Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

My goodness! It has been almost four months since my last entry and one is very over due. As the saying goes: “Time flies when one is having fun”. Actually, more to the point perhaps, is that it flies when one is very busy.

In my last blog we were still at Thomas Station in the middle of timbuktu-nowhere southeastern New Mexico and wondering if we could possibly hold on much longer. Since that point, a lot of water has passed under various bridges and whole volumes would need to be written to bring you up to date completely. But I will try not to bore you too badly and will attempt to cut to the chase so to speak, and find the essence of what God has been doing in our lives over these intervening four months since our last communication.

As a little preamble; the title for this blog popped into my head because of the first photo that I intended to place in the introduction – that of our humble little trailer dwarfed by the giant apartments being built around us (more on that later). However, in thinking about the words I began to realize that in many other aspects of my life I also feel like I am surrounded and dwarfed by giants; this not in a bad sense, but rather in a very positive way. In relation to this, I want to share a bit later in this posting about the blessing that it was for me to again be able to spend some time with the leadership of the ongoing work of Voice in the Wilderness in Mexico. Theresa and I are truly blessed to have our lives surrounded by faithful giants such as these – not perfect, but giants nonetheless.

Jumping back into an attempt at some sort of chronological flow from my last posting on the 9^th of March; we did manage to survive our rather grim assignment in the desert of New Mexico and to live to tell the tale. At some point around that same time we also came to another realization and made a decision concerning our immediate future. We began to recognize that perhaps we needed to rethink our next step as it related to going back to Canada when our one-year financial commitment to the Mexican ministry had finished at the end of April.

Although I am all for living by faith and trusting God for our future however the chips may fall, I don’t think that He necessarily desires us to divorce our head in the process. Several things started to become clear to Theresa and me in our sojourn in the backside of the wilderness of New Mexico; first of all, that it would be useful to have some money when we returned to Canada, and that it might not be the best idea for both of us to be unemployed at the same time and trying to find work together in a small, rural southern Manitoba setting; and secondly, (perhaps mostly to me) that reassimilation, or reculturalization back into Canadian living was not necessarily going to be an easy “one size fits all” kind of a procedure. In all of my dealings with expats who have lived “abroad” in any sense of the word for any appreciable time I have always found that “third culture” is a reality. It is naïve, I believe, to assume that reentry back into ones culture after being gone for an extended time will come without its difficulties, or that there will be no glitches along the way. It is even more daft to think that even though it happens to 100% of everyone else, we somehow will be the exception.

After mulling around some ideas Theresa and I came up with a potential solution to at least the first part of the dilemma: what if we did not both go back to Canada together immediately, but rather only Theresa went back at first and I stayed on in the States working until she was resettled with a job and feeling comfortable in Manitoba? At that point I could then terminate my employment here and follow her to Manitoba. I could then look for work while she already had employment. This would assure us of at least one income at any give time, and would eliminate the urgency of needing to simply grasp whatever job offer popped up first out of sheer desperation.

The idea seemed good, but there was one little niggler in the plan – it would be impossible to do if we were to continue in a 24 hour per day job that demanded both of us to do the work. We approached our company and asked them if they had any 12 hour positions open. Finding that they did not have any at the present time we began looking and applying further afield. To make a long story a little shorter; through a friend of ours we were put in contact with a security company which places guards onto construction sites, and were offered a job in the city of Allen, Texas just north of Dallas. This work is also nights, but involves only 12 hour coverage of the jobsite and can be handled by one person alone.

We ended our last day at the Thomas Station site in the oil field at 6:00 o’clock a.m. on the 10^th of April and arrived at our jobsite in Allen, Texas with trailer in tow on the afternoon of the 11^th at which point our work was to begin at 7:00 p.m. that same evening. Interestingly enough, we had only just set up the trailer on the site, leveled it, and were beginning to try to settle in in order to begin working in the evening when the black/green brooding sky opened with huge hail smashing into our trailer and vehicles while the tornado sirens howled in the distance. It sounded for all the world like we were sitting inside a tin can, but thankfully the most lasting damage that it did to the trailer was to smash out the skylight in the living room. Our car also has some nice dents as souvenirs of the incident as well. So, that was our introduction to Allen. However, we shouldn’t really complain too much I guess, as a town some fifteen miles away was hit with baseball-sized hail during the same storm. Apparently the hail there went through roofs and attics and pounded onto the floors below. Not a pretty thought I must say when one is in a tin can. Actually, nor is a tornado, come to think of it!

