Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

I bring you greetings from an ever increasingly fall-like Manitoba. As you will recall from my last entry, at the end of 2017 Theresa and I moved to the small town of Pinawa nestled on the shores of the Winnipeg River system and approximately an hour and a half from Winnipeg. We are beginning to feel more like Pinawayans every day; even casting our first votes for town councilors this year, making us official bona fide residents. Wahoo!

Theresa has settled into her work at the Ironwood Personal Care Home as a Tenant Companion and has made her indelible mark there, being loved by all of the residents (and most of her fellow workers). As of several months ago I also joined the staff there at the care home on a very casual basis, picking up a vacant night shift now and again. However, I was blessed to be able to get an almost full time position as a home care attendant out of the Lac du Bonnet regional office – about twenty minutes north of us – where I care for clients in a broad geographic area, putting on over 100 miles of driving each shift. However, since my mileage is paid for I don’t mind the extended distances, and the driving breaks up my day.

Both of our current jobs, as well as the work that I was able to do in writing (which I mentioned in my last blog entry) have been a blessing and we recognize them as God’s financial provision for us. When we made the decision to sell our place in Steinbach and move to Pinawa last winter we got many responses of “nice place, but you’ll never find work there”. The naysayers were not inaccurate or overly pessimistic in their estimation either, and we did recognize that it might be a very difficult place to find employment since it is at the end of the road (literally; the road coming to an abrupt end at the river about a mile from the town) and there are precious few work opportunities in the area. We had no desire to drive the half-hour or more back into any of the larger towns around the area, and certainly not the hour-plus trip into Winnipeg every day. So, again, although the work is not always fun and the night shifts become long and very tedious, we are thankful for the work that God has provided.

We are also close enough to both Winnipeg (where many of our children and grandchildren live), and to Steinbach (where my mother and some of my siblings live) that, although all of our lives always seem to become filled to the brim with the tyranny of the urgent, we are able to see each other with little ado whenever we can all set our minds to do so. This, of course, is very different from when we were living thousands of miles away in Mexico, and we are also grateful for this gift as well.

The leaves have all been off of the trees for weeks already here in Manitoba, and we experienced our first snow fall on the 3^rd of October this year (much to the weeping and gnashing of teeth and great moaning and sighing of all of us). We knew that it wouldn’t last the winter (and of course it didn’t) and we all kept anticipating an extended grace period – a glorious Indian summer which would give us another respite until the inescapable howling gales of winter arrived. But it never happened! Or more correctly, we did get one day of warm weather about a week ago – it actually managed to go to a bit over 20 degrees Celsius for one day before it all went south again and degenerated into rain and snow once more. By now we have given up and have resigned ourselves to the inevitable. Sigh!

So, remind me again, why did we move back to Manitoba?

But this too shall pass, and spring will once more arrive. Even in Manitoba!

Lest I wear out the strings on my violin and make my beard soggy with the tears of self-pity running down my cheeks, let me change the focus away from us to what God is doing; in Mexico with the work of Voice in the Wilderness, as well as in the world.

This year has been a very difficult year for the Training Center Farm financially. The first financial blow came when 100% of the seed sugarcane planted at the end of the last harvest was lost due to the lack of sufficient rains last fall when the replanting was done, and none of it germinated.

As you will recall, often we were fighting with extreme flooding conditions during planting and our seed cane would either rot in the soil or be completely washed away as torrents of water flooded the fields. Last fall they had the opposite happen right at the critical time of planting. Doing what was normally done, Javier oversaw the replanting of seed cane when the first rains of the rainy season began, banking upon the fact that, as had always occurred every other year before, this would mean that rain would continue throughout the rainy season months bringing the necessary moisture for good growth. However, it didn’t happen!

Javier had purchased crop insurance knowing that there is constantly a danger of loss due to the extreme fluctuations in the rains at this critical time of the season. However, due to some sort of technicality, the growers union (through which the crop insurance is provided) refused to pay out a dime. This meant that not only was the complete cost of replanting lost, but the next harvest was also gone, along with the cost outlay of the insurance and the associated interest charges that they levied against the farm. Since the actual amount of income from the sugarcane is extremely small and the margins of error are very narrow, this was a huge financial blow for them. Thankfully there were only three hectares lost and the other two hectares were still in sugarcane since they had not been replanted.

This year the rainy season has been more normal and Javier tells me that the crop looks good for the upcoming harvest. For this we are very grateful.

The vegetable gardening was very successful last season; however, they soon found out that even with a good shade-screen covering over the growing beds they were limited to growing during the cooler months of the year. When the intense heat of summer began the plants simply burned up, irrespective of any amount of watering. However, they were able to continue with most of the tree planting that they have been doing. Also, the animals did fine, although they did not pursue expanding the herd or flock much over the summer. Now with the cooler weather beginning they will once again begin vegetable production, possibly also expanding it into an area around a holding pond that they put in last fall.

