even established into spiritual leadership, themselves need to receive fuller and more complete sound doctrinal training. In fact, because of the desperate need for Christian leaders, although some may already even be pastoring churches, sometimes their own doctrinal foundation is not fully adequate. This is the case with both José and his brother Catalino. Both of these faithful brothers are pastoring churches and doing wonderful work among the Pame villages where they serve. Still, they also need to be more fully trained themselves in sound biblical doctrine. Although Pastor Javier is joining with, and shepherding these brothers, again, he cannot do it alone. I believe that this group of pastors that we met will also become a part of this training ministry among the Pame people.

Then finally, one of the ministries of this whole group of pastors back in their home communities is working with drug and alcohol addicted men to free them from their bondages, and to transform their lives into men of God. One of the pastors, Brandon Watson, is an American missionary who has a small ranch in Xilitla, about a two hour drive south of Cd. Valles where they minister to addicts. It quickly became apparent to me that this may become an excellent link with the Casa del Obrero farm in Cd. Valles. Both Javier and I spoke at length with Brandon, and there was excitement and interest all around. This is still in the inquiry stages, and many things will have to fall into place before it can happen, not the least of which will be acceptance and cooperation from the Board of OUpC. Please pray with us that God’s will will be accomplished. If He is in it, it will work out. It would be wonderful to see the Casa del Obrero farm being utilized in this way to transform the lives of men for Christ. The purpose for the farm has always been that it would be used to revolutionize lives for the gospel. It has just become bogged down of late. Please pray with us on this.

At any rate, whatever happens, it was obvious that our meeting with the brothers at La Cuchilla did not happen by chance or accident but that it had been God-ordained.

Sunday involved a service in the little church in La Parada pastored by Catalino Santos, and then the return trip across the mountains to Cd. Valles in the evening.

Upon preparing to return to Texas the following day I got a message from a sister ministry at the border asking me if I would be able to train a group from their church in the use of the eyeglass clinics. I was happy to do so and after driving from Cd. Valles on Tuesday I spent the evening in a little ejido on the Mexican side of the border training a wonderful national team on the use and implementation of the Global Vision 2020 eyeglass kits, and how to set up and run a clinic. The training went well, and I have no doubt that they will find the eyeglasses to be a very useful evangelistic tool in spreading the gospel in their region of Mexico. This was now my third training on how to establish and run these clinics.

It is always so difficult to try to place intensive times of spiritual blessings and weeks of labor into some kind of concise order. It is very easy to become verbose (as is my tendency). So, having admitted this I will try to wrap this blog into some kind of a conclusion:

First of all, it was a wonderful and intense ministry trip to Mexico, and I was happy that I could share it with my grandson Jude. The clinical times went extremely well and I was very impressed with Javier Salazar and his wife Carmen Margarita in Misión, Mexico. I am totally confident that the optical clinics will become an important ministry tool in their hands. I was also blessed to be able to train a third team of clinicians for a sister ministry along the Mexican border. It is a joy for me to see this ministry tool being used for the spreading of the gospel, and it seems as if perhaps God is setting something up in which Theresa and I will have an ongoing role in this clinical ministry. I don’t know what that will look like or what it even means, but please pray with us that His plan will become clear. Also, obviously, if this ministry of establishing eye clinics is to continue there will need to be the funds to do so.

The five-day ministry trip that we made with Javier Santos and the team into the Pame region was both intense and very spiritually rich. I am always humbled and blessed to see the Book of Acts being walked out in front of me in grassroots church planting with the transformation of men and women from paganism into the true light of the gospel. I am never unchanged when I leave. Please continue to hold up this work in prayer. Please remember to pray especially for Javier and his team. The labor is difficult and extreme. The enemy is not giving up without a fight. However, our promise is that in Christ we are always more than conquerors.

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Also, please remember to pray for God’s mercy in the form of rain for this region of Mexico. The drought is now extremely intense. Once-ample rivers and wells no longer exist in many places. The devastation of extreme heat is only intensified by the years of inadequate rainfall that they have been experiencing. Cd. Valles and the mountains to the immediate west are now entering into their fifth year of crop failure and drought. What recently looked like green jungles now appears a dry and barren wasteland. Even the trees are leafless and burnt. Please pray for God’s mercy and that rain will come soon.

Then finally, please remember all of those who are laboring so faithfully for the Lord. The harvest is ripe and the fields are ready to be gathered in. Please plead with the Lord of the harvest that he will send laborers, and that he will strengthen those already working in the fields.

