Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

What a crazy and tumultuous year we are in with its convoluted twists and turns, fears and quarantines, half-truths and bald-faced lies, and political intrigues. I had no idea what lay ahead back in January when I wrote the following in my blog post:

“How is it possible that we are already entering headlong into 2020? On one hand it seems like only recent history that we were awaiting our fateful (or not!) entry into Y2K, and yet it also seems like an eternity has passed. Twenty years ago, on the brink of the new century we were told that the world would end in a dramatic computer-fizzle of missing data. Now we enter 2020 being told that we will all be annihilated in a massive environmental melt down.

In a world that appears to be flying apart at the seams I am so very thankful that our God reigns, and that He is sovereign and in complete control over ALL THINGS!”

Suddenly with the emergence of COVID-19 and the potential of its global ramifications becoming known in the beginning of February as the United States closed its borders to China, the world made a massive tectonic shift making the immanency of global annihilation from flatulating cows seem like yesterday’s news. Suddenly we were all locked down in universal quarantine fearing to (and indeed prohibited from), leaving our front doors. In several short months the economy of the whole world was tanked, businesses ceased to exist by the hundreds of thousands and millions, and it is almost certain that nothing will ever be the same again. It is only with a lump in our throats and sentimental nostalgia that we can look back at the “good-old-days” pre-2020.

But in all of this apparent chaos God, our sovereign God is on his eternal throne. As Habakkuk stated in chapter 2:20 “The LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him”.

I know that I don’t need to remind you of the many changes which have taken place over the past months, you know them all well enough, and how they have affected and changed your life. That certainly is not the purpose of this blog; rather, I want to let you know what is going on in Mexico with the work of our dear brothers and sisters there, and how the ministry of the Kingdom continues despite the current difficulties which they are facing.

There have been two devastating and predominantly overriding crises which have shaped the face of the ministry in Mexico over the past months: first of all a drought which has continued for over a year; and now the effects of the coronavirus and all which it has entailed for the country.

The extended drought, first of all, gutted the economy in the Huasteca region of Mexico, wiping out most of the sugarcane crop as well as devastating the herds and destroying grazing land. In many regions rivers and wells are completely dried up, and when the rainy season finally should have once again arrived this summer no rains came, or what did come was totally inadequate to replenish the water levels.

On top of this already disastrous situation the coronavirus hit Mexico with a vengeance. In a country where there are very few social catch nets and no economic stimulus packages being rolled out to assist the millions who have lost their employment and are being forced into quarantine and isolation, the suffering and desperation has been very intense. Whole families are facing the real prospect of extreme hunger and shortages of basic necessities.

Businesses, churches and almost all active ministries have been shut down by mandatory closures. This has affected and placed on hold not only church services but also Bible Schools, children and youth ministries, and missions outreaches.

Of course this has meant that almost all of the ministries in which Javier and Cristina and the other leaders are normally engaged have been placed on hold, or at a minimum greatly altered. This includes the churches in which they preach and shepherd their flocks, the Bible Institute, all missions outreaches into the western Pame region, the children’s feeding program and youth church in Buenos Aires, the women’s sewing school and programs that Cristina leads, as well as the multitudes of other ministries which were all very active up until March, and in which they are all so much involved.

However, it has also opened completely new ministries and innovative ways of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to a suffering (and often very receptive) audience have also been explored and utilized, and the work has gone on strong.

One of these new ways for Javier has been live-stream teaching on Facebook. If you want to catch a bit of his teaching (in Spanish) go to:

https://www.facebook.com/Casa-Del-Alfarero-177836422579316/

Being unable to hold the normal children’s programs and feeding ministry at Buenos Aires, Cristina seized the opportunity to minister the love of Jesus by distributing food packages to the poor children and their families which the program normally served at the Hidden Manna Center. Many of these children have either only one parent, or parents who no longer have any source of income due to the mandatory coronavirus lock downs.

Because they were no longer allowed to meet in the church buildings Javier turned rather to one-on-one and small cell group meetings and training. He recently told me that although this has increased the work load many times, it has brought in much spiritual fruit as well.

