Theresa and I bring you greetings from a very unseasonably hot Cd. Valles. We’ve been in Mexico now for just a little bit over a week and I’d like to bring you up to date on what has been taking place in our lives since we arrived on Saturday evening, the 17th.
As predicted in my last blog, it has been a whirlwind of activity since we came to Mexico. After quickly settling in and getting some of the kinks worked out of our rented house, we began organizing for the team from Oklahoma/Monterrey, Mexico to arrive on Wednesday night. However, true to what one must learn to expect in mission work, the plans changed late Wednesday night and they would not come here after all but rather would meet us directly in Santa Catarina, where the mission conference was to be held.
At 5:00 am on Thursday morning Theresa and I loaded up our little Mazda and picked up Cristina at her home in Solidaridad. From there we headed out into the western mountains to Santa Catarina in the Pame region where we were to meet up with Pastor Javier and the group of musicians who had accompanied him from Cd. Valles the previous afternoon in order to arrange final details for this third-annual Pame Missions Conference which was to be held on Thursday morning beginning at 10:00 am. There we were also to finally meet up with Pastor Marty Dyer and the rest of the ministry team that came with him.
We all made it safely to Santa Catarina for the mission conference to begin on time (mas o menos). Pame believers representing almost all, if not all of the new church-plants in the region gathered to praise God and to worship together. Pastor Dyer was the main speaker at the conference and shared throughout the day through his translator. Theresa and I also had the privilege to bring a word of encouragement to the group. After the conference there was a shared meal which had been prepared by several of the women from various villages. It was a full and very blessed day of fellowship, and clearly very important for the fledgling Pame churches where only a few years ago there had been no believers and no evangelical outreach.
The team split up in the evening and we were hosted in a number of homes in different villages for the night. On Friday afternoon there was to be a baptism of several Pame families of new believers. On Friday morning we scrounged around for enough vehicles to transport a large number of people to a “nearby” river outside the village of Tanlú. After picking up people in El Coco and several other villages we had our vehicles filled to more than capacity and painfully bounced and pounded our way along cow-path-like trails to a river several hours away – the only place in the area with water deep enough for the baptisms since three or more years of severe drought in the region has depleted rivers to a trickle, or they have long-since dried up completely and their waterless beds are now being harvested for gravel.
It was a joy to celebrate with thirteen new believers as they declared their faith publicly in the waters of baptism. Of the thirteen baptized, a good portion were Ciro’s family. To get even a small understanding of the significance of what I just said I encourage you to look up my December 17, 2021 post where I also spoke about Ciro:
Ciro is now one of Javier’s solid leaders in the Pame region, and along with several other faithful men and women, he has become a person upon whom Javier can transfer leadership ministry.
As soon as the water baptism and singing were over the newly baptized believers were welcomed with joy by sharing communion together.
After the baptisms and the fellowship of the Lord’s Supper together there was an impromptu dedication of a beautiful baby girl by her newly baptized parents as some of the children and young teens splashed and puddled in the river.
Then a picnic lunch was shared by the whole group, prepared with joy and thankfulness by the women of the villages despite their own severe poverty and need.
Again, just as a reminder, it was only three years ago that the true gospel of salvation first came to these new believers in any meaningful way. What an amazing thing to see the Book of Acts being reenacted before our eyes!
Immediately after the celebration at the river we all piled back into the four pickup trucks and one motorcycle for the bone-jarring trip back to El Puente and Santa Catarina where we reloaded the musical instruments and our personal belongings for the journey back through the mountains to Cd. Valles before dark. It is simply not a good idea to travel at night; either because of the twisting unlit mountain roads or because of prudency in avoiding other unwanted encounters after dark.
On Saturday afternoon there was a second Missions conference at The Potter’s House, the church in Solidaridad which Javier pastors. Again Marty Dyer was the main presenter at the conference, while I also had the privilege to encourage and share with the congregation. Most of the people in attendance at this church are people that Theresa and I have known for many years and it was wonderful to be together with them again.
After the Saturday afternoon services were over there was another fellowship meal in which we enjoyed a very uniquely regional Huastecan delicacy called zacahuil. This looks somewhat like a hugely oversized tamale (sometimes three feet or more in length depending upon how many it is meant to serve), and is wrapped in banana leaves and baked in a clay oven for up to eight or more hours. It is known only in this specific region and is a hands-down local delicacy for any type of public gathering or fiesta. Both Theresa and I enjoyed meeting and greeting old friends at the gathering (as well as enjoying the good food).