Your friends and fellow servants,

Steven and Theresa

In my last blog Theresa and I were on our way back to Manitoba after having been away for two months. However, it had already become apparent to us that I would need to return to Mexico again in the very near future in order to complete a ministry opportunity that had opened for us – namely assisting Pastor Javier Salazar Rodriguez in developing an eyeglass clinic in the Colonia of Misión which is located just to the north of Monterrey. So, after spending two weeks at home trying to catch up and put out any of the inevitable fires that needed to be taken care of immediately, I loaded up our little 2006 Mazda for a repeat of the 6,000 mile round trip that we had just completed days before.

Theresa didn’t accompany me on my return as the focus of the ministry trip this time was to be much more specifically involved with the eyeglass clinics with which I worked more directly. However, I was blessed to be able to be accompanied by Jude, one of our grandsons. I picked up Jude on April 17^th, one day after his 17^th birthday and together we headed south towards Monterrey.

On our way we passed through Nebraska in order to pick up the optical supplies which I had stored there. From there we were blessed to spend Sunday in Grove, Oklahoma with Pastor Marty Dyer and his wife Karen where I was privileged to be able to share my heart at New Song Church where Marty pastors.

As always seems to be the case, we arrived at the Mexican border on Thursday with our little car grossly overloaded and filled to the brim with ministry supplies – this time with glasses and optical testing supplies, plus a couple of used sewing machines, besides many other items. The border crossing is always stressful at the best of times, but much more so with a large load. We prayed fervently for a smooth passage and God blessed us with a green light and a safe and very uneventful crossing.

We arrived in Colonia Misión without incident on the evening of Thursday, April 25^th. After unloading the car and separating out the optical supplies which were to be left there, we spent the remainder of the evening learning to know Javier and his wife Carmen Margarita. We found out that the colonia of Misión where they live is completely comprised of people who have been displaced from all over Mexico and who have emigrated there in search of work in the factories in the surrounding area. Because of this rootlessness and lack of connection there is an accompanying level of crime and spiritual darkness. Witchcraft and Satanism is rife as is prostitution and other vices. The little church in which they minister is struggling. Poverty is evident everywhere. Their vision is to use the eye clinics as an evangelistic tool to serve their community in order to open their colonia for the gospel. They also have access into many of the surrounding colonias and villages where poverty and sin is so very rampant.

This looks like an excellent couple, and an ideal place to begin!

Our first eye clinic began the following morning. Although I had given Javier and Margarita a quick run-through training the evening before on clinical procedures, this first actual clinical day was a hands-on day of teaching and training for them. They proved to be very adept students and learned very quickly. We were able to serve thirteen happy clients on our first day, all without stress or confusion. Throughout the day we were able to establish good client procedures and a comfortable clinical setup. All-in-all, a very successful first day, and with very professional students!

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On Saturday, our second clinical day I basically sat back and watched as Javier and Margarita took over the client work. I was available if there were any issues that they needed assistance with, but very few actually arose. We saw less clients than the first day, but both of them did excellently and I was satisfied that they could now easily continue on their own, and that I could leave on Monday for Cd. Valles.

Although the main focus of this trip was to train Javier and his wife and to set up the eyeglass clinic with them, my second purpose was to return to Cd. Valles along with my grandson Jude in order to accompany Pastor Javier Santos and his ministry team on another mission trip into the Pame region of the Sierra Madre Mountains to the west of the valley.

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On Sunday morning Jude and I enjoyed fellowshipping with our friends Oscar Salazar and his wife in their church in the larger city of San Nicolás, and returned in the evening to worship with the little body of believers in Misión in the church pastored by Javier. A highlight of the day was for Jude to be able to bless the congregations by playing his violin at both churches – for an audience of several hundred in the morning, and in the evening for around ten. Still, I don’t believe that God is limited or impressed by numbers even if, to our shame, we may be.

On Monday, completely confident in the ability of Javier and Margarita to carry on the eyeglass clinics alone without difficulty, Jude and I left for the eight hour drive to Cd. Valles where we would meet up with our friends, and which was home-turf for me. Despite extremely hot temperatures we arrived in the early evening without incident and were lovingly greeted by our friends there.

We spent one day in Cd. Valles taking care of some business as well as in preparation for the five-day ministry trip into the mountainous Pame region the following morning.