Once again we live directly on the worksite, but this time the job entails security at a large construction site where the second phase of luxury apartment complexes are being built. We are the site security to guard against the theft of any materials and/or any unlawful entry onto the jobsite. When we got here in April we were the only building on a huge complex with nothing but cement pads poured in anticipation of the beginning of the project. As of this posting we are a dwarf amongst the giants around us. So, that is where we are, and what we are doing at the moment.

However, if you know the Freys at all you will know that that would be much too straightforward a process from point A to point B, and that there must be more to tell. Well, I will not disappoint you; there is indeed more…

Actually, there were thousands of miles between the A and B of these points – between the deserts of New Mexico and the green, upscale neighborhood of Allen where we now work. But the miles were not simply from there to here, but rather from there to here, to there again several times, to Mexico and back again, and then to Canada and back again; sometimes by personal vehicles, and sometimes by ye ol’ dawg (the Greyhound), and sometimes by a combination of both. But none of that is really relevant except to say that it has been very busy, and all of the travel was involved in wrapping up ministry and personal business in a somewhat circuitous process of attempting to get us back to Canada someday. My last extended trip was to take a load of our personal things to Canada in anticipation of our moving back. This was all stuff that we have been lugging around with us ever since leaving Mexico over a year ago, and I knew that it was now or never; back to Manitoba with it soon or a quick trip to the local land fill. Since we had a little window of opportunity before Theresa left for Canada I decided to make a quick trip north with the load so that she could then be released to leave as well.

Theresa has been a trooper through this whole time. None of the past year plus has been particularly easy for either of us, but the load of the past two months fell squarely onto her shoulders alone as she had to hold down the job 100% while I was off on various whirlwind trips hither and yon. She did a great job, secured our employment so that I would have a job to return to, and kept the paychecks coming in while I was otherwise occupied. However, she is a person who does not function well living in total isolation and working in a job where you see no one, sleep throughout the daytime, and surface only at night when you are all alone. She was getting cabin (or, should I say trailer) fever.

BUT SHE DID IT, AND FINISHED STRONG!!

Nonetheless, I am not sure if there was ever a person more ready to quit her job and leave than she was.

And she did exactly that on Sunday, the 26^th of June. She then spent almost a week in Nebraska visiting with her mother on her way north, and is on the road for Manitoba as I write, and can barely wait to get there. She is looking forward with great anticipation to spending time with our children and grandchildren, and to reacquaint again with our friends there.

I am now taking my turn holding down the fort, and the Lord willing, will do so until such a time as it seems appropriate for me to return to Canada as well. I will miss Theresa tremendously I know; however, I do function better with isolation, and rather than being bored, I can’t seem to get everything done that I want to. Each to his own I guess. Thank God that we are all different, and don’t all come out of the same mold.

Okay, that was the linear, what’s what of the past several months. But that skeleton needs flesh put onto it. It needs to become a breathing, living entity or else it is just one more boring news letter (and how I hate news letters)! So, let me try to excite you with what excites and invigorates me; and what fires me up most, many times, is to see what the Lord is doing through our brothers and sisters who are ministering so faithfully in His work in Mexico.

I have already mentioned that I had the opportunity to return to Cd. Valles in May, and to spend just under two weeks there. The trip had been planned since the previous year when we first left Mexico, when it was decided that Fred and I would return for the Bible School graduations and for a follow-up visit of the work of the ministry in May of this year. At that time it was anticipated that Theresa and I would both return together; however, because of the aforementioned changes in our personal plans she graciously agreed to stay in Texas and work while I went to Mexico without her.

Before I continue I want to interject something at this point, and to strongly correct some false assumptions that I fear have been made concerning the work of Voice in the Wilderness Ministries in Mexico. When Theresa and I physically left Cd. Valles last year IN NO WAY did the ministry die, or even skip a heartbeat; rather, if anything, it gained strength and vigor. What I returned to find were men and women with a clear vision and purpose, doing very well in all areas of the ongoing work, and with a clear focus working very hard in many varied aspects of ministry. Not only was I delighted to find the physical assets such as the farm and Bible Institute well maintained and expanding in scope and vision, but more importantly, that the spiritual work was deepening and growing even more than ever before.

