Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Javier and Cristina with newly planted sugar cane on land site

It is interesting that the above parable that Jesus told concerning the growth of the Kingdom is recorded only by Mark. In it Jesus reveals that spiritual growth is a continual, gradual process that is finally consummated in a harvest of spiritual maturity. Jesus states that we can understand the process of spiritual growth by comparing it to the slow but certain growth of a plant. He also states definitively that the growth of the plant – from germination of the seed, to the fully matured head of grain – is not dependent upon the work of the farmer, but upon the DNA – the life within the seed itself.

Since it is a fairly universally accepted fact that in writing this gospel Luke was acting as scribe for the apostle Peter who carried the first-hand account of Jesus’ life, it brings certain questions to my mind. Since Peter was presumably an old man when this gospel was written, and since Peter was a man of jump-to action during his lifetime – the kind of man who tended to shoot off his mouth, and then try to retrieve the foot stuck in his throat after he was finished – I assume that he spent years reflecting over his life by the time that Luke began to write. Did Jesus’ words have a special meaning for Peter? Did Peter often have pause to reflect back at the mystery of the life within the seed as I do? Was this perhaps why the Holy Spirit brought this particular parable back to Peter’s mind so that it could be recorded for us?

I often feel as if I must somehow assist the growth of the seed. Somehow I am not satisfied to simply scatter the seed

Javier with seedling

and then “go on as I did before”, as the faithful farmer in the parable. Somehow I have missed the fact that Jesus states that the soil itself – the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual DNA – the life within the seed itself – is that which produces growth all by itself. I don’t have to try to strain to bring life and growth from the seed. In fact, it is impossible, and foolish of the farmer to try to do so.

I often reflect back on this when I think of my friends Nyoman and Ketut, and Jero Kom and his wife back in Bali. The seed was scattered upon the soil of their lives to the best of my ability. Now, as the farmer in the parable, I must trust in the work of the Holy Spirit to bring the broadcasted seed to germination, stalk, head, and then finally fully ripened head of grain. I confess that I so often fall back upon the unbelief of not trusting in the life-producing factor within the spiritual DNA of the seed – the living, energy-filled, bursting-forth power of the Holy Spirit himself. I still want to help him.

Secondly, I so often lack the patience of the farmer in the parable. He fully understood that the production of the mature head of grain was a process. Seed was planted, and step by step the mature head of grain would form. How often I lack the faith to see the mature head in the fragile and frail tendril which first appears from the dead-looking soil. Too often I despair of ever seeing a whitened, mature head when I look with near disdain at the green, fruitless stock. God, give me the ability to see yet-unseen fruit with spiritual eyes of hope.

I am back in Cd. Valles. I arrived back on the evening of the 11^th to a warm welcome. I hit the ground running, and there are many exciting things on the move. I will quickly bring you up to date on the “goings on” around here:

As you are aware, Theresa is still in Winnipeg, and will not be here with me until the middle, to the end of November. I miss her tremendously, and things are certainly not the same without her here.  But she is doing a wonderful work in caring for our grandsons in Winnipeg.

We definitely have the tractor waiting for us to pick up from the ministry Tractors For Our Daily Bread, in Manhattan, Kansas. Dan Slaughbaugh, our good friend from North Dakota, has committed to bringing it down to Mexico with his truck and trailer as soon as we can organize the paperwork to do so.

Besides meeting with, and enjoying a brief time together with several of our precious friends in Houston, I had a very good and helpful meeting with Living Water International, in Stafford, Texas on my way through Houston. We still do not have all of the dots connected for the drilling of a well for water, but we feel as if we are at least finding the dots, and that we are getting them into order so that we can know how to begin this vital work for the land site.

Land site

The sugar cane looks good on the 5 planted hectares at the landsite. The weeds are also growing, and herbicide was applied to the field last week. Javier and I are also beginning the slow and tedious task of clearing weeds by machete on the hectare and a half of land that is not yet planted. This is a back-breaking and hand-blistering task.

