Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

We are now less than one week from leaving Mexico, and the countdown is definitely ticking hard and furious. Things are going remarkably well, but still I will rest much more peacefully when the van is actually loaded, the door of the house locked one last time, the keys handed over to the landlord, and everything is resting securely in the hands of the national leaders. As always happens, things have gotten pushed back to the bitter end, and we are just now finishing off some of the major things that should have been done weeks ago. But, at least they are getting done. It just means that the pressure remains on until the very last day that we leave.

Since my last blog Theresa and I have also had the opportunity to go down to Coxcatlán with Javier and Cristina and their children, along with Armando and Alicia and their little girl, to visit Pastor Fransisco Martinez Hernández and his dear wife. You may remember the delightful elderly couple that I wrote about in my December 16^th blog who were such a blessing to us as well as to Javier (“It’s Fixin’ To Be Jolly” http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2014/12/its-fixin-to-be-jolly). At that time they had spent some days here in Cd. Valles with us and we were very impressed with them and their authentic walk of Faith

over so many years of ministry. At that time Javier decided that he would like to have them take an active part in teaching practical, real-life missiology to the Bible Institute students, and specifically to Armando and Alicia at the Missionary Training Center. However, we also decided that it is sometimes best to see people in their own environs rather than simply away from home, agreeing that it is easy to be a flimflam artist in places where no one knows you, and to bamboozle the world as to your great Christian character as long as you are unknown. Because of this we felt that we would like to see our friends in their own village, and interacting among their own neighbors and family.

We were not disappointed. The article was as genuine under the acid test of family and village as it was in the glittering lights of Cd. Valles – the “big city”. I think that God has a definite place for this couple as grandparents in the ministry of the Missionary Training work.

Then, over the past weeks Theresa and I have also hosted and been loved by many of our friends who have wanted to come by to visit and say goodbye, knowing that the time to do so was quickly coming to a close. We have shared many meals, cups of coffee, and muffins and loaves of fresh-baked bread over the past several weeks. We have been blessed by knowing the depth of friendship that we have with so many dear friends here in Mexico.

We have also been able to get the wiring completely finished inside the Casa del Obrero. What still needs to be done now is to have it hooked up to the grid. That is to say, we now have a lovely wired house, complete with all of the switches and plugs, but we have no power coming to the house. In order to have power to the house we need somewhere around three to four thousand dollars in order to buy the transformer and get it installed by the electric commission. We are trusting that God will soon provide the money for this. In the mean time, Armando and Alicia are running lights off of a 12 volt battery and an inverter.

Also, as I alluded to in the beginning, we are actually finishing off many final projects that were looming over my head. I am still under the gun, trying to shuffle packing the house and getting ready to go, with work on the Casa del Obrero farm site. But, the Lord willing, it will all get finished in time for us to leave on Sunday, or Monday morning early.

This past weekend we were blessed to have two special fiestas thrown for us, specifically as farewell parties, and as a time of honoring Theresa and me. On Saturday the Bible Institute, Project LAMBS, and the Missionary Training Center, along with friends of the ministry met at the Bible Institute building and had a time of remembering, honoring, blessing, and saying goodbye to Theresa and me. Of course, in good Mexican style, this was followed by a hearty feast of delicious food.

For Sunday we had been invited to Javier and Cristina’s little church in Solidaridad for what I suspected would be another time of honoring us, and saying goodbye to that group of friend. It was all of that, but what I didn’t know was that it was also to be a surprise birthday celebration (a little bit early) to honor me on my 60^th birthday (coming up on May 2^nd). It was really a beautiful time of remembering what God has done over the past seventeen years of sharing my life with our friends here in the Huasteca region of Mexico, and remembering his mighty works as we have been willing to be his servants.

With your permission I would like to share with you what I felt God giving me to present to the Bible Institute students at our gathering on Saturday. Actually, what I presented were not my words, but rather I felt that I should share out of Acts 20 where Paul met for one last time of sorrowful goodbyes and final instructions to the leaders of the Church in Ephesus. If you remember the setting – they met on the beach, where Paul shared a tear-filled goodbye, knowing that this would be the last time that they would ever see each other in the flesh.