Javier and Cristina, along with Armando and Alicia have been very busy in the ministry of planting the new work in the Pame village of Tanlacut and the surrounding mountainous tribal region. I spoke about this new work in my last blog and introduced you to this vision. Since then Javier has been trying to get back to this area to minister at least every two weeks. Although the work is difficult there continues to be openness to the gospel among this people group.

In my last blog I also told you that a small property and an abandoned building in a small cross-roads village called Agua Nueva had been donated to the work in this mountainous region. Javier still dreams of developing this site into a training center for Pame Christians within their own tribal area. This is still in the visionary phase and will require both financial resources as well as personnel in order for it to become a reality.

The Bible Schools – both Luz de las Naciones and Project LAMBS have been moving along well under the guiding hands of Janny and Mario, the directors of each of the schools respectively. Although they don’t have many students presently the work is proceeding, and they continue to work with Dr. James Humphries and Hka Win on the Project LAMBS modules, rewriting them into more legible Spanish. This work is keeping both Mario and Janny busy, especially since Dr. Mario is also an anesthesiologist holding down work in two separate hospitals in his “other jobs”. Incidentally, besides raising two very active boys they are also planting a local church in their home as well.

The sewing school which Theresa began and then handed over to Cristina when we left is doing very well and is growing. It has become not only a center for training women in a trade, and a place where the women can learn how to develop a home-based income source, but more importantly, it has become a place of ministry and refuge for many women who would otherwise not be open to the gospel. Besides all of the other hats that Cristina wears as she works alongside her husband in the ministry, this school has become one of her focal points. Alicia has become her right hand at the school.

Cristina and Alicia are also both very busy with the children’s ministry in Buenos Aires. As you will recall from other blogs, this work is with children in a very poor squatter’s village several miles north of Cd. Valles itself. This area of ministry began some years ago when Cristina’s heart was broken by the physical and spiritual needs of these children, many of whom live in shacks that are little better than animal shelters. Many of these children are also part of Javier and Cristina’s little congregation at Solidaridad – only a couple of miles by muddy foot paths from the squatter shacks in Buenos Aires. Because of this intense need the work with these children began for Cristina.

Presently, although the facility where they meet is still no more than an open-walled “galera” with mud for the floor and several little wooden tables and benches for the children, the work is growing. Besides new children coming, there are now several mothers who also attend along with their children in order to receive Christian teaching and to be loved on. Also, some of Cristina’s young helpers in the ministry are beautiful young teenagers who began to attend when the work was in its infancy, and when they were young children themselves. They are now Cristina and Alicia’s right-hand assistants and are ministering to other children in their village. Rain or shine, heat or cold, the children in this little squatter’s village receive a nutritious meal every Saturday morning along with age-appropriate teaching from the Word of God. But most importantly, lives are being changed and hope and the love of God is being brought to these children.

Incidentally, Javier was just telling me this summer that since many of the children from these villages come from homes where their fathers have abandoned them, the children themselves need to work to help to support their families by the time that they are nine and ten years old. So, as soon as school is out for the summer many of these little ones are working ten or more hours a day in hard physical jobs attempting to bring in a little money so that their family can eat.  Although I know that this scenario is repeated in many places around the world, still such situations of abject poverty are just so foreign to our North American understanding. Sadly, some of the families caught in this terrible situation are women with children that I have known practically from the day that they were born.

The economy of Mexico is currently in terrible crisis. This is especially affecting the poorer classes of people; unfortunately, the very ones most fragile economically. For the poor, Mexico’s out-of-control inflation makes life almost unbearable. It is predominately the poor that Voice in the Wilderness has historically ministered to, and whom they continue to serve.

There are several needs that I wish to bring to your attention so that you can be in prayer as God moves your heart for the work in Mexico.

First of all, please pray for the health of both Cristina and Javier. Both are under tremendous pressure and stress – physically, spiritually, financially, ministry-related, family-related, and in all areas. Unfortunately these pressures never end, and there is precious little reprieve. There is no such thing as a paid pastoral vacation, a Pastoral Appreciation Day, or retirement benefits for them. I am always amazed and humbled by their unflinching desire to serve God. However, the strain is taking its toll on their health. Javier has had physical issues over the past year – many of which have been stress related. Cristina has also recently requested prayer for a physical condition that has been affecting her over the past months and which has almost immobilized her at times. It has to do with physical issues such as diabetes and her heart, but I have no doubt that unrelenting stress is exacerbating her physical condition as well. Please pray for both of them.