Then, on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning of this past week Ezequiel and I went to a little town about 45 minutes south of the city in order to have a “mini retreat” and spend some time in prayer and planning for the work of VitW Ministries. We had an extremely warm, open, and Holy Spirit-filled time together. I feel as if we made tremendous progress, and that we can now begin to move forward into the direction that the Holy Spirit is leading us. Everything still needs to be presented to the Board of Directors of Obreros Unidos para Cosechar as a recommendation for them to either accept, modify, or reject. However, I feel very confident that we will advance in the direction which we are proposing. As such, I am free to describe some of this direction to you more fully.

We are proposing the following for the use of the 6.5 hectare landsite:

1. The five hectares already planted into sugar cane will be kept as a cash-producing farm. This will allow an on-going and secure income for the Training Center.
2. We will initially begin by building one staff house for the farm manager and a couple of small houses for around six to ten apprentices for the farm.
3. We will begin intensive work on the remaining hectare (plus) of land and become knowledgeable (and train the apprentices) in building up the soil with composting, the use of green manures and cover crops, finding alternate local and sustainable crops and plants, raising animals in alternate fashion, raising non-typical animals for food, growing non-typical forage crops that require low-water input, developing non-typical methods of cultivating for water conservation, looking at non-typical methods of raising food (ie., reducing the complete dependence of local small farmers on the farm-factory production which is now dominating the region with sugar cane and cattle, etc.) etc.
4. We will utilize resources such as ECHO in Florida, other NGO organizations, universities, Christian ministries, interested individuals, etc. who will loan us personnel to train in alternative farming techniques for short-term periods of time until our own farm manager becomes sufficiently trained to himself become a teaching resource for the area.
5. We will access publications and resources available in Spanish on alternate and sustainable farming. Develop the farm as a resource center.
6. We will approach the Mexican government at both local and higher levels for their support – both financially, and as a resource base for training (agricultural universities, Dept. of Agriculture, etc.).
7. We will develop the farm as a Small Farm Resource Development Center (SFRDC) where innovative ideas can be developed and tried, while always working with, and training the apprentices. The training will have a trickle-down affect with local farmers as well as with people in the villages who have small amounts of land around their houses – new ideas can be taught in composting, mulching and cover crops, use of unused soil through better growing practices, planting new types of crops for food, etc. Through using the farm as a SFRD Center there will be no pressure if ideas do fail. The farmer / landowner will not be left with profit loss if ideas fail (as some inevitably will).
8. We will experiment and find appropriate food, forage, green manure and cover crops for the area (appropriate for growing in areas of extreme heat, poor and varying water supply, etc.). There are many seed banks and centers which can be accessed for this.
9. We will develop the farm as a discipleship training center whose purpose is to be a non-academically streamed training center where men and women can be mentored and taught, both in the Word of God, as well as in hands-on training, so that they are better prepared to work for God in whatever area he has called them into. It will continue to be the purpose of the Training Center that each student who goes through the program will have both a Bible training as well as a practical skill with which he/she can earn a living. It is expected that the focus of the school, and hence, of the student-base, will be village evangelism / Native Missionary work to the poor of Mexico. The secondary affect of the development farm will be the doors which it will open in the local region due to the potential for training in alternate food production and land use. It could potentially also eventually become a recognized agricultural resource in Mexico in general.

In Conclusion:

The function of this hands-on mentorship/discipleship model would be to train servant workers in village development

land site looking west

and evangelism as well as in farming methods. It would, by its very nature, meet the needs of the poorer farmers of Mexico at a grass roots level. Because of its nonacademic focus it could accommodate students who can neither read nor write. Stated in other terms – the farm would be designed upon a mentor / apprentice model rather than an academic model.

For the Bible Institute, Luz de las Naciones, we are proposing the following:

VitW Ministries will rent the second floor rooms – the former staff housing rooms – from Iglesia Esfuerzo Magdiel for the use of the Bible Institute. It is understood that this is a temporary solution to the fact that the Bible Institute still does not have a “home”. However, this will take the pressure off for the need to build a facility at present while VitW Ministries does not have the funds to do so.

There are many more aspects to the ministry which we are looking at, but I will not bore you with the details at the present (and besides, this blog is more than long enough already). Suffice it to say that things are getting fast, exciting, and certainly not boring around here.

I will try to write again soon and keep you up to date with what is happening. Until then, may God richly bless you as you faithfully continue to keep us in your hearts, minds, and prayers.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 12:37 am and is filed under VitW Blog.