Early on Wednesday morning four of us, Pastor Javier, Jonas, Jude, and I piled into Javier’s road-weary and battered old Ford Ranger pickup truck and drove to the nearest gas station where we filled up the gas tank and poured 1 ½ liters of oil into the engine, the old truck now using almost as much oil as gasoline due to its badly warn piston rings. We stashed an extra liter of oil in the back of the truck and headed westward towards the mountains and pounded our way over almost unthinkably bad roads to the Pame village of Tanlacut. Here we quickly ate a snack lunch that we had brought with us and once again beat our way westward up mountain passes in order to reach the little village of Chacuala where we were to meet with the group of new believers at 11:00 o’clock.

Here in Chacuala, a village where only several years ago the gospel had not reached, we were greeted by twenty some adult believers besides children. The service, as always here in this little village was held under a spreading shade tree in the center of town. Jesus was worshiped through song and preaching, and the service ended with the sharing of a meal that the women of the village, even in their poverty, had brought. Oh, all of the doctrinal duckies might not yet be completely in a straight row for some of these new believers, but the love of Jesus was displayed in full force through their lives. Whereas only a year or two ago they were involved in shamanism and paganism, today they are worshiping Jesus, their Lord and Savior.

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From Chacuala we reloaded the pickup and jolted our way back down the mountain pathways to the tiny village of La Joya where we were greeted by the children of the village as we drove in. They cheered and whooped as they ran to the little galera where their service is held. These children are “Jonas’ little flock” and he is in charge of their teaching and care.

From La Joya it was off to El Coco for a late afternoon service in Ciro’s “front yard”. Here we met with the group of new believers that Ciro pastors whenever Javier is not there to do so. In fact, many of these were brand new believers that I had never met before. Please remember to keep Ciro and this little group of Christians in El Coco in your prayers.

From El Coco it was off again – unfortunately now very much after dark, back to the village of Tanlacut where we were to spend the night. After an amazingly hot and very miserable night we got an early morning start for the tiny Pueblo de Tanlacut where Javier pastors several very lonely elderly believers whom others have forgotten.

From Pueblo de Tanlacut we rattled our way to the tiny village of Agua Nueva where we were to hold an 11:00 o’clock service in the little Pame Missionary Center called Casa de Fe (House of Faith). The service was set for this time in the morning rather than later in the afternoon because the believers who attend here must walk down a mountain for 1 ½ hours from their tiny mountaintop village of Milpas Viejas. Already by the time that we arrived at 11:00 it was well over 110 degrees and it would only get hotter as the day wore on. We met and worshiped with three women who had walked the 1 ½ hour journey down the mountain to the service, one of them with a child on her hip. They too brought along a meal to share with us. I am always humbled when I look at my own self-centeredness and lack of commitment in the face of the love for Jesus like that which these women displayed. Thankfully, Javier was able to drive them back up the mountain to their homes so that they didn’t need to walk in the blazing heat of the afternoon.

From Agua Nueva it was back to Tanlacut where we were to hold an afternoon service. However, we found out that all but one of the believers from the tiny church where out of town. We prayed with the one brother who was there and headed back across the mountains to Santa Catarina and to the home of Adela, the elderly widow who loves to host the missionary teams whenever they are in the Pame region.

It happened to be Jonas and my birthday, so after sharing a meal and birthday cake with Adela and Rafael and Crucita, a couple with whom Javier works closely and who are his local leaders-in-training, we held an evening service and prayer time together before retiring for the night.

The following morning we headed out for the village of Santa María Acapulco, which you may recall from previous blogs is the ancient religious and cultural center and heart of the Pame region. It is both literally and spiritually a high place, being built upon the summit of a mountain. Here, for hundreds, and probably thousands of years Satan has been worshiped. I had been there several times, but this time more than any time before I saw the direct confrontation of evil versus good. As we visited door to door we prayed for several who were visibly oppressed by evil spirits. One young man with whom we were ministering absolutely could not pronounce the name of Jesus and became visibly agitated when Jesus’ name was spoken before him. In one home we were told about an incident that had taken place in the village about a year and a half earlier where a young demonized man had brutally murdered an elderly man outside the village and had then desecrated and cannibalized his body. These are not normal things!

Prominently in the middle of the village, and elevated high on the hilltop is an ancient Catholic cathedral. In all honesty, architecturally and historically it is a very interesting building. However, spiritually it is the epicenter of deep demonic paganism, witchcraft, and shamanism. This is the very heart of Satanism in the region – the high place and foci of evil.

