Some of Theresa's sewing class students
Don’t worry about the formula in the title. It will only be of interest to an engineer. But have you ever felt things accelerating around you and the velocity increasing and had to wonder what God is doing? I think that is where Theresa and I are at right now. It is good, exhilarating, and sometimes breathtaking, and not a little scary at times as well.
It has been some time since my last entry because it has been very busy here. I will try to quickly bring you up to date with what has been going on.
Theresa’s sewing classes have gone into overdrive. She has about twelve students, but has had a request from about twenty more who hope to be able to attend. She also has had numerous requests to begin teaching English classes again, with about twenty potential students asking. She has also had numerous requests to begin teaching baking and cooking classes as well. Wow, where do you start, and where do you stop? She certainly is not finding her time boring, and a day where things calm down a bit is now a blessing for her.
On the farm front: we finally got the backhoe out to the jobsite to work on removing the
Work begins on removing stumps
stumps out of the newly cleared area. It took the operator a day to remove the stumps and a half day to pile them onto stacks for us so that they can be burned when they dry out. This day and a half saved us months and months of absolutely backbreaking labor in trying to remove them and/or pile them by hand.
Since the backhoe was already at the land we took advantage of the situation and had him spend another day and a half digging a containment “pond” for us – really just a big hole. There is an area of the farm that is lower, and when it rains the water runs across our field and into the neighbor’s property. We decided to try to hold this water if possible. We now have a big hole at the edge of our property 8 meters X 11 meters X 4 meters deep (about 26´ X 36´ X 13´ deep). How exciting! The downward digging stopped when the backhoe hit a horizontal layer of solid rock hardpan at the 4 meter mark.
Backhoe digging out stumps on land
But the real excitement came the next day when I took Theresa to the land to let her admire our great accomplishment, and she pointed out that there was water at one corner of our pit – not much, but water nonetheless.
Do you remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal when Elijah called fire down from heaven? After a drought of three and a half years he prayed for rain and then sent his servant out to look towards the Mediterranean to see if any clouds were going to rise in the absolutely cloudless sky. After many futile trips to look, the servant finally saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand beginning to form, and that was all it took. Elijah advised everyone to book it for home toot sweet because the rains were about to begin big time. And they did! We see the water in our “pond”, all six cupfuls and a bit of dampness, as the cloud the size of a man’s hand.
Water is life, and we have no water source at the land other than the rains which are so
Stumps removed from land
very seasonal and unpredictable here in the Huasteca. For much of the year our land is bone-dry and rock hard. Sugarcane can tolerate quite severe dryness and heat, but it does so much better with water. The lack of water limits most other crops as well. A good source would make a world of difference to the production on the farm. We are believing that there is indeed a source that we will be able to find.
We have been told that there is a vein of water that runs through this area, but probably about three or four meters below the rock (a type of solidified clay called “choy” in Spanish) that stopped the downward digging of the backhoe.
Stump burn piles
We hired a couple of guys with a pick, shovel and bar to help us see if we could break our way into the rock layer. After a day of backbreaking labor almost nothing was accomplished except to further convince us that the water was down there, seeping upwards through the cracks in the hardpan. We called “uncle” for now, but will see if there are any alternatives. Some good drilling and several sticks of dynamite to blast through the rock layer would be a godsend, but I don’t know how we can find that here. Maybe it will be back to sledgehammers and picks again, but the prospect does not sound like fun. Still, if we would find a reliable source of water all would be worth the while – or “vale la pena” as is said in Spanish. The fat lady has not sung on this one yet. But, worst case scenario, we will have runoff water for some months in our “pond” when the rainy season begins. We would appreciate your prayers on this. Please pray that we can find a good, reliable, and abundant source of clean, life-giving water on our land. And that we can access it at a cost within our budget.
With the stumps removed on the last area of land, and with this piece now cultivated, we
Digging the pond
have 100% of the total property either in crop, ready for planting when the rains begin, in fruit orchard seedlings, or readied for building. Of course there is the never-ending need to battle with weeds and invasive grasses on the farm, but I suspect that this will be ongoing as long as we are farming. This is exactly where the students living and working on the Training Center will be able to keep occupied when other areas slow down.
