Am I the only one who feels as if the world is careening swiftly into madness and insanity, or would you agree with me that Isaiah was correct over twenty seven hundred years ago when he warned “Woe (judgment is coming) to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20 (Amplified Bible)
Much has happened in the world since my last blog post back in April. Again, as I have stated many times over the years, I am immeasurably grateful that our God is sovereign and that He rules the heavens and the earth. He never slumbers or grows weary. He is never taken by surprise, nor does he ever wring his hands in distress or worry. Indeed, “He who sits [enthroned] in the heavens laughs [at their rebellion]; The [Sovereign] Lord scoffs at them [and in supreme contempt He mocks them].” Psalms 2:4 (Amplified Bible)
How wonderful it is to know that as the world seems to be in “meltdown mode” around us we can cling to our Rock and our Defender; our Lord and our Savior, and rest securely and safely in Him!
Since we arrived back in Manitoba in the spring (as per my last blog) Theresa and I have remained close to home over the summer except for a couple short excursions. In June we took the opportunity of spending about a week and a half being blessed by our friends Dan and Marlys in North Dakota as Dan put the final touches on our little camper and sprayed it with a brand new coat of paint. Truthfully I had no idea of the amount of work that I was asking of him, but both Theresa and I will be forever indebted to them for their generosity. Now we proudly pull our little 49 year old Triple E Surfside camper which we’ve dubbed “Li’l Ruby” and get a cheerful thumbs-up from other baby boomers along the way who also remember the days when life was simpler, and camping was more basic.
From North Dakota we meandered our way south with Li’l Ruby on our way to Nebraska where Theresa spent about a week and a half visiting her mother and I worked on the repairs to Theresa’s mother’s house that I mentioned in the last blog.
In October we were blessed to be able to spend about a week back in North Dakota volunteering our time at the Father’s Farm (https://www.fathersfarmnd.org/). We were blessed to be able to be there with the men, and in a small way assisting in their mission of “preparing men to thrive in a broken world.”
We knew that we were pushing our camping season by going so late into the fall, but we were blessed by unseasonably warm days and totally manageable nights while we were there. No sooner had we arrived home than the bottom of the thermometer dropped out and we were hit with snow and freezing weather. We were indeed wonderfully blessed.
Since leaving Mexico in March I have remained in close contact with Javier and Cristina. As usual they have been extremely busy and live very full lives of ministry.
Over the summer months Cristina and her teams of young people presented week-long Vacation Bible School programs in ten villages and assisted in three others, both in the region around Cd. Valles and Solidaridad as well as up into the mountains to the west among the Pame tribal people where the gospel has so recently come. Javier told me that in many of the Pame villages both children and adults attended the Summer Bible School programs because, since many of the adults can’t read, they learn best by oral and visual presentation. The flannel graphs and other predominantly visual and tactile content designed with the children in mind actually were a great teaching tool for these adults as well. Perhaps we can all learn from this and not get too uppity in our self-importance in ministry.
Besides the Vacation Bible Schools Cristina continues very busy with the children’s ministry “Hidden Manna” in Buenos Aires where they feed and bring the message of the love of Jesus to the children and youth in this little impoverished squatter’s village. Many of these children also bring their mothers who then hear about the love of Jesus for them as well.
Cristina and Alicia continue very busy in the sewing program which also trains and creates income for a number of women and girls. Through this sewing ministry women who would otherwise probably not be open to a church-based program are able to hear the gospel of salvation and of the love of Jesus for them.
Javier, for his part, besides pastoring the local church in Solidaridad, functioning for the past year as Presbyter for the Cd. Valles region for the Assemblies of God denomination, and being very much involved in other local ministries, is also extremely focused on missionary outreach and planting churches in the mountainous Pame tribal region to the west of Cd. Valles.
Recently Javier was able to set up a low-wattage radio station in the home of the Wycliffe missionary in the community of La Parada, just down the mountain from the larger village of Santa Maria Acapulco. You will remember from some of my previous blogs that the village of Santa Maria Acapulco is the spiritual and cultural seat of power for the Pame tribal region and is steeped in deep witchcraft and very dark spiritism. [Refer especially to blog dated August 8, 2022]: http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2022/08/that-joy-may-be-made-complete-by-having-you-share-in-the-joy-of-salvation/
Although the door has not opened so far for Javier to be able to have a physical presence directly in the village of Santa Maria Acapulco as was hoped, including the purchase of a small property in order to establish a ministry with the children, nonetheless the broadcasting of Christian radio into the community has become a powerful tool for evangelism.
Better equipment is now needed for the little radio station including a professional microphone and faster laptop computer, as well as a more powerful transmitter and antenna. These improvements would greatly expend the radius of the station’s broadcasting, and since it is literally the only radio signal received in the region there is no competition for audience. Javier is hoping to be able to include community-serving programing and announcements as well as Christian broadcasting. Also, because Catalino and Jose Santos, national brothers who work in Bible translation into the Pame language are involved in the broadcasting as well, they are able to minister the Word and preach in Xi-Ui, the heart language of the Pame people.