Here in Santa María Acapulco, inside enemy territory and directly across from the pagan cathedral, we held a service in the “domo” in the heart of the town and sang and worshiped the name of Jesus Christ. A good number of children and several adults attended. Many times this is how a church is planted; by beginning to minister to the children.

After the service in Santa María Acapulco we headed back down the mountain to the little village of La Parada where we met with José Santos and his family. José, as you might remember from previous blogs is one of the translators who, along with other members of his family work in Bible translation into Xi-Ui, their native Pame language. Javier was scheduled to preach the following day in the village of La Cuchilla in one of the churches in which José pastors. We spent the evening fellowshipping with José and his family at their home.

Although the story of the amazing things that God did on this missionary journey has by no means ended, I will close here for now. They will have to be the subject of the next blog.

It is my prayer that by reading these accounts you will be encouraged to pray for and remember these dear brothers and sisters as they literally labor on the front lines, and are engaged in open warfare with the enemy of our souls. They need the cover of your prayers.

Thank you for your love for our brothers and sisters in Mexico,

Steven and Theresa 

I ended my last post rather abruptly after having returned to Cd. Valles from our missionary travels into the Pame region to the west of the city. We now realized that we still had many things to attend to before our leaving on the early morning of the 17^th, only seven days away.

Because of the smashing success of Theresa’s baking classes in Buenos Aires the previous week she was asked by the women in the Solidaridad church to give an encore performance for them. It was decided that we would use Javier and Cristiana’s kitchen for this and that, as in Buenos Aires, the goal would be to teach how to make everything on the top of the stove in fry pans only, avoiding any use of an oven which many of the women would not have. Cristina’s little kitchen and living room were filled to standing room only as over a dozen women and two men attended and interacted with Theresa in her baking class. Even Pastor Javier got involved in the hands-on class. In the end the baked goods were all proudly displayed and photographed before they disappeared with much smacking of lips and satisfied comments from the participants.

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Theresa was also blessed to be able to involve herself again in the sewing program that Cristina and Alicia and several of the other women continue to be very busy with. Although the regular sewing classes that Cristina once held have changed, several of the women continue to take on custom tailoring and repairs and thereby are able to earn an income through their sewing. While we were in Cd. Valles Cristina and the women had an order for 32 costume skirts and 2 dresses for one of the schools. After barely finishing these on the short timeline, they immediately received another large order for bee costumes from another school. Much of their work involves making school uniforms and taking on custom renovations and repairs for individual clients. Although their workshop is small they are very busy. Cristina had a new trainee join the work team while we were there. Theresa and I were also blessed to be able to deliver four used heavy-duty sewing machines to Cristina for the workshop on this trip.

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Thursday the 14^th marked a big day for me because it was the culmination of many years of prayer for us in that we were to have our first real eye clinic. As I mentioned in my March 6^th blog, although this was to be a day of hands-on training it was also Isaias’ and my first time to set up an actual eye clinic with real clients. Obviously it is very different to move from the theoretical and training into having a real person sitting in your chair looking to you as the expert.

When we got to Huichihuyan on Thursday morning we found a very large adult missions team of Ukrainians from Minnesota as well as an accompanying  group from the Mexican tent ministry called “Cristo es la Repuesta” (Christ is the Answer) already there and taking all of Isaias’ attention. Although unexpected and somewhat disappointing to me because I had arrived focused and primed for “my big day”, I calmed my disquiet with the realization that God was 100% in control of the situation. And, as I said to Theresa, I have learned long ago (or at least have tried to learn) that if one is to be involved in mission work they need to be completely flexible because things rarely, if ever go completely according to plans on the field.  

Isaias had set up an adjacent building to their house and church in Huichihuyan as a designated eye clinic. One of the rooms was earmarked presently for the clinic, and other rooms will be utilized later as the eye ministry grows. The space is excellent for this purpose being well situated and easily accessible, as well as being well lit for the needs of the eye clinic. In fact, the paint was still drying in the designated clinic room when we arrived in the morning. It was a good thing that it was fast drying paint and that it was about 100° F making drying even faster. 

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At about noon the clients began to arrive and we still had not fully set up the clinic, let alone had time to talk over plans with Isaias. But God worked out every detail. Shortly after the clients began to arrive the missionary teams also returned from ministering in the village. We had a time of prayer and blessing together in English, Spanish, and Ukrainian and the clinic was officially kicked off.