We are also in the process of negotiating to buy fill to build up the area where we hope to soon be placing the buildings for the Training Center. We are also trying to locate a grader to scrape back the black soil to a level so that we will have a solid enough base in order to be able to fill. All this is exciting, and points towards forward movement in the vision. However, we also have very little money to continue. A fact which is slowing down the work as well. But, we desperately need to begin to build something on the farm if the Training school is to start. It is impossible to have students living and working there until we have some sort of housing for them, and for a staff couple. I believe that this year will see the needed structures up, and a functioning Training Center operating where men and women will be prepared and equipped to advance the Kingdom of God within the Huasteca region, and throughout Mexico.
Water - the size of a man's hand
The real velocity and acceleration though is evidenced in what is happening with the Bible Institute Luz de las Naciones, and in Project LAMBS. If you recall my October 29, 2012 blog entry you will remember that I mentioned that at the business meeting of the Board of Directors of OUpC the decision was taken to divide the work into three parallel streams of ministry, each under the covering of OUpC (Obreros Unidos para Cosechar), but each with its own national director. The separate streams are the Bible Institute (Luz de las Naciones), the Project LAMBS Bible School, and the Discipleship/mentoring Training Center located on the land and based around the farm using a hands-on mentoring/training format rather than the more academic model on which both the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS are based.
The Bible Institute is under the direction of Alejandra (Jani) Lozano. Project LAMBS, a
Outside of the newly rented Bible Institute and OUpC office building. The bottom floor is ours
modular and mobile Bible School is under the administrative guidance of Mario, Alejandra’s husband. Mario has the vision and call on his life to take this short-term Bible school into the villages of the Huasteca and beyond. Finally, the discipleship/mentoring Training Center, based on the farm, is under the direction of Javier Santos.
In the December 20th blog I mentioned that we had rented a building for the Bible Institute. This move would allow the Bible Institute to become independently set up outside of the Assemblies of God church building which had housed it until present. It would also be office space for OUpC (Obreros Unidos para Cosechar), a legal necessity for the nonprofit.
On January 19th the first classes of the new year of Luz de las Naciones began in the new building without many frills – without chairs, tables, window covers – and in fact, with nothing. There are now three separate levels for each of the three years of the school – first, second, and third year students. Over the past week we scrambled to get the new building prepared for the second weekend of classes. Theresa has been sewing curtains for the windows, and Javier Santos and I have been working to get the inside set up. At 11:00 pm on Friday night Javier and I finally closed the door to the school confident that things looked good for the students to arrive in the morning. Other than a bit of final spit and polish here and there the new office space and classrooms look wonderful, and the students and teachers can now take pride in their Bible Institute. I look forward to watching as the school grows under the capable direction of Jani and the other members of the staff.
The new OUpC and Bible Institute office. Notice the beautiful curtains that Theresa made
Project LAMBS kicked off as a brand new creation on January 21st. Up until present the teaching staff and driving force were brothers from Canada and the United States. Over the past years national teachers were trained as assistants, taking more and more responsibility in the actual teaching process. Last Monday marks the beginning of Project LAMBS (Mexico) being 100% directed and taught by nationals – mission accomplished, praise God!
In March, Mario, the director of Project LAMBS, will be taking it to the city of Monterrey, about five hours north of Cd. Valles in order to begin a new extension school there. Later, plans are being made to take it to Rio Verde, about three hours to the west of us, and perhaps later in the year to Tamazunchale, about three hours south. The plans are big and the prospects exciting. Also, since the school is interdenominational, the new teaching sessions will be set up in the various churches across the city. The plans are to have churches host the school for two months at a time, at which point it will then move on to another church to be hosted there. What an excellent plan.
Then the latest “wow, what is God up to” moment came last weekend when we were approached by a representative of a nondenominational association of about twenty pastors from Rio Verde (three hours to the west of us) bringing the request to have our Bible Institute cover them as a satellite Bible School in Rio Verde. They already have a building, trained teachers, potential students and a desire to be further equipped for ministry. What they are asking for is for covering. Whew – talk about stretching for us! We are scrambling to get our own ducks in a row, can we take on more? Please, please pray with us in this. We desire to do God’s will, not simply to take the easiest course, as stretching as that may be.
So, there you have it – the update on the Freys. We are well. The weather is back in the high 80s again – today it was 86.9° when Theresa and I walked to town. It is hard to remember that others are shoveling snow. We are excited about the new year ahead. We recognize that God is doing big things, and we are praying and wondering how we are to fit into what he is doing.
We love you, and thank you for all your prayers and support.
Steven and Theresa