Although the quarantine greatly affected the sewing school/workshop, Cristina and Alicia did manage to keep ministering to the girls and women, albeit with limited groups and careful restrictions in place. Indeed, the number of girls attending grew overall because they were very happy for an outlet where they could do something valuable, as well as be loved-on and ministered to in those dark days of uncertainty and fear.

Things are slowly beginning to open again, and just last week Javier and Cristina were able to reenter the Tanlacut region in order to visit and encourage the Pame brothers and sisters there. Apparently the isolated Pame region has had very little affect from the coronavirus, but has been absolutely devastated by the severe drought to the extent that the rivers and wells in this normally very productive region have completely dried up. The bubbling river which normally flows through the small town of Tanlacut itself is now a dry gravel gully.

Let me go back briefly over the past months of ministry and recap a number of the highlights for you:

– as you will recall from the past blogs, the missionary outreaches into the Pame region to these dear tribal brothers and sisters in Christ has begun to bear fruit. The Pame

missionary center Casa de Fe was planted in the little village of Agua Nueva. Special funds were designated through Voice in the Wilderness Ministries to assist in the renovation of the donated mission center building there, and the work of refurbishing this critical center of worship and training for this tribal region was begun. Further funds were also committed for ongoing Pame missionary work so that Javier can continue the outreaches into this isolated region. These funds have specifically been designated to cover vehicle repairs, gasoline, food for missionary trips, etc.

– a donor church pledged monthly funds for the full year of 2020 to cover the financial needs for the ongoing work of the Hidden Manna Children’s Program and Feeding Center, as well as for the monthly rental of the building in which the sewing school/workshop meets. This has been a huge blessing and has meant that these two vital parts of the work can continue throughout this year. We pray that God will continue to provide for the future of these two ministries as well.

– although most of the neighbors in the whole region around Casa del Obrero lost 100% of their sugarcane crop due to the drought this past season, the ministry farm was able to bring in a harvest, even if substantially less than on a normal year. Still, the fact that anything at all was harvested was a huge miracle, and a witness to the whole region of God’s hand of blessing on the farm.

– due to the openhanded generosity of a number of friends of the work, funds were collected for Javier and Cristina so that they can complete their house in the village of Solidaridad. These dear servants have never owned their own place, and actually doing so was only a distant dream for them. Javier had managed to put together enough money to buy a small lot across from the little church where they minister, and had begun to build a number of years ago. However he hadn’t gotten very far over the past three or four years because all of their personal funds inevitably seemed to end up attempting to alleviate the desperate needs of their beloved congregation. Following a simple letter of need that I sent out in the beginning of May, God, through the profound generosity of a small handful of friends, poured out a lavish blessing for Javier and Cristina. Not only have Javier and his boys been able to continue to work on their house, but he has also been able to hire a couple of workers to assist him. It looks like there should be almost enough funds for them to completely finish the house right down to move-in ready (Mexican style). Praise the Lord, and thank you to those who so gave with such open hearts for this need!

– because of the travel restrictions and changes which now affect us all due to the coronavirus Theresa and I have had to place a planned mission trip onto the backburner. Theresa, Fred Erb, and I had scheduled a trip to Cd. Valles and the Pame region for the end of November and the beginning weeks of December. The purpose for this trip was twofold: first of all so that Fred and I could be a part of the Bible School and Project LAMBS graduations which were scheduled to take place on the 5^th of December, as well as attend the year-end meeting of the Board of Directors of OUpC (more on that in a moment).

However, the most exciting part of the trip for Theresa and me was that the two of us were then planning on taking the next two full weeks of December in the Pame region holding eye clinics, and in training two teams of technicians on how to test eyes and dispense eyeglasses. We were going to utilize the brilliant system made possible through Global Vision 2020, an organization to which we were introduced in the beginning of this year, and through which we ourselves were trained.

I’m sure that this is not the last time that I will be talking about Global Vision 2020, nor the last mission trip which Theresa and I will be involved in which will incorporate eye care as we are both fascinated with the possibilities which this presents for the spreading of the gospel in a very hands-on fashion.

Their website can be found at: https://gv2020.org/

Very briefly stated; Global Vision 2020 provides a method of testing eyesight and providing eyeglasses specific to the needs of each person tested. For roughly $3.00 U.S. a person can be individually examined and fitted with glasses of their prescription. Within several hours a technician can be trained in vision correction using the equipment and fairly simple testing methods. These technicians can then reproduce the work.