We saw less than ten clients as was my request to Isaias in setting up his first clinical day. While I guided Isaias in the screening and testing of the clients for distance vision and writing up individualized prescriptions in the clinical room, his teenage son Pablo made the glasses as prescribed, as well as distributed correctly selected reading glasses inside their own house next door. It was a slick operation and worked well. Inevitably of course by the end of the day we realized that there were some kinks that will need to be worked out, but what else can one expect on the very first run?

All in all, it went extremely well and I believe that Isaias and his team will do excellently. Already he is planning on expanding and buying a second tester so that he can develop the eye clinic into two testing rooms in order to see more clients. He has big plans and I believe that it will be the evangelistic ministry tool in his hands that it was always meant to be. He held his own independent eye clinic on Friday the 22^nd. I have yet to hear how it went, but I am sure that it will have gone well.

 As I mentioned in my February 27^th posting God has also opened the door for us to establish a second eye clinic working with a Christian brother and nurse named Javier Salazar Rodriguez in one of the extremely poor colonias of Monterrey. This is a city in northern Mexico where I have never worked before. I am excited to see where God leads in this, and it looks like I may actually be returning to Mexico without Theresa within a month or two in order to deliver the supplies and to assist Javier and his wife (not to be confused with Pastor Javier in Cd. Valles) to set up their new clinic.

After the eye clinic on Thursday we returned to Cd. Valles and met with a Christian friend by the name of Alejandro (Alex) Altamirano. Alex is the one that we always go to for any computer or other techy work in Mexico. As I mentioned in other blogs, a little church in Wales, along with close friends of ours Stephen and Tracey Woolford gave funds towards the ministry with which we were able to purchase “Proclaimer” units – basically very upscale MP3 players – for the Pame work.

The concept is that Pastor Javier will record a complete multi-year Bible School onto digital format on his computer. It will then be loaded onto Micro-SD memory cards. In this way, after the difficult and tedious work of first recording all of the lessons, the whole of the Bible Institute can be offered to the leaders in the mountain villages by simply interchanging the microchips or “Proclaimer” units. Since internet is not accessible in much of the region and as no Bible Schools are otherwise available there, in this way the new leaders can receive theology and doctrinal training through the use of these MP3 units. Alex will assist Javier through the learning curve of how to record and then prepare the individual microchips for use in the players. This will be a great assistance for Javier since neither he nor I are techies. May God richly bless Alex for being willing to be a part of the ministry in this vital way.

On Friday morning the women of Buenos Aires whom Theresa had taught in her baking class the previous week wanted us to come to an early morning breakfast that they had prepared in appreciation for the training that she had given them. They served up a lavish breakfast in the children’s feeding center galera of palm hearts, cactus, and other delicacies from their kitchens that they had prepared for us with much love. After this they then presented Theresa with gifts of handwork that they had made. Theresa felt much loved, honored, and blessed, especially so realizing that these women were all very newly introduced to the saving gospel, and that all of them live with extremely difficult and hard circumstances in their lives.

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On Saturday morning we joined Cristina and the children in the Hidden Manna Feeding Program in Buenos Aires and enjoyed their Bible lesson and shared a nutritious meal with them. After the children’s program we popped over to visit with Justina and her family who live in a little hovel on the edge of a hill in the village. We have known this family for many years, in fact from the time that their eldest son was a youngster. He is now married and has his own two year old son. The household consists of the two parents, the eldest son and his young wife and little child, as well as a second teenage son and three beautiful little daughters whom we have known since they were born. Sadly, the dirt-floored shack that they all live in is not even something that you would want to keep your animals in. Their situation is not unusual for so very many and my heart is constantly broken for them, as well as for everyone who must live in these conditions.

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We are indeed so very blessed! Not because we deserve it and they don’t, but simply because of God’s unmerited grace in our lives. May we learn to stop complaining and instead be thankful and praise-filled people.

As I mentioned in my previous blog we are presently in Henderson, Nebraska so that Theresa can spend some time with her ninety two year-old mother who is in a senior’s home in the neighboring town of York. We plan on leaving for Manitoba on Thursday morning so that we will be able to be back for Easter with the granddaughters in Winnipeg.