Further, although the purchase of a property in Santa Maria Acapulco has been denied so far, Javier and his missionary teams have been allowed into the community and have even been granted permission to hold evangelistic campaigns directly in the heart of the village, utilizing the community open-air galera (it’s open-sided community building in the center of town).
Although new Pame villages continue to open to the gospel and new churches continue to be planted throughout the region, a perpetual burden on Javier’s heart is for local leaders to be trained and established to pastor these fledgling Christians. One of the huge hindrances to any continuity is the impoverished nature of the region. There is minimal paid employment in the whole area and many of the men must leave for large portions of the year in order to try to earn money to support their families. Because of this, even though the local bodies of believers are growing in these far-flung and isolated villages as people give their hearts to the Lord, there is a high level of migration throughout all of the communities and it is very difficult for Javier to be able to find consistent leaders to train.
One praiseworthy and notable exception to this is brother Ciro Apolinar in the village of El Coco whose miraculous testimony is related in the December 17, 2021 blog: http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2021/12/oh-the-depth-of-the-riches-of-the-wisdom-and-knowledge-of-god/
Ciro’s life has been 100% and radically changed by the transformative power of God. He is now not only a godly husband and father in his own home, but he is also growing as a wise and faithful leader under Javier’s careful guidance for the whole of his village of El Coco as well as other surrounding communities
There is tremendous poverty in many of these mountain villages and Javier and his team often bring food and clothing to assist the local communities if and when they have the funds to do so. One of Javier’s dreams is to be able to supply some sort of employment in order to assist the local believers economically and physically as well as spiritually. One very simple example that he suggested to me is to employ men in the various villages to build outhouses or latrines. In this region it is not the custom for anyone to have any type of toilet facility, and people simply use the bush around the village for their bathroom needs. Building latrines would obviously bring great health benefits to the village, but it could also provide paid employment. Of course the question that this immediately brings to mind is where the funds would come from for such a project.
I am sad to say that the continued drought throughout the whole of the region is again bringing added suffering to an already dire situation. This is now the sixth year of well below the level of needed rainfall throughout the Huasteca. Once rushing rivers have again dried up as they did last year. Wells which once produced abundant water are now again dry. And insult to injury, in the valleys wherever sugarcane has been monocropped (as has been done virtually everywhere where it can be grown throughout the whole of the Huasteca region), fields are again yielding almost nothing this year. Sugar mills are shutting down because there is not enough cane to process, and others are incorporating into single mills. Where there were once sugar mills throughout the whole of the region, there are now only several still able to remain open. The problem is that, for good or for bad, sugarcane had become the one-legged foundation and economic base of the local region – the growing of it, the field labor, the harvesting, and the milling of it into sugar – had all been the chief employment base for a large portion of the population, especially for those in the lower socioeconomic strata. With the prolonged drought the ever waiting, insidious, and unforgiving nature of monocropping has struck and has injected its venom.
A ministry need that is becoming very obvious is for a different truck for Javier in order for the missionary teams to be able to continue to minister into the mountainous Pame region. The roads in this area are unthinkably brutal on both vehicle and human bones. Human bones can heal, a vehicle just deteriorates. The little Ford Ranger which the ministry was able to purchase for Javier many years ago has just about reached its shelf life even within the rather exaggerated limits of rural Mexico. Javier’s “burro” is getting very tired and is pretty well on its last leg. He keeps patching it up and continues to pound his brutal way back into the villages, but his guardian angels are growing weary. On his last trip back to Cd. Valles last week with his ministry team with him after a week-long ministry campaign in the high sierra, he lost his front brakes and wheel bearings. He limped home (somehow) through steep mountain passes and hairpin curves making it home safely. In his communication with me after the incident he quoted one of my oft-stated lines: “A life without adventure is not a life worth living”. However, even I had to write back with a recommendation that we don’t push the “adventure envelope” too far.
The bottom line is that if he is to continue ministering among the Pame people and planting churches in the far flung villages in these mountains then he needs a reliable vehicle to do so. Unfortunately, because of the nonprofit laws of Canada any funds that will be used for this type of a purchase must come through non-receipted giving. If you feel that you would be able to do so, and if you feel that God desires for you to assist with this need please contact me directly. I can be reached by email at: steve_frey-74@yahoo.com, or by phone at (431) 205-1819.
Or alternatively, Canadians can contact Pastor Fred Erb at Listowel Community Church in Listowel, Ontario.
In the United States giving can go to New Song Church in Grove, Oklahoma earmarked for Voice in the Wilderness Ministries. But in this case I should be told so that the gift will go directly towards a vehicle and not enter into the general VitW Ministry funds.
Again, as always, both Theresa and I thank you so much for your love and care for us over the years as well as for the people of Mexico. We thank you for your faithfulness in standing with the ongoing ministry through prayer and finances. May God bless you richly.
Keep your focus upward. Lift up your eyes and your head, your redemption is drawing near.
Maranatha!
Your fellow laborers in Christ,
Steven and Theresa