In Theresa and my case this may not necessarily be true. It is very likely that we will see our friends again during visits to Cd. Valles in the future. Still, this brings to an end a very real chapter in the book – one that will probably never be repeated. We will most likely never live here again in order to work directly with the ministry in Mexico.

I felt that I should start off with a very brief recap of the work since 2003 when the vision for a nondenominational Bible Institute was birthed. Some of the student body is new and have only a very vague idea of the history of the work. For those of you who have been keeping up with the ministry and the ministry blog over the years, none of this will be news to you. Still, it serves to remind us of God’s grace over the years.

– In 2004 the Bible Institute Luz de Las Naciones (Light of the Nations) began under a 24 foot X 45 foot tent in la Pimienta. The vision was for the work to be completely non-denominational in its ministry. Later, the school was moved into a rented room of a sister of the church. Later still, it moved into the loaned facilities of a denominational church building in Cd. Valles.

– In 2006 Project L.A.M.B.S. began for the first time in Mexico with teachers coming down from Canada and the United States. Project L.A.M.B.S. courses were an added blessing to many students seeking training in God’s Word.

– In 2009 Theresa and I moved back to Cd. Valles from Canada with the mandate to purchase a piece of property in order to build a physical building to house the Bible Institute. The vision at that time was to incorporate training in trades with the Bible curriculum already being offered so that pastors could be equipped in practical areas so that they could earn a living when they served in village churches and far-flung communities.

– 2011 saw the finalizing of the purchase of a property in the Zona Tenec, about four kilometers south of the city of Cd. Valles. Work on the Missionary Training Center began. Later, that particular part of the ministry would become the Case del Obrero Centro de Entrenamiento.

– In October 2012 the last cycle of Project L.A.M.B.S. classes were taught by expatriate teachers, and both Project L.A.M.B.S. and the Luz de las Naciones Bible Institute were placed under national leadership.

– January of 2013 saw the Bible Institute Luz de las Naciones begin the new school-year session in its own rented space at Madero 16 (where the schools continue to the present). This finally marked a time when the Bible Institute, a nondenominational school, could at last be freed from having to share space with a denominational work, and be tied to it by association. It could now finally find its own expression and independence, and grow in its ministry without denominational ties.

Of course, none of this came without great birth pangs and persecution.

– Today, in 2015, after much struggle, sweat, tears, outright abuse and maligning, and many prayers, we have three divisions of training under the ministry covering called Obreros Unidos para Cosechar, a Civil Association covering the work of:

–         the Bible Institute Luz de las Naciones,

–         Project L.A.M.B.S.,

–         and the Missionary Training Center, Casa del Obrero.

– Each of the divisions / schools has a slightly different function, and each is preparing the Body of Jesus Christ in a slightly different way. But the purpose of each is to equip leaders for God’s Kingdom, and for those so trained to move forward into servanthood in the Body of Christ.

After this brief review of the history of the work I had the students look at the 20^th chapter of Acts, and at Paul’s final salutations to the leadership of Ephesus (Acts 20:16–36). I explained to the students, as I do so to you now, that since Theresa and I have had the privilege of being a part of much of the birth of all of these different areas of the ministry, we have a vested part in each of them. Although we will be leaving Mexico in a week, we have already handed the leadership of all of the different divisions of the ministry into the very capable hands of national leaders. We implicitly trust each leader as a friend, a godly person, and as a capable leader who will continue on with the vision which has begun – bringing it into a higher level than Theresa and I could ever have attained, and indeed, than we could have ever dreamed possible.

I then stated that although I am not trying to compare myself to the Apostle Paul in any way, the situation of Acts 20 felt very firsthand to me presently, and what Paul said to his friends in his final address to them was what I also wanted to say in farewell to those sitting in front of me.