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Throughout the whirlwind of activity over the past weeks it is easy for me to lose the impact of the meaning of the celebration of Easter and Resurrection Sunday. However, I want to take a few minutes now at the end of this ministry report to focus my heart and thoughts on Jesus’ life and death; for this is indeed what any message of the gospel is all about.

If Salvation is not about the rescuing of lost souls from the horrors of eternal Hell than it is nothing at all. The whole of Jesus’ incarnational life and substitutional death only makes sense if this is true. If our message is nothing more than one of improving the living or social conditions of the lost, then we have done nothing; and have perhaps even made matters worse. For, as Jesus accused the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in Matthew 23:15: “You hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

March 16^th is often called John 3:16 day because it is the 16^th day of the third month. How incredibly grateful I am for the message of this passage – undoubtedly the most memorized verse in all of scripture: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

The danger however is if we do not take this beautiful message of God’s incredible love and His plan for our redemption within its context. Verses 14 and 15 of John 3, the two verses right before 16 state: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”

Verses 17 through to the end of 21 complete the message of the Gospel and of our Redemption lest we fall into some kind of easy gracism and forget the cost of our Salvation:

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.”

Can the urgency of the message be stated more clearly than this?

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

In John 12: 44 – 48 Jesus states this unalterable reality this way:

“He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My words, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him on the last day”.

The immutable judgment of all unrepentant sinners is that it is the very spoken and demonstrated WORD OF TRUTH as revealed through Jesus which will judge him at the last day. Truth has come and love has been given, but if we reject this truth and love then there can be no other way of redemption.

So I will end with what I said above: The message of the cross and the celebration of Resurrection Sunday are all about the rescuing of our lost souls from the horrors of eternal Hell. If we try to dumb-down the message to anything less we are left with nothing at all.

May your hearts be filled with love and peace as you celebrate your redemption this Resurrection Day.

Your fellow laborers in the harvest,

Steven and Theresa

“What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”  Luke 13: 18-19

The wheels on our tired little Mazda 3 have stopped turning momentarily and I bring you greetings and an update from Henderson, Nebraska.

When I last left you we were busily preparing to join Pastor Javier and Jonas on their regular five-day ministry trip into the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains into the Pame region. Barring very unusual circumstances they make this marathon jaunt every fortnight in order to strengthen and buildup the newly planted churches throughout the region, and to encourage the local leaders who carry on the ministry when Javier is not there. It was Theresa and my privilege and joy to be able to join them and to be encouraged as well.

I could attempt to glorify ourselves by elaborating about the bad condition of the roads that we traversed (all of which would certainly be true), or about the physical discomfort of days of extreme heat and lack of water for bathing (our heat rashes proving that this certainly would not be a lie), or about hot nights tossing and turning in somewhat less than five-star accommodations (put mildly). But all of this would simply be an attempt to lift up our own pride and exalt an illusion of our self-importance. We deserve no praise or glory if indeed there is any to give; we are at best only God’s servants.

However, having said this, I must quickly add that I truly don’t know how Javier and Cristina or his missionary team do it. Javier is in his late fifties and runs a daily ministry schedule both in the mountains when in church planting, and when back home in Solidaridad that makes my head spin and makes me tired just to think about. Cristina, despite physical pain and health issues does the same. I truly believe what pastor Fred Erb recently said concerning this, that God gives a provision of grace along with his call on a person’s life. It has to be so, otherwise I have absolutely no idea how these precious brothers and sisters do it. They may run the “risk” of burning out for the Lord I suppose, but oh, what a glorious burn!

In my daily devotional bible readings recently I have been studying the book of Acts. I had not begun this study intentionally because we were going to Mexico on an extended mission trip, but it certainly was well arranged by God for our time there. Once again, as so often happens when I am exposed to the grassroots Church in its infancy as believers meet under trees or the thatched roofs of stick houses and as the hearts of new believers are opened to the Kingdom of God, I am astounded at the literal walking out of the Book of Acts and the Early Church. The Kingdom of God advances the same way today as it did then. We just often can’t see it because it is mired by ceremony or clouded by religiosity, or maybe we just aren’t as hungry. I am always humbled and honored – I love to see – the Kingdom of God “in the raw” as it is worked out in places such as the Pame villages that we had the privilege of visiting.

I don’t want to be tedious but I will take time to mention each of the names of the communities that we visited during the five days so that you will be able to pray for them individually. As I was given the opportunity to encourage the believers in each of these fledgling churches I told them that Christians across the United States and Canada know about them and will be praying for them. This was received with joy by these humble brothers and sisters in the Faith. Along with me, let’s be faithful to hold them up in prayer before our mutual Heavenly Father.