Although Global Vision 2020’s goal is to alleviate vision problems among the poor around the world, as a Christ-centered organization it also encourages utilizing the program as a ministry tool which trained national missionaries can use to bring the message of the gospel while also earning in a small income through the dispensing of the eyewear, thus enabling them to continue to minister. The concept is brilliant, and becomes a perfect “tent making” tool for national missionaries in poorer regions around the world.

Theresa and my vision is to begin in Mexico working with Javier and Cristina, holding several days of vision clinics in a number of Pame villages. During our time there we would specifically mentor two people whom Javier and Cristina had already chosen as likely candidates (actually, probably two married couples), training them in performing vision exams and the preparation of eyeglasses so that they were prepared to continue this ministry alone without us when we left.

We understand that the selection of these candidates will be critical. Obviously they will need to have some technical aptitude, but most importantly they must be people of uprightness who desire to serve and minister in evangelism and in preaching the Word of God, while also having a true and sincere heart to help the poor and needy. They must also be people of integrity who can be trusted with money and with a ministry which requires taking care of finances correctly and not abusing or wasting God’s resources, or being greedy, or of desiring to cheat and accumulate only for themselves. Because of this we will rely on the wisdom of Javier and Cristina to choose them beforehand.

Although the actual cost of the finished eyeglasses is somewhere around $3.00 U.S. per person, the technician missionaries will probably be charging around the $150 – $175 peso range per pair (around $7.00 US). In this way there can be an ongoing and reproducible ministry set up in the form of eye care for those who normally could not afford it, and the vision technician missionaries doing it can keep the work going without foreign money being infused beyond the very first time. Besides this, they can also earn an income while ministering. This will free them up to be able to serve the poor as well as preach and evangelize, while at the same time earning enough to be able to support their family. Also, as has become abundantly clear to me over the years, if a person does not pay for something he also does not value it and does not place respect or worth to it.

The Global Vision 2020 setup comes as a kit. Each kit contains lenses and frames for 550 complete pairs of glasses as well as one U-See tester and eye charts with the following breakdown:

250 empty frames

560 lenses

300 readers

2 vision charts

1 U-See tester

1 training material

Each of these kits cost $1,600 U.S., therefore each pair of glasses averages just under $3.00 U.S.

For our initial startup I was hoping to be able to bring three kits with us. One of the kits would be used while holding eye clinics in the western mountains with the Pame

people and in training the technician teams. When this phase of the project was completed the remainder of this kit would be left with them along with one full kit to each of the then-trained teams as a one-time donation. Subsequently they would be required to charge for the eyeglasses according to an established plan, and to ensure that they saved the amount of funds from all of the sales of the eyeglasses so that they could renew the kits when their product was sold.

Working with Javier and Cristiana beforehand we will establish a reasonable breakdown so that there is a specific portion of each sale amount which will be saved to repurchase more product, and for an income for the technician missionaries so that they can continue to live and support their work and ministry. If the missionaries abuse this they will forfeit any further assistance from me because I believe that there is every reason that they should be able to make this into a self-generating ministry financially, as well as a valuable evangelistic tool.

Further teams can also be trained in the future, and with Mexico as a starting point because of our already close relationship there, over the years this ministry can/could be expanded into other countries and to other regions of the world. Perhaps this is a new door which God is opening to Theresa and me as we reach our “retirement” years.

– there will certainly be changes to the ministry at the end of the year as Javier is planning on stepping down from being president of the board of directors of OUpC (the nonprofit covering the various aspects of the work), and also from his position as director of Casa del Obrero, the training center farm division of the work. This will bring many changes, but I certainly understand why he has made this decision as he feels God’s call into other areas of ministry. This is also why Fred Erb and I felt that we should plan on being a part of the board of directors meeting in December. Of course, this will now not be possible for us after all. Please pray for an easy transition, and that other gifted leaders of integrity will step forward to fill the void that will be left when he steps down.

