Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

I knew that it was a long time since my last blog, but January 2^nd; that is ridiculous! As usual, much has transpired since then; and as always, God has been good.

So, without further ado, let me begin…

Both Theresa and I are working full time – neither of us in dream jobs to be sure – but nonetheless, we have been blessed with work. I am driving a small three-ton truck for a courier company and pick up and deliver between Winnipeg and Steinbach where we live. My hours are ridiculously long; but it does provide an income, and it keeps the wolf from the door. Theresa is still working with the intellectually challenged population (or whatever the politically correct way is to say that at the present moment), and is finding it very challenging as well at times. Still, we prayed for work, and this is what God has provided for the present time. I still believe that He will open something better suited and more closely fitting “us”, but this is what he has placed in our hands for now.

My health “issues” have seemed to calm down now. I am still dealing with the residual of my shoulder displacement, but that is apparently something that I will have for the rest of my life. The “bone doctor” said that there is no point in surgery, and indeed there is not even a good prognosis for surgery in this situation, and basically other than for cosmetic reasons he would not recommend that anything be attempted. Basically, other than strengthening the muscles that have been shifted around I simply need to “suck it up Buttercup and stop bellyaching” (that is a very loose paraphrase of what he told me).

I am also slated for a follow up with my retinal detachment issues and will be having cataract surgery in the near future. I am scheduled for this already; however, it can apparently take longer than a year or more to finally be able to get the surgery done here in Manitoba. The cataract is due to the initial gas bubble that was placed into my eye to hold the retina in place while it reattached and healed. The good news is that it really doesn’t hinder my vision too much yet, although it will continue to get worse as time goes along.

I’m beginning to sound uncomfortably similar to a declining geriatric complaining about his chronic lumbago and bowel complaints, so I had better switch to other, brighter topics…

In fact, many exciting things have taken place in the work in Mexico since my last blog entry back in January, and I want to quickly recap some of the highlights for you.

In November of last year I met with my cousin, Karen Barkman, who was here in Manitoba visiting with her mother at the time. Karen and her husband David have founded a work in Liberia, Africa called Provision of Hope, of which Karen is the Director and CEO. We had a lovely lunch with her mom, and Karen and I had a chance to catch up after not having seen each other for many years. During our time together Karen told me that God had recently begun placing a desire in her heart for Mexico again, and that He was reviving a burden within both her and her husband for the work there that they had been a part of some eighteen years ago when they had spent some time with me in medical outreaches. (Incidentally, their financial gift at the time was primarily the money which built the church building in which Javier and his wife Cristina are currently ministering). We agreed that we had no clue where God was going in this, but decided to leave it in His capable hands and see where He would lead us. We said goodbye, and agreed to be in touch.

Shortly after this “chance” meeting with Karen she sent me information about a six-day agroecology and biointensive training program being offered at Las Cañadas, Huatusco, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico and suggested that it would be very beneficial to send Javier and Armando to it in order for them to receive hands-on training in the many and varied areas of alternative agriculture that they offered there. God made the funds available to send them, and they were available to go during the time that the course was being offered during the beginning of February.

Beginning in the new year a group of committed people from across both Canada and the United States also began to meet together via Skype conference calls with the specific purpose of functioning as a steering and visioning committee desiring to see what God desired of us in our part of the ongoing work in Mexico.

Javier and Armando returned to Cd. Valles after their training time in Veracruz both invigorated and inspired to continue the work, and full of innovative ideas on how to practically put these new concepts into place. During his time in Huatusco God profoundly confirmed the vision that He had placed into Javier’s heart for the ministry of the farm-based Training Center. He also reaffirmed and began “fleshing out” a prophetic word that had been spoken over Javier many years ago (at a point in their lives when he and Cristina had absolutely nothing); that through Javier’s hands many would be blessed and fed. Javier knew that this “feeding” that was spoken about prophetically had not been meant as purely spiritual in nature, but that God had indicated clearly that it would also mean a literal feeding of many. At the time he had had no clue how this could ever be possible. However, with the new training in how the land could be utilized more productively and naturally in both growing vegetables and in animal husbandry, he was filled with renewed vision of how God was logically beginning to fulfill the prophetic word spoken so many years ago.

Around the same time, the decision was made on this end to network together with Provision of Hope. Karen has applied to Hope for the Nations (which is the registered charity of which she is an agent), asking them for an agency agreement so that Provision of Hope can do some projects for Voice in the Wilderness Ministries, in Mexico.  Right now this application is in progress.

Karen expressed keen interest in raising funds through Provision of Hope to be used to improve the farm, better enabling it to become self-supporting, and a center for training in food production to the region. She is also interested in assisting the sewing and tailoring school with new machines, and the further training of its teachers, so that it can continue to grow and to train women in a trade, thus providing them with a viable income. Karen’s heart is to reach out to at-risk mothers and children.

All of this lines up with the vision which Javier and the others in leadership already have, and this gives us a sense of peace that God has gone ahead of us to set up this connection.

Voice in the Wilderness Ministries, and those who have faithfully supported the work in Mexico in the past will continue to be involved as they have been all along, and these changes in funding will not affect them in any way. Joining with Provision of Hope will simply amplify the potential of the work and provide a means to touch many more lives, thus expanding the work of the ministry which has already been begun. Please pray with us that God’s will may be accomplished in this.