Please pray for the brothers and sisters in the villages of:

Santa Catarina

La Parada

Santa María Acapulco

Chacuala

La Joya

El Coco

El Pueblo de Tanlacut

Agua Nueva

Milpas Viejas

Tanlacut

Jalpán

Ayutla

Each of these tiny communities represents a group of new believers and a fledgling church that has recently been planted, and has its own story. Many of these you will remember from previous blogs (if not, I urge you to go back and read them again).

Santa Catarina has become home base for the Pame ministry in the western region of Javier’s missionary work. A little church has been planted here in the home of Adela, an elderly widow who is also the host of the ministry teams when they arrive. The married couple Rafael and Cruzita also live and work here. They are two of Javier’s leaders-in-training in the Pame work.

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La Parada is where the national workers Catalino Santos and his brother Jose Santos, along with two of his adult children are working with Kris Toler under Wycliffe to translate the Bible orally into Xi-Ui, the Pame language. It is also where a little radio station was set up in Kris’ living room to transmit the gospel in Xi-Ui, the heart language of the region (mentioned in previous blogs). Javier works closely with both Catalino and Jose in the churches that they pastor in the region. Also, just outside of this village there is a little Baptist work where we met Dr. Neftalí Santos and his wife and daughters in a very small crossroads community named Puerto de la Cruz. Dr. Santos has also begun a mission church among the Pame, and he and his team are working on translating the Bible into Xi-Ui in written format. He is also in the process of building a small hospital on site.

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Santa María Acapulco is the religious and cultural center of the Pame region and for thousands of years has been under a stranglehold of demonic activity and witchcraft. Over the past two years God is bit-by-bit cracking open a once-closed door for the gospel. A children’s ministry is developing inside this enemy territory and the message of the love of Jesus is advancing.

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Chacuala is a tiny village in the extremes of the mountains where a group of new Pame believers meet together to worship. Although a little piece of rock-covered property on the outskirts of the village has been donated by the new believers for a church building, the Church still meets under a tree in the center of the community. Access into the village is over many miles of almost impassible roads.

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This was Theresa and my first time to visit the tiny community of La Joya nestled in the mountains north of Chacuala. This is a fairly new work for the ministry team but already there is a little children’s church begun here. Within minutes of us driving into the village the children cheerfully arrived at the little galera where they typically meet. This is Jonas’ “little flock” and he gave the Bible lesson and teaching to the children (and one adult) who came to hear God’s word, after which Pastor Javier played his guitar and led them in some songs.

[Jonas bears mentioning I believe: He is a young man of 18 years, and for several years now has been Javier’s “Timothy” in training. Although he does not have a “flashy” personality in any way, nor indeed does he have any apparent gifting in more “up-front” ministry like teaching or preaching he has a willingness to lower his shoulder to the task and to be faithful in ministry, and to be trained in mission work. He, perhaps best exemplifies the Apostle Paul’s teaching on the varying gifts and functions of the Body of Christ. We are not all eyes, or hands, or ears, or feet, but we all are valued members of the body nonetheless. If one member does not function properly then the whole suffers. Jonas quietly carries chairs, runs to the store for tortillas, or carries amplifiers and loudspeakers so that Javier does not need to do so. He is a vital part of the functioning missionary team and of the Body of Christ. I am excited to see what he develops into as he matures into his calling].

El Coco bears specific mention since its story has come up in various blogs. It is here that Ciro and his family live. Ciro is one of Javier’s faithful leaders-in-training and ministers in a large number of scattered villages when Javier is not able to do so personally. (For more on the amazing transformation of Ciro and his family please refer to previous blogs). The Church in El Coco now meets under a tree in Ciro’s “front yard” amidst wandering turkeys and chickens. Here Theresa and I also witnessed the power of “friendship evangelism” in its truest and most natural expression. While a group of us were sitting around talking and waiting for others to show up for the meeting, an elderly man in a broad brimmed cowboy hat rode down the road in front of the property on his horse. Being a friendly sort, and obviously curious as to what we were doing, he turned his horse around and reigned it in and began to chat with Javier. It was very interesting to see the skillful and truly natural way that Javier drew in Primativo, and was very reminiscent of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. He didn’t shove the message of the gospel upon him, nor indeed did he really answer his question as to what we were doing in El Coco. Rather he simply drew him in through curiosity, almost like fishing with a baited hook, into a conversation which inevitably turned naturally to the Lord. In the end Primativo stayed for the service and joined in. To my knowledge he did not make a decision to Faith, but the door has been opened in his heart and an avenue of friendship has begun.