– the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS have had to close their doors temporarily because of the coronavirus crisis. Also, our brother Mario (the director of Project LAMBS and co-director of the Bible Institute along with his wife Alejandra) was very critical with COVID-19 due to his work in the hospital as a medical doctor. I understand that he is better again, but we do need to remember to lift up our brothers and sisters around the world, especially through these difficult days.

Finally, in closing, I will attach a letter which I received from Javier on July 6^th. Although some of the things that he mentions as coming up have now already taken place, I think that it will give you a feel for his heart during the current difficult times:

_______________________________________________

 

There is no doubt that God has not made a mistake despite this emergency that is still upon us. In my case it has brought not confinement or sitting around at home, but rather more work for me. Some do not believe in the pandemic and continue walking around as if nothing will happen while others live in constant fear. However even they, when pressed as to what they fear most have to confess that they fear the virus.

Some people, such as some of the pastors in the city say “I trust in God and nothing will happen to me”. However, the truth is that although we believe and trust and hope in God we do need to obey our civil authorities as long as they do not violate our principles of freedom of faith.

All of this pandemic, sickness and fear that has hit us I see being like a plague, the fulfillment of Ezekiel chapter 7, which God has allowed in order to get our attention and to remind us how insignificant we really are, and how weak our bodies. As the prophet David said: remember that we are dust and weak men, lacking in understanding.

There have been some very serious infections here in Cd. Valles due to lack of proper care. Last week brother Ezequiel Hernández, pastor of Esfuerzo Magdiel tested positive for COVID-19 but despite this he denied that he had it and claimed that he only had acute sinusitis. But he did receive treatment and was in isolation along with his family. He contracted the virus from a member of his church who is a doctor and who is presently in serious condition due to the illness and is hospitalized in San Luis Potosí, the state capital.

Although the government has given us permission to open the church I have decided to wait to open it until after the middle of July. Of course we continue to work throughout within cell groups and in local missions. Although this makes much more work and is very labor intensive we have had an increased harvest of fruit from new souls as well, and I thank God for this.

By the third week of July I believe that we can appropriately begin working in the ethnic missions of the Pame region again if God does not place any other obstacles in our way.

I have almost completed much of the hard physical work that needed to be accomplished over this time of the year. The sugarcane on the ministry farm site has been cleaned of weeds and the sugarcane harvest is now over.

I still need to clean our own land at our small farm in order to replant it, but I still have some time to do that before the rainy season begins. We also continue to work hard on the construction of our house and I hope to be able to frame the ceiling very soon in order to pour the cement roof. However I will not do that part alone, but rather will hire a contractor who will bring his own crew of men to do it. As you know, the mixing and carrying of the cement for roof-work is all done by hand and it is best to hire a crew to do that part. God will direct the timing for this because to him is all the glory

We are also planning to fully restart the children’s ministry in Buenos Aires this week again; including serving the children breakfast and having teaching times for them again. What hurts me the most though is that due to the Covid epidemic over these long months entire families with their children have left the area due to lack of food to feed their families and there are only a few children still left. I will begin this work again with diligence and joy along with my wife and Alicia in order to advance the work with the children again now that we are allowed to do so. May God strengthen us to continue this ministry.

Here in Cd. Valles we continue to have extremely high temperatures, and even though it has rained some we have not received enough for the fields and once again the soil is very dry.

There has been a lot of activity in the sewing school/workshop and several young adolescent girls have joined in order to learn how to design and sew their own clothes. The twin orphan girls that our sister Marina is raising have also joined the workshop along with seven others who are working and learning and being ministered to there. I thank God for this.

At the ministry farm Armando has been almost completely in charge of cleaning and looking after the sugarcane as well as the whole farm.

Although on occasion I still will supervise his work, he is pretty much able to do it completely alone and without the need for direction from me. I have been helping him in some of the areas that he cannot yet do alone.

We cannot grow vegetables at this time because of the extreme heat and the sun simply burns everything. We are experiencing temperatures of 40⁰ and 50⁰ degrees Celsius. The heat is terrible this year.

blessings my brother,

____________________________________________

 

Please remember to pray for our dear brothers and sisters in Mexico. Conditions are not easy there.

 

Your fellow servants in Christ,

 

Steven and Theresa

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 8th, 2020 at 5:46 pm and is filed under VitW Blog.