Please remember to pray for Mario and Alejandra (Janny) as well. They are also carrying a huge load in ministry. It is their unwavering passion to train and equip men and women in the Word, and to prepare and train leaders. They are giving generously and liberally of themselves and of their finances to the work of the Lord. Please pray that God will bring more students into the Bible Schools, and especially that He will raise up leaders with a passion for their own people.

Please remember to pray earnestly for the Casa del Obrero – the Training Center Farm ministry. Pray for Javier and Armando especially in this regard; for wisdom and absolute clarity of vision for the purpose that God has for it, for personnel and trainees to come forward who desire to have God impart change into their lives through the hands-on mentorship offered at the farm, and that God will bring forward men and women with a vision to assist Javier with this tremendous load. There is a huge need for student housing, for increased finances, for more willing workers and personnel to help to shoulder the work (both physically and spiritually), and for churches across the region to begin to catch the vision and to get more involved in the work and not to see the work as “Javier’s project”. The needs are great and it has been obvious over the years that God has a purpose for the Center; however, Javier cannot do it alone. He needs helpers. We must pray that God brings a breakthrough or he will burn out, and the vision may run the risk of being lost.

I also want to keep you posted on two sisters in the Lord that I spoke about over the past. First of all I want to update you on our sister Marina who has taken in her four young, orphaned great-grand-children. There is some good news along with bad in this situation. Marina herself is not doing well physically. Her diabetes has become a major issue for her and has caused her to need an amputation of one of her toes recently. Also, while taking the youngest children to school one day she stumbled and fell along one

of the footpaths and broke her arm. Because of her weakened condition this break did not heal well. All in all, Javier tells me that her physical condition is weakening noticeably and she is no longer able to work anymore to support herself or the children. However, as I promised, there is also some good news; the children seem to be doing well under Marina’s love and care and are thriving with her. Further, although there is not much possibility of financial assistance from any of the family members, or from the biological father of the children, still, Javier tells me that they are trying to help where possible. As the children, especially the two boys get older, there is always more hope that the family unit of children will be able to fend for themselves together if, and when Marina can no longer do so.

I also ask that you remember to pray for Rosaura and her family. Rosaura has been a very dear sister in the Lord for many years and has been an integral part of the ministry and loves the Lord with an intense passion. I told you in my last blog that she was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer has been progressing quickly and painfully, and she is now at the point of death. In many ways I envy her because she will beat me to heaven, but please pray for her in this time of intense suffering while she is in the process of dying. Soon she will be among the truly living, and we who are left behind will remain among the dying. She will leave behind a husband and two daughters who will miss her tremendously, as well as many who have grown and benefited spiritually under her ministry.

I want to bring this blog to a close by speaking about what has become an increasing passion for Theresa and me over the past months. Are we alone, or has anyone else noticed that there are tremendous upheavals and unprecedented events happening around us with increasing rapidity? As I have heard it said: there is a “convergence of events” happening almost daily. I believe that it is becoming obvious that one has to be blind or have his fingers in his ears not to understand that events are taking place throughout the Middle East as well as here at home, observable on our daily news reports, which make prophecy come to life before our eyes. I believe that we are living in the times of the end, or at a minimum that we are drawing closer every day to the finish line.

It is with this in mind – the return of our Lord and Savior, King Jesus – that I will close with this passage from 2 Peter 3. I have taken a little bit of liberty with it by using the Amplified translation and combining some of the verses, but I’m sure that you will recognize it. Peter’s words are mine as well: “Knowing this then, what kind of people ought we to be!”

First of all, know without any doubt that mockers will come in the last days with their mocking, following after their own fleshly human  desires saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? What has become of it? For ever since the fathers fell asleep in death all things have continued exactly as they did from the beginning of creation.”

Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord does not delay as though He were unable to act, and is not tardy or slow about what He promises according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering and extraordinarily patient not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish and pass away with a thunderous crash – a mighty and thunderous roar – and the material elements of the universe will be dissolved with intense heat, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought each of you to be in the meantime in consecrated, devout and holy behavior – that is, in a pattern of daily life that sets you apart as a believer – and in godliness displaying profound reverence toward our awesome God, while you earnestly look for and await the coming of the day of God!

So, since you are expecting these things be diligent and make every effort to be found by Him at His return, spotless and blameless, in peace in serene confidence, free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts, inwardly calm with a sense of spiritual well-being and confidence, having lived a life of obedience to Him. And consider the patience of our Lord and His delay in judging and avenging wrongs as salvation, allowing time for more to be saved.  2 Peter 3:3-15

 

Your fellow laborers in the vineyard.

Maranatha,

Steven and Theresa

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 at 10:37 am and is filed under VitW Blog.