Again, not to harp and rant and beat the air, but I know that there has been a grave misconception about the work since Theresa and I left last year. It is not abandoned, nor has it died in any way. I continue to be in very close contact with the leaders there, there is strong leadership at the immediate helm, the Board of Directors is made up of godly men and women, the vision remains clear and focused, there is a will to work, lives are being transformed and changed, and in short, the ministry is strong and very active. This also means that there is still an ongoing financial need there in the work. Javier and others continue to work very hard towards getting the ministry to a point where it can sustain itself financially without the need for donations, but that day is still a bit into the future. Please do not stop giving towards the work, and please do not assume that there is no need just because Theresa and I are not there any longer. Also, please do not fear that the funds will be abused or misused. This is a misguided fear on two levels; first of all because we are dealing with godly men and women who are very careful with the finances that are sent; and secondly, because I am still very intimately involved in the financial end, and there is very strong accountability in the work, especially in the area of finances. Further, in these days when one only needs to scratch the surface of so many organizations to find that a huge percent of all donations that they receive goes to overhead and administrative costs, I can honestly tell you that nothing that is given towards Voice in the Wilderness Ministries either through Newsong Church (in the United States), or through Listowel Community Church (in Canada) goes to anything other than the field. Nothing is taken for administrative costs – ZERO!

Okay, I think that my chest is relieved of its burden, the air is cleared, my ranting has ended, and I can now move on…

I had arranged with Fred Erb that he would fly into McAllen, Texas and travel down to Cd. Valles with me by car. Although he has been to Mexico multiple times, he has always done so by air. I thought that this would give him an opportunity to see a bigger area of the country than he had seen before.

We arranged to be in Cd. Valles on Saturday evening, May 7^th so that Fred could preach on Sunday at the little church in Solidaridad where Javier and Cristina minister. We had a joyous and warm welcome from all of our friends (warm both in love and in ambient temperatures which were reaching well into triple digit figures – May being one of the most brutally hot months in Cd. Valles).

We had dedicated Monday to spend the entire day meeting with the direct leaders of the ministry in a day of brainstorming, prayer, sharing, and seeking God’s will for the ongoing work. We met in the Bible Institute building and spent at least five hours together seeking God, hashing out strategies and vision, defining and readjusting purposes and plans, discussing, disagreeing, strengthening our relationships, and prayer. It was a very, very fruitful day and I left totally relieved that everything is going well, and the men and women at the helm of the work are those whom God has chosen and placed there. After we were finished with the direct meeting time we went out to the farm where Alicia prepared a lovely meal for us.

On Tuesday we were joined by Clinton and Janet Miller from Oregon. The Millers have been long-time supporters of the ministry, and Clinton had already been to Cd. Valles several times; but this was the first time that Janet had been there. We were privileged to have them be a part of the ministry for about a week, and were even able to celebrate Janet’s birthday with her in Mexico.

During the week we spent time with Javier and his evangelism teams ministering in far-flung areas of the Huasteca including Tamazuchale and Rio Verde, as well as ranchitos closer at hand. The connection in Tamazunchale is very interesting to me because it looks like Project LAMBS will begin to train leaders there in conjunction with a brother with whom Javier and Cristina have been working for many years. Our time ministering with the little church in San Antonio Huichimal was wonderful as well because I was involved in this little church plant since its inception some years back. This, incidentally, is where Armando and Alicia are directly ministering on a weekly basis.

On Friday we met with the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS students, teachers, and leadership, as well as Armando and Alicia and others who are directly working in various aspects of the ministry. Fred shared with the group, and we had a discussion time with them. It was open, God-honoring, and a wonderful time together.

On Saturday morning we were privileged to be able to go with Cristina and Javier to Buenos Aires in order to be involved with the children’s ministry and feeding program that they have there. You may remember that this is a squatter village where the very poor live, all without land rights, security of ownership, and most without much income from any source. It is here that Cristina ministers every Saturday with the children, providing them with Christian training and a hearty breakfast. It is also from this squatter village that many of the people who attend the church in Solidaridad come from, living in stick and plastic shacks.

I want to interject something here and take a little rabbit trail, promising that I will make my way back to the main body somehow: Every week Javier and Cristina lead a team from their little church (as already mentioned, many of whom live in absolute poverty in the squatter village of Buenos Aires) in a hands-on, practical evangelism outreach into the local General Hospital on the outskirts of the city. This hospital is for the very poor, many of which come in from the outlying regions of the Huasteca. Many have no family support, know no one in Cd. Valles, speak very little Spanish, and often are desperately poor. They often need to remain for days and even weeks hanging around the hospital while they wait for, and perhaps even attend to family members who have been hospitalized. It is to these desperately needy people that Javier and Cristina have chosen to minister, along with the team that they have raised up. Here they preach, pray for, and give meals to the needy every week.