Let me briefly recap:

1)  verses 18b, 19:  “You know that…I have done the Lord’s work humbly”.  There is an absolute demand for humility in God’s servants. Specifically addressing the student body of the Bible schools, I reminded them that the second that we allow pride to turn our heads we become useless to God. One does not need to look far afield to see Christian leaders who were once useful servants, but who are now useless in God’s Kingdom due to pride and their seeking for self glory.

REMAIN HUMBLE!

2)  verse 20:  “I never shrank back from telling you the truth”.  We must only speak Truth.

3)  verse 21:  “I have had one message…the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus”. We must remain pure in our doctrine. God’s message is plain and simple. Do not complicate it or seek to “tickle people’s ears” with false teaching and contaminated doctrine.

4)  verses 28 – 31a:  “I know full well that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you…Beware!”  Watch out! False doctrines surround us; many of them sounding wonderful.

KEEP PURE IN DOCTRINE.

5)  verses 33 – 35:  “I have never coveted anyone’s silver or gold or fine clothes. You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who were with me. And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  Do not covet wealth, or ever use the Gospel of Jesus as a business. Learn to work with your own hands. Learn the DIGNITY of work and labor. Verse 35 states that we are to be a constant example to others of working hard. Paul was not speaking theoretically either. We know that he used his physical hands, and by sweat and labor provided for himself and others.

DO NOT FALL INTO THE FALSE TEACHING SO PREVALENT IN MEXICO THAT PHYSICAL WORK (so called “secular work”) IS BELOW THE DIGNITY OF A SERVANT OF GOD (or specifically, a pastor or church leader).

A quick look at I Thessalonians 4:11, 12 leaves no question in my mind: “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others”.

II Thessalonians 3: 6-14 – written to a group of first century Christians who had decided that the return of Jesus was very imminent, and therefore that there was no need to show up at the job site anymore, but rather to sit on the sofa and wait – is perhaps even more clear and to the point:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.

Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed”.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Paul pulled no punches when it came to false doctrine. Jesus’ own words about himself were that he came to serve, not to be served. If Jesus, God, came to be a servant, than how can we possibly think that we can strut and preen ourselves, peacocking around with our tail feathers rattling in human pride? We cannot, and we dare not do so! We are called to be like Jesus.

Then in conclusion we returned to verse 32 in which Paul lovingly, and with tears in his eyes stated: “And now I entrust you to God”.

With that we said goodbye – well, actually, with that we celebrated with some good, Mexican food and hospitality.

_____________________________

I think that there have been some questions among the friends of the ministry, as well as those who are more casual readers of the ministry blog, as to what this upcoming move will mean for the work, and for the continuance of the ministry which Theresa and I have begun in Cd. Valles. In order to be straight to the point on this matter I want to say that nothing in the ministry, nor in its vision has ended with us leaving. In fact, we pray that it will find even more air under its wings under national leadership. I will remain in close contact with the national leaders, especially with Javier Santos, and the work will continue to move forward after we have gone.

As far as the need for continued finances is concerned – there will continue to be financial demands on the work when we are not here, just as there were while we physically lived here. True, Theresa and my personal support will no longer be necessary, however, we will still have ongoing national staff whose honorariums will need to be covered on an ongoing basis. Further, although we will continue to work as hard, and as fast as possible towards everything becoming self-financing, we are not there yet. There will still be the need for ministry funds for the next several years.

So, the bottom line is – it ain’t over yet by no means. The fat lady has not sung, and we believe that she never will. We believe that God will lead this ministry on to bigger and higher vision under the leadership of its national directors. Theresa and I are not scuttling the ship or quitting, we are just moving into a different form of this particular ministry for one year. We continue to wait with expectancy to see where and how God leads the work when we are no longer here in person.

We still need you to believe in what God is, and has been doing here in the Huasteca region of Mexico.

This will probably be the last blog that you will receive from my desk in Cd. Valles. The next one will address you from the outback of Texas, somewhere in the semi-desert between Laredo and San Antonio.

Be blessed in the Lord our Redeemer and King.

Your friends,

Steven and Theresa

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2015 at 2:51 pm and is filed under VitW Blog.