On Sunday morning Theresa and I headed out early with Pastor Marty and his team for the town of Huichihuayan, about an hour to the south of Cd. Valles, and located deeper into the Southern Huasteca region. There Marty was to speak again at another conference at a church pastored by Isaias Garcia Muños and his wife Sandi. Theresa and I have also known Isaias and Sandi for many years but unbeknownst to Marty or the rest of us, the special service on Sunday was also to be day of celebration and thanksgiving for God’s goodness because it marked Isaias and Sandi’s twenty year anniversary of pastoring that local church. Further, it was also a day of personal joy for Isaias since it marked his birthday and their twenty-second wedding anniversary. So, after the church service we celebrated together with pozole, another dish which is generally reserved for holidays and special gatherings.
Incidentally, you may recognize a recurring theme in much of the above listed activities; that of joyfulness and sharing meals together. This morning in my devotional reading from the book of Acts chapter 8, referring to the Samaritans as they received the message of the gospel through Philip, I encountered the following commentary concerning what Christianity brought to these people (among other things): “It brought a joy that these Samaritans had never known before. It is a counterfeit Christianity which brings an atmosphere of gloom; the real thing radiates joy wherever it comes”. I believe that this is true. I have seen it many times. True Christianity brings joy that has nothing to do with material possessions, but rather it springs from an inner source of joyfulness from a heart of gratitude. Because of this people want to celebrate their love for their Lord together. False religion, whatever its source or label brings only condemnation and guilt, but offers no salvation.
Yesterday morning Theresa and I got up early with Marty’s team and prepared breakfast for them and sent them off for their long drive northwest to Monterrey after blessing one another in prayer as they headed out the door. Marty was to meet with church leaders in Monterrey Monday night before flying back to Oklahoma with his nephew David on Tuesday.
Last evening Theresa and I drove to the little squatter’s village of Buenos Aires to join Pastor Javier and the local congregation meeting for their Monday evening church service. I am always humbled as I sit in villages with these men and women as they worship and listen to the preaching of the Word of God (last night from John 4). They have none of the accouterments and trappings that we consider basic. Their church building in Buenos Aires, like so many consists of only three half-finished raw cement block walls, a dirt floor, and several sheets of old corrugated metal sheets as a roof to keep out the sun and rain. There is a mishmash of broken chairs and benches to sit on, and the “pulpit” consists of a stack of cement blocks piled up on the dirt floor in one corner. But these are brothers and sisters who love the same Lord as I do; members of the same Body of Christ.
After the service Javier and Cristina were going to join us at our place to finish off the left-over zacahuil from the shared meal that was held at the Solidaridad church on Saturday. I had hoped that it would be a nice time for all of us to enjoy each other without pressure after an admittedly busy week. Besides it sure would be a shame to allow a good treat like zacahuil to go to waste. However, Cristina had to cancel out because she is not feeling well physically and is experiencing severe pain when she walks, and an ankle and legs that are severely swollen. Javier came but got called back to church shortly after the meal because he had forgotten that he had to be at the church to assist the musicians. There is little rest here for the weary workers! Please remember to hold them up in prayer. Please pray that God will send laborers to work with them. The harvest is very demanding and ripe, but true fellow laborers are very few.
One of the highlights for me personally over the past couple of days is that is appears as if God has thrown doors open for us in the eyeglasses ministry. You will remember that this has been an area of requested prayer on my part for a couple of years, and ever since it became evident that our original plans to utilize it in the Pame region would not be realized.
On Sunday evening I established a wonderful agreement with a fine Christian brother from the poor colonia of Mission, just outside of Monterrey in northern Mexico. In the later summer or fall I hope to deliver eyeglasses and test equipment to him and train him in their use, and in how to set up an optical clinic in his colonia.
On Saturday Theresa and I will meet formally with Pastor Isaias and Sandi from Huichihuyan in order to discuss if God is preparing a place in the southern Huasteca among the churches that they oversee for this eyeglass ministry to begin there. Also, of course, we must see if God will provide someone to take over the ministry of the dispensing as well. I have already spoken to Isaias and Sandi about the general concept and they are very interested. However, we must now talk about details to see if this particular ministry will fit with theirs. They would probably oversee the ministry in the Huichihuyan area but I don’t know who they have in mind to do the actual day-to-day clinical work if it were to be begun. I look forward to seeing what will be decided in our meeting on Saturday.
We are both busy and the work is sometimes tiring, but it is always good when we are laboring for the Lord. We have many, many friends in the Cd. Valles area who we still need to see, and people that we want to visit. Theresa still has classes to teach the women during our time here, and indeed she is presently experimenting with recipes for making cakes and other desert items without an oven or refrigeration because most of the women that she will teach have neither.
I’m sure that our days will continue to be full until the day that we head north again. But it is good, and we are blessed to be here.
We appreciate your continued prayers.
Your fellow laborers in the harvest,
Steven and Theresa