Although I was unable to go to the hospital with Javier and Cristina because I needed to drive to Tampico to pick up the Millers at the airport, we spoke at length about the ministry at the hospital. It is obvious that God is very pleased with their work, and He is showing his favor by performing many signs and miracles through the team. For the life of me I felt like I was sitting and talking to George Müller when Cristina spoke about the time when they had lunches for only around thirty people and found around three hundred hungry souls eagerly waiting for their arrival. Deciding to “go for it anyway”, after a time of ministry and prayer they simply began to hand out the meals that they had. She stated to me that they just kept giving out meals as the line kept on growing. In the end over three hundred ate, and even the guards at the hospital were able to be blessed with a meal. Miracle or natural? I don’t know, you tell me. Or, there were the times when total non-Christians would drop off boxes of pre-made lunches in order to help out, or one time when a stranger brought a zacahuil (a local delicacy) large enough to easily feed two hundred people – in fact, the amount of people waiting to be ministered to (from my experience this would have been worth at least $200 U.S.). There were also many other times when the team could only afford to put together food for thirty or forty people, and for whatever reason there were only that number of people at the hospital that particular day rather than the hundreds who usually are there. Coincidence? You tell me. Or, again, the miracles of healings from cancer and tumors and other signs and wonders evidenced in situ which are seen on an almost weekly basis. Or, then for a little twist, how about the time when Javier didn’t have enough money to put any gas in the old van that they use, and the gas gauge needle was sitting on “E” but they decided to go to the hospital anyway (a distance of several miles). Not only did they make it there on empty, but the gas gauge needle showed that there was gas in the tank when they arrived! All of the money to buy the food for this ongoing ministry comes from within the very poor church of Solidaridad itself, although I have a very strong suspicion that much of it also comes directly from Javier and Cristina, who on a humanly speaking level certainly cannot afford to do so.

Someone asked me recently why we don’t experience miracles like these in our own lives here in Canada and the United States. I suspect that it is because we never put God to the test and don’t need Him to work in this way. Instead we simply have another fund drive, or pie sale, or car wash or something to raise the needed funds from our own overly rich and pampered friends before attempting anything. We certainly wouldn’t step out on the limb. We would reason that a good steward counts the cost first, and if he doesn’t have enough to do the thing – whatever it is – we would assume that “God is not in it” and that it must not be his will. Safe, but pretty bland and tasteless really! But, where is the God of Elijah?

I told you this part of the story in order to make sense of the weekly feeding program that Cristina runs for the children in Buenos Aires. I know for a fact that this program is maintained solely by funds from Javier and Cristina. On a weekly basis they feed anywhere from twenty five to fifty hungry children along with ministering the gospel to them. Cristina told me that her personal dream is to be able to do so on a daily basis because of the dire needs in the village, but she admitted that this was beyond what their personal budget would allow.

After the ministry time to the children in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning Cristina and Alicia dedicate their afternoon teaching sewing classes to a group of the little girls from the same village. Cristina sets up the sewing machines in the patio area of her home and is teaching a class of young students how to sew. Her youngest student is six (actually Ana is Alicia’s daughter), but most of the girls are either preteens or young teenagers. The girls, even little Ana, are doing extremely well as they maneuver the sewing machines and cut and sew their projects. Cristina’s goal in this is to prepare these young girls so that they will be able to go into life with a very valuable and marketable skill as young women, rather than being forced to work at jobs that offer very little wages. This is also a legacy of Theresa’s work and ministry in Cd. Valles as she poured her life into training the women there, including both Cristina and Alicia, two of her promising students.

Actually, Theresa’s legacy lives on even more brightly. Cristina and Alicia both supplement a substantial part of their family’s income by taking on custom sewing work. They are absolutely crazy in their faith and willingness to work, and they take on huge projects where they need to sew hundreds of school uniforms, costumes, custom orders and the likes. Neither of them could sew before Theresa showed them how to turn on the switch for the first time only several years ago. Cristina’s goal is to train women not only from her village and church, but from a broader area as well how to sew, and to assist them in finding a way to make a family income through this skill. This will put substance to a big part of Theresa’s vision as well.