Then in March a BIG miracle happened which I personally believe began to change the course of the Mexican work. During a time of prayer, God placed a person specifically by name onto Karen’s heart with the impression that she needed to call him and ask if he would be able to become involved in the work of the farm with Javier. Carl Thompson and his wife Kathy have worked in international missions for many years and have a wealth of ministry experience. Carl is also an expert in alternative agriculture and farming, with a specific love and passion for permaculture and the restoration of land so that it can produce God’s way to feed the poor. Carl had worked with Karen’s ministry in Liberia, and through this has become a close friend of hers. So, when God placed his name specifically onto her heart with the urgency to call him, she picked up the phone and obeyed.

The little niggler however, was that Carl was on his way to Spain in a matter of weeks, and VitW Ministries certainly had no funds to use to get him to Mexico; but my question was “could he please go anyway” Rather a brash request on my part I suppose, but God is a big God, and no challenge is too large for Him.

The outcome was that Carl’s immediate response was “yes”, and he would do it right away during the very narrow window of time before he needed to leave for Spain. What’s more, he would go down for ten days. Karen was able to provide for the finances needed through Provision of Hope, and before the ink had barely dried, or the phone lines stopped humming from our Skype chatter, Carl was in Cd. Valles.

Wow! God is good!

Carl was an encouragement to Javier and Cristina and the other leaders in Cd. Valles. He was a wealth of information to them in the development of the farm in a proper direction. He reinforced and confirmed what they had learned at the training course in Veracruz and encouraged them that they were going in the right direction. He rolled up his sleeves and got sweaty and dirty alongside them. He ate (and from all reports fully loved) the food placed in front of him. He slept without complaint on the floor at the Bible School. He even put up with the 120 degree heat without complaint. But perhaps most importantly, during his time there, God knit his heart with Javier and Cristina and the others; and the Lord willing, he plans to return sometime in the fall to continue what was begun in March.

I have a very strong conviction in my heart that Carl is the man who God is placing into the work “for such a time as this”. As the Apostle Paul stated in the third chapter of first Corinthians, one person has been given the role of planting, one of watering, and another of reaping, but it is God who makes things grow. All of the workers are simply fellow laborers in God’s field; or as Paul puts it:^“So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service”.

At this very moment, for such a time as this, I believe that God has given Carl a very important role in assisting Javier, Cristina, Alejandra, Mario, Armando, Alicia, and the others in the local ministry in Mexico to move into new vistas in the work. Coincidentally (OR NOT), this also coincides precisely with an infusion of “new DNA” into the ministry through the work of Karen and Provision of Hope, as well as the others on the newly formed steering committee. I don’t really know what this all means, and we are certainly only beginning to see what God has in mind, but it is all very exciting to watch.

As far as what is happening “on the ground”:

A small barn has been constricted and they now have five adult sheep and a newly born lamb, and the flock is growing; they are raising laying hens and are growing their flock; they have three pigs – both of the sows pregnant; they are learning to produce most of the feed for the animals on the farm itself, and are purchasing almost none from outside sources; they have built shaded seedling beds and growing beds for vegetable production, and are already growing tree seedlings as well as other plants for both food production and for sale; they are planting trees around the farm “like crazy” with the intended purpose of preventing soil erosion and improving aeration of the soil; the sugarcane has been harvested and a good crop was taken off this year; work is shortly to begin on trenching and contouring the land on the farm with swales and entrapments in order to utilize the principles of permaculture to stop the constant loss of soil through erosion during the rainy season, as well as to preserve precious water for the periods of drought during the dry (principles taught in the course in Veracruz and reinforced by Carl); disciples are beginning to ask for training and healing at the farm (perhaps ultimately looking different from those whom we first envisioned); women and young girls are being trained in trades through the work of Cristina and Alicia in the sewing school; children are being fed and loved and taught about Jesus in squatter villages; churches are being planted and people trained in the Word in the surrounding villages; the needy are being ministered to in the hospital, as well as the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in the city; men and women are being trained in leadership through Project L.A.M.B.S. in Tamazunchale; the Bible school, Luz de las Naciones continues to train future leaders in Cd. Valles; Alejandra (Jani) and Mario continue to reach the surrounding community for Jesus through ministry beginning with children in their area of the city and a church which meets in their own home; Javier and Cristina continue to pastor the work fulltime at Solidaridad; and much, much more is happening that I know I have forgotten to put down.

The work is advancing in exciting ways, and God is moving. Your prayers and support over the years are bearing fruit, and God will not forget. Please continue to pray for those involved there.

Please pray for God’s direction in this transitioning into working side-by-side with Provision of Hope in various projects of the ministry in Mexico, and that Hope for the Nations will accept our application for this to become possible. Please continue to pray for clear direction for the leaders of the ministry in Mexico, as well as those on this end who continue to work behind the scenes. Please pray that funds will be provided which will make the practical “nut and bolts” of the stuff able to happen on the field. Please pray that God will continue to bring forward, and to make obvious the disciples who he intends to have living and training on the farm. Pray for practical wisdom and understanding of the physical principles which God has put into place in his creation so that Javier and Armando can begin to heal the land – the actual soil of the farm, so that food can be produced to feed many, and so that the principles of farming the land in a godly and natural way can be taught to the surrounding communities – thus becoming a touch point, and a means of evangelism to the region. Pray for strength and refreshed vision for all of those working so hard on the field. Thank God for his provision of Karen and Carl and others into the ministry, thus providing new vision and hope, as well as DNA for the work. Pray that many, many would come to Jesus in these difficult days.

And please see if God is asking you to give financially so that the work can continue.

 

The fields are truly white for harvest, but the laborers are few.

 

Your friends and fellow laborers,

 

Steven and Theresa

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 25th, 2017 at 10:39 pm and is filed under VitW Blog.