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El Pueblo de Tanlacut is a place that I did not even know existed. I have been to its neighboring, much larger village of Tanlacut many times but never to the original village from which the latter began. El Pueblo is now a very tiny and almost abandoned village. Here Javier faithfully visits a number of very elderly believers who have no other Christian fellowship. One lady that we visited lives with her elderly daughter and is in her late nineties. Another elderly couple are both over one hundred years old. These dear believers, uncared for by most are loved and encouraged by Javier and they eagerly await his visits.

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The tiny crossroad of Agua Nueva is where the Pame Mission Church property was donated some years ago. It is a building where the believers from Milpas Viejas congregate if they are able to traverse the couple of hour walk down the mountain. It is also a base for missionary teams to stay when they are in the eastern side of the Pame region. We did not hold a service there on this occasion since the believers up the mountain in Milpas Viejas were not able to walk down this time.

Rather, we all piled back into Javier’s road-weary pickup truck and pounded and jolted our way up to the tiny mountain top village of Milpas Viejas to meet with the believers there. As a number of family units gathered around their stick and thatched houses, and despite their severe poverty it was easy to see and feel their love for Jesus and for us. After the service one of the elderly women gave Theresa a beautiful gift of embroidered cloth – a skill that the local women excel in.

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We then bounced and jarred our way back down the mountain to the larger town of Tanlacut where Mariana and her family live. Mariana is also one of Javier’s leaders-in-training in the Pame work. Along with her parents she also donated a little building and property for a church in Tanlacut. When we saw it a year ago it was basically an abandoned shell of a building with the roof caving in. Today it is fixed up and the place where the little group of local believers meets. After the meeting we spent the night at Marianas house.

Early the following morning we set off for Jalpán, a larger center to the southwest located in the Sierra Gorda Mountains and outside of the Pame region where we were to meet with the local church at 11:00. We were there by the invitation of Pastor Jorge Luis Resendiz De La Cruz and his wife. As a young man many years ago Jorge had been a “Jonas” to Pastor Javier. He now has gone on and planted several churches of his own. The house-church in Jalpán is one of them.

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From Jalpán we drove down into the little ejido of Ayutla where Jorge also pastors a little church. There we had a wonderful Sunday evening service with the local believers and shared in a group meal with them. Unfortunately by the time that it was all over it was well after 9:30 pm and many hours after dark.

However since we all had things that we needed to do the following morning in Cd. Valles we decided to attempt the rather dangerous drive back through the mountains despite the late hour, and notwithstanding the fact that this would mean that we would be arriving after midnight. Since Javier is developing cataracts and has great difficulty driving at night I took the wheel. Thankfully we arrived home at about 12:30 without incident.

Each community that I mentioned is a real place and people live real lives. Also, in each are little groups of believers who need our prayers. They are often very much alone in their faith while being surrounded by unbelievers, idolatry, and often paganism and witchcraft. Please remember to keep them in your prayers.

As I have mentioned many times in my blogs over the past years, this region of Mexico is in near-disaster due to the drought that has continued now into its fifth year. This year it was again in everyone’s conversation and an area of grave concern. Rivers are literally dried up and gravel and stones are being harvested from their dried beds. Wells are mostly dried up as well. In the Tanlacut area there is only one well which still has water. From here people have to pay exorbitant prices to have water trucks deliver into their household tanks. When this last well dries up no one knows where they will go. Maize, the normal sustenance crop in the region cannot be planted because of the absolute lack of moisture and everyone wonders what will be next. Please keep this region, but specifically our brothers and sisters in Christ in your prayers. Many times during our visits among the villages Javier reminded people of the reality of God’s judgment throughout the Bible when he withheld rain because of personal and national sin, and of the need for repentance. May Mexico repent, and may God have mercy on it.

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I will draw the first part of our time to a close and call this Part 1, and will post a second blog later. There is so much to write and so much to give praise for, but I know that one can only absorb so much at one sitting.

Please remember to hold up Javier and Cristina and the ministry in prayer. They are truly faithful in their service.

Your fellow laborers in the harvest,

Steven and Theresa