On Saturday evening we were blessed to be a part of the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS graduations. It was elegant and tastefully done, and honored the graduating students and teaching staff of the schools. But, I think that the thing that blessed me the most in it all was the fact that several of the pastors on the Board of Directors were involved in the ceremony; two, specifically, of which would not necessarily have been able to do so only several years ago. Because of all of the stuff that has shaken down over the past several years with the ministry and the break that became necessary with former associates, the reputation of the Bible Institute, Project LAMBS, and the Missionary Training Center (Casa del Obrero) has had an uphill battle with the majority of the churches in the area. It is only recently that the churches in the city at large are beginning to understand and actually believe that the work of Obreros Unidos para Cosechar is no longer associated in any way or form with former associates and leaders who have besmeared their own names, and in so doing, that of the Bible schools. But, as was evidenced in the graduation in May, this is beginning to slowly change, and trust and acceptance is growing. For this I am very thankful.

Since my time in Cd. Valles in May a team from Newsong Church in Grove, Oklahoma has again returned to Mexico to assist and minister with Javier and the work there. This team, once again lead by Pastor Marty Dyer, a veteran of ministry in missions in various parts of the world, spent several days working with Javier throughout a number of areas of the Huasteca and again returning to Tamazunchale where Fred and I had been able to minister back in May. Marty, a close friend and good brother has been to Cd. Valles many times and is beginning to link in more closely with the work that is taking place there under Obreros Unidos para Cosechar. For this I am delighted. I love networking and am convinced that God desires a joined, living, and fully functional and healthy body, not simply individual body parts or a bucket full of joints and bones that refuse to work together. The Kingdom of God is very large and the field very broad, and there is plenty more than enough room for all of us to work and share the load together, rather than demanding our own little private section of the turf, or piece of the hood.

Let me close with something that Javier told me in May in anticipation of the Oklahoma team coming down to Cd. Valles. I had my socks blessed off by the integrity of this brother. We were discussing the plans for the arrival of Marty’s team from Newsong, and the ministry that would be done over that time. We also were looking at the fact that it appears that Marty and the teams from Oklahoma are looking at joining more closely with the work in Cd. Valles. I had also just finished giving Javier a gentle admonition that I felt that the very (and in my estimation, overly) generous gift that they had given the Oklahoma team six months previously when they were there, all given from the loving hearts of the very poor in Javier and Cristina’s church (and evidently also liberally from Javier and Cristina’s own pocket as well) may not have been necessary, and that American and Canadian teams come with their own money and have no expectation to receive, etc., etc. (I was doing it all in my very well-meaning paternalistic way thinking that I would help them). At that point Javier interrupted me and said something that is both wonderful, unusual, and very rare. He said “Brother, I don’t want them to come down because we have a need, but because we can minister together. I don’t want to have Mexico known for its needs or to be only receiving, but I want to train our people to be generous and giving so that they too will learn to bless others. We must also learn to bless others.” My mouth was stopped and I felt God’s reproof.

Javier and Armando are presently building a barn to raise laying hens, sheep, and pigs at the Missionary Training Center farm. These will supplement the income which comes in from the sugarcane. They wisely have decided to start with only about 100 hens and learn from them. They envision 1,000 layers very soon when they are secure that they know the ropes of both raising the hens, and marketing the eggs. They will start with several sheep and do the same. The sheep can eat the excess sugarcane. They also are planning on a mated pair of pigs so that they can start simply and begin to build up a small herd (do pigs come in herds?). At any rate, they are working, thinking outside the box, and not waiting with their hands out for shekels to be dropped into them. May God multiply the blessings from their hard work.

I apologize for the extreme length of this blog. I guess my solution is to write more often and not club you to death in one sitting – but so much to tell, so little time to do it! Sorry.

May God bless you my dear friends. Please remember the work and the brothers and sisters faithfully serving in Mexico. And, please remember Theresa and me as we continue to navigate the waters of transition.

A very happy belated Canada Day to our Canadian friends; and an equally joyous Independence Day to all of our American friends who will be celebrating (and reading this blog) on the 4^th.  Because Theresa and I hold both nationalities we have the rather unusual blessing of being able to celebrate both with equal gusto.

Your fellow laborers in the Lord,

Steven and Theresa

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 3rd, 2016 at 9:42 pm and is filed under VitW Blog.